Smoke on the Water – Map Labs Test Tube #6

for Half-Life 2: Episode Two

29th September 2023

The theme of this Map Labs Test Tube was simply to feature both fire and water in a map. Guitar riffs not required.

Enjoy the 6 entries for Smoke on the Water!

As always, if you’re interested in learning more about Map Labs and maybe even participate in their upcoming challenges, visit the Map Labs Discord.

Basic Details
  • Title: Smoke on the Water
  • Filename: sdk-2013-sp-mlc-smokeonthewater.7z
  • Size: 149 MB
  • Author: BernieBean, aaaaaaa, Skorly, Nev, Metroham, Steven Cabbage
  • Date Released: 30 November 2019

Download Options

Download to your HD [149 MB]

Manual Installation Instructions
  • Make sure you have the Upcoming branch of the Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer installed in Steam and run at least once. (Properties – Betas – select upcoming from the dropdown list).
  • Copy the smokeonthewater folder into your SourceMods folder.
  • Restart or start Steam.
  • Smoke on the Water should now be listed in your Library tab.

Reviewing

If you decide to use the Per-Map Opinion Images, feel free to use the file below as a template:

Smoke-on-the-Water-Review-Template.txt

Entries

Listed as they are displayed in the mod itself:

Firegirl and Waterboy by BernieBean
Fire’s on the ice by aaaaaaa
The Heater by Skorly
No Rush by Nev
Upper West Side by Metroham
Very Hot Lab by Steven Cabbage

Screenshots

WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
Each map has 5 screenshots. Thanks to ArctixSnowPup for providing the screenshots!

1600 x 900

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

5 recommendations, average score: 3.2 (out of 5), standard deviation: 1.36 (what's that?)
Total Downloads
  • 493
    Overall
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 5 comment(s) with meta review data.

Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 5 Users

Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 55 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 6 Mins by Duke
Longest: 1 Hours, 40 Mins by Ade
Total Time Played: 4 Hours, 36 Mins
If you believe this release is missing important tags, please suggest them in a comment?
Jump to a review
Think TwiceThink TwicePlay It Now!Play It LaterMaybe?

5 Comments

  1. Think Twice

    Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of the stuff offered via Discord, map labs, et al…more your single player campaign sort of guy myself and this was no better or worse than I’ve come to expect from that quarter. Might be worth a look for some of you, but don’t get your hopes up.

  2. Think Twice

    Not a fan of this one.

  3. Ade
    Play It Now!

    Almost gave this a Personal Favorite just to offset the unfair bad reviews. And it wouldn’t have been far from the truth. ‘Upper West Side” is super close to having been an all time PF map of mine. I got stuck on it so the entire challenge gets a Play It Now.

    To avoid future low effort posts, hopefully the site admin will impose a minimum character rule like 50 when using the Recommendation system, since some can’t even bother with 25. Or remove that recommendation since it’s breaking rule #4. And how can the total play time be 6 minutes, for a 6 entry map pack? That’s also grounds for recommendation removal since that one is breaking rule #3. Unless the challenge is “play time of 1 minute”, there is absolutely no way this person legit played it. It’s a slap in the face of the authors, the challenge creators and organizers, and the admins and users of this website. The only redeeming excuse could be that they meant to type in 60 minutes, but then again there is an option for hours so that is probably not it! Also why pick up something you know you will hate then give it a bad review? Imagine going to a live performance you know you will hate, only to leave a bad review afterwards, or worse, throw tomatoes at the performer. Don’t be that guy! And by the way, “Might be worth”=MAYBE.

    This late 2019 challenge will have a play time of roughly 1 hour on Normal. Mine was 1h40m because I tried very hard not to cheat at the end of the 5th entry. Which I still love, and pray the author finishes/finished it. No link for my playthrough unless asked, but you can search “map labs test tube” on twitch. The pack has new mechanics, good gameplay, well thought out and well executed ideas especially for the fire part. And each entry implements the constraint in a unique way. Well the last entry came close, it has heat but no fire. And I only got stuck once and it was right at the end of an entry, which is important for me. Rather have something shorter that comes to a conclusion, than miss out on half the entry or unable to finish a long entry because of miscommunication/not so strong signposting. So my only asterisk to go with my Play it Now recommendation is: if you get stuck at crossing the destroyed bridge, look it up on youtube (others got stuck there, too) or twitch.

  4. Hec
    Play It Later

    OK, this one was better than the last 2 mapping competitions I’ve played.

    I guess it is because of the simple premise of the competition: fire and water.

    The 6 entries were nice and entertaining to play. And even that one with the “log on fire”, poop joke was fun to play.

    Upper-West Side was the best indeed along with Very Hot Lab, the first, needed a bit more texture polishing but the gameplay was pretty nice.

    Overall a perfect Play it Later, neat short but fun entries.

  5. Maybe?

    Another mitigate experience for me with this map labs, not any great stuff here most of the time short and well balance gameplay arround fightings experience Nothing was really bad but neighter really great

    Firegirl and Waterboy by BernieBean
    It is good

    Playtime: 20 minutes

    The gaming idea was cool in a 2D side view make progress in alternative choice between a boy and a girl that both have their ability to resist to fire or water the playability was sometime confusing but especially through it’s iniative it’s Worth to give it a try

    Fire’s on the ice by aaaaaaa
    It is okay

    Playtime: 16 minutes

    Some classic action in an alternative place with snow and after some burning though baril explosion and heating source, abrupt ending

    The Heater by Skorly
    It is good

    Playtime: 15 minutes

    Really fun to play trough it’s an action packed gameplay, it’s a simple streight forward gameplay kill to progress with a design that gave me some quake 1&2 mood

    No Rush by Nev
    It is bad

    Playtime: 1 minutes

    It’s not bad through it’s design that even if it was short was good but through it’s limited rpogression and gameplay… limited to the hallway of your starting zone

    Upper West Side by Metroham
    It is good

    Playtime: 30 minutes

    This was for me and could have been the best of this map lab but it was uncomplete in texturing which is a shame. Their was some puzzle, some good oriented combat and a final objective but playing ths one in unfinished texturing was some kind of frustrating for me

    Very Hot Lab by Steven Cabbage
    It is great!

    Playtime: 10 minutes

    this one was a perfect fire and ice experience with some cool tweeking through a cooling system to prevent you to burn, it’s quite strate forward but was really short and fun

    Summary

    At least it’s not a map pack that will take you hours to complete and there really minor furstration through solving puzzle or getting stuck. On my side a got some issue with the planetphillip version texturing and Lightning was odd to basic like if SDK source wasn’t taking in account correctly a download the MODDB version and had no issue an a good render of texturing and Lightning

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