do you plan on making more custom campaign maps?

It's me. That one guy that playtested part 3 and 4. I'm back again to give an updated and more in-depth look at the Combine Canyon map pack in it's entirety. I'll be looking at several aspects of each map in order. So, without further delay...

Part One
Part One is quite clearly your first map in this style and oh god does it show. This map doesn't have much to offer. Map geometry is blocky, enemy encounters are all but trivial and the map is extremely short clocking in at around four minutes. I was able to beat it in a minute and a half speedrunning it. The Headcrab cluster can be anihilated by a single grenade and the way Combine Soldiers spawn from Dropships makes them very easy to dispose of with Shotgun headshots or Crossbow shots. The only exception to this is the gunship you fight. You have very little cover to work with but a Rocket crate right at your feet, making this encounter somewhat easy also. The Headcrab hoarde and first wave of Soldiers can be skipped outright if you wish. A basic, but forgivable starting point at least.

Part Two
Part Two is a phenomenal improvement over it's predecessor in every way. Visually, it's diverse going from a Combine/urban landscape to a more natural one like those seen prominently in Half-Life 2: Episode Two. The difficulty is on point two. Providing a wealth of enemies to fight in the first half while never overwhelming the player. In the second half the map focusses on a puzzle involving a laser turret and how to get around said turret while dealing with a single Hunter sure to catch new players off guard. The sole musical cue also fits the first half of the map as you deal with a large squad of Combine Soldiers, two perched behind a Pulse Rifle emplacement while you look for another way to them. The map is able to stay for a while too, running about ten minutes on your first go. It's a great map by itself and the high-point of the map pack for sure.

Part Three
The most forgetable of the lot for me. This map features some rather basic level design, plain visuals (Save for the beginning and very end of the map.) and relatively few enemy encounters. The fight at the end of the map provides an interesting entrance accompanied by a fitting musical cue however. The secret vista you can find is also a treat to behold. The map doesn't overstay it's welcome though, lasting little over eight minutes on your first go. Overall, a little mediocre but hardly offensive. Unlike...

Part Four
Part Four. Oh god where do I start? I suppose I'll get the positives out of the way. The level design in the second half is... solid. Nothing more than solid. The map looks pretty good, like it's brothers and the combat is ok. That leaves the problems. I have four. One is a serious technical flaw, the next is a nitpick, then two missed opportunities. I'll begin from the top:

This technical flaw isn't the fault of Loaf's in it's entirety but rather is the fault of the Source Engine with how it handles player interation with vertically moving physics objects. I take issue with the first puzzle in the map. You simply have to raise a sunken platform using plastic barrels to jump across to the other side of a gap once you turn on the electricity to activate a door, making the water deadly in the process. Here's the issue. Mash space all you want, but the slight bobbing of the platform under your weight means that you are glued to that platform. Mash space all I want, Green Dr. Kleiner just would not jump. This cost me my life many times. I had to noclip past it in the end.

The next issue is a piece of questionable map design. Off to the side of this death-trap of a puzzle there's a room with a Combine forcefield blocking something off, and a trench to navigate through complete with radioactive water, Zombines and one of those slow-turning valves. Once you spend a minute clearing that, you're only rewarded with two suit batteries. That's it. In my oppinion, this just isn't worth the minute or two you sacrifice for them. And you're likely to lose the suit power immediately to the puzzle right besides it. What I'd do to rectify this is either A: Give a more substantial reward to the player, or B: Integrate this room with the puzzle somehow. How would that be done? Well that's not up to me. Call this one a nitpick if you must, it's just something that irks me.

This next issue is a pair of missed opportunities. I'd have dedicated a whole map to the Antlion Caves level theme instead of having two tiny, very linear sections of it spread across two maps. This just doesn't give the level theme enough space or time to shine in my eyes. Comes off as quite jarring. The next is a puzzle gimmick that only sees one very basic application and is never seen again. That is the idea of having to press two buttons within a certain timeframe of eachother to clear a path forward. Be that by deactivating a forcefield, raising a bridge, or whatever. This gimmick has a lot of puzzle potential, and it's introduced so suddenly that a new player could get confused, if even for a moment and then it's gone again as soon as it showed up.

Overall, this is the low-point of the map pack for me. But it didn't have to be.

Part Five
The finale of the map pack is definitely the second best in the entire pack for me. This map is nothing but combat from beginning to end, but the combat that is here is quite engaging with a few ways to go about solving your problems. Do you Crossbow that group of five soldier below you or sly a Grenade in there to wipe them all out at once? That kind of stuff. This map is also a visual treat. Blending the natural Half-Life 2: Episode 2 look with the more urban aesthetic of Half-Life 2's final City 17 chapters.

The map is capped off with a boss fight against a Gunship, followed by a lone Strider, and lastly two Hunters. This is where the flaws begin however. The Gunship flies in extremely close to the ruined building you're held up in, giving you a surprising ammount of cover for yourself and also making shots at the Gunship with the RPG a complete cakewalk as the Gunship has hardly any time to react to your RPG rounds. As for the Strider battle. Spectacle clearly won out over difficulty here. This fight is piss easy. You can cower behind a piece of wall from the building you emerge from and snipe the thing from across the street with your RPG until it dies. I also get the feeling that the Hunters were meant to accompany the strider, as when you approach a cache of ammo crates, they come out of hiding and attack you. This fight had great potential, but just never hit it.

And then there's the endgame:
After downing the Strider and it's cohorts, you exit onto a forest road through a now-open Combine Barricade. Suddenly however, the screen fades to grayscale. Gman appears, adjusts his tie, and leaves without saying a word. It's contrived as hell and just flat-out lazy. This is the ending Half-Life modders use as a cop-out for real storytelling and it's quite annoying when it crops up. A very weak endgame overall.

[h1]In Conclusion...[/h1]
So. Would I recommend Combine Canyon? Yes, I would. It has it's fair share of issues, but makes up for it with solid presentation and generally good mapping quality with great difficulty balancing. Definitely try it if you're itch for Half-Life content starts eating away at you again.

(Thank You Loaf for providing me with Beta versions of Part 3 and Part 4 over a year ago.)

Alright. Again, fantastic job!

@Mr. Bouncerverse Probably only part 2.

I loved this map series! Very well done indeed! I do have a random question, though. Since you made a sandbox version of part 2 of your combine canyon series, will this happen for any other maps as well, or is it just the one?

Very good. I liked having played your maps.

This is a well made map! The enviromental puzzles split with intense combat are reminisant of Half-Life 2. Good Job!

@jack that first

wheres part 1

very good

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