The Mansion 3: Freeman Residence

Looks quite nice from the screenshot. I just wish I had HL2 at the moment...

Neat, just downloaded it and will play it tonight.

Mmm. <3 Singleplayer

Will play when I get home....

I could spend ages writing about what I just played. I think the presentation, ambience and surreal events were great, and it's interesting to see how most of it was pulled off with elements from the standard HL2 material.
This mod really delivers in those little details, creepy events and OMG moments of surprise. Some of the custom materials and the way they were used were definately interesting.
Although the mapping has improved over your previous work (I'm thinking "The Mansion 2"), it's still sort of irregular. While texturing and entity placement is good, I feel the lighting in some of the areas is weak. There's a lot of dark/bright contrast games you can do with Source, and I don't think you used that enough. I understand horror maps use the flashlight, but It'd be interesting if the lighting was a bit better in some places.
In terms of architecture, I think it was interesting throughout all the maps, but in bigger areas some more detail was needed. The caves towards the end were kind of bad in terms of absolutely flat rock surfaces in some of the passages.
Gameplay was interesting with all that was going on, but one thing I missed was some game_text telling me what I was doing. I kept picking up keys without knowing which of the locked doors it would work on. It makes sense for Gordon to not know anything, but players don't mind a hint here and there. Combat was great, and It's releaving to not fight the Combine.
Good job overall.

Will not all the materials were from the original HL2, I did pull some texture from Counter Strike: Source and some models.

The dark areas are hard to balance because on some monitor its not dark at all, and some monitors its impossible to see, but ill work on it.

I understand. What I really meant was that lighting in a horror map can be used for more than just letting the player see. I know Source doesn't have real time lighting (which would open up a whole field of work in this genre, such as dynamic shadows moving around), so it's kind of hard.
Also, I had to noclip out of some places, as I had no idea what I had to do to move on. For example, the outside courtyard with the 'moon' and the monster coming out of the side halls...

When you kill enough enemies the doors will unlock in the court yard area.

Whoah.

This is great. I really enjoyed it. Almost every part of it impressed me. A synopsis:

+ intro is great

+ Like the font

+ All of the ambient sound is awesome, and really adds to the experience. Very, very good indeed!

+ Impressively surreal. Which I love. Expect the unexpected. I was so very impressed with your obviously very tight entity setup, which led to so many bizarre happenings on my screen.

+ Some areas are really strikingly beautiful.

+ The endless corridor. Please tell me how you did that. Please. Pleeeeeeeeeease!!!!

+ Although there were several points where I was scratching my head for a few minutes, I did not have to resort to noclipping to progress.

+ Difficulty was good. It was easy but felt rewarding nontheless. The hardest balance to achieve. Well done. I died only once, and I really deserved it, let me tell you.

+ / - The architecture is great in several places. Other places are very plain --- but the excellent gameplay and ambience cover this up a lot. I had to go into really picky mode to really notice. The cave near the end is where the blockiness is most obvious.

+ / - Some bits are a bit too black. There are a lot of pitch black doors which would look better if they were lit just a little tiny bit. But, I know how hard this is to do. This is one of the best night-time setups I've ever seen. So well done.

- The nodegraph for the first map wasn't built

- The game didn't end, it just faded out and stayed there. I swung my crowbar at the blackness for about 5 minutes just in case you put something else in. But then I gave up.

- There was one point, just after the first loading point, where I came up against a big invisible wall right across a corridor where I should really have been able to go. That was a bit crap.

This is great work. There is room for improvement, but I am still rating it 5 stars for how it is now.

MORE!

I'm stuck, I just picked up the key on the table in the library, monsters came, and now I can't get into any more doors. Please PM me with a solution (anyone). :>

I like what i've seen so far, even though the mapping is not that great. Some parts are too blocky, or have some odd texture usage, but the mod is entertaining enough to overlook it.

The icky scare got me good, and I love how you pulled of the looping hallway! Toggleable wall?

Anyway, i'll keep trying to figure this out tonight.

After you get the key in the library you should be able to open the door to the right after you get of the elevator.

Yeah, I managed to get into the room with the busted stairs, but no further. I'll have a good look in there tonight.

Well I finished it, the end was a little anti-climatic. As I said before, the architecture isn't too strong, but it was entertaining to play.

Unfortunately I can't play your map, but tinyurl that link. It's breaking the page.

Review

Probably the first thing you notice in this mod is the ambience. Both outside and inside - it was great. Smart use of soundscapes and verall good choice of sounds really points out the horror and surrealness even more. Lighting was also pretty nice, with some contrast and variety, though it could've been better considering that this is for Source.Another thing well made was the gameplay. You emerge into the mansion filled with nothing but one helluva load of zombies and headcrabs, given only your good ol' crowbar and trusty shotgun. NPC, weapon/supply placement was quite well-made, there was some key-collecting and backtracking, though it never got boring. One thing that might dissapoint the player though is that the combat, while being pretty well-balanced was mostly linear. The structure of the mansion and usage of fast zombies could've provided some fun and interesting vertical combat areas, though none of that was utilized. Still, overall - I enjoyed it.There were also details throughout The Mansion that kind of reflected Freeman's person. The huge bedroom with his crowbar, wine cellar with supplies and of course, a stained glass with the master of the mansion himself. The style of some puzzles was also pretty Freeman-like, so the fact, that this mansion is strictly Freeman's recidence was made quite obivious and proven well. Gman making the occasional random and unusual/weird appearance helped that a lot too. :>Horror was also one of the mod's strong parts. While having the usual blood-on-walls, corpses and spooky ambience, it also had some rather unexpected freak-out or just plain WTF moments. The corridor with an Ichtyosaur which scared me and, probably, lots of other players shitless, or the courtyard where the sky begins to fall.. literally.. are both good examples of that.While the mod was pretty strong in ambience and gameplay - the visual part of it was, mostly, a letdown. The architecture mostly resembled HL1, was overall blocky and bland. Texturing was an improvement from the last parts of The Mansion series, though it still needed more variation and overall more work in most areas.Outside - the mansion itself and the main entrance was quite well made, except for the horrible block-shaped bushes. Most of that area was also pretty blocky, but, at least, made a bit more realistic with props and some other details.Other outside areas were very, very, VERY bland. Both the courtyard with the moon falling and the back yard with a huge statue - they looked very poor texture and architecture-wise. Lithging wasn't much of a wonder there either.The cliff was only better looking on the outside. On the inside - the walls were perfectly flat. That's very poor for a rock surface.As for the inside - some of the rooms were, while blocky, pretty interesting, like the endless hallway, Freeman's bedroom, room with the pianos or the dining room. Even while the architecture/texturing wasn't at it's finest - that was usually covered up with nice details, interesting brush-based props or entity setups.

Bottom line

The Mansion 3, while not having fully utilized Source's potential, was very enjoyable to play. Combining awesome atmosphere and good gameplay, even with all the flaws, it gave an interesting surreal horror twist to the original Freeman experience already seen in loads of other mods.

Great job. A sure winner.

Are there instructions on how to load this? i'm new to source and also, can i play this in ep2?

absolutely amazing. This mod was so FUN to play, i want to give a try and make my own horror mod.. = )

++Superb gameplay
++Superb theme, well-executed
++neat "scary" effects, doodads, and tricks.
++Intro = pwn... me likey1
++great texturing and lighting
+good use of sound

-after the open courtyard with the moon "falls" i lost interest and stopped playing. Mod was super-strong in all respects up to this point.
-needed more combat at a higher level of difficulty.
-architecture is adequete, but a bit a bit squarish/blocky in areas (not a big concern)

This is the most-fun/entertaining mod i can remember playing in a long time. I love the atmosphere you pull off... it reminds me of the haunted house at disney... It's obvious you put a lot of time and sweat into this: Bravo!
= )

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