Dead End Road

for Half-Life 2

29th October 2014

Whilst the great Gordon Freeman is causing havoc in Nova Prospekt, the Resistance is building.

In an effort to limit the amount of new resistance groups from forming, the Combine have been destroying bridges and tunnels.

Just after entering one such tunnel, you hear an explosion and then the real journey begins.

Can you reach the other rebels? Let’s find out.

Basic Details
  • Title: Dead End Road
  • File Name: hl2-sp-dead-end-road.7z
  • Size : 3.71MB
  • Author: Foofinoo
  • Date Released: 22 October 2014
IMPORTANT MESSAGE, ABOUT INSTALLING VIA MAPTAP

Initially, I installed this map via MapTap and at the Combine Gunship battle, I died and upon reloading I got the A.I. Disabled message. I’m pretty sure there is a console command to turn it back on but I couldn’t remember it. I reloaded from a previous save and the AI was still disabled. When I played this after installing the map directly to Half-Life 2 , it did not happen. There must be something that MapTap is doing that causes this. Currently, I have no idea what and if you know, please let me know. Also, if you install via MapTap and DO NOT have this error when you die, pleae let me know as well. Thank you.

MapTap Users

Download directly into MapTap [3.18MB]

You MUST have MapTap installed before using this link.

Download Options

Download to your HDD [3.71MB]

You can still use it with MapTap once you have downloaded it.

Manual Installation Instructions
  • Copy the Dead_End_Road.bsp into the Half-Life 2/hl2/maps/ folder.
  • Launch Half-Life 2
  • Open the console and type map Dead_End_Road and press ENTER

If you require more help, please visit the Technical Help page.

Videos

The playthrough/walkthrough below is provided by PlanetPhillip. See more of my playthroughs on this site: VP: PlanetPhillip.

Screenshots

Click on the tabs below to select the size of screenshot you would like.
All sizes are the same screenshots, just in different resolutions.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.

1024 x 576

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Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!

17 recommendations, average score: 4.47 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0.48 (what's that?)
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 15 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 11 Users

Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 29 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 5 Mins by Daken50
Longest: 1 Hours by Avantgarde95
Total Time Played: 7 Hours, 9 Mins
If you believe this release is missing important tags, please suggest them in a comment?
Jump to a review
Phillip says Play It!Play It LaterPlay It Now!Play It LaterPlay It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Play It LaterMaybe?Play It LaterPlay It LaterPlay It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Maybe?

24 Comments

  1. Phillip says Play It!

    Please see me note about installing this via MapTap.

    I enjoyed this map. The author sets out a simple starting scenario and whilst it doesn’t actually make any difference to the following map, the fact that he tried to put his work into a context is a good thing.

    Occasional, it feels that the areas are ideas that he has joined together rather than the feeling that it is a flowing whole, but that’s not a big problem.

    The map required more beat testing as I was able to play a significant part of it without the buggy and I don’t think I was supposed to to.

    I got stuck once when the Combine Gunship got stuck and was out of sight. I waited a while and assumed I was supposed to jump down via the pipes. I wasn’t. It would have been better to leave that area plainer and not make me think there was something there.

    One aspect that was interesting was the author put supplies and weapons out of reach. This is another good thing as it makes the map feel real and that every thing in it is for my exclusive use.

    There is a real sense of improvement with each and every map made by this author and I really hope he continues to make maps.

    All in all, it was a fun 20 minutes or so and I recommend you play this.

  2. UnsettlingLife

    I installed via MapTap and allowed myself to die right at the beginning and got the AI disabled message.

    1. Thanks for checking. Must be something MapTap is doing. I’ll have to check on this.

  3. Play It Later

    This map has some real talent behind it. Most areas are beautifully designed, with good sound ambience along with nice eye candy. Textures, lighting…all pretty much top notch. As Phillip mentions weapons and health are usually out of reach, and you have to figure a way to get to them which is another plus. Battles are fairly good and there are some quiet areas too.

    The author of this map does a real good job of making it look polished and pro.

    The routing here begins to show the maps weakness. The author makes us think of how to get around the next corner or on the other side of the next wall, by giving us puzzles or obstacles that we must figure ways around. And here is where it get’s problematic…the author makes us think TOO MUCH.
    It slows down gameplay to a crawl as we encounter one obstacle after another. It feels like progress is slow. Some areas felt tight and mazey as I yearned to get to an open area where I can run and play.

    Which brings us to problem two. I’ll illustrate with a poem:

    A buggy makes me smile as my checks blush with red
    visions of Highway 17 begin dancing in my head!
    Then the grim truth is realized as I get in it and roam
    it’s better to go on foot, and leave the buggy alone.

    (Poem by Blue Lightning, 2014, all rights reserved)

    The map has the same affliction that most maps have that use the buggy: uselessness. There really isn’t any point to having the buggy if you get to drive 50 yards max, and even that short distance is hampered by constant stops to clear obstacles. It’s better just to leave the buggy where it is and go on foot. For someone like me who yearns for a good driving map, it is a bit disappointing…but expected.

    So the map has some really good stuff and is clean and polished…but it has some routing issues. I settled on PIL. At least it is in the “green” 🙂

  4. Play It Now!

    Just like how a short HL2 map should be. It’s fun, it’s beautiful and it’s presented very well.

    The combat was pretty good for a map like this, even though the enemies in the “attached machine gun” section were too far for a section like this and they were also too many.

    The environment… well, what can I say. It’s AMAZING. It’s probably the best thing about this map and the author did an incredible job with it.

    Now, I know people have problems with the buggy, but I don’t really mind, except for the fact that there are Hopper Mines on a driving section… big mistake. Not only that, but the area is also too small to drive away from the mines.

    Overall, apart from the Buggy section, I’ve had a total blast playing this one. This is a must for me. I haven’t seen other maps by this author, but I really hope he continues like this. Great job, Foofinoo!

  5. JG
    Play It Later

    I wasn’t a huge fan of this one. Whereas the author’s previous maps have shown a marked level of improvement from map to map, this one feels like it’s establishing some bad habits.

    I think my biggest criticism of this map is that the whole thing feels very claustrophobic and dark.

    Everything is too narrow. On foot, you are always tripping over physics props on the ground and the tiny hallways prevent any interesting combat from occurring. Enemies can only single-file their way into areas. Coming off Data Place, we also have another stand-your-ground scenario where the enemies all emerge from one point, which makes them sitting ducks for the mounted gun. The buggy is clumsy to drive, as it is shoehorned into a sequence of tight 90 degree turns and narrow roads littered with debris you have to carefully push out of the way. Why even have the buggy? Fortunately, you can ditch the thing, since bringing it with you is more trouble than it’s worth.

    Darkness isn’t usually a big problem, but since this map follows HL2’s flashlight rules instead of Ep2’s, I constantly ran into places where my flashlight would go dead and I’d have to stand there in the dark waiting for it to recharge.

    The map looks good overall, but the author’s penchant for putting his name all over the place, in several different textures, breaks immersion for me. If you have some random graffiti that said “Foofinoo,” that’s okay. But to have “Made by Foofinoo” stenciled everywhere – that’s kind of cheesy.

    Other points of interest. Something that applied to Data Place as well, is that the author needs to watch where info_ladder_dismounts are placed. The player expects to press “E” and end up on the ledge, not fall down the ladder. Ammo was tight just before the mounted gun segment on Easy, so I’d be concerned about how this plays on Hard. The Gunship’s pathing is sketchy – it likes to hide out of sight, forcing the player to stand around waiting for its return. As a matter of personal preference, I also think the author relies too heavily on music. To his credit, there are several hand-placed sound effects that make the place come alive, but too often, the music takes over and drowns everything out.

    Basically, the author really needs to work on designing better combat scenarios. I think the author has a good grasp of the “what,” but not the “how.” He knows that he wants a mounted gun here, or that he wants to have a Gunship battle there, and so he implements the basic components, but he doesn’t go beyond that. Now it’s time to spread things out and be a bit more deliberate about arranging scenarios that present interesting challenges and tactics for the player.

  6. Gambini

    Haven´t played yet but as for the AI_disabled problem: Does Maptap copy the navigation file along with the map? within the maps folder, there´s a subfolder named graphs, where nav files are stored. When you launch a map and the nav file is missing or invalid you get a “Nodegraph out of date, rebuilding” message, but when you load saved game and such nav file is broken or missing the AI doesn´t find it and thus it is disabled.

    It´s either that problem or the one I have now in a map of my mod, of which I haven´t discovered the origin yet (but i promise I´ll come back here if i do so). If the first option is not the problem, launch the game with the console and try to load the savegame, if you get a message that reads something like “hint node uses incorrect ID” then it´s likely a map design problem.

    1. JG

      As far as I can tell, the archive for the level didn’t include an AIN and the Readme makes no mention of one, so the game will have to generate it at run-time instead. I think it’s ultimately the author’s fault for not including the AIN – its absence is probably confusing MapTap and not helping the problem.

  7. Play It Now!

    There are a lot of good points to this map, that make me say “Play it Now” rather than Later.

    The atmosphere to start, the use of props and effects, are all very nicely done. However, that’s also part of the down side which I’ll get to in a moment.

    The map itself was quite well done, but a bit confusing overall. The first portion… was where I had to take the longest time trying to figure out what to do, since there was no indication that any of the cargo crates opened anywhere. I did noclip through the first portion to see what direction I was meant to be going – because the lighting indicators were exactly opposite of where you should be looking.

    Emerging out into the next area of the tunnel, where the bulk of the map waited, was nice – but also all too dark most of the time. It made sense in context, however, but it was very, very annoying and painful before getting to the better lit side, because of course you don’t have a flashlight. A small light or spark inside the container you’re supposed to go through would have made that first 10 minutes of my play through a lot easier on me.

    The sudden presence of a bunch of barnacles where there hadn’t been any visibly was a bit weird. Also, portions of the map reset themselves (the traffic cone near the opening to the small room you go through to get the HEV suit for instance) if you quit and reload the map.

    On one hand, I really liked how there was so much to look at around corners and in rooms. On the other, I didn’t at all like that you simply never got to some of them – unless I was absolutely missing things because it was so dark.

    The pickup guns were done well, and at good times I thought. I didn’t use the gun installment, preferred to hide in the nook above it and pick off the guys as they attempted to power ball themselves out of the gene pool.

    I … never got the car, I saw it but it was of no use at all, since as far as I could tell you’d just be driving over a bunch of mines as fast zombies came running at you? Not even sure. No idea how you’d get the car to the point where the screenshot in Phillip’s list is at, either. Dunno, maybe I missed portions of the map.

    The twists and turns were both clever and frustrating. It seemed that the whole of the map was designed to NOT utilize the typical “lit areas = something you should look at” feature that almost all Valve products and most known modders use. Counter intuitive, yes, but at least reasonably consistent in that regard the whole time. I was never quite sure what else would work, so I did find myself going back and forth a bit to see whether there was something to click on, an open door here or a now-blocked area there.

    There really needed to be much more in the way of soundscapes, it felt very bare of them, and also quite bare of music though the few pieces used were well placed, as was the dialog.

    All in all, a well-spent play time, on a good map. I hope that the mapper decides to do more – there’s a lot of talent, though a little less focused than really “Great” mappers have. Working on a longer map, or becoming part of a mapping team, might be in the future. Good work.

  8. Play It Now!

    This is a pretty good little map. It packs quite a bit of exploration into a relatively small map size, and the combat and obstacles were entertaining but not atrociously difficult. The only things I didn’t like were some invisible walls and the part near the end where you die if you try to drop down do the catwalk below you. It looks like it’s close enough to make it, but you automatically die if you try. Overall it’s quite enjoyable to play.

  9. Play It Now!

    I absolutely agree with many others, this is a must play. I loved the environment and the puzzles which were worked into the design perfectly I thought. I did think it was a bit easy, based on the amount of health I retained most of the way.

    1. Zekiran

      I think that’s a good point in its favor, actually:

      The fighting wasn’t *actually* as hard as it SEEMED like it was going to be! The anticipation was excellent.

  10. Play It Later

    In the README.txt the author mentions they’re still relatively new to mapping (which is strange, since they said this is their 8th map), and it sorta shows. No offense, we’re all there at one point (and I’m one to talk with my three maps). My three main gripes is the car, the dimensions, and the ranged combat layout.

    The car seems hammered in almost. It feels way to short, and the “obstacles” put in the jeeps’s way seem too close together. For example, I clear out all the cars in jeep’s way, I make a really fiddly jump, and then 5 seconds later there’s a bunch of hopper mines in the way. The area the jeep drives in is also very tight, and–uh…linear. I understand Half Life is a linear game, and we normally drive in straight lines while in a car, but the Half Life maps usually gave you some maneuverability. Even in “Water Hazard” you had dividers to drive around.

    Speaking of the car’s maneuverability, the dimensions of this map were very tight. You could walk forward alright, but strafing was a bit confined. I’m still dealing with this myself; I don’t know where the tendency to make the smallest room possible, with the least amount of wasted space, comes from. Going back to the jeep, when clearing the ramp of cars there was nowhere to put the cars. It just made maneuvering the jeep even harder. The physics props also caused maneuvering issues. Due to the tight quarters, some of the zombies had difficulty moving around crates and cars. Some of the smaller props also flung me around. I’d recommend for some of the smaller props (like pieces of wood, those china boxes, and bottles) to have the “debris” flag ticked. This makes player maneuverability much easier.

    The problems with the ranged combat layout also resulted from the dimension issue. Most of the metrocops and combine soldiers had nowhere to take cover, especially since most of the combat occurred down a corridor. There wasn’t any side hallways or high cover for the soldiers/cops to stand behind. Which reminds me, the machine gun acted very weird when manned by an npc. Check out a couple valve maps to see how they set it up. Marnamai gave me nice prefab for the machine gun, if you want it.

    I’m being very picky, and also focusing on the negative, but I did like the begging. Everything before the jeep was well done and the environments looked good. The zombie that hit the barrel was a nice touch, and I liked the use of the normal headcrabs. It seems Valve and mappers have gravitated away form using normal headcrabs.

    By the way, I felt like you used your custom decal to often. I feel like it should be used only once and in a well hidden area.

    Demos:
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/flt9axorb3chtzc/ihon_dead_end2.dem?dl=0
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/353l7zg98e26iog/ihon_dead_end1.dem?dl=0

    1. I found the tight quarters were a puzzle itself, and I think it was intentional. In other words, the gravity gun has to be used frequently and often to move obstructions like vehicles, then there’s adequate room to drive the jeep. Also the gravity gun is a primary weapon for killing zombies by repeatedly moving those obstructions.

  11. Maybe?

    There may be spoilers

    I can confirm that the AI Disabled bug also seems to happen with manual install.
    I died a few times because I forgot to set the difficulty back to normal. (I test my own maps on hard) so I’ve had a longer look at this map than I otherwise would.
    The start section looks pretty good and it sets the scene nicely but here (and actually throughout the map) there are scripted sequences that take quite a while to play out and really kind of kill the pacing and end up being confusing on a first play through.
    The map breaks a few HL2 rules for better and worse barnacles take way less damage than they do normally (better) but forcefields don’t allow you to grab weapons through them with the gravity gun. Incidentally putting awesome weapons in the players view and not letting them get to them at any point is just kind of mean.
    There is a whole car park section that you’re supposed to get a Jeep through but there is an obstacle every few seconds so you have to get out of the jeep to move it and this gets very tedious. You can actually skip this entire segment as the player is able to sprint jump off the Jeep ramp into the next area, there isn’t really any reason to bring the Jeep with you. There is a stand off with combine which I’m pretty sure is impossible on hard difficulty (to have any kind of fire power you need to use a mounted gun which has a wide bullet spread so isn’t very accurate you also can’t effectively aim it unless you are exposed and there is a respawning enemy in the distance with an AR2 which can shoot you as soon as they pop around the corner.)

    There is then a section where the floor collapses under you and the first time I encountered it, it killed me. So back to the start for me grrr…
    After this there is a rather bland gunship battle based entirely around popping in and out of one doorway and then you win.

    It’s a fairly decent map it is competently executed it looks good throughout the gameplay is fine, it passes the time, but it does get a bit tedious and never gets truly exciting, crescendo events (stealing L4D terminology) are there but they fall flat because the combat arenas in these events are not interesting. The zombie section had an interesting arena, there were various physics objects to throw at the zombies, you could try and bait them into the barnacles or you could just try and run through. The combine attack on the gun placement in contrast just devolves to shooting combine as they leave their spawn closet. The gunship battle you just camp by the rocket crate taking pot shots around the corner.

  12. Ade
    Play It Later

    http://www.twitch.tv/adelina1985a/c/5417881
    I think this is the author’s best map so far, it was quite enjoyable and full of gameplay, not a moment of boredom. Seemed bug free and I couldn’t break it on a first play, not that I tried, I just was able to sprint jump my way forward and go on without the jeep, so that’s cool. Visual wise it was ok, the tunnel could’ve been a little more detailed, but that’s how driving sections are, I guess. And there’s a small flickering in the pillar area, perhaps the water is playing tricks.
    There’s nothing extraordinary in it to give it a PIN but I liked that it actually had a story and an environment to go with it, it wasn’t just somethin to chuck out once bored of working on it, so give it a play.

  13. Hec

    I HAD A.I. DISABLE PROBLEM INSTALLED MANUALLY…
    And installing via Map Tap, it takes dreadfully long…

  14. Hec
    Play It Later

    This was a nice underground map, with a clear objective and atmosphere, but I have to say that A.I. Disable glitch really was annoying as it apparently didn’t have solution, so that means you have to be very careful if you want to end this map as you don’t have to die stupidly.

    The combat was also pretty cool and the part with the mounted gun was outstanding and also my favorite and also well planed as the hordes of CMB soldiers have a limit, the last combat against the gunship was also well done but felt quite easy to beat as you are all the time not very exposed and well protected.

    So I guess this is a perfect play it latter because is a short nice map, but with some beta testing details that were not solved as that a.i disable glitch. Overall it was fun to play but I guess the whole feeling was that I just wanted more after I finished it.

  15. Play It Now!

    A lovely little move-alonger. Good gameplay and pacing, some nice minor head-scratchers, a couple of surprises, and a neat ending. I haven’t played HL2 for over a year, so this was a welcome return. Fun – play it!

  16. Play It Now!

    I’m really proud of the maker of this map. He did a little charapter for Half Life 3 don’t take it too seriusly ok? where you can have everything: good enemy positions, secrets, a car (pretty hidden: someone did not find it, and it seems to don’t trigger the combines to appear if you don’t take it)!
    9/10 would re-play the map without the armour: you can do some tricky parkour to get over the barrier in the start of the map! Have fun without armour in hard mode!

  17. Play It Now!

    I remember playing this a couple of years ago but I didn’t like it. Well, I liked the look of it and the setting appears superb also but I didn’t like the way it flowed which made the parts feel segregated somehow. I think I got bored and never completed the map so looking back was inpatient and daft!!

    Well.. today, I still kinda feel that way – about the flow through the sections. For example, at the start, this place suffers a blackout. I don’t get this and couldn’t suss out how to get the weapons and also spent some time wondering what to do. Eventually, I went back out and made my way through (face/palm moment).

    The rest of the map is superb. It’s a great adventure through some incredibly interesting scenes. I liked the use of the gravgun to car-squash whenever possible and using the combine’s mounted gun was superb – but perhaps they could have been a little closer?

    I actually liked the gunship part with the manhacks. It was balanced, well thought out and worked really well. Yep, this was a great start to my day but I’ve knocked it down from a PF simply because I got stuck once and needed a noclip and also for the iffy starting areas. But mainly because I thought it was overly dark too much of the time…

    I enjoyed this. Superbly balanced action through awesome levels
    (that needed a pinch more light! -but that’s my personal pref)

  18. Play It Now!

    Impressive map! Nice visual and combats, good use of the car.

  19. Play It Now!

    Nice intro, lots of good idea… perhaps the only disapointment came from the too narrow areas that we need to pass through…the end elevator ride was perfect for me 🙂

    it’s certainly a one that deserved a try

  20. Maybe?

    A good map. Not great. Once I died the AI disabled was ever present so I didn’t finish it. Worth a play through though.

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