Once upon a time, long, long ago, a dreamland of wonder and candy did grow. Its treasure was sweet, and the land was “Big Lolly.”
Welcome to Big Lolly!
Grab some candy and get fraggin’!
This was December 2022’s Classic of the Month mod.
Basic Details
- Title: Big Lolly
- Filenames: hl1-sp-big-lolly-folder.7z / hl1-sp-big-lolly-exe.7z
- Size : Exe version: 14.3MB / Folder version 9.25MB
- Author: Cayle George
- Date Released: 13 September 2003
Download Options: Folder Version
Folder version: Download to your HDD [9.25MB]
Manual Installation Instructions for folder version
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
- Unzip the 7z file and copy the biglolly folder to your …\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\ folder.
- Start or Restart Steam
- Big Lolly should now be listed in your Library tab.
Download Options: EXE Version
EXE version: Download to your HDD [14.30MB]
Manual Installation Instructions for EXE version
If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.
- Unzip the 7z file and run biglolly.exe
- Point the installer to your …\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\ folder.
- Start or Restart Steam
- Big Lolly should now be listed in your Library tab.
Playthrough Videos
The playthrough below is part of the Classic of the Month Event, run by Don AKA Unq.
Screenshots
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
All screenshots are 1600×900
Reader Recommendations
Total Downloads
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 8 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 7 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 19 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 10 Mins by Argento
Longest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Avantgarde95
Total Time Played: 2 Hours, 30 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 7 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 19 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 10 Mins by Argento
Longest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Avantgarde95
Total Time Played: 2 Hours, 30 Mins
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It’s a cool mod but it’s way to short
Plenty of new assets (models textures…). The are no visible remains of Half-Life present, so the immersion is perfect. Gameplay is straight forward, with no puzzles present. Maps are OK, but unfortunately there is just a few of them (I wish the author made more, perhaps instead of the useless deathmatch maps). It seems the author just enjoyed making models, textures and sounds and the maps were just an afterthought. The third person view is a nice Easter egg.
Overall the biggest flaw this mod has is that its way too short. It’s fun and it’s short so there really is no reason not to play it… I made a playthrough, it will be on my youtube soon.
Manually
Medium
15 Minutes
I feel like it’s my duty to review this mod.
A long time ago, I worked on an mostly unknown HL2DM mod called Bisounours Party. This is the mod that inspired it. We shamelessly took many ideas from it, including the gingerbread man, floating island, cans of soda, etc. Maybe I can somewhat pay back the creator by writing this review.
This gets a personal favorite for me because it actually inspired me a lot and shaped a significant part of my early work. This mod is very creative and cute. It looks great, the colors are nice, and it feels good. Even though the premise sounds stupid, it’s actually well done and polished.
Don’t expect a huge TC or something like that. The mod is very short. It’s mostly a short burst of creativity and cuteness, and then it ends.
The creator made this mod as a birthday gift for one of his friend. You can see that in a secret area. They probably played together for a while, which would explain the “unneeded” deathmatch maps. Any modder who worked on a multiplayer mod would understand why. This feels like nostalgia to me. Working and playing on your own obscure mod with your friends. On the surface you try to replicate the success of big mods and be professional, but deep down you know you’re simply doing it to have fun with your friends. Then you get bored of it and now it’s just a memory.
Manually
Medium
20 Minutes
Not a bad mod at all but seemed pointless to me. The mod takes place in a fairytale and you whack gummybears with lollipops and shoot gingerbread men with a banana. No real story or depth, new models and textures looks nice, they fit the fairytale theme well but in the end it is just pointless, not the mention the short length.
Manually
Medium
20 Minutes
A plenty of models, textures, etc. It was fun to play, and it’s too short. Good thing, but it has no any sense or point.
You can play it, but if you miss it, you wouldn’t lose anything.
Using Gauge
Hard
10 Minutes
I closed my last review – X-treme Violence – with the hope that mapper Cayle George would apply his talent to developing a larger, more involving single player pack than his efforts to date. While Big Lolly is his larger follow-up to Caged and XV, it is not exactly the more expansive, engrossing mod that I’ve been wishing for. Playing Big Lolly is more akin to watching Donnie Darko for the first time – it’s kind of a neat experience but at the end you’re not quite sure what the hell was going on.
Cayle actually made this short pack (which includes both single- and multi-player maps) as a birthday present for his brother. “That’s cute,” I remember thinking, “A fun little present for his little brother.” Lo and behold I came to find out that this brother is not only older than Cayle, he in fact just turned 30. Apparently the entire family is insane.
Anyway, as you can probably judge from the screenshots, Big Lolly is unlike any other Half-Life pack. It takes place in the land of ‘Big Lolly,’ which is some sort of demented cross between Candy Land and Wonderland, with a helping of Xen thrown in for good measure. A unique setting, to be sure. But it does make for some visuals that are interesting, to say the least. Other descriptive words that came to mind were: colorful, bizarre, busy, and delicious.
What detracts somewhat from the experience is the gameplay. While it is fun bashing ferocious gummi bears with a humongous lollipop and tossing soda-and-pop-rocks grenades to topple the killer gingerbread men, keep in mind that the new enemies and weapons are just direct replacements for Half-Life’s standard enemies and weapons. So overall you only get to fight headcrabs and zombies with Half-Life’s weapons (albeit with funny models and sounds). The novelty wears off pretty quickly though, and the combat is pretty dull. But it’s worth playing just to hear the little gingerbread cookies humming as they march around.
It was fun to play through this short pack. I always appreciate unique settings in Half-Life maps, and Big Lolly is certainly one of the most bizarre. The gameplay is too basic, but it’s a worthwhile play just to see what dwells inside the minds of Half-Life mappers.
Post Script: Since writing this review, I’ve discovered that Cayle has been hired by 2015, developers of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. He claims to still be working on a larger Half-Life single player pack, so there is still hope, o ye of little faith.
Notes
This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Tuesday, 30th December, 2003 by Unquenque.
This review was originally posted on the Ten Four Website, which is now offline. Permission has been granted to republish the full review and more details can be found on the About page.
Well that’s my old Ten Four review just above, and it pretty much stands up to my feelings on replaying Big Lolly. It’s wacky, it’s colorful, it’s lighthearted, and it’s fun. The gameplay is lacking but that’s not what Big Lolly is really about.
Along the lines of what Klems said above, this mod stands as a great example of what a talented modder could pull off alone in Goldsource. Except for the weapons being replacements for existing HL weapons, and the enemies being replacements for standard HL enemies, Big Lolly is essentially a total conversion. It’s a perfect showcase for Goldsource modders – even if the setting or gameplay isn’t really your cup of tea.
Cayle went on to work as a pro in the games industry (and still does) – and we haven’t seen the last of his work for sure.
Manually
Medium
15 Minutes
It was the most colorful half life mod I’ve ever played but it didn’t even feel like a half life mod to be honest becuse all the textures has been replaced with something else but other than that, the mod was ok, It was really short too.
Manually
Easy
20 Minutes
I guess I liked this little colorful mod. For some reason, I like this kind of very peculiar & Thematic mods.
This one is like Willy Wonka’s land full of color and sugar but with some threatens in your way…
Other ones are thematically centered around Christmas or Halloween, here is just fantasy land one.
Yeah is so peculiar that deserves to give it a try.
Manually
Medium
20 Minutes
not a review per say but more to comment on the history of this.
this was made for his brother.
and the author went onto work in the industry on several games most notably in the valve sphere is TF2 and portal 2. his website is here for his full portfolio https://caylegeorge.com/
either way you can see the influence of this mod on TF2 in its pyro vision mode. many of the visual bits of pyroland are reminiscent of this mod.
Nice concept & textures. It reminds me the HL2 mod Bear Party: Adventure.
Manually
Medium
30 Minutes