Map of the Month - November 2007

Winner Info | Review 1 | Review 2 | Review 3 | Review 4

The Citizen
By Playbus
November 2007
For Half-Life 2

[Map Vault Page]

Overall Score

Map of the Month - November 2007

Winner Info | Review 1 | Review 2 | Review 3 | Review 4

Reviewed by Taylor  

Taylor's Score

Guest Video Review

Bottom Line

Overall, The Citizen was worth waiting for. It turned out to be a mod that features refreshingly different gameplay elements, almost professional voice acting, funny dialogs and moments, which brought back some nice memories of the Half-Life series.

Comments

Map of the Month - November 2007

Winner Info | Review 1 | Review 2 | Review 3 | Review 4

Reviewed by Huntey  

Huntey's Score

Video Review

Bottom Line

Overall, The Citizen is an extremely well designed mod which, despite a few small nags, is immensely fun to play throughout, and as it ends somewhat abruptly, I look forward to being placed in this unnamed citizen's shoes again in The Citizen 2.

Comments

Map of the Month - November 2007

Winner Info | Review 1 | Review 2 | Review 3 | Review 4

Reviewed by Urby  

Urby's Score

Guest Video Review

Bottom Line

Though this mod is the best thing to turn up in the TWHL map vault this month I wasn't looking forward to it in the same way I'm waiting for 6 - D or Flat-Life. However, having played it I must admit I was pleasently suprised. The maps are just as gorgeous as you would expect from a Playbus / Kasperg production and if the duo ever release an update which fixes some of the gameplay elements (e.g. Reducing the number of F**KING MANHACKS!) then It would be worth replaying. Until then, I'll keep waiting.

Comments

Map of the Month - November 2007

Winner Info | Review 1 | Review 2 | Review 3 | Review 4

Reviewed by Daubster  

Daubster's Score

Review

This mod, being a collaboration between some of the best independent mappers out there, Kasperg and Playbus, was definitely something to look forward to with great anxiety and huge expectation. Five minutes after the first release, when pretty much every PlanetPhillip member had already finished it and found all the secret areas, half the community here had already gotten their hands on it. Lots of discussion was spawned and before you know it - TWHL was being torn apart by intense arguing, which later evolved into flamewars, resulting in other, much stronger repercussions.

To Citizen or not To Citizen?
That was the question. Answer time.

- The two following paragraphs contain my horribly long-winded opinion and overall thoughts on gameplay in this mod. It's more tips & suggestions for developers, so feel free to skip it if you're not interested in that kind of stuff. ;)

Gameplay-wise, this mod definitely had its weirder choices and faults. Probably the first things you notice are some holes in the story and NPC actions, where it's sometimes unclear what you/they are doing and why.
In the beginning - you're thrown straight into action with metrocops bursting through your door and administering the recommended negotiation technique. Beating the shit out of you. Strangely, this event stays as the only ingame-shown reason, besides the short briefing, for you to have ever joined the rebels in this mod. Even if PlanetPhillip's description does mention your family being slaughtered by the Combine, no more detailed ingame info makes you question the whole reason for The Citizen (TC) to have started his crusade in the first place. A slightly longer story or even a dramatic scripted flashback scene, where you actually get to see CPs execute your family, would give your actions a lot more purpose and depth; kinda like Alyx's first encounter with the Hunter in Ep2.
Another problem with that in the beginning, which pretty much everyone, who's played the mod has already complained about, is that you're given no info on your current goal. At this point, I was wandering randomly in the building, searching every area, pressing buttons that shouldn't be pressed, until I randomly used this girl with a white shirt, who then directed me to one of the rebels residing in the building. Being noted to search the residents for your contact, who's wearing this and that or some other hint would've saved everyone some time. Frustration in the beginning is very bad for any mod, so such stuff, even if intentional, should be kept for later chapters, when the player's already accustomed to the style of gameplay.
It's also strange that most rebels trusted you way too much for someone they're seeing for the first time, like Argento, who gives you his only keycard to a door five steps away from his apartment. Now, unless the lucky sod has so many copies of the card that he can actually give one away to every random rookie like you, I have absolutely no idea why he doesn't just walk over and open it for you.
However, some of the weirdest gameplay choices were featured in Crossing the Road - the sewers level, Finding Friends - the airboat sequence and in the end of Holy War - the strider battle.
In the Sewers, first thing you notice are the unusually large and unrealistically designed buttons, which are used to open codelocked doors. Sure, they're meant to be obvious and big enough for the player to be able to use them, but let's not go beyond I-Just-Wet-My-Nappies-Baby-Mode. I also find the idea of writing the button combination required to open a specific door right next to the door itself beyond plain logic. A number like this usually shows the number of the room behind the door in real life, so most gamers are used to ignoring these, while level designers usually use them to add some extra detail to a map. Another thing weird is that the designer of this level had a huge urge kill the player if he had the nerve of wading into chest-deep water, so to do so, he thought of placing leeches, creatures usually found in the sea or lakes in HL2's universe, in a sewer environment. Sure, I'm no alien fauna expert, but not having found one single leech in the original City17 sewers from HL2 simply makes you wonder why the ones in TC have them. And speaking of fauna in that level, there's no other monsters but one zombie to be found there. A headcrab or two and maybe a barnacle in the large sewer pipe would've added some more action to the level, plus, if the player hadn't found the crowbar yet, that would've made him wonder why he's being attacked with his pants down and maybe force him to explore his surroundings more carefully.
As for the airboat sequence, I'm sure almost anyone, who's ever played HL2, would expect it to be an immense experience with you dodging mines, rockets and bullets while quickly searching your nearest pile of rubble for something to do for a ramp and jolt you in the air at high speed, flying over combine soldiers with them desperately yelling they won't be home for dinner into the radio as you land on what used to be their heads. It's only natural - the airboat is fast, light and doesn't sink no matter how many mines you run over with it or how many other projectiles hit it. However, Kasperg & Playbus thought of making something opposite to the epic stuff seen in the original sequence and make it a simple, short, slow and linear trip. There were barely any areas where you could speed up for real. The way I saw it, the boat served as a quicker way to get from chokepoint A to B, since in the chokepoints themselves - it was pretty much as useless as a lifejacket in a sea of beer.
However, it is the not-so-epic strider battle being one of the biggest disappointments in the mod. It somewhat reminded me of the EP1 final strider encounter, just even more cramped, with the poor biomechanical monster having almost no chance of utilizing it's full potential. So, you take it out, along with a sniper and another wave of combine. Nothing too challenging if you stay close to the RPG rocket crate. That battle has loads of potential, so really could've been executed better. The surroundings should be made much bigger, allowing the monster to actually move; if you don't feel like making the area by Elvet at least three times bigger - an alternative would be moving the whole thing to the church area in Holy War. Being a much bigger arena, it would provide some nice destruction moments (like the hospital gunship fight in Ep1) and much better gameplay.
Some bugs were also present. From smaller problems with doors not opening at Elvet Theatre because of dodgy grunt assaulting, to more serious stuff like buggered entity setups, making your teammates attack you in the final chapters, or letting you nearly skip some parts, like the reinforcements bell in Holy war; these bugs, even if mostly avoidable, add quite a bit of frustration and deteriorate the experience.

Of course, it's not all bad decisions and problems with gameplay in The Citizen. On the contrary, some parts were innovative and just plain awesome.
Getting to use physics to kill your enemies was, even if not used much throughout the mod, a very nice idea. Falling on a CP's head, crushing the nonce or letting a crate that appears to weight a couple of tones do it for you was not only fun, but also an effective and fun technique of eliminating any threats when unarmed.
Speaking of gameplay techniques, where weapons play a secondary role, stealth elements were also added to some of the levels. I actually found it a nice alternative to the usual ones, like scripted scenes or vistas used to relieve tension brought up by intense combat sections and eliminate fatigue. Stealth parts of TC vary from plain sneaking in corners, avoiding patrols and pressing the right buttons in order to advance to probably the awesomest experience in the entire mod - disguising yourself as one of the Combine. Not only did it feel a bit like Hitman and you actually got to see how Barney feels when disguised as a CP, it also looked very cool with neat mask imitations. These parts could easily be dubbed as the fat layer of topping with cherries ontop of the cake that is this mod. Also, if you're more of a Rambo type - each stealth section could've been replaced by a fragfest on up-the-arse-nightmare-mode. Variety in gameplay is one of the main factors that determine the replayability of any level/mod, so adding some is indeed a great idea.
And speaking of combat - even if a bit dry and plain in the beginning, I must say it was very well-executed in the end. Having well-designed arenas with lots of vertical gameplay, objects for cover, good enemy and powerup placement, it was a blast to play.
Neat random additions, like the Combine advisor or Gman making the occasional spooky appearance also added to the fun factor, though I think some of these appearances could've been utilized in telling the story, rather than just staying there for show.
My favorite scripted parts were the scanner sequence and the final ending. Not much to say about the scanner part, it was just cool. Think Microsoft Flight Simulator Combine and you'll pretty much have a good idea on what it's about. As for the ending - I'm not spoiling anything, but the whole setup kind of reminded me of Ep1. It was quite clean and the use of some HL1 sounds gave it a nice feel.

That's it for my thoughts on gameplay. Concluding this monstrosity, I'd like to say that, even with the bugs and problems, I really enjoyed playing it. The good parts mostly did a good job covering up the bad ones and with some bug fixing and tweaking - it could easily evolve into something truly fantastic.

Continuing with the good stuff, architecture, being Kasperg's forté and something Playbus has also already mastered, was superb in most areas. Buildings outside looked clean and realistic, with height variation and detail to make them look real and convincing. My favorites were the ones in the very beginning including the one you were residing, with a very nice 3D skybox blending with them and the church, which, even if smaller than the usual ones you see, looked quite authentic and actually felt a bit like a holy place. I also liked the original and well-crafted dome-like glass roof with its supports above the basketball court next to Argento's bar. The warehouse itself was also very well-made with nice and detailed supports fitting its architecture very well.
Inside areas, however, even with the really good-looking ones, like Breen's compound, or the stage in Elvet Theatre, seemed to lack the detail and diversity the outside ones had. Rooms and corridors, like ones in the theatre, or subway tunnels in the end of Finding Friends ended up being bland, undetailed or with weird design choices, which made them feel a bit like HL1 sometimes. The large sewer pipe in Crossing the Road could've also used some more detail, maybe grates in the ceiling, giving it some daylight and creating nice contrast in lighting.

Texturing was solid throughout, though I did find some texture choices pretty strange. For example, one of the buildings in the alley where you escape into the streets in Lockdown had a rather weird metal texture applied to its roof, which looked more like industrial floor tiles. A hotel building in Lockdown also had a wood texture applied, which is weird, since you'd normally expect tile or metal roofs in a city. The list goes on with supports in of the corridors seen upon leaving Elvet, where a texture more fitting for a round object was applied to a blocky support beam, making it look even blockier, some more strange roof texture choices and the use of big shattered window textures on ground level, which normally would be seen on top floors (to hide the fact that you can't go through the hole in the window, even if it's big enough for you) in Holy War and some weird choices in the subway tunnels right before the airboat part ends. However, a texturing glitch you'd normally never ever, ever, ever expect to find in any levels that Kasperg has at least tested, not to mention helped create, was in the large staircase leading out of Elvet in the beginning of Infiltration. It actually had the repeating stair texture problem, which Kasperg's covered and endorsed multiple times. A must-fix there! D:
When it comes to custom textures in TC, most of them were quite well-made and used right. Some textures, like the bookcase one could've used some more visible bump/normal mapping to accent the detail and make them look less flat. Custom Combine propaganda signs were also a nice addition.

Much like texturing, ambience was also pretty solid, however, some areas, like the apartments in Holy War, some parts in Finding Friends, seemed to lack some of the nice background ambient used so often in HL2, which instantly gives any area much more depth and realism. Sound choices were overall good and finding some good ol' HL1 stuff was pretty refreshing.
Of course, the main aspect making this mod bloom in the sound department was custom voice acting. Some characters did sound robotic or had strong, sometimes hard-to-understand accents, but the overall result was very pleasing and well-executed, even if performed mostly by amateurs. My favourite characters were Argento and Larry, performed by Jason Fielding and Eric Soderstrom respectively. Larry's voice did sound a bit akward sometimes; I'm guessing either the pitch was turned down a bit or the actor had quinsy on recording day, however, his phrases sounded very well with just enough emotion to make it real, while not going over the top. Well done. If I were working on a mod that needed some voice acting to be done, I'd definitely contact those guys.
As for lighting, it was plain superb. Lots of contrast and variation in almost every area really covered up the lack of detail in some inside areas, as well as enhanced the already good-looking ones. My favorite area was the one around Argento's bar in Infiltration. The orange-lit basketball court, combined with dark bluish night lighting gave that area some lovely contrast, as well as interesting shadows due to interesting architecture of the roof.
Some inside areas, however, like ones in the Elvet, were quite dull and boring lighting-wise. Some contrast, at least in light intensity would have worked extremely well there and might've hid some of the boring and blocky architecture.

Bottom Line

Overall, I think The Citizen was worth waiting for. With great gameplay elements, overall good looks and lots of room for improvement, its one mod you shouldn't miss. In short:
To Citizen!

Comments