Ravenholm - Half-Life 2

Excellent HL2 Sourcemod with intresting gameplay & puzzles & spoiler When you complete the mod you can play it again with the Bonus weapon The Gravity Gun to get hidden treasures marked with the HL 2 symbol
Def worth the Download

I’m stuck already… I just started the “Canals” level, and I’m in a pool of water, where I loaded four blue bouyant barrels into a grate thingy, which rose to the surface of the water… now what?

I prefer playing mostly against combines, and this is the opposite, however I still rate it higher than Leon’s CTA. I’d say a 9 out of 10.

While its difficult, the key thing here is that the developer never lost sight of gameplay balance throughout. Its possible to play this without getting mad at the developer! There are many things to think through, puzzles to solve and ways to approach things. Nice work!

It’s a good experience to a half life gamer. The name does honor for the mod un every single aspect: obscure creepy ambient, lot of cadavers (the walking with a headcrab leeching the head too XD), and plenty ammo, making it more tactical.

There’s a new enemy. And new traps. You cant use the gravity gun until you win the game at least ONE TIME, making it a bonus. The mapping is decent to very good in some parts. Good challenge in enemies positions and puzzles.

Bad thing? maybe if you are a CS (casual) gamer who says “I didn’t like Ravenholm: there wasn’t too many soldiers too fight OMG Ravenholm level sux” you’ll not enjoy this. BUT in exchange, the parts where are soldiers and a chopper are very well.

4/5, but if you are the ‘CS gamer kind of player I said’ maybe you’ll not enjoy this.

Hi. I’m stuck in the 2nd forest where I’m running around again and again but I can’t find any way out of this creepy place. Please help.

andyb Said:

Hard to explain it so look at these help pages

http://www.wraithhq.digistart.net/ravenholmmodhelp2.html

Thanks a lot man, I was looking for some walkthrough on the web but I didn’t find anything. Thank again.

Now I’m stuck. How do I proceed to the next area? I’m just past the part in Ravenholm02 after I turn the rotating blade on, go through the little tunnel way & a dead guy hanging in a tree drops from the rope. There’s also a metal water tower there as well. No doors work, I’ve tried stacking boxes to get to the ledge, it doesn’t work either. I think I know where I’m supposed to go, I just can’t figure out to get from point A to point B.

Thats one of the niche’s of Ravenholm…
they don’t make an easy route to the next area. I had to stack boxes several times to jump over a wall or get to the top of a building… I don’t remember the exact area you are in…?
Do you see the area in one of the photos in my review?

Don’t give up Goddess! There is a lot more action if you keep going. There are some great scripted events too…
It definitely gets harder, but you know how it is… you die a few times and re-load… by the 5th time you know how to beat-em!
You’re missing some great stuff later in the mod.

Booman, I’ve just read the letter about some guy in a lab but I have no clue where to go next. Everything seems to be a dead end and I am so incredibly bored with it right now. I have to admit, I’m not a big zombie fan. Ravenholm was nice in HL2 because it was fast paced & didn’t leave you running around clueless for half an hour. I’m just thinking of all the stuff I could have done in that half hour like a load of laundry, dishes, sweeping & vaccuming, swaying in my hammock tonight sipping wine, hearing eerie sounds in the woods like The Blair Witch Project; sipping more wine so I’ll really be hearing eerie sounds in the woods and then believe I actually saw a witch.

Nope, no forests yet. Just buildings. I don’t know where to go to look for the lab. Everywhere I turn seems a dead end unless I go back where to I came from (canals). Frustrating!

Goddess Alyria, I got stuck in the same part you initially mentioned (the part with the guy hanging from a rope). It was annoying to me…as it always annoys me to be stuck for more than about 5 minutes. I think I was stuck in that spot for at least a half hour, maybe more (given my lack of a sense of time, it may have actually been an hour or more).

The forest sections started getting old to me by the time I was done. Walking around and around and around…and around. Oh, what’s this? The ten-billionth zombie!

I underestimated this mod at the beginning. I usually play games in small intervals to keep it fresh. So I played one or two levels thinking “hmm, kinda fun, very scary, and a little confusing”. Now it’s about a week later and I’m totally impressed with the size of the project and how obsessed I am to keep playing it. This is a really long mod with something new introduced at almost every level. Its starts off small and kinda eerie, then bursts into a full story of madness. I’m not even sure where to begin.

Almost all the models and textures are from Half-Life 2 but they are used so well to create a completely new environment. The mapper spared no expense with detail and variety. I just kept taking screenshots after screenshots to show you how much work has gone into each level. Lots of geometric architecture and lots of organic natural structures. This mapper has no limit to what needs to be built. Each level lives up to Half-Life 2’s expectations and reputation. The levels have plenty of objects for cover and plenty of digressing areas where there is usually an item instead of a dead end.

I found myself exploring just to kill one more headcrab or zombie, even if it was out of the way. And I would admire the architecture as I went. I also enjoyed using the explosive barrels to throw at zombies and then shoot to blow them up. Sometimes I would carry an explosive barrel through a few buildings just to save ammo. There are also plenty of new “traps” for killing zombies. All of it is very innovative and original. The will include creepy indoor areas and vast outdoor alleyways or forests. There are some secret places to find ammo or health and some areas where you will need to jump and climb to progress to the next level. This is probably a good place to describe some of the gameplay.

Following the reputation of Half-Life 2, Ravenholm includes intense action, puzzles, and an interesting storyline. You will play the main character “John” and you wake up to a friend telling you what has happened. All the dialog is in French but there are English subtitles. You will venture through many different buildings with lots of headcrabs and zombies. Explore but keep your pistol handy. I also found that learning to kill headcrabs with crowbar will save you a lot of ammo, but work on the timing. Sometimes you will kill one but they will still get a small scratch in. As the levels progress you start with just the crowbar and maybe a pistol, but will later acquire most of the Half-Life 2 weapons. They placed them very well so you will be forced to not take your weapons for granted. Each weapon serves its purpose and can be used cleverly to save ammo, set off traps, or keep health to a maximum.

Negatives
- Slow progress through puzzling levels
- Can get stuck if you don’t plan ahead
- Lots and lots of zombies (for those who get tired of them)

Positives
- Very clever levels and use of objects
- Interesting story and suspense
- Some new content not seen in Half-Life 2

Conclusion
Ravenholm shows how a team can really produce an expansion pack to Half-Life 2 without having to create a lot of new content. There is so much variety and ways to keep you immersed in the game. I loved how you will have to carry crates to hard-to-reach places so you can progress to the next level. But if you destroy all the crates…. re-load. They really keep you on your toes! Never just run around chaotically destroying every barrel and box, you may need it later.

Explore every area because if you miss something you may get stuck. Great use of gravity for pulleys and elevators. There was even a moment when the zombies throw barrels and stuff at you… well one of them thew a health container at me from the top of a trash can. I really needed it too. Ravenholm is very re-playable because you can try killing zombies in different ways. I dare someone to complete the whole game only using the crowbar. That would be crazy!

My Recommendation

Finished playing this last night - it is a very long mod - I played on normal and it took me more than 10 hours to complete. I cannot have enough praise for the makers of this mode - let me explain.When I first played HL2, Ravenholm drove me nuts - dark and scary, not enough ammo and stupid as I am I never really considered using the Gravity Gun as a weapon - yep, I’m an idiot.

Interestingly enough when you first play this mod you have no Gravity Gun either - you have to rely on your weapons and the ammo is pretty scarce so trust your crowbar, note where the explosive barrels are to shoot them at the right time for maximum effectiveness and pay attention to the traps that are already set and ready for you to use. Given that I played the original Ravenholm in the same circumstances I can say with confidence that this mod is far better. The map layout is very good, puzzles are great (and many :-)) and the difficulty increases in a very nice progression towards the end. Although I have played on normal I haven’t died much and was able to complete even the most difficult battles on the second or third try even though it gets pretty hairy at times.

Those that like to explore will be rewarded with all kinds of goodies hidden all over. Although I have found a lot I am not so sure I got them all - I believe I should have gotten the crossbow at some point because I found some ammo - however I still managed without it; there was also some AR-2 ammo but I only got the AR-2 before the very last battle - and I put it to good use

The fun factor is also there - what could be more fun than having an infinite box of rockets to shoot poison zombies and their minions?

Overall I have been extremely satisfied with this mod and I think I’ll rate it just a tad higher than Coastline to Atmosphere - so right up there at top with Minerva.

And special kudos to the developers for more than 10 hours of play in a 70MB mod

love the game so far but I am very stuck in the canal-the water is electric and I can see no way across to the walkway on the other side. There is a zombie in the water which is no problem but how do I make it across this. I tried shooting out the switch and that failed. I tried many times to cross on the wall pipes but they stop short. How do I cross this? Thanks Rob ,Vancouver Wa.

This is a zipped html file from the discussion board on the authors site.Its supposed to show how to cross the electric water.

http://files.filefront.com/Level3azip/;9763361;/fileinfo.html

I remember that section now.Just gotta not fall in the water but still stack up crates to get on the platform.Then you need 1 box on the platform to jump to the ledge.