Surface Run - GrandmasterJ

 

    Surface Run is a map where players must run to the surface. It's a conversion from a standalone mod that takes place in Black Mesa.

SCMapDB page

Original mod authors: noSICK

Conversion authors: Outerbeast

Date of original mod release: 2011

Date of final Sven Map release: 2021

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Surface Run

(originally posted on SCMapDB) 

by GrandmasterJ | January 16, 2022 | 3918 characters

    The objective of the map is simple, run to the surface. Players spawn at the elevator to the surface and are told their first objective is to find a medkit. If players use the elevator they get a message saying it needs a keycard. This first part has players wandering around with no weapons. The map is fairly linear until player get to a grate that breaks underneath their feet plunging them down into a portal to Xen.

    This is where the map starts having some issues. My teammate died during this fall to Xen and I don't know how. There are a few teleporters in this map and if players don't get out of the way fast they can be telefragged by other players. Xen itself looks nice but there are sections of laboratory stuck in it too, I don't think Xen did this in the original Half-Life. It's pretty silly to be dropped into Xen and then immediately enter a vent back into laboratories. This area is where players will eventually find a medkit and a crowbar.

    Unfortunately for my teammate who died during the trip to Zen, that triggered some enemies in the previous areas, so he spawned in with no weapons and had to run through them all just to take the teleporter to Xen, the same trip that killed him once. You can also jump over the pit with the portal to Xen at the bottom, which is how players are meant to progress the level, without picking up the medkit or crowbar, thus sequence-breaking the map. Eventually we both got to the medkit and crowbar, which spawned enemies right on top of us and got me killed. I found out that after collecting the crowbar players will spawn with the crowbar, but not the medkit, meaning players will have to travel all the way through Xen just to pick up the medkit.

    As the level progressed we eventually got better guns which would also spawn with players after they died, but still no medkit. There was a series of teleporters that put a player next to a teleporter that put them back at spawn. That felt completely unnecessary and since players can telefrag each other in teleporters, a little dangerous. At one point we got lost and didn't know what to do. The answer was to use the one satchel charge we each had to blow up an explosive crate near the spawn area. This crate would not explode even after we shot at it a bunch and crowbarred it for a while. My teammates satchel charge didn't even destroy it, I threw mine in futile desperation and that's when it worked.

    After blowing up this door we followed the path to two scientists, one of which had the keycard. We murdered them both in cold blood, I took the keycard, some enemies spawned in around us, and I walked right off a ledge into the abyss. The abyss wasn't very deep and the hurt trigger wasn't instantaneous, so I got to stand around looking at my teammate killing all the enemies before dying. After I died the keycard dropped on the ground, in the abyss. I thought the playthrough was over but the keycard did revert to a place my teammate could grab it and we successfully completed the map. Overall, the map was very short.

    One more thing to mention is that there are some really fun monkey zombie models with headcrabs on them. They killed me a lot but I thought they were very cute.

Pros:

• fun monkey headcrab zombie models
• it's nice that a conversion of a single player mod has players spawn with weapons they've unlocked
• players spawn near their final objective and are given guidance at the beginning of the map
• the keycard was not lost forever due to my actions

Cons:

• Accidental sequence-breaking due to dying right after the pit opened up
• players never spawn with medkits, why?
• there are teleporters and players can kill each other just by using them

Score: 6.5 / 10