[map] They Hunger 3

This is a a discussion topic for the map "They Hunger 3" by unknown which can be found here

Map description:

Map screenshots:

Well, here it is- the third and final installment of the infamous 'They Hunger' SP/DM add-on. And I'll point out now that it's the best in the serious- and quite possibly exceeds most people's expectations! The story continues from TH2, as expected, with the background story becoming apparent as you play. The basic plot parallels Half-Life- some kind of weird accident (we never find out what exactly) causes a bunch of hungry zombies to appear in some rural American community, with the military being called in later on to despatch them, seeing as the local police force have all been eaten. Two problems- they themselves are being zombified, and they think that you're one of them. There's only one friendly NPC in the entire game, who happens to be a priest... Still, kill him anyway. He'll probably just turn into a zombie later on.

You wake up in a hospital in a daze after <!-- BBCode Start -->(the stuff that happened at the end of TH2- not spoiling it if you haven't played it yet!)<!-- BBCode End -->, with no weapons and plenty of baby-eating zombie nurses hiding behind bed curtains. Much like the majority of the rest of the game, each level is very well made indeed- there's tonnes of detail, from lab glassware to cop cars crushed under cave ins, and moody lighting to go with it. In a few cases there are even shortcuts if you're l337 enough to be able to 'do' them. The atmosphere is absolutely perfect, and makes sudden attacks by the zombies all the more startling. There's also loads to explore- you'll probably find yourself backtracking to earlier levels to go down that other pathway to see if there's some much needed health down there.

Unfortunately, Half-Life isn't really suited to 'doing' outdoor areas. It can't handle natural shapes or vast open plains- which is where my only criticism of this mod comes in. Like the earlier installments, a large number of levels in TH3 consist of simple, boring rocky paths, with the occasional pool of water or cave to explore. I got bored of these back in TH1- you can tell that they're only there because it's the easiest way to link together the various sections. You'll spend large amounts of time following a long, linear path, hitting zombies with your shovel to conserve ammo, and laughing at the sprite trees which should really have been made differently. There's also a really crappy tree texture that's used

But there is the odd interesting clearing, be it a railway or something that looks like Stonehenge, to keep your interest and stop you from feeling lost.

The later, indoor levels are much better. Without giving too much away, you return to the lunatic asylum/lab thingy as seen in TH2 where you accidentally reanimated the skeletons and fought endless waves of rabid dogs. The whole place has been completely ransacked, although oddly the vending machines still work! The end sequence puts Valve & Gearbox to shame- apart from being immensely fun (and difficult), it neatly wraps everything up. It's split into two 'sections'- a word of advice though, don't autosave or else you might get stuck... And I love that song at the end! You are what I eat/So much flesh, so much meat/With my hands your skull I will beat/And leave your carcass in the street. Pure genius.

As with the previous episodes, the main enemies are your bog standard zombies. TH1 had about 3 different types of these. TH2 put this number up to about 15- but this installment has about twice that number. Including all the original scientist/civilian zombies, there's now Hillbillies (one of whom has the face of Neil Manke himself!), complete with pitchforks, Nurses and Soldiers. That's not to mention all the new foes- including killer chickens, baby skeletons, rampant undead bulls and a giant bullsquid, as well as the dogs, skeletons and Frankenstein-type grunts seen in TH2. There's more enemies in this mod than there are in Half-Life itself! And things are made even worse in that you can't pick up armour- quite worrying, when some zombie attacks can knock off 40 health in one shot.

And there's a couple of new weapons for you to dispatch your unholy foes- including a TFC-style flamethrower (which, unfortunately, doesn't result in the heaving masses setting on fire), a chunky new rifle ("G36 Sniper Rifle") and a TFC-style assault chaingun, among others. My favourite addition has to be the sticks of dynamites that replace grenades though! Pity you can't use snarks... In this episode, it seems that Mr. Manke has been kind enough to provide you with more ammunition than you're used to- it's even more helpful that there are grunts for you to scavenge from too.

Not only is this an SP add-on! Oh no. I've been told that there's a DM game included too, which isn't a new addition to TH3, but is included (with previous TH versions) when you install it. Definitely worth a look- and apparently, the maps for them are all excellent too. Watch out for reviews of the HL conversions in the future.

So go forth and download this from FilePlanet (hey, if there's ever a reason to queue on that stupid site, this is it). I've seen full blown games that cost over ?20/$30 that aren't as fun...

Verdict

Stylishly and neatly wraps up the best custom SP mod ever made.

Well, here it is- the third and final installment of the infamous 'They Hunger' SP/DM add-on. And I'll point out now that it's the best in the serious- and quite possibly exceeds most people's expectations! The story continues from TH2, as expected, with the background story becoming apparent as you play. The basic plot parallels Half-Life- some kind of weird accident (we never find out what exactly) causes a bunch of hungry zombies to appear in some rural American community, with the military being called in later on to despatch them, seeing as the local police force have all been eaten. Two problems- they themselves are being zombified, and they think that you're one of them. There's only one friendly NPC in the entire game, who happens to be a priest... Still, kill him anyway. He'll probably just turn into a zombie later on.

You wake up in a hospital in a daze after <!-- BBCode Start -->(the stuff that happened at the end of TH2- not spoiling it if you haven't played it yet!)<!-- BBCode End -->, with no weapons and plenty of baby-eating zombie nurses hiding behind bed curtains. Much like the majority of the rest of the game, each level is very well made indeed- there's tonnes of detail, from lab glassware to cop cars crushed under cave ins, and moody lighting to go with it. In a few cases there are even shortcuts if you're l337 enough to be able to 'do' them. The atmosphere is absolutely perfect, and makes sudden attacks by the zombies all the more startling. There's also loads to explore- you'll probably find yourself backtracking to earlier levels to go down that other pathway to see if there's some much needed health down there.

Unfortunately, Half-Life isn't really suited to 'doing' outdoor areas. It can't handle natural shapes or vast open plains- which is where my only criticism of this mod comes in. Like the earlier installments, a large number of levels in TH3 consist of simple, boring rocky paths, with the occasional pool of water or cave to explore. I got bored of these back in TH1- you can tell that they're only there because it's the easiest way to link together the various sections. You'll spend large amounts of time following a long, linear path, hitting zombies with your shovel to conserve ammo, and laughing at the sprite trees which should really have been made differently. There's also a really crappy tree texture that's used

But there is the odd interesting clearing, be it a railway or something that looks like Stonehenge, to keep your interest and stop you from feeling lost.

The later, indoor levels are much better. Without giving too much away, you return to the lunatic asylum/lab thingy as seen in TH2 where you accidentally reanimated the skeletons and fought endless waves of rabid dogs. The whole place has been completely ransacked, although oddly the vending machines still work! The end sequence puts Valve & Gearbox to shame- apart from being immensely fun (and difficult), it neatly wraps everything up. It's split into two 'sections'- a word of advice though, don't autosave or else you might get stuck... And I love that song at the end! You are what I eat/So much flesh, so much meat/With my hands your skull I will beat/And leave your carcass in the street. Pure genius.

As with the previous episodes, the main enemies are your bog standard zombies. TH1 had about 3 different types of these. TH2 put this number up to about 15- but this installment has about twice that number. Including all the original scientist/civilian zombies, there's now Hillbillies (one of whom has the face of Neil Manke himself!), complete with pitchforks, Nurses and Soldiers. That's not to mention all the new foes- including killer chickens, baby skeletons, rampant undead bulls and a giant bullsquid, as well as the dogs, skeletons and Frankenstein-type grunts seen in TH2. There's more enemies in this mod than there are in Half-Life itself! And things are made even worse in that you can't pick up armour- quite worrying, when some zombie attacks can knock off 40 health in one shot.

And there's a couple of new weapons for you to dispatch your unholy foes- including a TFC-style flamethrower (which, unfortunately, doesn't result in the heaving masses setting on fire), a chunky new rifle ("G36 Sniper Rifle") and a TFC-style assault chaingun, among others. My favourite addition has to be the sticks of dynamites that replace grenades though! Pity you can't use snarks... In this episode, it seems that Mr. Manke has been kind enough to provide you with more ammunition than you're used to- it's even more helpful that there are grunts for you to scavenge from too.

Not only is this an SP add-on! Oh no. I've been told that there's a DM game included too, which isn't a new addition to TH3, but is included (with previous TH versions) when you install it. Definitely worth a look- and apparently, the maps for them are all excellent too. Watch out for reviews of the HL conversions in the future.

So go forth and download this from FilePlanet (hey, if there's ever a reason to queue on that stupid site, this is it). I've seen full blown games that cost over ?20/$30 that aren't as fun...

Design
The levels set indoors are fantastic- but some outdoor arenas seem bland.

Gameplay
Well, there's more monsters and weapons in this than there are Half-Life, not to mention all the custom sounds. Ammo & items are

Verdict
Stylishly and neatly wraps up the best custom SP mod ever made.

Pros
Massive mod that'll keep you entertained for hours

Design
Gets boring whacking endless zombies

I can't believe there has been no comments at snarkpit for this map

Anyhow even though I played it ages ago I'll comment on it:
Great mod although I say the ending kinda lets down the series.. Imean why end a zombie game with a helicopter fight... what was he thinking

Anyhow cool mod lol

BEST MOD!!!! 3\/3R!

I'd like some help then ill rate the map. I cant get it to work. And the readme doesint help.