Half-Life 2: Capture the Flag

Half-Life 2: Capture The Flag is a multiplayer capture the flag mod for the computer game Half-Life 2. Players are divided into two teams, Combine and Rebels, and try to steal the other team's flag from their base, and return it to their own for points. The public alpha version was released on February 12, 2005 and beta 1.0 was released on February 23, 2005. The latest version is beta 1.71.

Gameplay
Players are divided into two teams: Combine and Rebels, and must fight each other over the flag(s). The mod uses the standard Half-Life 2: Deathmatch weapons along with a few new weapons and ability-enhancing powerups known as 'runes'. There are three modes of play for Half-Life 2: Capture The Flag: Capture the Flag, Domination, and Reverse Capture The Flag.

Capture the Flag
Two teams fight to defend their own flag, and steal that of the enemy. The opposing team's flag must be brought back to their own to score points. One may only capture the other team's flag if their team's flag is back at their base. The team with the most captures at the end of the round, or the team that reaches the score limit first, wins the match. In the event of a tie, a sudden death overtime round starts. The team to score first will then win the match. If no one scores in the allotted time, the match will end in a tie.

Domination
In Domination mode, the two teams must battle over a single flag and hold it as long as possible. The team that holds it the longest for a certain amount of time wins.

Reverse Capture The Flag
Similar to Capture the Flag. Your base contains the opposing team's flag, and vice-versa, and the player must run their flag through the opposing team to get to their base. One's own flag must be brought to the enemy base in order to score.

Football
Instead of two flags and each team trying to steal that of the other team, there is one flag. Both teams have to take it and bring it to a capture point inside the enemy base.

Official Valve Matches
During the course of Half-Life 2: Capture the Flag's development two public matches have been organized with the development team of HL2:CTF competing against Valve, the matches being viewable by owners of Half-Life 2 through Valve's Half-Life TV. The competition was announced by Valve through their Steam service. The original telecast match ended with a draw for both teams which prompted the Valve team to ask for a rematch to be played at a later date.

The second match was organized via e-mail and announced over Steam. Several Valve developers, including Robin Walker (one of the Team Fortress and Team Fortress 2 designers) attended to compete in the match versus the Half-Life 2: Capture the Flag development team. The Valve team told the Half-Life 2: Capture the Flag development team that the match must be hosted on one of Valve's own servers and that they wished to see a copy of the mod's source code to ensure a fair match. The Half-Life 2: Capture the Flag development team obliged and sent them a copy of the source code and agreed to meet on a server hosted by Valve. It was revealed later, that Valve had apparently included their very own cheats into the mod's code specifically for the second match:

I heard Gman's voice saying "Rise and shine Mr. Freeman" and every player's view changed as Valve "transformed" into their superhero personas. A title came up giving the Valve employee's name and their alter ego, and they then changed into that alter ego, gaining several powers. One had a rapid fire rocket launcher and infinite health, another turned into a living combine plasma orb and rushed around touching everyone and vaporizing them, the scoreboard went nuts as the points climbed constantly in Valve's favor, even with no flag caps..

Reception
Half-Life 2: Capture the Flag met with positive reviews upon release. Several gaming websites and print media gave the game praise.


 * ModDB called Half-Life 2: Capture the Flag "the best multiplayer Half-Life 2 experience you are going to run across. Period."


 * Planet Half-Life states that HL2:CTF "provides an incredibly fun, action-packed experience for players of all levels of skill."