CWCpack Initiative

for Half-Life

13th August 2015

Sci- Fi Single Player First Person Shooter Games Half Life 2 Doom 3 Far Cry Unreal UT2004 Quake Mods
About

A singleplayer mappack – a whole episode, but almost every map is made by a different mapper (beginners and experienced) without knowing the other maps, with only given entrance and exit areas, so that all the maps could be joined in one big episode.

Basic Details
  • Title: CWC Mappack Initiative
  • File Name: hl1-sp-cwc-mappack-initiative.7z
  • Original File Name: cwc.zip
  • Size : 10.5Mb
  • Author: CWC Team
  • Date Released: 01 October 2002
PlanetPhillip Download Servers
Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!

9 recommendations, average score: 3.44 (out of 5), standard deviation: 2.02 (what's that?)
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 3 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 3 Users

Time Taken:
Average: 3 Hours, 25 Mins
Shortest: 3 Hours by monster_urby
Longest: 4 Hours, 15 Mins by shaboo
Total Time Played: 10 Hours, 15 Mins
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Play It Now!Play It Now!Avoid It!Play It Now!Play It LaterPlay It LaterMaybe?Think TwiceThink Twice

39 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    Hi, stuck again. Im at the part after you kill the xen soldiers in the office area then run into the three guards. Ive gone down the next hallway activated the two buttons,
    I hear something like an elevator or a door but nothing? Is this the end or did I miss something? Ive gone back and tried every door and elevator but nothing opens!
    Thanks
    IDM

  2. IDM

    andyb
    I belive it is map #2. Its the same map that has the basement with the developers pictures in it.
    I retraced my steps to a hall with a transport (light, beam) in it. When I step into it, it puts me in mid air on the cliffs?

  3. If you mean the spot with with the names and pictures in a big room I believe thats the end.Although it wouldn’t be map 2 as there are 17 maps.

  4. IDM

    Sorry about that, yes thats where I ment.
    Thanks for your help andyb, I appreciate it.
    IDM

  5. poisonheadcrab
    Play It Now!

    This was a sweet map pack, A bit hard to figure out at times

  6. Play It Now!

    Good maps by eight different mappers, strung together to make a credible mission.
    Design and gameplay is of a high standard throughout, with plenty of variety.

  7. Michael

    Im stuck on map2 where you climb back up the ladder and have 2 grunts to kill and there does not seem to be a way out of the little hallway only a flashlight and a dark square where the light points to tried everything?

  8. Ade

    there’s a small elevator in a corner. up there, a button opens the door near the square.
    so far, so good (except the annoying doors in the first map).

  9. Ade

    now I see what you mean, could be a bug 😐 the readme says there’s a problem with map 2 changing to map 3, but nothing about going back from map 2 to map 2a2. I’ve already loaded another save and nothing happens.
    darn, I’m stuck, too!

  10. Michael

    Stuck on Peter map3 killied eveyone then pushed the hand button in the crawlway can hear it operate something but can’t find it?

  11. Ad3 I had the same problem.I finally got through after about 5 reloads.The same thing happens a little ways on also.

    Micheal there are 2 butons.One is in the center building too.Also you must deactivate the security using the console back down the hall.

  12. Gilfrarry

    If you have trouble going from map 2a2 to map 3 because map 3 won’t load, I’ve found the following worked for me:

    1. Save where the map should load, at the dead end beneath the tall ladder.
    2. Manually load map 3 by typing “map map3” in the console. You’ll lose your inventory temporarily but that’s okay.
    3. Immediately turn to the left and take the first passage on your left, to get back to map 2a2.
    4. Map 2a2 will load. Turn around and map 3 will load.
    5. Load your saved game. Now that map 3 has loaded once, it should load automatically.

    1. Ty for the help, 13 years later. 🙂

  13. Ade

    That was not a problem anymore, but: “going back from map 2 to map 2a2”..
    never mind, I deleted the mod anyway

  14. Michael

    Stuck on map 5 don’t know where to overide the security system killed everything?

  15. If its with the red lasers go back track a bit and another door will be busted open with a switch inside.

  16. Michael

    Thanks andyb

  17. Michael

    It’s map 5 where the helicopter pad is and the railway car and one area has green lasers but door will not open and a couple of more doors that have security access?

  18. Michael

    Never mind got it now is the room with all the names and pics the end?

  19. Ltemup

    Stuck on map 6 after the guards kill the 2 beasts you go down the hallway activate the panel with 2 buttons go in get the grenades but nothing else opens?

  20. Gilfrarry

    “Is the room with all the names and pics the end?”

    No. Go through the “cafeteria” door. If you haven’t turned off the laser barrier, the controls are back down the hall past the dead security guard, in the little room with the burst pipe.

    “Stuck on map 6”

    Congratulations. You’re done. Go to the second (middle) floor. Remember where you first came to map 6 by teleporting? Down the first hall and to the right, there was a closed door? It’s open now.

  21. Ltemup

    Thanks now when I go through the teleporter to map 7 I’m stuck in the air has to be a bug.

  22. Gilfrarry

    I think that’s the end.

  23. Clunkfish
    Avoid It!

    Either it’s too buggy or I’m too stupid, but there were many places in this map pack where I was completely stuck. It seemed like doors that were supposed to open didn’t, preventing further progress. I noclipped so I could search around for any buttons or things I might have missed, but didn’t find any: it seems like the acknowledged bug in the map 2->map 3 transition is present in other level transitions too. It’s a shame because between the bugs it’s good fun.

  24. Play It Now!

    The beauty of collaborations is the fact that you get to see and experience so many different styles in one place.
    All seventeen maps by eight authors are very different yet very satisfying to play through.

    These aren’t your average map packs either, as most of them are very elaborate with a smart layout of connecting corridors and new areas with barely any backtracking; thereby eliciting a sense of progression and succession. Some authors like to throw in some puzzles, others like to rely on plain ol” good mapping and firefights and others will bait you embarrassingly, Half-Quake-style.

    Minor quibbles include things like missing a critical jump/platform or such, but I didn’t encounter any map change problems (of which some are awesome, by the way).

    Whatever the method of design, it all works together very well to bring you a synergistic map pack.

  25. Gilbert

    Two questions:

    I’m stuck in map Peter_1 (see: [IMG]http://i38.tinypic.com/8x0b47.jpg[/IMG])

    How do I disable the lasers? No door wil open, so I can’t reach anything… With the “camera” I can see another room with two guards, but I can’t find (or enter?) that room…

    @ Klunkfish (or someone else): cheats don’t work for me in Cwc (in other games this is no problem) so I can’t noclip for searching that room (and enable the lasers?)

  26. Gilfrarry

    Shoot the little yellow button at the terminal behind the lasers.

  27. Gilbert

    Strange… image does not exist … (after 1 day ??) However: new link: http://i36.tinypic.com/25hk685.jpg

    Shoot the yellow button (see image) doesn’t work.

    But, I am back able to noclip. CWC didn’t like cheating I suppose: normaly I start the game with this shortcut:
    hl.exe -dev -console -game cwc
    and normaly (in other mods) this works fine for the cheating… but not in CWC. I had to bring down the console, give in: sv_cheats 1 and enter.
    After this I had (in other mods) to type in noclip, but in this mod I have to type in /noclip
    But: this system works ( enfin, from time to time)

    So I know there is a door behind crates, I could crash one crate (not the others) and then the door wouldn’t stil open. With noclip I went through the door.

    This mod is a fine mod, but it is really buggy …

  28. There’s another button, at the terminal, not a light but the kind of button you push. It’s hard to see because the portal periodically obscures it.

    You’re supposed to come through the door the other way later, although you won’t need to if you already found the security card. To do justice to the authors of the mod, it is possible to play without cheating.

  29. 2muchvideogames

    chuck a grenade at that control panel. This part is really non-intuitive though.

  30. Play It Later

    Great mappack with everything needed to satisfy (almost) any kind of players.
    That means: there is action, there are puzzles and there’s great design – not everywhere but mostly. If only there would be a theme, like a story which all mappers (8 in total!) would have combined with their maps.
    It’s hard to describe it the whole mod in words as it’s so different due to so much variety and different tasks.

    Whatever, it’s definitely worth playing!

    Pro’s:
    -Lot of variety in leveldesign, nice mix of action & puzzles
    -Often excellent mapping, architecture and lighting also new stuff like models
    -Good balancing (maybe a bit too easy in combat, and some harder puzzles)
    -Some very cool scripts
    -Every HL weapon available, also lot of ammo and more than fair health + HEV stuff
    -Some nice puzzle designs

    Con’s:
    -Many bugs like triggering scripts, mapchange, graphics, clipping etc.
    -No story
    -Can be confusing, frustrating as you “never” know what to do next, no hints
    -Some tougher puzzles can be too hard
    -Some mean enemy placement (or large amount of enemies, but there’s more than enough ammo)
    -Some design oddities like semi-hidden keycard for example

  31. Play It Later

    FOUND WITH PP PERSONALIZER.

    OK. this is the first map/mappack/mod I have played using the personalizer and I can’t say it is the best I have ever played, it is too much of a hotch potch of styles, which as a whole does not work for me!

    According to the ” readme! It is from 2002, so if I had played it then, I might have found it more interesting, but 10 years later it is not as much fun as it once might have been! Some of the maps were fun to play, but one really sticks out like a sore B*%%0ck on a bulldog. You go back into an area that was clear and are confronted with a stupid number of Houndeyes, a similar thing happened with Vortigaunt’s (maybe the same map).

    Each map on it’s own probably had some merits worth playing but as a whole as I’ve said it didn’t work for me.

    Maybe I am viewing this with expectations from a viewpoint, that realises the original mappers won’t benefit from the feedback any of us give a decade on!

  32. Ten Four Reviews

    The CWC Mappack Initiative is a collaborative level pack by a group of regulars at the Polish Half-Life mapping site called Centrum WorldCraft. In that sense, it is in a similar vein to Project: Quantum Leap so some comparisons are inevitable. The CWC pack is more coherent as a level pack, and the levels feature a more consistent theme than the PQL ones. Furthermore, the CWC pack is more consistent in the sense that it doesn’t quite plumb the depths of some of the weaker PQL maps, but on the other hand it never reaches the high points that a couple of the PQL maps did either.

    The opening of this episode picks up right where the original Half-Life left you, in the tram car talking with the G-Man. From there the maps pretty much keep to the Black Mesa and Xen locales, and they flow together pretty nicely even though there is a large number of mappers involved (17 maps by 8 different authors). One thing that is lacking, however, is a general objective or overall mission. I can’t speak much better of PQL, although the CWC pack features no “mini-mission” maps like PQL did, where there was a self-contained story or mission contained within a single map. So in general you just plug through the maps solving the puzzles and fighting the enemies; the end when it comes is a little sudden and a little disappointing, but it seems to promise a CWC Mappack 2, if my Polish is still sharp.

    I found this pack fairly enjoyable to play. It is medium-sized at 17 maps, and in a number of places you will be backtracking and jumping among a set of maps to solve puzzles, so you should get decent playtime out of this level set. As I said above, most of the maps are similarly themed, so it is difficult to tell when you shift to a new author’s map (although some of them have in-game text, albeit in Polish). Though the accompanying text file claims that both beginners and experienced mappers participated in this initiative, the differences among the maps are not immediately obvious to me. There were a couple of maps that had pretty basic architecture and somewhat poor texturing in spots, but no maps stood out like a sore thumb as unquestionably coming from a beginner. At the other end of the spectrum, I don’t think that any maps stood out as spectacular, either in architecture or gameplay. Some of the puzzles you must solve are more intricate than others, so it stands to reason that those maps are from the more experienced mappers.

    Some of the puzzles I mentioned aren’t terribly intuitive in my opinion. That is, it isn’t clear what you’re supposed to do, and in some cases it’s not clear where to go. If you’re stuck, try to destroy or blow up something, or search thoroughly for that button needed to open the next door.

    There are a couple of problems I ran into in this pack. In a few spots, you can get to areas that probably weren’t intended to be accessible. One of the level changes seemed a little flaky; sometimes it just wouldn’t trigger for me. If you run into a blank wall immediately after climbing down a ladder, you’ve missed the level change. It occurs between map2 and map3, and the text file suggests you just load a saved game and try again, which worked for me. The other problem I had was with forcing a scientist through a doorway to allow the next door to open so I could progress. This happened in map3 (not the third map, but in the map named map3.bsp). You just have to keep trying to lead and/or push the scientist through the doorway so you can progress. Unfortunately, every time I got close, he would just stand still in the doorway. So I had to noclip through the wall so I could push him the rest of the way through. In general this pack could have used some thorough beta testing to catch problems like these.

    Other than one or two sections in the pack, the combat was rather easy. The enemies you encounter are the normal small- and medium-sized Xen aliens and of course the human adversaries. But roughly halfway through the pack, you will have access to every single Half-Life weapon with plenty of ammo, not to mention that you’ll probably have the maximum allowable number of MP5 contact grenades well before that point, making combat all too easy in most cases. Thus I definitely recommend loading this one up on the difficult setting.

    In short, this collaborative pack is good but certainly not outstanding. The gameplay is decent, with a typical mixture of puzzles and combat. Nothing is new here, however – you still play through the same old Black Mesa and Xen settings. If you’re not too bored of that by now, you can check this pack out to pass the time while I work on reviews of the recent more publicized Half-Life packs…

    Notes
    This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Sunday, 5th January, 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.

  33. Ok, trouble again installing. I only have HL Source installed on Steam. Here are install instructions:
    Start Half life, choose custom game ,select the CWC mappack and activate it , then back to main menu and select new game
    I first put the folder into myusername/Steamapps/half-life source/
    Restarted Steam, and it is not showing in the games. I tried starting HL and there was no choice “choose custom game.” Then I moved the folder to pathname above/hl1. Still no game showing. How to install on Steam?
    Thanks!
    Carolyn

  34. Totally stuck at map Peter_5 (where the helicopter pad is and the railway car and several doors that are locked due to security systems). What the hell do I have to do here?

  35. Maybe?

    Not a bad mod, but there are way too many buttons and computers to interact with, without any clue regarding what’s actually achieved by this, so you’ll get stuck quite often, randomly pressing buttons or shooting things, hoping to find the exit. Additionally, it really doesn’t help that most of the texts in the game are in Polish, so even if there are some remarks about the story or some explanations about what to do, you simply don’t understand a word. Add to this some tiresome backtracking, a really poor ending and some technical problems (I reached map4 only by repeatedly playing the end of map3, but still don’t know what exactly was going on), and you’re glad when this mod is over.

  36. Think Twice

    Having only just found and played through this, I am honestly shocked to see so many 5 star ratings.

    Since this is a collaboration from quite some time ago, I can understand that there should be some leeway for the overall rating, as the mappers clearly have varied levels of skill. Having said that, not a single one of them seems to be without it’s issues.

    Maps are inconsistent with their rules, which results in players not knowing what to do in order to progress. There are also far too many instances of mundane buttons opening doors or disabling lasers right across at the other side of the map with little to no guidance to the player that they need to backtrack.

    The maps toward the end of the pack appear to be more detailed and feature much more complex entity work, but every single entity is facing in the same direction, as though the mapper had never figured out how to rotate them… This meant that I was constantly entering rooms behind enemies who were all fixated on a featureless wall and all challenge was lost. This chapter also relies far too heavily on simply filling a room with one kind of enemy, which when combined with the directional issues, results in me simply clearing rooms with grenades or satchel charges with absolutely no risk to myself.

  37. Hec
    Think Twice

    Well possibly 20 years ago this bundle of single-player maps was kind of impressive. But well nowadays in 2022, this just feels like a bad glued pastiche of maps from different developers.

    I mean, I am not trying to underestimate the work of the developers here, just to let the people know that if you play this one then you are playing a bundle of amateurish developers that came out with this mod as a map pack.

    Indeed I guess the most terrible thing in this work is not the lack of coherence between the maps itself, but that this modern team never took the bother to polish details that were just faulty from the beginning of multiple maps.

    For example, I think many triggers just fail in more than 4 or 5 maps and as a result it was a total confusion to play, also the only way to fix this was to noclip some areas and that was just so bad as it just broke the gameplay imerssion.

    Some map ideas were interesting and actually cool especially in the final map, and that easter egg with the catacomb were the name of the developers was, it was just a nice touch.

    Overall well, play it with this considerations on mind, for me is a big Think Twice.

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