Black Mesa - legendary vaporware Half-Life remake finally out

[seco]

Half Life was never good.
Not a real classic.
Play real fps.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I heard someone was working on porting Uplink to the current version of Black Mesa. Not sure if that ever got done.

I hope it's true because in my head there's something improper if this mod isn't in a perpetually unfinished state lmao.

20 years from now we'll be waiting for Black Mesa: Alyx.

 

[Neuromancer]

I heard someone was working on porting Uplink to the current version of Black Mesa. Not sure if that ever got done.

Yes, "Further Data":
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2316239201

 

[JDR13]

I heard someone was working on porting Uplink to the current version of Black Mesa. Not sure if that ever got done.

Yes, "Further Data":
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2316239201

Meh... that appears to be "his version" of Uplink. I want a straight port without some modder adding his own changes.

 

[Neuromancer]

I heard someone was working on porting Uplink to the current version of Black Mesa. Not sure if that ever got done.

Yes, "Further Data":
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2316239201

Meh... that appears to be "his version" of Uplink. I want a straight port without some modder adding his own changes.

Yes, but the same is true for Black Mesa itself, where they also changed some things, especially the ending levels.
In this way, I think, he did a good job.

If you just want to play the original Uplink demo, doesn't it work on modern computers?

 

[JDR13]

I heard someone was working on porting Uplink to the current version of Black Mesa. Not sure if that ever got done.

Yes, "Further Data":
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2316239201

Meh... that appears to be "his version" of Uplink. I want a straight port without some modder adding his own changes.

Yes, but the same is true for Black Mesa itself, where they also changed some things, especially the ending levels.
In this way, I think, he did a good job.

If you just want to play the original Uplink demo, doesn't it work on modern computers?

I don't think it's comparable to Black Mesa. They made some changes to certain levels, but this guy apparently added entirely new maps.

I guess I could just play the original Uplink if I really wanted to, but it would be nice to have it in a newer engine.

 

[Konjad]

I have finally bought it on the last sale and I finished playing it yesterday. It's a decent Half-Life reimagination that is well worth the time, but falls apart once you reach Xen, just like the original.

This is not 1:1 remake, many maps are changed in various ways, but they artistically and gameplay-wise stay true to the original. Overall, it's improvement in most of the cases. Maps are often larger and with more events going on. Weapons and gameplay do remain the same as in HL though, and so do enemies. This means that all pros and cons of HL are still valid, including being a bullet-sponge yourself, the same applies to hostiles. Moreover, the whole game is a long corridor that you follow. Pacing is nice with both action and calm moments in-between.

Graphics are vastly improved and are pretty, although still feel dated due to Source Engine limitations. Especially the other worlds look good now. Music is good and plays only in key moments.

However, once in Xen, which is late game, the game becomes somewhat frustrating item finding to activate doors. The last chapter is especially frustrating due to being almost solely a long repetitive platformer with few fights once in a while, and a lot of waiting and item finding.

For the price on sale it's certainly worth getting. If you have played Half-Life before then know this is an overall improved version of it. If you've never played HL then it's a decent shooter/platformer with interesting setting and quite decent gameplay although extremely linear.

I will add a mention of multiplayer, which is certainly not worth even checking out. It's like HL2: DM but with worse maps and weapons. MP consists only of DM and TDM and a few small maps. When I checked online there were only 2 servers with people (6 and 7), so it's not popular either. Additionally, it crashed before I could even finish a match, while SP never crashed in my playthrough.

Would I recommend it over the original if you are new to the series though? It's a tough question. The first 2/3 of Black Mesa are superior to the original, but the last 1/3 is worse because the worst parts of HL got a lengthy extension.

 

[Yosharian]

Yeah I didn't like Xen either. Trying too hard.

 

[Alienman]

Damn aliens and their homeworlds!

 

[Ivan]

Xen is mostly disappointing, but there are some wonderful sections, particularly the first half, which reminded me a lot of Metroid Prime 1.

The latter half is awful though.

 

[Perkel]

I don't understand hate for Xen. It is like barely 30 minutes max of gameplay. When i first played it i thought it was cool. Sure gameplay was worse there but it was fresh air.

Imho if they were designing game again they should just put opposing force alien weapons there so that players could have new toys to play there.

 

[spekkio]

^
AFAIK Xen is much longer in Black Mesa than in the original game. In which it was already shit and too long.

 

[Sodafish]

^
AFAIK Xen is much longer in Black Mesa than in the original game. In which it was already shit and too long.

Yes. MUCH longer.

 

[Konjad]

I don't understand hate for Xen. It is like barely 30 minutes max of gameplay. When i first played it i thought it was cool. Sure gameplay was worse there but it was fresh air.

Imho if they were designing game again they should just put opposing force alien weapons there so that players could have new toys to play there.

You're talking about the original Xen. It was shit, but it was quick.

Black Mesa makes it hours long and not any better. In fact, even worse.

 

[ciox]

I'm a little surprised that no one is bothered by some specific changes Xen went through, not just the shift to being brighter and more colorful, but also the way it's now filled with a lot of very mundane-looking tech, both alien and manmade. The theme of Xen being an alien world is significantly diminished when there's ugly "xeno" metal plates everywhere and not just in the human-controlled areas, as if the latter were really necessary anyway.
There are certain feelings you're supposed to feel in Xen, from hopelessness to bafflement, and they just aren't there anymore, the thoroughly alien parts push you towards feeling like you're relishing in the beauty of Pandora or something, while the more industrial and xeno-tech areas look extremely familiar and reminiscent of what you would see on Earth. It's a near total miss on the right vibe, propped up a little bit by how crazy and involved the final battle gets.

 

[Lemming42]

Yeah, they completely botched Xen thematically. There are some good ideas - the increasingly-infrequent ammo boxes that teleport in as the Lambda team desperately send whatever they've got left to try and help you are a cool idea, the Gonarch chase is better than the original (which isn't saying much since the original was completely shit) and the Vortigaunt village is a really nice scene - but overall they just didn't seem to really get what HL1 was going for.

The sheer length of it, aside from being boring to play, is weird from a story standpoint too - one of the big complaints people have about HL1's Xen is that the action constantly builds on itself so brilliantly from Unforeseen Consequences all the way to Lambda Core, and then grinds to a strange and jarring halt with Xen. So the BM team's inexplicable solution was to make it drag way longer, to the point where by the time you've slogged through to the end, you've basically forgotten about Black Mesa entirely until Nihilanth starts throwing chunks of it at you. HL1 Xen is at least brief enough that you still feel some residual urgency of having to reach the Nihilanth and stop the invasion of Earth before it spills out of the facility, but in Black Mesa you're encouraged to marvel at the incredible vistas before you while your homeworld is potentially being ripped apart by alien forces. Doesn't work at all.

There's that bit near the end of the alien factory where the Alien Controllers trap you in the waste disposal system only to see you emerge minutes later with your super-charged Gluon Gun and sixteen-inch cock. Which is cool in and of itself, but it's just so weird compared to the original alien factory - the original is not fun to play at all but it does at least feel like you're lost and stumbling into places that you don't understand as you try to make your way through a place where you're unwelcome, unexpected, and have no idea what's going on. Black Mesa's makes you into some kind of shitty superhero who leaves the entire borderworld in ruins, which removes basically anything Xen had going for it.

 

[HansDampf]

This epic magnum opus syndrome is probably rooted in the long development time. Remember, the free version of Black Mesa (without Xen) was released in 2012! They promised to work on Xen and deliver it later. Years went by, they changed it to a full commercial release, and it took them another 7-8 years just to develop Xen, lol. It had to be something long and epic to justify the price and development time.
Still haven't played it.

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

The length of Xen is because it was kinda released separately, no? Clearly they felt they needed to make it feel like it was two parts

 

[ArchAngel]

I played this on and off over the years. I think in my last play I stopped somewhere in Xen, I do not remember finishing it. I might need to revisit my last save.

 

[Jenkem]

when will blue shift be done

 

[Lyric Suite]

when will blue shift be done

I just bought this on the latest sale and while checking out the workshop i noticed Blue Shift is being done as a mod. Not sure if complete or not.

Also in the workshop i found a mod that claims to be restoring the On a Rail hub, which apparently was butchered in Black Mesa because people (I.E., morons) hated it. Now i'm wondering if the 3 euros i just wasted on this thing were worth it. Seems like Black Mesa is total decline if they did shit like that.

 

[rezaf]

Seems like Black Mesa is total decline if they did shit like that.

You'll have plenty of time contemplating this question while playing BMs version of Xen.
PLENTY OF TIME

 

[Lyric Suite]

I haven't launched the game yet maybe i should refund it then lmao.

 

[Dayyālu]

I haven't launched the game yet maybe i should refund it then lmao.

You paid 4 bucks for it? It's almost its price. Personally, it's one of the few games I refunded: it never escapes its feeling of being a Half Life 2 mod. For sure, shitton of work went in there, but if you want to play HL1 simply play HL1. Combat and gunplay in HL1 are sadly superior to anything HL2 had to offer.

It's not bad, but it's *typical modder stuff*, a shitton of work for details no-one will care about and lack of concern for boring, but necessary routine.

 

[Lyric Suite]

It was 3 euros, which according to the sale tracker thing was an historical low (80% off):

https://isthereanydeal.com/game/blackmesa/history/

Full price is 15 eurobucks.

 

[Lyric Suite]

It's not bad, but it's *typical modder stuff*, a shitton of work for details no-one will care about and lack of concern for boring, but necessary routine.

Ok but i never heard of modders taking things out of the original game.

I know Xen was expanded because you guys were just talking about it in this thread, but i had no idea they shortened the whole rail sequence because people bitched about it. Who the fuck told them to mess with the original game anyway? Where did this presumption come from they can do better than what was there?

I just read the description of the mod that was supposed to restore the rail sequence and apparently the guy was hired by the Black Mesa team so the mod is only 60% finished. Lmao the fuck is this.

 

[rezaf]

I haven't launched the game yet maybe i should refund it then lmao.

You paid 4 bucks for it? It's almost its price. Personally, it's one of the few games I refunded: it never escapes its feeling of being a Half Life 2 mod. For sure, shitton of work went in there, but if you want to play HL1 simply play HL1. Combat and gunplay in HL1 are sadly superior to anything HL2 had to offer.

It's not bad, but it's *typical modder stuff*, a shitton of work for details no-one will care about and lack of concern for boring, but necessary routine.

I agree that original HL is better, but I also enjoyed playing through mostly the exact story beats with a much more modern presentation. Up until Xen, the game is a similar experience, especially when it's been a while since you played the original.
It doesn't expand on HL1 all that much, more often it trims - like in On the Rails, at least that was the feeling I got.
Once you reach Xen, though ... I realize Valve said a lot of what they intended for Xen had to be cut, and I realize many people hated the platforming, but what BM replaces it with ...
Parts of it are neat, but each and every section is five times longer than it should be to ensure you got to witness this or that clever mechanic they designed at least half a dozen times. Thus, the whole thing just drags on and on and on and on ... it isn't pretty.

Edit: Still definitely worth €3 in my book, though.