Neuromancer

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

1st June 2008

Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Neuromancer is a Half-Life 2: Episode Two single player level where the player must travel between cyberspace and reality to of unlock new areas of the physical world.

Author’s Notes

For this level I chose to focus on intuitive aspects of level design with an emphasis on puzzles. A designer faces many challenges while creating a level that is intuitive to the player. Each player has a unique way of solving a puzzle and associating the objects nearby with their surroundings. In Neuromancer, the player must use the data cubes to hack into cyberspace and decrypt barriers which unlock new areas of the physical world. The data cubes are a prime example of objects which the player must associate correctly in order to unlock new areas.

I wanted to work with cyberspace for a while and knew it would be a rewarding task to try and create two different environments and seamlessly tie them together to create a solid piece. From custom texture creation to detailed attention to the placement of assets, each area provided an artistic challenge during creation.

Basic Details
  • Title: Neuromancer
  • File Name: hl2-ep2-sp-neuromancer-v2.7z
  • Size : 18.82MB
  • Date Released: 02 June 2008
  • Author: Bailey Hall
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Download Options

Download to your HDD [18.82MB]

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Installation Instructions
  • Copy neuromancer_v_6_pak3.bsp into your Episode Two maps folder.
  • Launch Episode Two
  • Open the console and type map neuromancer_v_6_pak3.bsp.
  • Press return/enter or click the submit button and play.
Panoramic View

Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two
With your cursor on the image, press and hold your left mouse button and move around the image. Use your mouse wheel to scroll in and out of the panoramic.

Screenshots

Click on the thumbnails below to open a 800 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.

Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two Neuromancer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!

27 recommendations, average score: 4.85 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0.13 (what's that?)
Total Downloads

Please note: These statistics are valid from December 2010

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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: 0 Hours, 13 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 10 Mins by MisterAddy
Longest: 0 Hours, 14 Mins by JellyBeanDude27
Total Time Played: 0 Hours, 38 Mins
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Phillip says Play It!Play It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Play It LaterPlay It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Personal FavouritePersonal FavouritePlay It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!Play It LaterPlay It LaterPlay It Now!Personal FavouritePlay It LaterPlay It Now!Play It Now!Play It Now!

32 Comments

  1. Phillip says Play It!

    The mod starts with some instructions on the screen that move a little to fast for me. One distraction and they have been missed. I very minor niggle because it’s nice to see the designer setting the scene.

    The mod has a novel concept in which the player must enter cyberspace to gain access to various real-world locations. It’s a nice way of creating anew environment to perform what otherwise would be regular Find key, open door actions. The author has created a smooth interface and the switch between the two is pretty good.

    The Combine levels are good with a few nice touches regarding the light elements. They had a good feeling of size and space with areas nicely connected. The amount of combat was about right, although I would have liked a slightly larger defence force near the generator area. In fact that should have been the climax but felt like any other area so far encountered.

    The cyberspace was a little too frustrating for me but I didn’t have to cheat to pass it, so I suppose that wasn’t too bad. I can’t help but have the feeling that the author missed the opportunity to allow the player a non-gravity environment to play in. The type of action/puzzle would have had to have been completely different but I sure there were plenty of options. The same goes for falling off ledges etc within this area. Anyway, perhaps I am just being picky.

    Tye only bug I encountered was that after blowing up the generator the screen went black to end the level but I was able to fire and move and the screen suddenly returned. I was unsure whether this was supposed to happen or not. It seems to be a common feature among some designers.

    In fact it would have provided the perfect opportunity for the player to have to escape within a time limit. I know that’s fairly common but it’s still fun.

    I have no hesitation in recommending you play this level because it’s a solid release worth the time and effort just for the Cyberspace areas.

  2. Evil Jesus
    Play It Now!

    I love this map! The cyber place reminds me of Tron 2.0 and I love that kind of enviroment. I also love the Combine atmophere that the developer made, I’m a big fan of any Citadel looking place and this one looks amazing! He should really make more Citadel looking maps!

  3. Play It Now!

    Yeah, pretty much “Play it now!” on this. Very interesting concept. Too bad it’s only so short.

    By the way, is it supposed to black out like that in the end and then right back into the game again? Couldn’t find anywhere to go after shutting down the generator. Also found a bug at the bridge right at the generator – it’s possible to jump down on the lower areas and walk down there. The space between the floor and generator shouldn’t be so wide as the player can fit through it and jump right down.

  4. This seems like Dystopia whit a huge amount of Single player, looks good, gonna give this a play through right now.

  5. Speckman
    Play It Now!

    Really enjoyed it. Its a nice change of pace from the line of normal concepts. The cyberspace parts were interesting though I died a lot towards the end from jumping to a ledge that was just an inch to high to get on. The end fades to black then back again. Theres a command to take the game back to the title screen. Maybe the author didn’t know about it. I also jumped down through the generator. At least you cant go all the way to the bottom.

    Overall worth a download.

  6. Hoyy
    Play It Later

    Very good map. It is a trip through the “electro-world” 😛
    In this you must aid a Artificial Intelligence program to turn off the Combine Citadel off. For this, you hack into these so “electro-worlds” (that actually ressembles much of Portal mapping with colorful additions) with the guidance of the AI and the use of some blue and red cubes, to keep teleporting from one room to another and hacking the security of the Citadel. All in all, your experience may last from 15 minutes to 1 hour, depending of how much you are into these kind of game (experimental type I would say).
    I enjoyed it, but took a while to see the game ended with a dark screen of sucesfulness, probably.

  7. Pace

    Yeah this mod has a nice innovative concept and visual design. As everyone has said, it’s short, but it does leave me wanting more. It seems like there’s a lot of room for expansion on the ideas presented here, hopefully the author is continuing to work along these lines. A sequel perhaps?

  8. Senator33
    Play It Now!

    Would have much preferred zero gravity in the “Tron-like” scenes…..mainly because I HATE jumping games! Loved the rest of it, but also wondered if the black screen at the conclusion wasn’t a Tony Soprano ending. Good Work!

  9. Bailey Hall
    Play It Now!

    Hey guys,

    Thanks so much for your comments! Just to let you know, I just fixed the whole end of the level fade out problem. I’ve let Phillip know and he will probably update the download soon.

    Anti grav was always a thought early on, but this was a school project so there was a severe lack of time for me to pull off everything I wanted to do. And yes… there was soooooo much more I wanted to do. Like when Phillip mentioned the escape within time limit thing in the review, that was something I wanted to add as well. Perhaps if I manage to scrounge up some spare time I’ll polish it more. Or yes…. a sequel perhaps.

    Anyways, thanks again and If you guys have any other suggestions or thoughts feel free to send them my way or post em here.

    Also, Evil Jesus I am a she, not a he . 🙂

  10. fragmaster
    Play It Now!

    A very good mix of Action & Puzzles solving with Neon styled graphics even the Combine Cidatel & Pure Eye Candy all throughout.
    No Problems & plenty of autosaves.
    Higly Recommended
    Hope The Author continues on with maybe level 2 🙂

  11. ~Jazz~
    Play It Now!

    Let me put it this way, If there was a “Play it now or I’ll do something horrible” Button, I’d be slamming it with my mouse right now. The overall environment is a freaking amazing. The entire Into the Cybernetic world of computers really reminds me of dystopia, but without nade spamming, Heavy campers, Cloak and ninja doushbags, lock on n00bs that it’s known for! (Sorry, but I’m starting to hate the mod, I hope they release an update soon *sigh*) anyway, a huge recommendation from me Jazz. and If you don’t have Episode 2 yet here’s a good reason to get it.

  12. Joe
    Play It Now!

    I really, really, really enjoyed this one. A real out-of-the-box idea. I have one complaint, though….. it was TOO short. I could have played this for hours more. Congratulations on an excellent job.

  13. David
    Play It Now!

    Fantastic mod, I’ve been awfully busy lately and haven’t had much time to play too many games, but I figured Id choose one mod and give it a shot and man did I choose right. Lots of fun, play it now!

  14. Hey, what to do in first chamber?

  15. Andi
    Personal Favourite

    The ending was slightly unexpected, but the defence force was just right; I would have liked to know that the end was coming up. Took me a couple of lifes to get the hang of cyberspace, but from the very moment that first door opened, I was in love.

    I would entreat the author to continue this, as I think that if it were longer, this would be a real hit.

  16. SolidFake
    Personal Favourite

    played it now, very cool map!
    it’s a must play, the cyberspace is pretty good looking, I wish there would be a whole mod of this!

  17. Jasper
    Play It Now!

    I had to give it a play it now because it is a very good map. I do not mind puzzles but hate jumping.
    If you like jump puzzles you will love this one.
    If not, like me, play it later but do play it at some time

  18. dougjp
    Play It Now!

    Kudos to the author especially for the thought process that went into making this one great. Except for dying too many times, which was starting to get tiresome, it eventually all happened the right way.

  19. Play It Now!

    Pairing up the Citadel and cyberspace was total enjoyment. I would have liked to see a different ending. A final jump through a hacked up cyberspace would have been a cool ending. Too short for a PF but this was near perfect.

  20. Play It Now!

    I agree that this was too short. However, I don’t know how much more complexity in cyberspace I could have handled without having to cheat. (Did just fine so far, though I did fall in the last part.)

    As it is, I had to stop in the yellow cyber-level because I was tired. I didn’t know it was the last one, and when I came back the game was over in about 5 minutes! I was sad.

  21. Play It Now!

    Great map! It was great fun to play it.

    Many many interesting ideas.

    Only thing I can whine about is that I can’t find shotgun from this level :/

  22. Play It Now!

    small map with a different puzzle twist, well done for a quick little play

  23. Play It Later

    To sum things up:
    Very nice mod, the electronic dimension looks stunning.
    The puzzles are simply too easy, and the map is very VERY short.
    Also, the puzzles repeats themselves, and when I say puzzles, I mean “knock-the-energy-ball-with-your-gravity-gun”.
    Oh well. At least its very well made.
    Could be a great idea for a whole new mod based on two dimensions.

  24. Play It Later

    Very short, not much combat, GREAT PUZZLES!

  25. Hec
    Play It Now!

    Is starnge how when I played HL2 mods arround 2007 and 08, I played many ones but I didn’t reviewed, I couldn’t provide more especific play data as the playtime, and so, but this release was really really good, this amussed me so much as I didn’t know you can do so really cool futristic great textures in source, and this mod definitely is creative and really original too.

    I really liked this one, and in 2012, this is a must play if you haven’t tried it!

  26. Personal Favourite

    This map is really good. It has two environments, a Citadel place which is linear and has a few Combine fights, and Cyberspace which is the highlight of the map. Cyberspace is where you have to take cubes to the end of the level. It’s not much of a puzzle but it’s easier said than done and is very fun to do. There’s obstacles and TONS of moving platforms and energy ball generator things. These parts are great. The map is obviously centered around the Grav Gun which you use to carry the cubes. You could just use your hands but it’s not as fun. The goal is to destroy a generator, which you have to go through the two Cyberspaces and a few Combine to do. This is a very creative and fun map to play, I recommend it.

  27. Pingback: Neuromancer | Jelly's Half-Life Mod Reviews

  28. Play It Later

    A very short proof of concept level, but definitely one that is enjoyable. The idea is to blend HL2 combat with abstract “cyber” puzzle environments that open up the route in the real world. The puzzles are pretty basic but they do the job and in a bigger mod could build up to something greater. I thought the combat in the other environment (the Citadel) was the weakest part of the mod; a lack of path nodes means the Combine mostly stand in one spot.

    Fun to try a new idea blended in with existing mechanics – and it looks good too.

  29. Play It Now!

    The combat is not very good, just combine walking around corners for you to shoot at. However, I am glad that they are there, because it makes this seem more like something that could actually happen in the HL2 world. The areas outside of cyberspace are very well built though, the visuals are fantastic and the architecture is very nice, it seems like something that would be deep in the citadel. I also like the section with the laser tripwires.

    Cyberspace is also fun to play through, with the goal being to carry the data cubes through the area without losing them (or yourself). A lot of it is jumping puzzles, but I’m one of those weird people who likes a bit of jumping in their HL2. There’s never anything that feels unfair and I actually didn’t die at any point in cyberspace (although I did fall to an earlier platform twice). I also like the new music (I think it’s new, right?).

    Overall, I think it’s a fun map with a unique concept. With a bit more work to the level design outside of cyberspace, this could be a personal favourite from me, and I definitely recommend you give it a try.

  30. It’s fun to open the panoramic image and spin it, then just stare at it for a while…

  31. Play It Now!

    Wow! For a single map, this is pretty impessive!

    The whole “cyberspace” thing is implemented amazingly for a single map. It’s very colorful and I really like that choice. The combat is pretty basic, but I understand that the combat wasn’t exactly the main focus of the map.

    One complaint that a lot of people might have is that there is a lot of platforming in this map. I had no problem with these sections though, since I beat a lot of terrible platforming maps (A Dog Was Hit In The Head With An Axe)

    Overall, I recommend this map to everyone. You may have some problems at the platforming sections, but apart from that, I’m sure you’ll love the cyberspace character and the colorful scenery.

  32. Play It Now!

    Hybrid combine/cyberspace map with both kombat and puzzels. I’d totally play an entire mod with this theme.

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