(note: this review originally written 28th Feb 2001)

"Surface Tension" was, by far, the best part of the original Half-Life single player game. It was the section just after the cliff, where you come through some tunnels only to find the surface above crawling with grunts and a tank. It has awesome deathmatch potential due to all the tunnels and trenches, and that is exactly what the author has delivered here. And he's even been kind enough to throw in a free... Jumbot waypoint file.

Having made a couple of Opposing Force maps based on this part of the game myself- see op4_tension and op4ctf_tension- I know just how hard this area was to make, so you can't really accuse the author of stealing someone else's work and calling it his own (and he has made it clear that it's a conversion of a single player map by Valve). It may not look it, but the curved roads and tunnels are really annoying to do properly, just decompile the original BSP and see for yourself. The level consists of just the area with the trenches; the author hasn't added the road leading down to the rocket firing APC, or the sandy area through the smashed wall, or expanded into the large repair bay. Just the plain and simple tunnels and trenches in this version. Oh, but no tank that shoots at you. That would just be stupid.

The original level had small underground tunnels, so that they'd hamper your movements in attacking the grunts above. The author has now made these tall enough so you don't have to crouch through them, although they still connect the same trenches together, plus there's a small pump room that's been thrown in. The small repair bays have also been slightly altered to enhance the level, as you can make them raise, offering you access to a longjump module sitting in an air duct.

The map is best played with up to 4 players in total, any more is simply carnage. Less experienced players often head straight for the RPG, which is sitting under the bridge smack bang in the middle of the map. They can easily be dispatched from above in relative safety (it's a rare map when you actually use your hand grenades!) providing you stay away from the back walls. Everyone else uses the shotgun, seeing as there's plenty of ammo for it and it works well in the tunnels. The 9mmAR is also present, with one set of grenades for it, but there's actually very few bullets for it. You can use the crossbow if you wish, but there's no safe spots to camp from. Weapons are generally placed well, especially the RPG, and there's plenty of player starts to try to cut down on respawn camping (which occurs quite often, but that's inevitable in a map like this).

R_speeds are a slight problem on this map, with w_polys sometimes reaching 600 when looking towards the trenches from the repair bays. E_polys also cause a bit of slow down, perhaps caused by the water, but he didn't add any waves which would have just made it worse.

My only reservations about this map was that it was probably too small- it would have been great if there was an extra arena or two outside, perhaps involving the road down to the APC/tank. Doing so may have just detracted from the main trench experience, but it would be nice once in a while to just take a breather. But an excellent job all round- another brilliant level that Quantum Saint can add to his extensive mapping "bag o' wonder" (or something analogous to that).

Design
Fantastic fun for a small number of players.

Gameplay
No sound effects or other fancy effects, but suffices. There's not much time to stop and admire the scenery anyway.

Verdict
The best part of the original game, converted into an excellent, but small, DM map.

Pros
The best bit of the single player game

Design
Atmosphere could have been better

(note: this review originally written 28th Feb 2001)

"Surface Tension" was, by far, the best part of the original Half-Life single player game. It was the section just after the cliff, where you come through some tunnels only to find the surface above crawling with grunts and a tank. It has awesome deathmatch potential due to all the tunnels and trenches, and that is exactly what the author has delivered here. And he's even been kind enough to throw in a free... Jumbot waypoint file.

Having made a couple of Opposing Force maps based on this part of the game myself- see op4_tension and op4ctf_tension- I know just how hard this area was to make, so you can't really accuse the author of stealing someone else's work and calling it his own (and he has made it clear that it's a conversion of a single player map by Valve). It may not look it, but the curved roads and tunnels are really annoying to do properly, just decompile the original BSP and see for yourself. The level consists of just the area with the trenches; the author hasn't added the road leading down to the rocket firing APC, or the sandy area through the smashed wall, or expanded into the large repair bay. Just the plain and simple tunnels and trenches in this version. Oh, but no tank that shoots at you. That would just be stupid.

The original level had small underground tunnels, so that they'd hamper your movements in attacking the grunts above. The author has now made these tall enough so you don't have to crouch through them, although they still connect the same trenches together, plus there's a small pump room that's been thrown in. The small repair bays have also been slightly altered to enhance the level, as you can make them raise, offering you access to a longjump module sitting in an air duct.

The map is best played with up to 4 players in total, any more is simply carnage. Less experienced players often head straight for the RPG, which is sitting under the bridge smack bang in the middle of the map. They can easily be dispatched from above in relative safety (it's a rare map when you actually use your hand grenades!) providing you stay away from the back walls. Everyone else uses the shotgun, seeing as there's plenty of ammo for it and it works well in the tunnels. The 9mmAR is also present, with one set of grenades for it, but there's actually very few bullets for it. You can use the crossbow if you wish, but there's no safe spots to camp from. Weapons are generally placed well, especially the RPG, and there's plenty of player starts to try to cut down on respawn camping (which occurs quite often, but that's inevitable in a map like this).

R_speeds are a slight problem on this map, with w_polys sometimes reaching 600 when looking towards the trenches from the repair bays. E_polys also cause a bit of slow down, perhaps caused by the water, but he didn't add any waves which would have just made it worse.

My only reservations about this map was that it was probably too small- it would have been great if there was an extra arena or two outside, perhaps involving the road down to the APC/tank. Doing so may have just detracted from the main trench experience, but it would be nice once in a while to just take a breather. But an excellent job all round- another brilliant level that Quantum Saint can add to his extensive mapping "bag o' wonder" (or something analogous to that).

Verdict

The best part of the original game, converted into an excellent, but small, DM map.