Coastline to Atmosphere mod for Half-Life 2

It has to be said, that so far, this mod features some very poor level design. The number of times the controls are wrenched away from the player, or a text prompt appears on screen to guide you, is really quite telling.

I appreciate that every level designer has their own way of doing things, but there are still golden rules that everyone should follow. A major rule that Leon appears to struggle with is "show, don't tell." If pressing a button in a room then requires a cutscene to show me what it did, then the layout is poor. If entering an area without a key item requires a "Go back!" message, the guidance is poor. Source has the tools to guide the player without ripping control away from the player every time they press a button. Need to open a distant door? Use a monitor to show the door, or have the door in sight. Want to tell the player that they'll need a keycard? Show them the locked door first!

If the player enters your level and you have to immediately tell them, "There is a keycard in one of the buildings outside," then I'm afraid you've done a poor job.

I've heard Leon's releases compared to the boomer shooters of the late 90s, but even they had level design principles. They NEEDED to follow them, because NPC dialogue and cutscenes weren't a thing. You were always in control. You were expected to find your way and levels were designed with this in mind (most of the time anyway).

Boy, that was tiresome af, endless spawns of soldiers, creator doesn't know where to stop

Of all the mixed bags in the Half-Life modding community, SPY-maps is the mixiest of them all (perhaps only Fakefactory can compete for this title). Leon's mods have a lot of weird design elements to them (a lot of intrusive, unskipable, unnecessary cutscenes, endless keycard quests, incomprehensible choices of music, countless hordes of Combine), and this mod shows best that even without custom textures Leon's maps are entirely unconventional compared to any other mapper.

This lack of regard for any rules that most mappers would follow dates all the way back to Leon's first HL2 ingenuously titled mod Leon-HL2, but CtA really gives you a look at how one guy can make insanely huge mods that look almost like weird "modert art"-esque exhibits which I find quite appealing and replayable despite their lack of reason or logic.

The problem with Leon's mods is that it's hard to call them objectively good, and every aspect of theirs is up for debate. Some of those aspects are:
- the length. On one hand, it can be said this mod (like all of Leon's mods), has too much filler, that it prioritizes quantity over quality, and I don't entirely disagree. Still, this mod gives that sense of monumental journey (especially for 2006, when many mods only consisted of a few chapters). It's even in the name: you traverse from Coastline to Atmosphere.
- the challenge. Half-Life 2 wasn't exactly known for its difficulty, so it makes sense that many first-time players who are used to regular HL difficulty are caught off guard by the mod's massive hordes of Combine, some even turn on cheats just to get through it. But for Leon, who's always been a "boomer shooter" kind of guy, this is probably normal. And it makes sense that Combine are throwing so much of their forces to stop Anti-Citizen One. Personally I never had problem with difficulty; the number of Combine is massive, but they're not too smart and there's usually enough ammo and health-kits/batteries.
- the gameplay. The gameplay loop of this mod (and all of Leon's mods in general) is pretty shallow: go forward, shoot Combine, go forward, shoot Combine, turn left, find key or press button, shoot Combine, go to locked passage/door/gate, take a car, shoot more Combine. This goes on for 5-8 hours. There's not much to spice up the shooting gallery, not even physics puzzles (in fact, I can count on one hand the number of times you're required to use the gravity gun in all of Leon's mods)
- the map design. The "look and feel" of Leon's maps is quite distinct, but not always in a good way. Even outdoor areas look narrow and claustrophobic (just compare the first map of Minerva Metastasis, which was released in 2005, with the first map of this mod), not to mention the corridors of the Combine space station. Speaking of Combine, none of the "Combine" areas even look Combine at all. There is no alien-ness to them, no bizarre shapes and edges, no catwalks suspended above bottomless chasms, no overwhelming sense of scale that leaves you feeling like a microbe crawling through the cold, metallic arteries of Combine buildings. That's the kind of feel you get when playing through the aforementioned Minerva Metastasis. The space station has the most bare-bones, dull-looking environments I've ever seen. A lot of people will feel discouraged from even trying to complete CtA because of this kind of level design.

The mod is good. The puzzle really make my brain need to work. The map is long enough, and that's my favorite. Only one problem:
THE DENSITY OF THE COMBINE THAT MAKE ME RANT AND HITING IMPULSE 101 FOR MANY TIMES (especially because I customize the skill.cfg). Conclusion: I love and hate this mod at the same time. That's all, and good job Leon~

Here's part 1 of an ongoing series I plan on making of this mod! Stay tuned for more!

not played this one in YEARS .... loved it when it came out and still love it .. not an easy one but fun.

Here is part 1 of a multi-part series on this mod, feel free to use the footage for whatever!