Mule
Map Labs The Grid 3rd place
Mule is a Half-Life 2 map that has the player gathering weapons for arming the resistance. From a central hub there are three paths to choose, with a unique weapon for each: rifle, shotgun, or crossbow. The player can do these in any order. Overall, the map takes 20 to 30 minutes to complete.
Each route is designed to fit the particular weapon. The shotgun route has the player crawl through zombie-infested sewers before finishing with a close-quarters warehouse shootout. The rifle route starts with long-range combat inbetween tenement buildings, close-quarters combat inside an apartment block (to take advantage of the rifle's alt-fire bouncing projectile), and ends with a difficult fight in an open courtyard. The crossbow route starts the player off with zombies as slow easy targets, before moving into a turbine hall for shooting gallery style combat against more intelligent and dangerous enemies.
This project was lead by myself with level design contributions from Lauren 'Yrrzy' Godfrey (shotgun route sewers) and Ase 'Pont' Kirkham (rifle route apartments), as well as voice acting from Sam Ricker. The map features original music produced by myself.
Orange: Rifle route, Cyan: Shotgun route, Purple: Crossbow route.