Hostage

for Half-Life 2

26th May 2015

The Combine has taken a hostage and you have been sent to rescue him.

Work your way through a variety of rooms. stairwell and areas until you reach him.

Then lead him to safety.

Basic Details
  • Title: Hostage
  • File Name: hl2-sp-hostage.7z
  • Size : 761KB
  • Author: Demalition
  • Date Released: 12 April 2004

Download Options

Download to your HDD [761kB]

Installation Instructions
  • Copy hostage.bsp into your Half-Life 2 Maps folder.
  • Launch Half-Life 2
  • Open the console and type map hostage.
  • Press enter/return or click the Submit button.
  • Play and Enjoy.
Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!

15 recommendations, average score: 3 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0.93 (what's that?)
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 12 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 9 Users

Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 13 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 9 Mins by PlanetPhillip
Longest: 0 Hours, 21 Mins by brianthesnail
Total Time Played: 2 Hours, 32 Mins
If you believe this release is missing important tags, please suggest them in a comment?
Jump to a review
Maybe?Maybe?Phillip says Avoid It!Avoid It!Play It LaterMaybe?Play It LaterPlay It LaterPlay It LaterMaybe?Maybe?Maybe?Maybe?Think TwicePlay It Later

20 Comments

  1. Not a bad little map. I got stuck once and had to really think about it, but it was not too hard really.

    Considering it’s very old, this might have been fun to play when it was first released, now it’s just ok.

    5 Words Or Less Review
    I just realized I love stairs.

    If this map were a chair..
    I would only sit in it once.

  2. Sortie

    “I just realized I love stairs.”

    Being a little curious, may I ask why?

    1. Whilst this map didn’t expoilt them, stairs offer the player/designer some many possibilities for gameplay. You can have enemies come from infront and behind the player, above and below. Manhack and headcrabs can come through air ducts, windows etc.

      The design of stairs can be quite simply yet, still fun to play. Something that hasn’t really been exploited very much are unusual style designs. Anyway, that’s some of the reasons I love stairs.

  3. Jasper
    Maybe?

    Glad I played it and cannot complain about shortage of ammo and life! Rather drab and the game play, being generous, was mediocre. Bad, nothing; good, nothing.
    Worth a play when there is nothing else to do.

  4. Pingback: C:13913 » Podcast 17

  5. Maybe?

    Not challenging or anything. Like Jasper said, worth playing when there’s nothing better to do.

  6. Phillip says Avoid It!

    Well, this is a surprise. I had already decided to give this an AVOID IT! before I looked at my previous recommendation.

    It’s just too bland and not much fun to play, the screenshots show how bland it is.

    If you play this I will be surprised if you enjoy it.

  7. Avoid It!

    A bunch of ugly, blocky rooms with metrocops and soldiers in them is the best way to describe most of this map. I had to noclip at one point when you have to break a vent (which is not textured like a vent you could break in the actual game) but I couldn’t get up. I also couldn’t pick up the blue barrels that were there and I had broken all the boxes, so I didn’t have any way up. That’s another thing: the boxes. There are huge stacks of supply boxes filled with nothing but health packs.

    You get the “hostage” to follow you at the end and kill a few fast zombies, then get to what is apparently an entrance to Ravenholm and the map ends. This was released the same year Half-Life 2 itself was, and it shows. This is map is definitely not worth playing.

  8. Play It Later

    Not bad at all …. some basic mapping but done nicely …. infact this would be a good training tool for the british army in cqb(close quarter battle ) … nothing a soldier hates more than a staircase,and generally this type of warfare is left to the special air service
    nice map …

  9. Maybe?

    I remember playing this map a long time ago. The combat is pretty plain and uninteresting, but the exploration factor is reasonably good. Plus you get to lead Leon around which adds a bit of fun

  10. Play It Later

    I would also say: ‘no bad at all’
    Architecture even if blank is correct, music is well used, it’s not enough challenging but there is no frustration except perhaps that it’s too short and that the access to the hidden vent is not obvious

    For me it’s worth the 15min of gaming 🙂

  11. Hec
    Play It Later

    This is an OK Play it Later, and is just fine for a 15 minutes break.

    The whole map feels very boxy and combat is quite linear and predictive until you found the hostage and escape.

    But all in all offers an OK enjoying time.

  12. Play It Later

    Some cool basic mapping well done, eccept that’s a bit blank and there are a lot of problems.
    I liked the music a lot and killing combines was pretty funny.
    7,5/10 would kill a poor glitched shotgun police officer.

  13. Maybe?

    Was a very mediocre mod, not exactly sure of the modding standard in 2004, but this is playable, at times annoying.

    My hostage kept on getting stuck or just out right refused to follow me many times.

    Mapping look passable, too many boxes though, just too many boxes.

    I felt the stairs was a decent idea for combat.

  14. Maybe?

    What an adventure! That was sure fun killing lots of zombies and Combine soldiers, opening so many boxes, getting through these long narrow halls and trying to carry my hostage to the end, while he’s refusing to go through another narrow hall and bunch of barrels.

    I didn’t like overlapping music though.

    Overall, not bad map.

  15. Maybe?

    Cool card. A small mod can be said. For a ride.

  16. Maybe?

    According to author`s readme (see below), that was his first HL2 level, which he created just for “training”. Normally, experienced mappers don’t release what they created just as experiment or for learning purposes, because the results are not something finished and polished if even playable.
    This level looks more like techdemo than an actual map, but it’s actually fun to play.
    The main disadvantage is the visuals. There is some level of detail, like tubes, supports, lamps, decals, even custom brush-based door-handles, but that’s just too scarce to fill the emptiness. It might look OK for HL1, but not for HL2. There are some graphical glitches with water, and you may notice Civil Protection officer with faulty animation — that’s because the author gave him a shotgun, which metrocops weren’t supposed to use in the game.
    Nevertheless, the gameplay is pretty good. It’s not something special and exceptional, but, in the other hand, it’s not just plain “go from point A to point B and that’s all” as you might expect. The level design is simple, but somewhat clever too, and it requires some thinking and exploration to proceed. The main bad thing is that it ends too soon.
    The main idea, to find some hostage and then lead him somewhere, sounds interesting. However, the hostage have problems with path-finding and following you, but because the level is so small, you’re not likely to be irritated by this.
    Other thing worth noting is the sound. Probably, with Source, because of its advanced soundscape system, even newbies usually put something, while for GoldSource creating good ambient requires more manual work (lots of GoldSource maps are completely silent). Anyway, this map has diverse ambience and lots (as for such short level) of music, which adds more action feel. Although, it has a downside too: if you hit the next music trigger faster, than the previous track stops playing, music tracks will overlap. However, it never happened to me, I was not aware of this bug until I read comments here.
    It has some sort of ending (a text message and black fade, though it disappears after a couple of minutes).

    Overall, I think, this map is worth playing, if you don’t mind 90s-tech appearance and if you like when there is something beyound plain shooting. But don’t forget, that this level is really short, which is unfortunate.

    P. S. This page erroneously states “date released” to be “12 April 2004”, but the game came out only in November, this map could not be created before that. Modification date of the *.bsp file is “12 Apr 2005”.

    Pros:
    – the gameplay
    – requires some thinking
    – has some scripts
    – has ambients and music
    – is not difficult

    Cons:
    – too short
    – very basic level design which resembles old HL1 mods
    – unrealistic
    – some minor glitches

    =========== Author`s readme translation ===========
    Here it is, my first level for HL2. It does not have something special, but don’t get upset. This is my training before making good maps. Meanwhile, you may enjoy (if it could be said so) my “creation”.

    The events take place in old old house, where Dr. Breen`s ragamuffins have set some sort of headquarters. Besides, they’ve took a hostage, whom you should search for and find. I wish you not to kick the bucket (of boredom).

  17. Play It Later

    There really is nothing more to say about this map that wasn’t said already, though I’ll admit it was cool to play in, not as bad as many of “My First Level” mods out there.

    It’s clear that the creator had experience with Half-Life 1 map making, as it is very similar to maps made for that game. That doesn’t mean, though, that the map is bad, it’s very simple yet effective, with my only complaint being that it’s too simple in some parts, specially in decoration and set dressing.

    Overall, it’s a nice mod to pass the time playing in, just Running, Shooting and some little Thinking to do.

    1. Just a little addendum to anyone interested in playing this mod:

      As some said before, spare some crates and boxes to climb into the breakable (non-generic) vent opposite to the unpickable blue barrels; the nearby cardboard boxes should suffice.

      Another thing to mention is that almost all doors are pushable, so interacting with them won’t do anything.

      Lastly, almost all of the loot crates placed in the map are for Med-Kits, withe the exception being some crates, inside the crowbar room at beginning, containing batteries.

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