So I played again, this time without cheating. (It helped that I knew about the turret gun and ammo/supply crates this time.) I got very low on health at one point, but found some health and kept on.

Small, intense combat map.

For me this map is only a notch up from arena type play, and while it was a challenge it had no depth relaying mainly on rushing Combine and unrealistic placement of roof top fire power.

But if you like a short sharp encounter then this will keep you happy for about 5 minutes.

This map feels like a piece of Half-Life 2 itself. Enemies flanking the square via the rooptops were a big surprise for me. They were a huge pain, but they were well-placed and had an excellent effect on the ambush.

Once I found the gun turret, things were much easier for me.

I think Phillip magician’d his way over those cars because I tried and failed to jump them. Instead, I recognized that the van is supposed to be crawled through. Pretty cool escape path, if you ask me.

That little final ambush fooled me…and killed me once.

My item/ammo stats – I did not record them. But you can watch me fight my way through the map on HARD mode here…

http://www.moddb.com/members/joe-rogers-11155/videos/me-playing-small-street-map-for-phillip

Very cool map, worth the play through.

I think the “best score” system for single-player maps is a very cool idea. It might get people to make maps just so others can record their playthroughs and then cycle through their weapons at the end…then the community can decide who’s the best player of that map.

Just record your playthroughs all the way to the end of the level, deaths and all like I did.

Visuals
It’s a basic HL2-styled square. Nothing more, nothing less.

Gameplay
There is plenty of action, that’s for sure. You have little or no time to rest and for a short level that’s great, although I found this level really hard to play and I played on Easy.

You need to jump the cars to reach ALyx and I honestly don’t know how I did it becasue when I tried again, even with barrels, I couln’t do it.

Layout and Design
There could have been more cover and maybe a basement area too, but overall the layout was very good. The fence around the play area provides cover becasue you can’t shoot through it.

Summary
A simple layout that provides about 15 minutes worth of gameplay, tough gameplay too. I would love to see a video of somebody beating this on HARD. Any PP reader good enough to do that?

5 Words Or Less Review
Intense, hard and very satisfying