Nova Prospekt

[Samon]

Now I loved Nova Prospekt, it’s practically my favourite chapter. I loved the beach assault, the cliffside ascent and the courtyard showdown. I love the battles through the abandoned areas of the prison, now containing little more than the odd Combine filter field.

The battle to the depot was a great one, and we were shown a mass invasion of the antlions until...we reached one of the depots (there was more than one). We re group with Alyx and begin our first insight into the Combines operation at the converted prison, but that’s the best eye opener we get.

For Entanglement I hoped for a battle through the Combines processing facilities, and the areas you see on the monitors back in the outer areas. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the basement areas, I just expected to see the inner areas so to speak, and a greater push on the antlion attack. Surely the Antlions managed to push in that far, unless the Combine walls managed to hold them back.

Just some thoughts whilst playing through again.

[Polaris]

I agree, Nova Prospect (and coast bunkers, infiltration) is great, Nova Prospekt interior is very realistic, atmosphere here is very cold and depresive.
But unfortunately it's same cause like Xen - some poor players don't like this (http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=78885&page=6) :(

[Loke]

I liked the part of Nova Prospekt were you are walking on the upper left side of the big bathroom area were you also fight the Antlion Guard.
I like it mostly because it's so quiet, no music, no background sounds or anything. Then you jump down and see the Antlion Guard spotting you through a door across the other side of the room, then the battle start. Pretty freakish.

[xombine]

I love it just because of the antlions. I've played that chapter so many times just to watch the antlions slaughter the troops over and over again.

[Jintor]

I love fighting the gunships... although that was the last part of Sandtraps. Best bit is fighting your way through the cells.

[<RJMC>]

I loved nova prospekt,it really feels like a concrete prison it is,I even remenber I was passing tv channels and there was like a spanish movie in a prison and it was very similiar to nova prospekt,not the same but similiar,even in the colors and textures,but it was ambiented in like 1930 so it was less technologic

[UltimaApocalypse]

I wanted to see some parts where humans are being transformed into Stalkers. All you got to see was one Stalker in a pod :(

[ríomhaire]

I liked the part of Nova Prospekt were you are walking on the upper left side of the big bathroom area were you also fight the Antlion Guard.
I like it mostly because it's so quiet, no music, no background sounds or anything. Then you jump down and see the Antlion Guard spotting you through a door across the other side of the room, then the battle start. Pretty freakish.
God. I jumped down and heard a bang. Looked right and the guard was almost on top of me!

[kupocake]

But unfortunately it's same cause like Xen - some poor players don't like this (http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=78885&page=6) :(
If Xen had a fraction of the design sensibility present in NP, it would be far better for it. Nova Prospekt isn't a mish-mash of random ideas and props. It's a beautifully realised, sinister locale. Xen is like an Eton schoolboy's attempt at describing an acid-trip to his working class relatives in an attempt to make himself "down with the boys", when in reality he ran away and hid in the toilets for the quarter of an hour it took his Mama to come pick him up in the Bentley. All the cliches of being "far-out", none of the conviction.

And anyone who dislikes Xen for any reason as lame as it's alleged difficulty is a silly fart head.

Edit: Slightly more on topic. I greatly enjoyed the Beach Assault. I think it's particularly interesting how Valve adopted a gameplay feature that had not only been newly invented, but had become hackneyed and unoriginal, since the time of the original Half-Life. Then they turned it on its head by casting the player as a lone nerd commanding a hoarde of ferocious alien bugs. And so the Beach Assault is revitalised.

[jerkasaur]

yeah, i loved that coastal battle, along with the rest of it.

[Max35]

The Coast assault was great, so was the NP interior. I wish it had been more like the concept in RtB though, with more alien touches added in as you progressed. Entanglement was pretty good, but sometimes the "basement crawl" got a little on my nerves. Also, the music when you first enter NP was top-notch and atmospheric.

[Eejit]

I lovhow battles you see first hand and via monitors often turn out differently when you replay Nova Prospekt.

That, and Myrmidont fights :)

[Vagrant]

I didn't really like any of it. I found all of it kinda boring to be honest. The assault with the Antlions SEEMED good, but weren't really.

[Rizzo]

I thought it was kinda cool. And i enyoyed the assault. And how can somthing seem good when it isnt? If you play it i mean.

[Mr. COWmaster]

The assault was awesome. The old concrete buildings also increased my liking of the level. Plus it was at night, which is also a plus.

[GratsiDos]

(quick chuckle just to hear own voice) I just finished up Nova Prospekt the other day. I enjoyed it with unbridaled passion unheard of in such things.

It just has such variety, the open beach assault, the cramped corridors, Combine, zombies, a puzzle (but a fun one, not that damn zappy toaster {under the tub, three hour search...gah!} oh, sorry) and a big bug. Plus, the creepy gulag interior totally compliments my HEV suit.

[spf18]

Did everyone fight the first antlion guard in Nova Prospect? I just ran and laughed at him when I was safe. saved me some time.

[Sam]

I did, you let it smack itself off the walls a bit, hit it with the explosive barrels then finish it off with a crossbow bolt :P Quite satisfying really.

[Nu Zalem]

Nova Prospekt/Entanglement was awesome to say the least. It kept me on my toes.

[Rizzo]

haha i just now spotted Gman in NP. Cant belive i never noticed him before.

[Bob Saget]

I personally thought that Nova Prospekt was the worst level in the game. :P
Although I thought that the beach assualt was part of Sandtraps unless I'm mistaken.

[kupocake]

Although I thought that the beach assualt was part of Sandtraps unless I'm mistaken.
Yes, the Beach Assault is in Sandtraps because Nova Prospekt begins in the map after the courtyard gunship shoot-out. Chapters are a bit of an arbitrary criteria though. It's fortunate for Sandtraps that it's gifted part of Nova Prospekt, because a lot of Sandtraps is kind of dull...

[Bob Saget]

I thought that Sandtaps was badass. :(

I don't know, I just didn't like the close-quarter combat. It felt repetitive.

[Samon]

Sandtraps is hands down the worst chapter in the game. Not to say its terrible, but its pretty average. It felt like more of an add on to Highway 17, because all it consisted of for the most part was stops along the road.

Every chapter in the game had its own purpose and feeling, and for the most part something did occur that progressed the plot or added layers to the situation. Sandtraps...didn't, for me.

It had some awesome parts though. The zombie tunnel, the lighthouse and of course - the beach assault which in my opinion should have been integrated into the Nova Prospekt chapter as well as the courtyard. Sandtraps felt loose, and if it were to have been beefed up abit in terms of gameplay then it would have been so much better.