Born on the forums of TWHL, here comes another collaboration pack – this time on the Source engine! Mappers were restricted to a small footprint for their map, as if each map were a floor in a tower. A full 3 years in the making, here is the result of a lot of hard work from both new and experienced Source mappers.
There’s a lot to love in this long anticipated collaboration! Enjoy the 18 floors in this solid follow-on to TWHL Tower and TWHL Tower 2! Plus don’t miss the handful of unlockable bonus maps!
Basic Details
- Title: TWHL Tower: Source
- Filename: sdk-2013-sp-twhl-tower-source.7z
- Size: 576 MB
- Author: Dr. Orange, NovaDelta, kouta-kun, tmob, Gravity Cat, Kriegmorder, cambreaKer, q0, shoes1085, Shambles, Jen3r1k, Aqualuzara, JinksWasntTaken, Skorly, Xinus22
- Date Released: 19 July 2024
- Related: TWHL Tower
- Related: Cenodrome: The Lost Sub-Basement of TWHL Tower
- Related: TWHL Tower 2
Download Options
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 twhltower folder into your SourceMods folder.
- Restart or start Steam.
- TWHL Tower: Source should now be listed in your Library tab.
Screenshots
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
Each map has 5 screenshots.
Reader Recommendations
Total Downloads
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5Today
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96Last 30 days
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752365 days
Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 6 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 6 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 3 Hours, 34 Mins
Shortest: 2 Hours, 20 Mins by Wibble
Longest: 7 Hours by Stef
Total Time Played: 21 Hours, 26 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 6 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 3 Hours, 34 Mins
Shortest: 2 Hours, 20 Mins by Wibble
Longest: 7 Hours by Stef
Total Time Played: 21 Hours, 26 Mins
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Jump to a review
This was a fun experience that lasted me a few hours. While there are a couple of “floors” that are rough around the edges, there are plenty of great ones! A nice mix of puzzles, combat and even one strictly narrative based. Fallen Angel by Xinus22 was probably my favorite, mainly due to the fact it was purely unique and had an intriguing story tied to it.
Overall was fun and enjoyable!
Manually
Medium
3 Hours, 6 Minutes
This throws an error when I run it that says “Could not load library client. Try restarting. If that doesn’t work, verify the cache”. I confirmed that I do have “Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer (upcoming) installed. Anybody have any ideas what might cause this error?
Resolved this by grabbing the latest file off of ModDB.
It was alright, there were some levels that felt completely unfinished and had a feeling of, is that really it? Fallen Angel was probably the highlight of the mod. It’s a one time play through kind of experience, I found myself growing bored by the end.
Manually
Medium
3 Hours, 30 Minutes
I might make a full review on this one. But the real reason why I played this is because of the 17th floor.
I’m going to be real honest, TWHL: Source was pretty disappointing and not as good as the TWHL Towers for Half-Life 1. TWHL: Source is very hit and miss. There are some great entries in here as well as some low quality ones.
Floor 3 Water Reservoir, Floor 7 Joker’s Mind and Floor 14 Watermelons in Jail are just a waste of hard drive space, there is nothing else that can be said.
Level 17 Fallen Angel, people like this one but personally I cannot stand anime and its writing tropes. ‘Japanese anime and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.’
Best levels would be, Level 12 Stopped Again, Level 15 Caution: Biological Hazard, Level 16 Barrels Gate and the finale on Level 18. Level 8 The Develoseum was extremely funny but only if you know stuff about the HL2 Beta.
Manually
Medium
2 Hours, 20 Minutes
An enjoyable source mod. Similiar to map labs but not a competition, instead, an anthology of maps each connected by way of stairs in this giant tower. Not all levels of this building are fun but overall its quite enjoyable. as its all being done for free its hard to complain too much. 75% of the maps are enjoyable, some great even. Appreciate the custom code features and small touches like the guns having particle smoke, most other mods do not have this.
Manually
Medium
3 Hours
So, this is it,
the last baby from the depths of TWHL minds,
born during the COVID disaster and finally released and more “peaceful” times, here we go:
1) Floor 1: “Breaking and Entering” : our usual intro level, classic/vanilla HL2 but with a companion – plenty of voice acting.
2) Floor 2: “Not Quite Halo”: a… second “intro” level just for the HEV suit, with some voice acting/animated NPC, which, as in floor 1, take more time to handle than HL1’s NPCs.
3) Floor 3: “Water Reservoir” : very classic HL2 stuff with Combine.
4) Floor 4: “The Cleanup” : and another very vanilla HL2 level against Combine, Zombies, AntLions.
5) Floor 5: “Biohazard” : this one is more interesting. No enemies here but it’s all about ambiance.
6) Floor 6: “Warp Complex” : now we’re beginning to talk, with portal stuff added on classic battles.
7) Floor 7: “Joker’s Mind” : a maze-like / claustrophobic level, already seen before but as always, efficient.
8) Floor 8: “The Develoseum” : a bit “meta” level with classic battles set in a classic level, but with some nostalgic stuff about HL2’s creation (Axel Gembe…). The easter eggs were fun.
9) Floor 9: “Mystery Floor” : this is one of the most interesting levels but gave me a bit of headache, here and there, the puzzles were sometimes a bit too obscure… but, this is clearly original and interesting. Very good one!
10) Floor 10: “Cyber Trauma” : this one has custom textures, it’s a Dead Space-like level filled with HL2 enemies. IMHO it could have been better with a more horrific/gore setting (bodies here and there, sounds…)
11) Floor 11: “Hazardous Workplace” : classic HL2 level with some puzzles.
12) Floor 12: “Stopped Again?!” : Once again, classic level stuff, Combine and boom.
13) Floor 13: “The World Machine” : this one has a surrealist feeling… some puzzles here and there… The last one was too “tough” to understand, too bad…
14) Floor 14: “Watermelons in Jail” : litteraly the title… explode watermelons (in jail), end the level. I guess this is a tribute to Miiga’s levels on PlanetPhillip.
15) Floor 15: “Caution: Biological Hazard” : one of the MASTER PIECES of the mod, a Resident Evil-gameplayed map , which turn “vanilla” at the very end.
Great idea, a good mix between 2 wonderful horror-themed franchises.
16) Floor 16: “Barrels Gate” : a madness of a level filled with explosive barrels, everywhere… and an explosive man, at the end. It was funny as hell, using a well-known “trope” of HL2 (why all those explosive barrels !)
17) Floor 17: “Fallen Angel” : the dev’ has clearly lost his mind by giving us a “skip” button, everyone already know about this map, but this is a story-driven one with an emotional story in the likes of Bad Cop/Wilson in EZ2, Chell/Wheatley…
This could really turn into its very own mod, and not just a map… There is so much things to explore here.
18) Floor 18: “Executive Offices” : the final map involves many fights against Zombies, in standard settings.
19) Roof: “Final Stand” : A tribute to the first TWHL, final battle against every last Combine forces and of course a copter/gunship, this is just run, think/tactics, shoot, live, at peaks we’ve already known.
20) Arena (Bonus Map) : A tribute to the second TWHL, this is the arena against everyone and everything HL2/Ep 2 can give you, and even “original” enemies…
The very last final boss is a good way to finish all of that.
——————-
Overall, an interesting mix of everything HL2/Source can offer, but maybe too much “vanilla” content,
I can really consider 6 or 7, at best, levels, which provides us with something different/original/unique than pure vanilla/classic HL2 battles/content,
I understand it took so much time to compile because Source is waaaay longer to handle,
I won’t say I’m disappointed, more that I’m not surprised how it ended.
For some reason, the “Ville”/”Competitions”/MapLabs on RTSL are far more interesting than this one, IMHO.
But, this is really a “love letter ” to everything HL2 is. And that should be enough.
Manually
Medium
2 Hours, 30 Minutes