Black Mesa Sector EPF is my latest map, and definitely the one I am most proud of. It was actually an amalgamation of a lot of discontinued maps I never released - I just thought to myself one day, I don't want these maps lost or the effort put into them wasted, so lets combine them into something fun. Turned out to be the best decision I made. I felt fulfilled that my old stuff was used, and it meant I focused on gameplay a lot more. The result was something that was included in an official version of the Sven Co-op mod.
There are a number of things I like about the map. Firstly, the looks. Despite using the tired and overused Black Mesa textures, mixed with some of the excellent Nightwatch textures, I think the map still achieves looking realistic and believable, something I'm keen to aim for. The lighting is also quite atmospheric.
Then I also enjoy the structure of the map and it's gameplay. It has clearly defined areas, and the players are guided forward in the map, so they have an idea of what do, as well as being entertained by a narrative. The HL1 music also helps the immersion back into the 'Half-Life' world, as well as setting the mood for each area the players explore.
Currently the negatives are that it is quite short. It will hopefully have some missions added for the next version, though it is very close to the engine limits. And whilst the map has random spawning monsters, it is lacking a good random mission to mix things up a bit.
Overall however, I'm very proud of having gotten this into an official version of Sven Co-op. It's certainly taken a long time, but hopefully this is something I can build on for the future.
Black Mesa EPF is included in Sven Co-op Version 4.6.
To play you need a copy of Half-Life 1 (available on Steam, under the Half-Life 1 Anthology) and Sven Co-op, which you can download here.
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