Ravenholm: The Lost Chapter

for Half-Life 2

11th June 2006

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half Life 1, 2 and 3
About

A Half-Life 2 Single Player level that expands on the Ravenholm story. The screenshots look good and the few reviews I’ve read suggest this is one to download.

Reviews

Basic Details

Screenshots

Click on the thumbnails below to open a medium size image.

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half Life 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half Life 1, 2 and 3
Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half Life 1, 2 and 3
Reader Recommendations
Avoid It!
Think Twice
Maybe
Play It Later
Play It Now!

4 recommendations, average score: 4.25 (out of 5), standard deviation: 0.69 (what's that?)
Total Downloads

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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 2 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 2 Users

Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 33 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 20 Mins by Daken50
Longest: 0 Hours, 45 Mins by hl-csd
Total Time Played: 1 Hours, 5 Mins
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27 Comments

  1. Berntsen

    This was well worth the download. I had more fun playing through this than I had playing through Ravenholm in HL2. It is far from pitch black, but it still managed to give me the creeps. There are some neat scripts included, and the custom dialogue isn’t that bad either.
    There are a few puzzles here and there, which didn’t seem to break the flow of the game, but rather add to the experience. A tad short, but very entertaining.

    Recommended.

  2. fragmaster

    I agree its well worth the download.
    As to it being called The Lost Chapter I wish it was Chapters because the ending suggested there might be more & I hope the author makes more for HL2 single-player mods in the future.

  3. bumtown

    i enjoyed it 😀

  4. Anonymous Visitor

    I played it and it was great. Truly professional level design. So good that this guy, Anthony Nichols, could be working for Valve. Placement of enemies, quality of puzzles, voice acting – everything was just great. Definately one of the top five released HL2 SP mods.

    Thank you Phillip for making this available! Your site is a gold mine for fans of HL2.

  5. dufferx

    Downloaded from two seperate sites and followed instructions and still couldn’t get it to be recognized as being present. Too bad, sometimes happens.

  6. dufferx

    Got it running. Just took forever to restock the maps so it would show in the games list.

  7. dufferx

    Ravenholm was not my favorite part of HL2, but this was excellent. Once again, too short.

  8. Anonymous

    Oh yessss! This map was awsome!
    10/10

  9. CeeJay.dk

    This level is a great example of how NOT to make a good half-life 2 level.

    I only played through the entire thing , to find a redeeming quality .. without luck.

    You start in a small room without weapons and no explanation of how you got there except a poorly done movie you you being beaten.

    This room connects to another room, which for no apearent reason is on fire and has explosive barrels in it. It also has a well (a room with a well ?) which is also on fire (WTF?) .. the only door out is boarded up , from the INSIDE!?
    I guess whoever boarded it up just teleported out or something.

    Ofcourse you can’t exit through the door since you have no weapon .. but wait – It’s a PUZZLE!
    The solution is to pick up an explosive barrel and throw it into to fire. It will blow up and the sprinkler system will activate and put out the fire ( except the fire in the well ).
    Why the sprinkler system didn’t activate when the room was on fire I don’t know .. apearently this special sprinklersystem didn’t think that putting out fires was important enough until things started to explode.

    Now with the fire out you can see a crowbar which was hidden by fire and you can use this to get out of the room.

    The level goes downhill from there.

    Watch in horror : cramped leveldesign , extremely weird and unlogical puzzles, enemies appearing out of nowhere as you pick stuff up or open a door, inconsistencies with reality (unbreakable , yet thin glass , sawblades stick in brick and glass) longwinded boring monologues from NPC’s that you can’t skip always resulting in the death of the NPC soon after.

    The level fails to give the player a sense of purpose or completion and you often wonder what you’re supposed to do or were you should go.

    In short .. Ravenholm LC is a terrible level. Don’t play it , it’s a waste of time and bandwidth.

  10. Mike

    CeeJay.dk: you’re welcome to your opinions of course, that’s the purpose of these comment boxes, but geez, that’s the most picky, bizarre dissertation I’ve ever read. This mod is class. It has atmosphere. It successfully mixes environment, puzzles and combat, and you’re bitching about a sprinkler system not coming on until a barrel is exploded?! About a well being in an illogical place?! If you take that hard line stance with every game you play then surely everything falls short of expectations? I wonder if you realise how you sound: here’s a mod, freely given, and you’re trashing it on the thinnest of premises.

    That some mods and maps are crap is undoubtedly true, but Ravenholm: LC ain’t one of ’em. Far from it.

  11. Mike

    Having played the last few moments this evening, I thought I should add to my above comment that the final section did lack purpose. It felt tacked on as an afterthought. All in all, though, a pleasant distraction.

  12. visitor

    I thought R:LC was wonderful. And CeeJay, about the puzzle involving burning barrels, a sprinkler system and a door boarded shut, there were more clever ways of using the barrels.

    I first put one barrel in front of the door, then one barrel next to the first, then one next to the second … creating a line of exploding barrels from the door to the fire, then rolling the last barrel in to the fire, and …KABOOM! A huge blast and I was free to escape the room. A great puzzle. Can’t recall any other map/mod use fire like that. (Never knew there was a crowbar hidden in the fire, though.)

    Anyway, I thought R:LC was beautiful and fun. I had a damn good time playing this mod. I would like to see CeeJay make anything that even comes close.

  13. Nekobert

    Ok, I liked the level overall. Found it entertaining, and would probably recommend it to most anyone who liked HL2.

    But what is the deal with the big gravestone and the four stone slots? I believe I did what the puzzle looked like it called for, but does it *actually* do anything?

  14. CeeJAY.dk your a very funny fellow!
    I like most of the new HL2 mods that have more than a small map and are the shizits to dl.
    It would have been better if it had Those Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers in it though.

  15. I think CeeJay.dk made some very good points. The things he referred to are things I tend to notice as well. Typically, when I see things like a room boarded up from the inside (as just one example), I think “contrived”. That’s the exact word I use, because it fits.

    Things like a never-ending, mysterious fire that fails to trigger the sprinkler system make no sense. It wouldn’t ever happen in the real world, and when I encounter things like that in a game, I am reminded that I am in a game.

    And the intro–can it even be called an intro?–You get smashed in the head. Then you wake up…in a strange room. Again, CeeJay.dk makes valid points.

    There is no need to lash out at CeeJay.dk for his comments. Everyone has their own tastes and values. I don’t demand realistic, but I very much dislike contrived. There is a difference, and I’ve had too much wine tonight to elaborate.

    Right now, I am stuck in a small cemetery. I see no way out whatsoever, and I’ve been looking for, oh, I don’t know–15 minutes or so. Oh how fun! I love being stuck! Puzzle! Puzzle! Puzzle!

  16. Chianti there are 4 slots that take 4 items of the same size to unlock the door.The slots are all in the same place but the items needed are scattered around.

  17. Mel
    Play It Now!

    Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half Life 1, 2 and 3

    You find yourself in Ravenholm, unsure how you got there but you need to get the hell out. Nobody Leaves Ravenholm.

    If the Ravenholm chapters from the original HL2 game are high on your ratings list, then you will not be disappointed with this offering. It’s a good new rendering of some similar gameplay to the original story but with its own script and layout.

    As you can imagine this is a zombie feast of a mod with all forms of both zombies and headcrabs bent on making you their next meal. You will be up against them throughout the game often attacking in mixed packs.

    There are a few Combine but they play a minor role within the preceding being normally relegated to guarding the odd key point around security terminals. With just Gregory and the odd rebel turning up to offer a helping hand, the mod is limited to just the cast of the original HL2 Ravenholm chapters.

    There is not a lot to be said about the set design and textures with the layout mostly consisting of connecting rooms containing plenty of incidental items and debris, interspersed with a few open courtyards and a graveyard for good measure. Generally speaking the sets are good and adequate without being outstanding.

    There are a few puzzle sequences with a fairly obvious graveyard routine to figure out, plus at least one complex sequence of events which involves finding and operating levers to enable further progress.

    I found the mod challenging on normal level with a need to take care of both ammo and health, neither of which is plentifully throughout the whole encounter. Ammo levels were a particular problem with so many attacking zombies it’s easy to get carried away with the use of the shotgun. You will need to make good use of both the crowbar and the rotary saw blades to live through some of the mass attacks but that’s enough give aways.

    The mod did not build up too much in the way of eerie or scary “in your face” moments, although a few howler pack encounters will have you jumping and backing off to rethink tactics. However, overall there is a good balance of gameplay considering the limited scope of the mod in terms of environments and cast used.

    The voiceovers were admirably performed being very professional in both the quality of the sound and acting. This is not always the case with custom mods so it’s nice when it comes out well and rightly deserves praise.

    Not much in the way of running into problems, although it is possible to get physically struck in a few places but no doubt that’s due to me ending up where I shouldn’t be. I do like to wander and squeeze into all nooks and crannies often noclipping into non-playing areas.

    Negative Points:
    – Limited use of HL2 cast
    – Not much of a story
    – Similar set design throughout

    Positive Points:
    – Puzzle sequences
    – Good balance of gameplay within the limited scope of the mod
    – Good fun if you like zombies

    Conclusion:
    Not always being overjoyed with zombie packed games, I found this mod entertaining with a nice balance between zombie bashing, puzzle solving and the odd encounter with others as you progress through Ravenholm.

    Just keep in mind – Nobody Leaves Ravenholm. Go see if you can.

    My Recommendation:

  18. Anonymous

    Andy-thanks for the cemetary answer. I walked around that place for a real long time. I had no idea there was a trick to getting out. I went to one wall with an opening and piled up some barrels. I kept falling so I noclipped it on out. I thought it was bug in the game keeping me in there. O-well-I liked this one and was really wanting more. It had enough action and good mapwork to keep me happy. Good job!

  19. Robspace 1
    Play It Now!

    Good one. Nice action -not overdone like alot of these. The enemies are not too hard to take out and the maps have enough light to play without killing my eyes. I liked the other Ravenholm mod better though because of it’s tough puzzles. If you have tried it, you know what I mean. This one was alot less work but alot of fun-

  20. Maybe?

    I chose consider it, because it seems a lot of you people liked this mod, so I guess I’m one of the few having problems with it. I liked the grave stone puzzle and the helicopter dropping the person. Or the gman. But the map didn’t make too much sense to me… I noclipped over the car that’s blocking your way. I didn’t know how to continue. I guess it had something to do with me shooting the barrels on the roof before throwing the lever, but I’ve got no idea.

    I just didn’t enjoy it too much. And it ended as fast as it begun…

  21. Tom

    I’ve got a problem with the 1st level (Welcome to Ravenholm) – it loads, I hear the soundtrack music, I see a man standing before me, I hear spoken dialog, but I’m rooted to the spot. I can’t move in any direction: Left/Right/Forwards/Backwards or even jump/crouch. All the other levels are ok and play normally

    I’ve tried to email the developer, but their email address no longer exists
    – any ideas how to fix this ? – (I use the Steam platform)

    1. I think it’s always going to be a bit broken, even with the published fixes. I can get it to work all except the female NPC in the house; she functions now, but her speech doesn’t. It’s no great loss (something about the unseasonable chill & the price of fish in Norway – whatever) but at least the scripted sequence plays out now.
      Follow these instructions in the cyan/light blue “Fixes for Half-Life 2 Mods” section:
      http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1289845

  22. s1

    no download link 🙁

  23. Hello modders, gamers and players. This was an old mod from 2006 which I thought I lost forever in a brutal crash. I’m glad I was able to retrieve it at long last.

    As I read the reviews, I was struck by the great range of pluses and minuses.

    To play it, lately, it doesn’t work with the gameinfo.txt as written. I ‘borrowed’ a gameinfo.txt from SMOD40aq and was amazed at how well it played…literally EVERYTHING worked, even better than my memory of playing it a few years ago.

    Copy and paste the following in the mod folder (Save the original if you must.)…

    “GameInfo”
    {

    game “Ravenholm: The Lost Chapter”
    title “Ravenholm…”
    title2 “The Lost Chapter”
    developer “Anthony Nichols”
    developer_url “http://www.levelarchitect.com”
    icon “v”
    manual “http://www.levelarchitect.com”
    type singleplayer_only

    FileSystem
    {
    SteamAppId 215
    ToolsAppId 211

    SearchPaths
    {
    Game |gameinfo_path|.
    Game hl2
    }
    }
    }

    Also borrow the bin folder and its files from SMOD40aq to complete this makeover.

    All the best – hl2-csd

    1. Zekiran

      That would presumably work if you had SMOD which many of us don’t. i don’t know the game id numbers by heart, though.

      And also yeah, there’s no valid download link on it any more. 🙁

  24. There is no download available for this mod.

  25. Play It Later

    Good. Close to great. Like a great meal but a small portion stretched over 7 courses. Worth a play.

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