You are working in a nuclear power plant when things go a little “wrong”.
Could it have something to do with the Black Mesa Incident? Probably.
The army grunts clearly want to stop you reaching the portal. Don’t let them! Go find it.
This was June 2016’s Classic of the Month mod.
Basic Details
- Title: Nuclear Power Plant
- File Name: hl1-sp-nuclear-power-plant.7z
- Original File Name: npp.zip
- Size : 1.02MB
- Author: Alexei Frolov
- Date Released: 18 June 1999
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Download Options
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Installation Instructions
- Copy npp1.bsp, npp2.bsp and npp3.bsp into your Half-Life 1 Maps folder.
- Launch Half-Life 1
- Open the console and type map npp1.
- Press enter/return or click the Submit button.
- Play and Enjoy.
If you require more help, please visit the Help page.
Playthrough Videos
The playthrough below is part of the Classic of the Month Event, run by Don AKA Unq.
Screenshots
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 1024 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
Reader Recommendations
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 2 comment(s) with meta review data.
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Manually: 2 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 23 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 15 Mins by Dmitry
Longest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Avantgarde95
Total Time Played: 0 Hours, 45 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 2 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 23 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 15 Mins by Dmitry
Longest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Avantgarde95
Total Time Played: 0 Hours, 45 Mins
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Almost exactly 12 years old (I wish I could have left it for another 2 days) this mappack ages very well.
The design is very good and the little touches, like the monitors, add a sense of detail.
The central area was an absolute blast and it was so well made that I almost made this a personal favourite.
It was nice to be in a vent obviously designed for humans, which makes a change. There are plenty of brightly coloured areas, which normally indicate amateurish lighting but in this case it seems to work well.
Definitely, the best map for me so far as part of the 100SDoN. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
I was pleasantly surprised by this small map pack, I hadn’t played it before. It certainly is the best so far in the 100 Days series.
It’s a 3-map set taking place in, you guessed it, a nuclear power plant. The design is well-done, and the mapping is solid with good architecture and pretty good lighting.
Though this could be classified as a gruntfest, I really think the combat here is nicely set up, and the map layout lends itself to varied combat encounters. By far the best area is the reactor core, where if you rush in guns blazing you’ll be torn to shreds (although playing carefully can get you into trouble quickly as well – you’ll see :)). My one complaint is that you’ll find yourself chock full of contact grenades through most of the pack, so many of the closeup fights are over quickly.
Other problems? Mostly minor nitpicks. One of the puzzles can involve a slow inevitable death that you can’t avoid, you realize too late that you missed something. Some of the texturing is bland and repetitive, but the author has done a good job with the standard HL textures. There’s no real finish to the pack, you just step into a teleporter and then it fades to black before showing you in third person but you’re unable to move or do anything so I suppose that’s the end.
Overall, a fairly solid pack that shouldn’t be overlooked if you’re a single player Half-Life fan.
Sorry phillip, I didn’t have a blast with these maps, instead, I got blasted.
Nuclear power plant takes place in a… well I can only venture it’s an illegal underground nuclear reactor, because the military is here to shut it down and silence all the employees. These maps feature some hard encounters with the soldiers, and it looks like there was a discount on m203 grenade launchers today. About 1/3 of the soldiers you see will have this luxury.
If I were you I would play on easy, not medium like I did. No autosaves. Over the course of three maps I died at least 2-3 times, on each map. [spoiler]The first map has some really annoying jumping puzzles with a ladder and that seems to screw up the laws of physics, making me go soaring over the shaft and take unnecessary fall damage. The second map crams around 8 soldiers in a small area with no cover, so its mostly about how much HP you managed to conserve in the first map. And the final map, I swear, I died in excess of 10 times in one place. What is this place, you ask? Why, none other than the vent exit of course! The soldiers all decided to spam grenades into the vent from which I (tried to) exit from. That large pool room had about 10 soldiers, and half of them had grenades. You can imagine all those things flyin” at you when you try to exit that vent. But with persistence and dedication I managed to come out of the vent alive at 20 HP. When I finally get to the end portal, guess what? The scientist mumbles about where he left that shutdown procedure chart. The game just lingered there without ending. How appropriate. [/spoiler]
I liked the architecture; it does give a good feeling of knowing your environment. Except the larger areas, which I couldn’t place a context for. I certainly haven’t played something this challenging for a while, so it looks like I need to get back in shape. I would recommend this to you, but you better play on easy and keep your trigger finger glued to that quicksave key, especially on the first map where you can take a dive at any moment. Now go forth and see what it’s like to work in a nuclear power plant!
In regards to the ladder issue in the first map…[spoiler]It isn’t screwed up ladder physics (which is what I first thought too) – it’s a vent shaft with a fan that pushes you off the ladder. If you’re careful at the bottom of the ladder you’ll land on the ramp and not get pushed down all the way to the floor.[/spoiler]
Where to start, having originally given the map pack an Avoid It here on PP, and only scoring 4/10 in my personal records, I am now debating whether it’s worth a Play it Now of Later. However, it’s not matter of changing my mind, more a case of getting it right.
For a mappack released in 1999 the set design in places is both imaginative and unique, with the author happy to map on a grand scale. We a treated to some climbing and crawling about to reach high up goals, these are well constructed, if edging on the over elaborate to some extent.
The gameplay consists of some intense Grunt combat, at times set amidst grand and towering architecture, but for the most it’s the typical fight your way through rooms and passage ways. The uniqueness of the maps is undoubtedly the towering sequences, here the author allowed imagination to rule, such that we are treated to some exceptional passages of play.
Overall I enjoyed NPP and while it’s not a classic, it still has a lot to worth a play it now.
One of the first Half-Life mappacks I’ve played.
The design is nice. The author created new original style. Almost every room has a recognizable purpose, which makes the place more believable. It is one of the few mods which show not only the disaster, but also a small part of a working day. We go to do some maintenance, but then the plant becomes overrun by soldiers.
The enemy placement is very tactical, so completing this won’t be easy. I was low on health at times, but thankfully, the SMG grenades came in handy.
There are some minor flaws – lack of ending, instead the game just stucks at the teleporter cutscene. And it might be very hard at times, but I believe they are minor and the map is still worth playing.
Ok let me tell u this mappack, was good, even better then Gman island, that I played quite ago, I mean here we can see a very pretty and well done layout and those aditional details add it a little bit of sipcy taste to this mod, I mean I don’t know if any of you noticed, but there were some grunts having the scientists as hostages and u can save them from their executioners if u shoot them right, even tough we didn’t see any xen enemmys this map pack was really fun to play, so u must play it!!
I remember this from a long time ago and as I recall I originally enjoyed it, Oh well! So much for memories, it seems a lot harder than it was when I first played it. The shaft leading to the pool chamber was damn near impossible due to the barrage of grenades coming at me and it took a fair few goes to get out of it alive. The fade to black ending is one of the major things I hate in mods and as such has affected my recommendation.
Considering the time it was first released it shows more imagination than a lot of mods from that era and the layout, for me worked well. As with some of the other mods so far, this feels as though it should have been a part of something bigger.
Very well done, nice battles with grunts and even had few little puzzles. Maybe im getting rusty, but this was difficult one for me, died like 100 times, lol.
Architecture and design were pretty impressive for hl1 maps tho in the fast platform room with 2 cameras I failed to notice the door like 5 times when I went in there, it was too similar to the walls. Died enough times trying to snipe grunts with pistol from small vents and the end is kind of meh but it’s worth a play.
There were three areas that stood out for the wrong and right reasons on this map. It was pretty fun however.
It is mainly an action map but it does have a few puzzles and it has quite possibly the most annoying fight in HL mod history.
The three things I mentioned before were the first part with the ladder, the annoying fight with the spinning thing and the human sized vents. The ladder area was very annoying because I kept falling off when I got near the top, having to load my game again and again and again. The fight with the grunts and the spinning thing took me about 10 mins to get right due to the accuracy of the grunts with their ARnades and the inaccuracy of the 9mmAR. The good thing about this map was the human sized vents which was a nice change from the usual crouching through them and waiting for the headcrab around the corner. Nice touch Alexei!
Pretty fun, “Play it Later”.
I quite enjoyed this mod. The visuals were very well done and the action was fairly well paced, if a bit intensive at certain parts.
The level of detail in most of the mod was very high. It had the same general feel as Black Mesa but there was enough slight differences to give it its own personality. There were lots of small details, such as the swinging open vent hatch and the usable cameras, that gave the mod that extra level of polish that really differentiates the good from the excellent.
However, there were a few details that did confuse me a little, like the fact that some of the scientists weren’t killed while others weren’t. Some of the inconsistencies like that were what detracted from the overall high polish.
The combat through the mod was fairly standard but the varied environments ensured that the skirmishes didn’t become too repetitive. The large battle that took place midway through was interesting and deserves some note. I thought it was interesting how you were punished for being too gung-ho and rushing in guns blazing as well as being punished for trying to be too cautious and stealthy. That section put me off guard for a bit because I normally do one or the other and it was almost a puzzle in itself to work out when the best point to attack aggressively was.
Overall, this map looked very nice and it played fairly well but it’s biggest down fall was the abrupt start and end. If this mod was story oriented and had a definite start and finish, I think it would have been great but as it is it’s only good.
I recommend this for anyone that wants a high quality run and gun through Black Mesa styled environments.
For the age of the map it’s pretty cool, but to me there are more flaws than brilliant things…
I can’t explain exactly why I dislike the half of the map, imo it just was ruined as the start is very cool and barely surpassing
Pro’s:
-Interesting beginning
-Good levellayout, detailed
-Challenging combats
Con’s:
-Short playtime
-Less weapon -and enemytypes
-No real story
-2nd half becomes something like a dumb daily routine, sorry
For some reason, the zip of Nuclear Power Plant I downloaded didn’t come with a text file. I heard it was in Russian so I wouldn’t have understood it anyway. I always frown upon maps without a background story (or one I can understand) as they tend to suck, but I felt this little gem turned out fairly well.
Had there been a story it would’ve been like this: you’re working at a Nuclear Power Plant when some freak accident happens and the military comes in trying to kill everyone. Yes, it’s another Half-Life-beginning-wannabe, but this one’s well worth the download.
Right from the start, I was impressed at the visual quality of this level. Nuclear Power Plant is very pleasing aesthetically and there’s very little to complain about the design. Alexei makes no obvious mistakes with the texturing and they look both unique and very nice. What you have with Nuclear Power Plant is a very clean, and crisp looking base plant that looks quite different as well. I particularily liked Alexei’s cool-looking architecture and use of detail.
Fighting is fairly basic when it comes to this map and more variety could have helped. Basically, you’re looking at grunts and turrets only, and the only weapon you get is the MP5 with lots of those lovely alternate-fire grenades 🙂 You do get a shotgun near the end, but that’s nearly pointless as you probably won’t use it in preference to the better grunt-kicking firearm.
Despite the lack of variety in the action, it’s still exciting at times and not badly done at all. There are a few bad fights, however, such as at the intriguing beginning. I hate it when I have to clobber a marine to death with a crowbar to get his gun, you’re basically looking at about half your health right there. Fortunately, you get HEV and Health power ups when you need it and not before or after; I found the level to be very well balanced. The toughest fight in the map was extremely tough indeed and perhaps a bit unfair, but I don’t want to give it away as it’s brutal and I’ll leave you to fend off the army yourself 🙂 Regardless, there’s an abundance of marines and frequent “pack-attacks” to keep the muzzle of that MP5 warm at all times 🙂
Aside from the good-looks, and good-fights, you’ll find that Nuclear Power Plant has a well-planned and creative layout as well, though it is a bit unfair as there is a potential instant-death trap, and also at the beginning where you scale the biggest thingamabob known to man and you’ll have a hellish time getting down.
Nuclear Power Plant is far from the perfect map, nor the most complex. But for the purposes of just finding a decent level so you kick some military-ass, this’ll do better than you might expect.
Notes
This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Monday, 21st June, 1999 by Jiang.
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.
That’s my father’s work 😀
Short, but sweet!
Nuclear Power Plant for Half-Life
Great. Just great.
The environment is awesome, it truly feels like a power plant, especially the first map.
The second map is where it becomes more combat-wise, but unfortunately you only fight grunts, so it’s basically a huge gruntfest, but done really well.
The third map is the map I hated the most. Enemies keep on shooting you everywhere, not to mention the annoying grenades, like 2muchvideogames said.
But for a mod this good, all of these mistakes are minor for me.
PLAY IT NOW!!
The map looks very nice. Large vents are comfortable to move. Combats are not bad!
Manually
Medium
30 Minutes
Don’t play on hard. If you do, well you might encounter with very low ammo in the first two rooms. If you survive this, well, maybe you’ll be able to complete the rest of the level on hard. I think he designed this map of a combat tense scenarios where some good agility and dodging is required to avoid so many dangerous situations. I have to say all combats are complicated until finishing the main circular area. After this the difficulty drops too much, so you can end the level like a walk in the park.
Manually
Hard
15 Minutes