Seeing non-apocalyptic textures in hl2’s engine is cathartic.

I'm not sure what a "Half-life 2" is ... But I am familiar with City 17 from the Legendary game known as "Hunt down the Freeman" which "Half-Life 2" seems to have taken a lot of inspiration from.

The "before combine" maps are nice but there's one major flaw:

These maps remind me a lot of those pre-distater maps for Half-Life 1 that show Black Mesa if the Resonance Cascade never happened, I especially like the Highway 17 map. The water makes the place feel more lively.

Waiting for someone to make a pre-war version of the Citadel chapters

Imagine you finally defeat opresion of communisum, only to fall back into even worse oppression from aliens

The lighting in the new maps is just okay, so seeing the original maps side by side really made me realize how excellently crafted HL2 was. the oppressive feel of City 17 and the creepy atmosphere of Ravenholm are captured amazingly with the use of good lighting

The idea of pre-half life 2 maps in Gmod is very good, is like seeing a game that you played but in the past.

you know what? That's it!

These maps give me a happy and clean vibe, it’s sad the combine took that away.

Would be nice to see those "pre-war" locations with regular pedestrian NPCs walking about.

Glad you liked the maps! :) I've got a few more areas of Sector 17 that I will be making de-Combined

The city without combine feels just... confortable, great, happy and place you would want to live

This is honestly a good example of why ambience props are so important. The "After" images have a lot of rubble and things, leaves on the ground, sticks, pebbles, things that break your vision a bit. The before things are too clean, it's hard to believe anyone actually lives there. This city should have toys, cars, trash cans, empty bottles of booze (It does look like a slavic city after all), or even the leaves that somebody forgot to swipe.

The thing that hits me about these maps as a person who lives in Bulgaria is that the c17 map is just like a normal Bulgarian city that you would see in the summer times. (Also great vid Rad!)

5:38 is so beautiful. But if I saw it in real life, I wouldn't have batted an eye. It's weird how that works.