[GZDoom] Dooming The Bar: City 17 V1.1

[Chief Smokey]

Dooming The Bar is a project centered on bringing the Half-Life 2 beta's City 17 into Doom, composed of a fully playable 8-map journey from the Industrial sector through to Kleiner's lab as per 2001 and 2002 concepts, plus two bonus maps.

DTB is intended to be played standalone using GZDoom and the Doom II iwad.






Special thanks to Boondorl for the weather, parallax scrolling 3D skybox and ladder systems. Credits also to the Half-Life 2 Project Beta and Valve Cut Content communities for their continuing recreations and fixes of the original HL2 beta files.

DOWNLOADS:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DQipiu ... ljKPR/view
https://www.mediafire.com/file/egj9a6a3 ... 1.zip/file

RELATED:
https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/1 ... r-city-17/
https://discord.gg/S8jaGfw

[MonoculusRift]

Well! I must say, this was a treat to play through. It was nice to walk around the environments, and I got a thorough creepy feeling of loneliness as I played. The sound bites were definitely of assistance there, and the fourth map, City 17 Underground was probably my favorite of the bunch from the exploration of abandoned buildings and light platforming.
That being said, I'm unsure what feedback to give as this is intended as a recreation of an unfinished product, so I will hold off on comments of nodrawn textures and the like.
One thing I must say was confusing was doors- I was never quite sure which doors were actually usable, and this lead to wallhumping and an uncertainty as to whether I had truly "completed" a map due to the lack of a level end. I am not quite sure how to make these doors more distinct other than specific use of textures to codify them, or maybe desaturating those that are unusable. Additionally, the front door on the left of the "Manhack Arcade" appears to not function.
Good job, though. Liking the atmospherics!

[Chief Smokey]

I'd always intended to come back to this project, and after being busy with other content I've developed by understanding of UDMF further and now I'm much more confident and capable of providing an experience which is both true to the original beta style and worthwhile in its own right.

My plan is to expand upon the City 17 setting further and build a full journey through various 2001 and 2002 locations starting at the Industrial sector and ending at Kleiner's lab. Along the way will be the Terminal, the Consulcast, the Manhack Arcade and more. After this overhaul is done I may either decide to end the project or return at a later date to recreate another chapter such as Vertigo, Streetwars or even the Citadel.

I've started with overhauling city_test (Get Your Free TVs) and have taken more creative liberties this time around, but it still closely resembles its WC Mappack counterpart and now has more detailed assets like props and the Combine APC present.

[Chief Smokey]

In the eternal words of Gabe Newell: "These things, they take time".

The first map of the City 17 journey is complete, covering the Combine Factories section of the 2001 and 2002 storylines. Highlights include the APC Garage, Cremator Factory and Stenographer's Chasm.






Next stop: The Terminal.

[Chief Smokey]

[Enjay]

I have no idea how I managed to miss this project up until now. I've just "played" through the maps in DTB_V1 and although they are small and devoid of bad guys they are really well done. They are very atmospheric and look stunning. As MonoculusRift said, it's nice just to walk around them and they are creepily lonely and ambient sounds etc are used very well.

Is there an intention to populate the maps at all? Either way, I look forward to my next wander through City 17.

[PulseRifleFun]

WOW! That looks great! I think if these levels were tweaked and given a new story-I could see The Dark Knight Trilogy version of Batman sneaking around in those areas!

[Chief Smokey]

Is there an intention to populate the maps at all? Either way, I look forward to my next wander through City 17.

I do intend to add NPCs, but how much life they'll have is still up in the air. Whether they'll be stationary decorations or follow some basic pathing system is something that'll be decided on after I've done the maps.

I could see The Dark Knight Trilogy version of Batman sneaking around in those areas!

Tim Burton's 1989 vision of Gotham actually served as one of the inspirations of the old look of City 17 along with Dark City, Metropolis and 1984.

[Chief Smokey]

[Chief Smokey]

On top of the eight-map journey I'll be throwing in some bonus maps too. Stuff like "Free TVs", an alternate Manhack Arcade and more. Also I doubt that I'll be doing further chapters for this project seeing as how long and tedious it is to do these maps.

[Chief Smokey]

[Chief Smokey]

[Enjay]

Just stunning. Very, very impressive mapping there.

[Chief Smokey]

[Chief Smokey]