THE LOST SCIENCE LAB

HALF LIFE II CUSTOM LEVEL

OVERVIEW

I developed this Half Life 2 level in the context of a university project under the condition that the level fits into the existing campaign. In the level, the player moves through an underground, abandoned laboratory, similar to levels in Half Life 1. The level fits into the game after "Chapter Five: Black Mesa East", because the player falls into the abandoned laboratory during his escape and searches for an exit.

WHAT DO I LIKE ABOUT IT?

I particularly like the mood of the level, as it is quite dark and the hidden enemies always provide moments of surprise. In addition, it fits well into the campaign structure, since the level before is very quiet and story-heavy and the player is "safe", while the subsequent level is very action-packed. This, in combination with my level, results in the varied sequence "safety", "suspense", "action".

WHAT WOULD I CHANGE?

In retrospect, I would change or improve some aspects in the level. For example, the room with the maze of shelves is a bit too crowded and the player gets stuck on corners more often, so playing this room doesn't feel as good as it could. Also, I would prefer fewer individual enemies overall and instead add a few more fights with stronger groups of enemies that pose a real challenge. As for the general flow of the level, I would try to add a bit more structure to it, for example by having two individual objectives that are meant to be reached one after the other.

CONCLUSION

Overall, the creation of this level was very interesting and instructive. For example, I was able to notice the difference between a cool idea and the feel of the game in real-world implementation to a greater extent. Also, it was harder than expected to make the player feel like they were in a large research facility, while still dictating a relatively linear path. I had to keep finding creative solutions to dead ends and reasons why the player can't go any further at a certain point without always being faced with closed doors.