Half Life 2: Rise

I promised myself that Deep Down would be my last Half Life 2 project. It has taken me a year and a half to get it done and I really never inteneded it to take that long. Granted for 8 months I didnt' work on it but it's still way too long of a dev cycle.

The reaction to Deep Down has changed my mind however. Its been really well received, and now I have the skillset to be able to produce high quality mods it would be silly to waste it. Plus I've tried mapping for the other Source games and nothing measures up to the fun of HL2.

So this leads us, inevitably to Half Life 2: Rise. The follow up to Deep Down that charts Alyx and Gordon's return to the surface. I've already got some puzzles working in dev maps and a general theme, look and feel but it's the gameplay that will change significantly.

One element of my maps that many players have commented on and enjoyed are those moments when the player has the upper hand and can plan an attack. Pre-planning an assault or preparing for battle has always been fun but its been underused in the HL2 official games, and I can't say that I've ever really seen it much in Mods.

So here's the premise for HL2: Rise.

Whereever possible, I will allow the player to plan their attack. I will give them a full view of the battlefield before they choose to enter it. I will give them time and tools to prepare for incoming assaults (hoppers, emplaced guns, explosive barrels and floor turrets).
I will allow them to move about above the combine soldiers unaware of their presence before they engage..

The ability to pre-plan gameplay and then execute it allows the player great fun and flexibility. It also adds a lot of replay value as they can try out different strategys.


I'd love to be able to allow the player to set up physics objects as traps for incoming combine.
Or use physics objects to set up defensive barriers against assaults.

Can't believe that I've missed this before, so simple yet so fun.

While this won't be the only form of gameplay, it's a new method that I can insert into my gameplay combination I've used so far.