“The last thing I remember was our train being stopped in the woods. OVERWATCH told me I was needed for questioning, so they locked me in one of those cold pods and stuck me on the next train to NOVA PROSPEKT. I can still see my WIFE watching me drift away. Now, here I am… Only things are not how I expected them to be. How long have I been unconscious? A few days? A WEEK? Something has gone HORRIBLY WRONG…”
UNION is set in the aftermath of Freeman’s blow at Nova Prospekt. ANTLIONS have broken in and run amok, the Combine forces lay decimated, but an unlikely alliance is forged between a lone surviving PRISONER and an escaped VORTIGAUNT. If they are to break free they will have to rely on one another for help.
- Title: Union
- File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-union.rar
- Size : 17.59Mb
- Author: Matt Glanville
- Date Released: 26 February 2008
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WARNING: The videos may contain spoilers.
PlanetPhillip (2349)
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27 February 2008 at 12:34 am
Realesd allready?I just finished the new beta testing today.Although there was nothing wrong with it I thought I’d get a few days to do some digging and play different.Oh well..
27 February 2008 at 1:23 am
Yeah sorry Andy, thanks for testing but I had a deadline to hit so I could get it published in PC Action! You’re in the credits anyway.
27 February 2008 at 1:36 am
Good luck with it Matt but next time leave time for us to digest what we got.A couple days aint so bad on the second run but if it had been the first…..
27 February 2008 at 1:41 am
I had a few friends test it in front of me over those days so it wasn’t critical. I admit I did get a bit pressed for time towards the end, it was a bit of a rush! To be honest, at that point I was fairly confident it was pretty much bug-free.
27 February 2008 at 1:50 am
man, great mod, I loved every minute (very almost) of it, with a bit of tweaking i reckon it could be a classic. Given that you didnt get any voice actors in on it (the right descision i reckon) you did a great job of getting the vortigaunt to say the right things at the right time. Some really nice ideas i thought. Getting out of the prison to find it raining was a great touch – reminded me of the shawshank redemption lol, and even better was being able to actually come face to face with the sniper. Much more satisfying than lobbing a nade at it (i spent a looong time trying that before i saw the bars in front of him)The ending was nice too, not at all what i was expecting, and i honestly felt for the vort, which is unusual seeing as they normally just bug me a bit.
My only crits (far outweighed by the good bits, mind, but i’m picky) were that the lighting seemed excessively bright in places, and so just caught me off guard rather than adding to the atmosphere. Also, and this might be just cos im tired, but i only really stumbled upon the exit to the tracks after retracing my steps to see if id missed something (this is trying to get to the sniper at the end) and didnt really realise i was meant to be looking for it, if you do decide to touch it again, maybe make the exit more visible from further down the tracks?
Aaanyway, aside from that, I thought it was a great mod, short and sweet, and didnt even notice the time that had passed when i was playing it. Great job.
27 February 2008 at 1:50 am
Besides too many antlions for my taste in a couple of places, everything else ranks as perfect. Mapping, lighting, scripting, ambience etc.
I see some of the benefits of mapping for Ep2, I loved how the first hunter shows up.
27 February 2008 at 2:17 am
Thanks for all the kind comments! I’ll try and explain some of the decisions I made where possible…
There is actually a short-cut back to the Vortigaunt. There is a bent fence to the right of the tin shed which you can jump over, the exit is dead ahead if you take that path. But I will consider this for future revisions.
I understand how there could be a few too many for peoples’ liking, although I did want to get across the fact that the antlions have totally torn this place apart and are now beginning to settle there. You have effectively now disturbed their nest.
27 February 2008 at 2:18 am
Oops, I meant a few too many for some peoples’ liking.
27 February 2008 at 3:20 am
I know, I only made that observation because I died due to the lack of ammo in a particular area. I should’ve left vorty kill the headcrabs and zombies in that room instead of wasting my ammo, and I would’ve had plenty for the antlions. It was my mistake, but I wish I would have an ammo crate nearby (there might have been one, but I didn’t see it).
27 February 2008 at 3:52 am
Excellent. This is the first mod I’ve seen outside of Rock 24 to incorporate some genuine character cooperation (as opposed to Rebel fodder, or characters that just seem like irritating escort missions).
The visuals are very good, and the audio tracks are used well. Some of the sequences were pretty tough on hard without being overly frustrating. I can’t really think of any particular nitpicks as it came together so well.
Small, but near-perfectly formed, more Half-Life 2 mods need to be like this.
Why do most of the great HL2 mods seem to have a prison theme
?
Are there already ideas for a sequel? Just wandering, as you weren’t exactly home free at the end.
27 February 2008 at 4:02 am
I hate the hunters but rather enjoyed them after I figured out how to kill em.SHOOT and RUN lol.But I too thought the hunter coming out on his own was cool.Freaked me out the first time then when I seen….
Dont wanna spoil stuff.
27 February 2008 at 4:14 am
**** SPOILERS ****
The ending was EPIC! Wow! Hearing the Hunter call and then running towards the fence in slow motion was the best moment in a Half-Life 2 mod I have ever experienced. It felt exactly like a movie!
5/5 from me and most definitely:
27 February 2008 at 5:27 am
three words!!!
27 February 2008 at 5:28 am
i guess thats 7, counting “it” twice.
But yeah, i played it three times and its really great stuff.
27 February 2008 at 5:44 am
Wow! I’m really pleased with the feedback so far. So glad you all enjoyed it! Hearing that really makes it worthwhile.
I’m guessing you’re referring to the boiler room? I was trying to lure the player into the lift using the Vortigaunt’s dialogue, rather than stay and fight the antlions which it sounds like you did. Interesting to note though and worth rethinking the way that situation is dealt with.
I really appreciate that comment, as the companionship with the Vortigaunt was basically the focus Union (hence the name). I’m glad you didn’t find him bothersome.
Yes, I have a whole story roughly planned out including events leading up to the start of Union and then the events that follow.
I’m not saying I will make a sequel yet but I definitely would like to.
27 February 2008 at 11:30 am
About that first elevator, I liked the way the antlions came up to the door in a menacing way even though they couldn’t get you. However, one of them had gotten too close and the whole elevator sequence was on hold until I decided to crowbar the antlion away. Only 2 legs were inside the elevator, I think.
A small radius thumper ai_sound inside the elevator box would fix it. I know the intention is having them right outside the elevator, but maybe not that close.
27 February 2008 at 12:38 pm
Very good stuff, lighting a bit harsh in places but good gameplay and great ending look forward to the sequel.
27 February 2008 at 1:17 pm
Regarding the comments about harsh lighting — wasn’t the lighting harsh in Episode 2? I thought it was in a few places. When you go back to HL2 after Episode 2 it feels kinda dull.
27 February 2008 at 2:15 pm
I’ve gotten stuck. It is the large room with a shotgun ammo crate right after the tunnel where you first encounter an acid antlion. I pull a switch that opens a door that lets the vortigaunt in, then the door seals behind him. Then the room fills with continuous antlions coming out of the ground, but I can’t find the exit, every door appears to be locked, and I can’t see anything interactive to use or shoot.
I was playing it right before bed and I was quite tired, perhaps I just walked past something obbious.
27 February 2008 at 3:05 pm
You’re supposed to kill all of the antlions emerging from the ground until they stop. The vort will then go up to the second floor and open a door there.
27 February 2008 at 3:31 pm
Yeah you just need to survive for a set amount of time. When the vortigaunt says “We shall prevail!” then you know you’re getting close to the end.
27 February 2008 at 7:28 pm
My game keeps freezing right before/when I encounter the first acid-spitting antlion. It’s a bad freeze too– I cant click anything and I need to restart my pc. WORK AROUND?
27 February 2008 at 7:36 pm
Well I re-installed Half Life 2 : Episode 2 for this mod and so it had better be worth it, and to be honest, it was! That last remaining amount of hard drive space taken up was worth it.
These two maps were a good two, it was been a while since a map of this style has done itself justice. And it was very original. Usually it’s some zombie rampage or a constant fight against ant lions with no foreseeable end until your near death. But this was brilliant. It’s you (although addressed as the Freeman but I think that’s Free Man as your free and you’re a man!) and an assistant Vortigaunt who helps you get out of this prison, fighting what remains of the combine, zombies and ant lions.
The map layout was brilliant, not too shabby at all. Well thought out maps and it had puzzles that at one point had me thinking. At one stage when your pinned down by a combine sniper the area that I found myself trapped in (and hitting the load button a lot of times) was deceptive as there was what looked like a clear away to get near it. As throwing a grenade doesn’t work against it, but I got there and found that you couldn’t get through. So I had to think outside the box and eventually found the route, and took it twice. I wasn’t as safe as I thought I was.
The combat is good, it’s not over or under done. You don’t get bored with your ant lion combat and its over at the point where it starts to get boring and repetitive which is brilliant. Although when the hunters show up, I hate hunters btw, you’re not over attacked by them unlike in Half Life 2 Episode 2. So kudos there.
There is very little I have to say on the negative side of this mod. Other then requiring half life 2 episode 2 to run it. I think that it could have been longer but that’s probably because I enjoyed it so much.
27 February 2008 at 8:06 pm
Haven’t come across this before. Just to check: you are running the map in Episode 2, right? Sorry if that’s condescending but that would be an obvious cause so I thought I’d make sure.
Does it crash in exactly the same place every time? If so can you describe it as closely as possible, or provide a screenshot? Were you standing right next to the first pair of grubs in the tunnel?
27 February 2008 at 9:04 pm
Congrats with the release
27 February 2008 at 9:22 pm
phillip the filecloud link isn’t there
27 February 2008 at 9:42 pm
Fixed.
27 February 2008 at 10:11 pm
Oooh. This was really very good. I can’t fault it at all. Everything was very well done and it was all very polished. The atmosphere is spot-on. I especially liked the way it starts. Scary!
The vortigaunt was pleasing to work with, and the objectives well thought out and fun to achieve. It really captured the Half Life feeling, and the difficulty was perfect. Not too hard, not too easy.
Grade A stuff.
28 February 2008 at 2:18 am
Crowbar Ska–
Yes I was right past the grubs. Right infront of me I could climb up into the base again, or if I went right I could travel and startle the acid-antlion around the corner. One time it spat at me, but then froze. The 2nd time it froze when I was jumping up to the base. The 3rd time I just walked forward and it froze. Then I gave up and posted here.
Oh and yeah, I’m playing Ep2 with it. Maybe something just burped. I’ll try playing it again since I didn’t get too far. If anyone else has the same problem, please post. I’d like to play this mod as it does seem above-average in…well…everything so far.
28 February 2008 at 3:05 am
Very well done sir!
I had a lot of fun with it, and I found the length to be perfect. I noticed most of the moments were inspired by moments in episode 2, which isn’t a bad thing but I would have liked one or two fresh elements.
One problem I experienced with the game was when I encountered the first Hunter in the Hunter battle, the hallway appeared empty for a second and he teleported into the scene. Other than that I had a great time. Thanks for the maps!
28 February 2008 at 3:28 am
Nevermind I got it. I think my problem was that I didnt hit the button for the 1st door to stay open, so the vortigaunt was just stuck charging that cylinder area. Maybe that’s the bug? Anyways…..
GREAT little mod. Totally worth the download. Mapping is perfect– especially the sniper part. Brilliant job there. The hunters had a fantastic intro too. Music is well placed. Environment was spot-on (Rain = perfect ambience to fight a sniper).
Complaints? I play on hard mode, and the big antlion battle on the first map was very difficult. I had to tone it down to easy for that part. Also, I wish it was longer. Much longer. If you can keep up with this quality in your future works, you’re doing very well.
Usually I’m pretty pessimistic with mods, but I’m quite impressed with this one.
28 February 2008 at 1:24 pm
Brilliant mod! Although only being two maps, these two maps are made of pure concentrated awesome!
I won’t bother to describe all the great things about this mod since they have already been covered by everyone else. Instead I shall list a few minor things that I thought were a bit odd. They are probably things the average gamer didn’t even notice, I’m a total geek.
Unlike in HL2 and Ep1, the Combine sniper wasn’t hidden within a dark window, he was visible. This meant I could use the HEV zoom button and easily see that the soldier model wasn’t actually holding a rifle, the blue laser was just coming out of his body. I could also see that he had blue gasmask eyes, and then when I fought him one-on-one he became a red-eyed shotgun trooper. Both the eye-colour issue and the fact that Combine snipers don’t actually hold rifles means that it would probably have been better if the sniper was not visible. A way around this problem (without making the sniper’s position a pitch-black room) would have been if you made the npc_sniper invisible, and covered the sniper’s window with some kind of opaque fabric or netting, with just a tiny gap for firing through. Like the sniper positions in Half-Life 1 and Opposing Force. (You can see a close-up of a HL1 sniper’s nest at the end of this youtube video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=B8KxuMXaEjc&feature=related ) This would allow the sniper’s nest to be well-lit when the player finds it, yet keep the sniper hidden from view until the confrontation.
Also, it was cool finding the sniper rifle and spent shells on the floor, but it was a little odd that they looked like conventional bullet casings, considering that the Combine sniper rifle is a pulse energy weapon. The sniper reload sound in original HL2 did sound like a bolt-action reload, but that made no sense so in Ep1 and Ep2 Valve changed it to an energy charge-up sound. Your sniper shells were blue-tinited metal, so I guess they did look a little futuristic. Perhaps they were energy batteries that just happened to resemble shell casings.
Also, it was a little odd that the sniper rifle was on the floor, since in Episode 2 it is a mounted gun. The rifle lying on the floor means the player expects to be able to pick it up and use it. Presumably that type of gun is too huge and heavy or has too much recoil, and therefore it is always used as a mounted gun, since it never gets blown out of sniper windows when the player uses a grenade in HL2 and Ep1, and Alyx doesn’t take the rifle with her after using it in Ep1. So for true Half-Life 2 authenticity the sniper rifle should have been mounted to the window sill.
These are really minor niggles – I’m only pointing them out because everything else was really high quality, up there with an official Valve product! It was only the visible npc_sniper, unmouted rifle and spent bullet casings that gave it away as being an unofficial mod.
28 February 2008 at 1:42 pm
I think the Combine sniper rifle in Half-life 2 is a regular sniper rifle, only it has a blue light beam to paint targets and obviously warn the player of its presence. At least it makes bullet hole decals where it hits.
28 February 2008 at 3:55 pm
Er, the normal pulse rifle makes bullet hole decals as well. As do the Combine gunships and Striders. They are all pulse weaponry. And they are all energy weapons. It causes a bullet-hole decal simply because the bolt of energy is small and bullet-sized.
Ignore the blue laser sight – if you pay attention to the actual gunshot, you’ll notice that the “bullet” that whizzes through the air is not a standard white line like the shots fired by the pistol or SMG, instead it is a blue and yellow energy bolt, the same as the Overwatch Standard Issue pulse rifle. And the impacts of pulse rifle shots cause a blue and yellow glowy effect that lasts for a fraction of a second before leaving a standard bullet-hole decal. This glowing blue/yellow effect is also used when the pulse rifle secondary fire energy orbs bounce off a wall. Indicating that both the “bullets” and the energy orbs are the same sort of energy.
28 February 2008 at 5:25 pm
Okay, You are going to think I am crazy but I am stuck at an elevator. I have to plug a power cord in and then rush to the said elevator.
My friend the Vort shouts his advice but no matter what I do I can’t get the elevator started.
I kill the antlions for as long as possible once inside the lift but they eventually kill me.
I have recorded a DEM here: Union Dem
I have probably missed something very obvious and feel pretty stupid having to ask for help.
28 February 2008 at 6:22 pm
The Vortigaunt has to be with you in the elevator there is a button to push to allow him through the door.It is hard to backtrack because of the broken stairs so hope you have a saved game prior to dropping down in the basement.
28 February 2008 at 6:26 pm
Phillip, I just watched your demo. That is strange… The vort is supposed to follow you into the lift. He was just behind you right? It looked like he got close but couldn’t get in because the antlions were blocking the way. If at all possible, try clearing just the nearby antlions and running into the lift as quickly as possible, which should trigger the vort to enter too. If you are struggling for ammo, let the vort kill a few of the enemies instead of using up your own ammo.
As for the sniper rifle, that’s not something I actually had even considered, but you’re right. I think I was thrown off a bit because there is actually an unused model for a box of sniper rounds (models\items\boxsniperrounds.mdl) which shows the kind of cartridge you see on the floor.
The rifle would have been difficult to mount for two reasons. Firstly, it wouldn’t move with the beam when the sniper looks around. Secondly, the sniper is actually repositioned when you near the building so that he still has a clear shot of you. Good points though, I’ll definitely consider it.
28 February 2008 at 10:16 pm
Very fun map pack indeed! Very well put together and a difficulty curve thats difficult without being discouraging. It also looks phenomenal!
I say:
28 February 2008 at 10:26 pm
Short but very, very sweet. Brilliant mapping, good enemy placement, puzzles that don’t make you start kicking things in frustration, well balanced enemies/ammo and health and – for me anyway – NO BUGS!Good job all round.
29 February 2008 at 1:30 am
Ah yes, the box of sniper rounds is left over from the alpha/beta version of Half-Life 2, which featured a player-usable sniper rifle. It was rather like the crossbow, it fired one single massive instant-kill bullet and then needed to be reloaded. Similarly back then the Combine assault rifle wasn’t an energy weapon either, instead it was a 5.56mm OICW. Only the alien gunships had energy pulse weapons. Then Valve realised that aliens sophistcated enough to conquer the world in 7 hours wouldn’t have any trouble designing energy weapons for its human soldiers.
Yeah I see your point about the difficulties mounting the sniper rifle. I guess a solution would be to have the mounted gun not appear until the player reaches the room and the sniper turns into a shotgun soldier. The rifle would appear mounted at the second sniper window. (Preumably the rifle is easy to mount and unmount, only takes a few seconds for the guy to reposition his rifle, but the gun is too unweiledy to actually fire unmounted.)
Anyway, the sniper segment of the game was an excellent finale to a great mod. Normally I’d overlook the minor details about the sniper and the rifle, but the rest of the mod was close to official Valve quality, so I’m nitpicking over the one area I think Valve would have done differently.
29 February 2008 at 6:11 am
Very good mod. The guy who made this knows what he’s doing and has done a good job of it.The start however didn’t work to well because it makes you think that your a stalker, but the vort addresses you as Freeman.
29 February 2008 at 6:22 am
Consider the term “Freeman” merely as a title I was forced to use because I didn’t use custom voice acting. If you think you were a stalker then I’m glad you were thinking outside the box as much as I hoped you would.
29 February 2008 at 4:57 pm
Hey Phillip, congratulations on the new “system” that shows up into a image, in this case the “Play it now” that is in the screen right above us. Very well done.
29 February 2008 at 7:28 pm
One fine day I will get this mod to install on my machine.
29 February 2008 at 7:39 pm
I had high expectations for this one and I wasn’t disappointed.The maps all look lovely and are thoughtfully laid out, the gameplay is well balanced and satisfying, and good use is made of music and sound effects.
The sniper showdown at the end was a highlight. It was genuinely challenging AND unique. A refreshing change from simply dodging bullets long enough to get a grenade in the window. And the end itself was surprisingly dramatic for what it was.
I only have two critiques.
1. Difficulty/balancing issue: I found the battle with the Antlions spawning all around you in the two-story room to be far too difficult. I had to resort to putting the difficulty down to easy (I usually play on hard), because the Vortigaunt died repeatedly despite my best efforts. It probably wouldn’t have been so difficult had he shown good sense and taken up a more easily defended position on the second floor walkways, but as it was, he got surrounded by Antlions and torn to pieces no matter what I did. I was firing as fast as I could load shells and it still wasn’t enough.
2. Minor detail quibble: In the sniper’s nest, a few spent rifle cartridge casings were visible on the ground next to the weapon. That was a nice detail, but… being an energy based weapon it’s highly doubtful the sniper rifle would expel casings.
Those aside, this is a top quality production, and I’ll rate it as such.
01 March 2008 at 2:45 am
Got it open and running. Looks great, but I can already say it is too short.
01 March 2008 at 4:07 am
My PC is crashing in the same place. Although I did see an error message once. Some type of Memory error, strange…
01 March 2008 at 5:55 am
I also had the same type of (memory) crash with this mode as in “Offshore” this has only happened with HL2 Ep2 mods! I think there is a bug in the E2 game, but only occurs with an add on for E2 and not the game itself! I’ve run diag on everything mem, cpu, vid, and reinstalled my video drivers, same results! Maybe there’s something “Valve” doesn’t know about! I’m getting to be a frustrated old man!! This has been a good mod so far! In a way I’m not the only one with this problem!
01 March 2008 at 4:30 pm
Haven’t come across this before. Just to check: you are running the map in Episode 2, right? Sorry if that’s condescending but that would be an obvious cause so I thought I’d make sure.
Does it crash in exactly the same place every time? If so can you describe it as closely as possible, or provide a screenshot? Were you standing right next to the first pair of grubs in the tunnel?[/quote]
Happens to me too, though if I sneak around the corner really quickly, and as close to the corner as possible, it doesn’t crash. It only happens if I approach the little area with the hole in the ceiling. I’m guessing you have something triggered to happen if you walk in there, or it let’s you see into a visleaf above with something weird going on?
Haven’t played past that part yet, but so far I would say high-quality
01 March 2008 at 4:42 pm
Sorry for double post, can’t edit comments…
but another bug. Climb from tunnels into prison room, pull the lever, the gate opens and the tunnel entrance magically seals, and….nothing happens. I hear a vort speaking softly but he’s nowhere to be seen, and I can’t get through the gate. Invisible wall is stopping me.