By Alec Meer on November 15th, 2007 at 7:57 pm.
Nick sends a piece of Half-Life 2 fan-art ingenuity that’s not only awesome, but also going for free to anyone interested. Free! If only I a) lived in Minneapolis b) had an empty warehouse to keep this stuff in.
Seems a chum of his held a Ravenholm (spooky HL2 zombie level) theme party this Halloween, and now he’s not sure do to with all the gigantic and impressive props he made for it. To whit: a headcrab rocket, a stack of authentic HL2 ammo crates and eight replica buzzsaw blades.
Nice work, Nick’s friend Jarrin.
So, have a gander at the ad on Craigslist, and if you’re able to go collect this huge haul of unique Valve tribute, you know what to do. And if an RPS reader does grab this stuff, we fully expect to see what you’ve done with it, m’kay?
15/11/2007 at 20:31 Matthew Gallant says:
Best Halloween party idea ever? Definitely.
I bet the host dressed as Father Grigori.
15/11/2007 at 21:28 Nick says:
He (Jarren, the host) actually dressed as the G-Man. I was a City-17 rebel, and there was an excellent Alyx Vance there, as well.
15/11/2007 at 21:34 Matthew Gallant says:
@Nick
To stay in character, were you saying “excuse me” and reminding people to reload a whole lot? :O
15/11/2007 at 21:38 Wroth says:
I demand costume pics!
15/11/2007 at 21:40 Jarrin says:
Yes, he was.
Sadly, no one came costumed as Dr. Freeman so we couldn’t harrass him endlessly (or, alternatively, politely got out of his way when we would have inevitably blocked him in the hallway).
15/11/2007 at 21:54 Inglorion says:
I don’t mean to troll or anything, but I found Ravenholm to be the most boring part of the HL2 series thus far. Not scary either: just a bit eerie.
15/11/2007 at 22:00 Eschatos says:
Maybe if some of the traps were for sale, like the car crushers or a gas tank/electric spark combo.
15/11/2007 at 22:04 Alec Meer says:
I thought Ravenholm was the worst part of HL2 too, as it happens. In terms of level design/structure, anyway – the atmosphere certainly worked for me.
15/11/2007 at 22:04 Will Tomas says:
I dunno, I quite liked Ravenholm. I came to it on the back of just having played Doom 3, and kept thinking all the way through, “this is so much better than Doom 3.” So that rather brightened my view of it. Also those black headcrabs managed to be fairly freaky. And realising you could sythe down zombies made me grin like a maniac.
But different strokes for different folks. Personally I found much of Episode 1 to be the most boring (read: routine) part of the HL2 series, but thankfully Ep2 made up for it.
Anyway, back on topic, those props are nicely done. Although mocking up a Gravity gun (with blu-tack on the end? Double-sided sellotape?) would have been brilliant.
15/11/2007 at 22:07 Nick says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB_TmIJ12Wo
Headcrab rocket mobile phone video, crappy quality
15/11/2007 at 23:17 Chis says:
This is how successful those crates are: I desperately want to smash them with a crowbar. :P
16/11/2007 at 02:32 chesh says:
Oh, man, I totally grew up right by there (50th and Vincent). If my dad hadn’t just moved out of state, I’d have him get it all and somehow ship it to me in Utah.
16/11/2007 at 02:35 chesh says:
And for the record, I loved Ravenholm. I kept a single Weighted Companion Blade through the whole level, but it was tragically lost somewhere in the mines :(
16/11/2007 at 09:01 JVGP100 (Katsumoto) says:
I’m afraid the second level of Episode 2 takes my award for shittest moment of HL2+Episodes. I thought it was by far the weakest moment in the entire series, including Half Life 1. You know the bit I mean. Antlions. That spit. God.
Incidentally, awesome costumes! A step up from the normal “i’m a pirate” routine that gets rolled out.
16/11/2007 at 12:22 derFeef says:
I want to have on of these crates. Having it in my room makes me feel safe. “Im sure there is something useful in there, regardless of the situation I am facing” Thirsty? break it and there is a bottle of water inside. Cut your finger? break it and there is a plaster inside. Your girlfriend is getting romantic? You know what do to…
16/11/2007 at 14:25 Andrew says:
Awesome, I love the crates. Ahhh…memories.
If anyone could get some better pictures or info on how they were made then non-Minneapolis people can make their own! That’d be cool.
Great idea too, I’d go as a rebel since it’s a lot more personal then one of the main characters, and you can utter nonsensical things all the time!
16/11/2007 at 23:11 FaceOmeter says:
I’d like to join the Ravenholm apologists (and by the way, awesome props, minneapolis people!). I *hate* Ravenholm, but I think it’s designed to be hated, and it works brilliantly. Think of how delicately valve manage your ammo conservation. They put enough ammo in the level that you can get through, but not so much that you aren’t CONSTANTLY wetting yourself. Genius.
And that’s before you factor in my pathological, irration, crazy fear of headcrabs. I’ve been known to jump backwards from my computer desk. I mean, seriously, I have a problem. And don’t even TALK about the sodding fast ones… uhuhuhuh
Overall then on Ravenholm-
Design: 10/10
Enjoyment: -10^10/10
18/11/2007 at 13:05 pikov says:
A Weighted Companion Blade is quite nice, but I enjoyed Ravenholm much more when I replayed it with my Weighted Companion Ball (stolen from Dog).
12/08/2008 at 14:15 mike says:
ravenholm was crap bang zombie dead bang another zombie dead ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz