[EP2] Mission Improbable Part 2

[Skacky]

Fuck, I didn't see this coming! I see you've been inspired by the old Combine Depot on the first pic, it looks neat!

Downloading it now.

EDIT: I played it and wow, this is seriously one of the most kickass awesome single player level I've played!

The sequence with the headcrab shell was pure win, and the tunnel with the resistance gate is really great. The final battle was pretty hard too, without the Gravity Gun those damn manhacks are really annoying.

Definitely recommanded, great work man.

[Psy]

That was excellent all round.

[insta]

Glad you enjoyed it! It was alot of fun making it as well

[Nurb]

Looks great! Can't play it due to lack of Ep2 :/ Judging from just the screens it looks like a solid level. Good ol' Source

[Evert]

Lots of love, well deserved!

Great job instachrome :monocle:

[Synthesizer]

Oh, one thing that annoyed me was that the music chopped off quite hard when you went through the trigger to turn it off. Perhaps you could have it fade out over a couple seconds? And there's no glass on the outside window by the gas station, on the room with the valve.

[e-freak]

i don't know if I already found the end, was kinda stuck after

the rebel station

but I'm really enjoying it so far.

[OhSnap]

Wasn't really sure if I should post this, but what the hell...

I guess I'm in the clear minority, because I didn't really enjoy this. Which is sad, cuz I DID like part 1 when I first played it.

My notes/feedback;

I completely missed the car the first time I played it. Was wondering why the hell I had to spend 5 minutes running to get somewhere. Would have liked the car placed in front of me at the start. This start may have soured the entire experience for me...

The valves and bright light under the broken bridge totally misled me. For whatever reason (maybe I was hitting the use key too fast) when I got close to the door, nothing seemed to happen, so I was convinced I had to do something with those valves.

The first combat area disappointed me. The lone guy shooting at you didn't really feel enough to justify the squad that shows up when you reach the street level. Aside from that, I had problems with this combat area. I think I died like 5-8 times. All I did was stay back near the green car and let the enemies come to me because I couldn't really move. There's no health pickups in the area, and you start with no energy. I felt bored, frustrated, and pretty much trapped. All I could do was wait for them to come to me.

I didn't even realize there was a puzzle with the gas tanks until I found the valve. Personally, I feel giving someone the answer to a puzzle before they know there's a puzzle is kind of bad. Right after I blew up the gas tank I immediately had the thought "It would have been cool if the previous combat encounter was cut in half, and a small squad approaches me as I exit the gas station so I can shoot the gas tanks to blow them all up". That would have made me feel

Once I had gotten up on the roof, I had NO idea where to go. I was lost in the area for about 5 minutes. I don't remember if the dude inside the building had died or what, but I finally just started shooting everything I could see and finally saw the barrel in the building.

Missed that you are supposed to get into the pod in the next building. The console beeping at me after you use it misled me =(

The valve to turn off the steam pipes rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe its just that I saw too many valves in the level already...

The VO of the dude telling me my mission seemed really low. The static spewing radio next to him was as loud as he was.

Totally missed the car jack bar my first time (the blocked door didn't really get my attention as something that needed solving). I ran around for what felt like ETERNITY (but was probably 3-5 minutes) and finally gave up and noclipped through the door.

Hated the run to the elevator. The machine gun forced me to wait for the other enemies to show up (much like how it happened with the first combat area for me) and it just felt frustrating. Think I died another 4 or 5 times probably because I was trying to brute force through it.

3 hunters at once felt like a bit much. I didn't really feel like I was being cool fighting them, since I had to run around screaming looking for health packs and getting out of LOS of them, pick at them a little, run away more.

The ending. I didn't really get any affirmation of what I did. No "thanks for saving us all" or even a "thanks, but your princess is in another castle". Fading out during the elevator ride really confused me at first, then sorta irked me later on.

Stuff I DID like (or, thanks for reading this far...)

The death message when I jumped into the water where the bridge breaks at first.

The lighting in the tunnel before the rebel camp

The crow/seagull on hooks in the rebel camp. I pondered the meaning for awhile, but went away empty handed. Maybe a yin/yang thing since the birds are black and white...

[insta]

I'm sorry to hear you didn't like it. However, thanks for writing down the feedback, I'll keep it in mind when doing the third and last level!

[Skjalg]

I think you released this one a bit early insta because I have similar criticisms as he does

(I'll write more later, I gotta play it through on my laptop..)

[Campaignjunkie]

OhSnap: did you play from the first map into the second, or start from the second via the "New Game" menu? Because I feel like with the new game menu, all the health and ammo you have is pretty generous for the first fight -- lots of 357 / AR2 / shotgun ammo, if I remember correctly. If all else fails, you can camp near the bottom of the stairs and they'll all line up pretty easily for the slaughter. (I actually thought the first encounter was too easy because of that, heh.)

The last fight -- okay maybe too much. The original version was only 3 hunters and it was kind of boring; I thought the manhacks were a really nice touch to discourage you from just circle-strafing / shotgunning them to death.

I dunno, I didn't find it too difficult, and I think of myself as a pretty average HL2 player. Shrug.

[ElectroSheep]

I played the first stage yesterday i'm going to do the second tonight.

I really enjoy it even if some part are really difficult in hard (the combine attack, they are many)

+ original design even if lighthouse is already used in HL2, this one is more better.

+ good lighting

+ progression is well done too, everything get sense in this tevel and I enjoy explore it. The map told a history by itself.

- background envirronements seem too much like an hl2 2004 map with odd and big displacements.

[Psy]

Yeah. The Combine fights were ridiculous!

[Grinwhrl]

Finally gave it a play through, overall very nice job. It reminds me of why I got into the industry and how much I miss HL and working with source.

[sarge mat]

Really, really enjoyed it not often I want to see a mod though from beginning to end. The bit where the body is stuck upright at the end of the corridor scared the shit out of me, I was shooting away and thinking wtf is it, before I realised it was dead.