Black Mesa "Is It Worth Playing in 2024?"
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- Is Black Mesa worth playing in 2023? I've been wanting to play the original Half Life for years but the graphics from the GoldSrc engine have discouraged me from giving it a go. Have you played Black Mesa or Half Life? Let me know in the comments what you like or dislike about the game(s).
Game Review Playlist - • Game Reviews
Links from the video:
Crowbar Collective - • Black Mesa 1.0 Launch ...
phoon too much for zblock - • CSS : phoon too much f...
VideoGameCinema - • Half Life: Chapter 15 ...
Chamo Lily - • SOLUTION: Black Mesa (...
MELOO - • Horizon Zero Dawn: Beh...
Valve games - remade or not, aged like fine wine. Truly the crown jewel for patient gamers.
i wish they still made games
@@masteriansun well , they do but are incredibly slow on doing it i would say.
@@WamuroRiXi08 slow is an understatement. If there was ever a long con, they are the masters of it. lol
I think the biggest thing to mention is that the tram ride may seem outdated and boring, but as someone who played the original beforehand, it's definitely a staple part that'd be near impossible to successfully remove or even alter. I'd say that's the case for a lot of issues people may have; while it is a re-imagining, certain things just kinda need to be there, and those certain things that remained while the overall feel being improved and new is what made it successful in the end.
I would also like to just randomly add that the original and it's expansions (blue shift and opposing force) are still very worth playing through, Black Mesa is a great game but I agree with everyone saying that it's not a replacement for the original. Opposing Force is also just absolutely stellar, trust me on that
As you mentioned, it's not something you can just get rid of so I think Crowbar did the best they could with it. I'm looking forward to Opposing Force and Blue Shift in the future.
@@iampanax Operation: Black Mesa is supposed to have both campaigns, blue shift and opposing force. that is, if nothing goes wrong.
@@YipJason when is this planned for release? Or no dates yet?
@@DamienAlexander i have no idea
@@KawaiianArgument I still would disagree with you. I chose to play the original before I played Black Mesa, late last year being my first time playing Half Life, and I feel I made the best decision. If you're purely a logistical person, sure, only play the new remakes of stuff, but there's always something special about these older games that goes past nostalgia that I can't really capture with words. I suppose it's just playing it with the thought of "wow, this game was a top of the line technical achievement at a time," which Black Mesa isn't.
Im honestly really surprised how incredibly well this game aged. I think its 100% a must play (Also, i bought it for €3 so thats an absolute steal)
Yeah I think I got it for $10 and it was definitely worth. Let me know what you think of the game!
Lol "aged"? Black Mesa is still a very modern game. Your comment would make more sense if it was about the original Half-Life.
It's good to see an unbiased reviewer reviewing the game. I had been a huge fan of the franchise, played the original couple of times, and completed Blue Shift and Opposing Force, the same problems you were having, I had them as well. The game was lagging and at some times felt lacking. The main problem for me was the dark lighting thus I ended up leaving the game without completing it even though I have completed all the previous Half-Life games on the hardest difficulty possible. I did not feel the urge to complete the game when the only thing that was preventing me to go further was the damn lighting but still, Unquestionable Ethics was so damn well-made, heck I might even say it was better than all the other chapters EXCEPT Gonarch Lair's.
6:20 i liked the tram sequence, was some neat world building.
I didn't play these games way back when (I only played flight sims Il2 1946 mostly) and I started with Half-Life 2 just a few months ago and I really enjoyed it. I had Half-Life Source, and I started playing that, but I encountered so many glitches that I gave up and tried Black Mesa. I'm now most of the way through Zen, and I've enjoyed it so far.
A really good review but you need to take into consideration when the original game came out, sure the remake came out later but it still needs to emulate what the original does. The intro for example, the whole idea wasn't trapping the player in an enclosed space to show off the fancy graphics, it was more about engrossing the player in their world, giving the player context and establishing the character. By todays standards it has aged, sure, but it wasn't about showing off the new engine it was more about building a narrative which other games of the time would only do through intro text or even in physical manuals.
the engine used for black mesa was not the source SDK 2004. i believe it was the SDK 2013 singleplayer build, the same SDK used for entropy: zero 2.
@spaceshuttle that's not the point lol and with the release of source 2 SDK around the corner, hopefully the source engine will be used again
Honestly, I think black mesa is just a must have for anyone who loves half life.
Side note, in the original Black Mesa the forget about Freeman chapter had the music start as soon as they loaded into the map with the big fight, so you knew that stuff was gonna go down as soon as you loaded in. And the door was just wide open instead of having to crawl through a hole.
By the way, something not explained in game, the pistol has an alt fire that has a high firerate but high spread.
If HL is confusing, imo one of the most linear games ever made, then kids these days really have no chance to figure out anything on their own. Ever.
Very true first time o played hl 1 i was like 8 or something and finished it all true many times no problems.
To be fair, the original Half-Life did seem less linear than the sequel.
@@googlewolly not rly
@@Thedrunkenswede1337 Yes, really.
@@googlewolly no rly not
“I was unstoppable with the shotgun”
“Online was full of bots”😂
No game has ever had a better intro.
Yeah I'm not sure why there was a complaint about the 8 minutes of length. The whole point of that introduction besides showing off the facility is to set the calm before the storm.
@@RealHomeRecording the facility isn't all that interesting and most of the ride is just going through tunnels waiting for the doors to open etc...
@@TheXXGAMERKILLERXx it's an iconic scene for an iconic game. Removing it would have destroyed that nostalgia...although an option to skip it would have been welcome.
@@RealHomeRecording Just start from chapter 2 or 3? That's what I did because I payed the original Half life a few times 20 years ago or so and in general strongly dislike unskippable intro's and cutscenes because I'm not here to watch that stuff but have some action and play a game...
The comment on the lighting is interesting to me as I just did another playthrough of the game a couple weeks ago and I realized just how much of the game takes place in closed/condemned sections of Black Mesa and yet are extremely well lit and doesn't even require the player to turn on the lights. It would be interesting to see how the game would feel if the maps were modded to take this into account as there is plenty of "downtime" in the game where the focus is more on exploring and puzzle solving instead of intense combat.
I felt that the game was too lit, especially the tram section at the start, so was surprised with the too dark comment as well. Felt kind of comical when the tunnel gets lighted up before the tram continues when it's already bright as day in there.
a lot of the issues you had with black mesa were skill issues, and most are also present in the original half-life. i absolutely love half-life, beat it twice (only beat the xen chapters once tho). i never played black mesa but i plan on doing it when i buy a new laptop. i do agree that the puzzles in xen where you plug things in can be tedious, and im glad there were only 3 of those in half-life 2 and its episodes.
That beginning scene, you can jump on railing of the elevator so headcrabs are jumping over you into their doom.
Interesting. I just saw a video of someone building a barricade of barrels and boxes preventing the headcrabs from falling down the elevator altogether.
On the contrary, the Hivehand is IMMENSELY useful in campaign.
The one BIG reason is because it is an ammo saving wonder to dispatch headcrabs, zombies, Ichthyosaurs, and barnacles at a safe distance with regenerating ammo, without needing to expend limited ammo from other weapons.
2nd reason it is useful because the hornets, or whatever those things are being shot from the Hivehand, have the ability to home into the target, so which also mean that you can safely hide behind and edge corners when you have enemies chasing you while you run backwards for them to never get line of sight of you in CQB situations. However, the biggest use for the homing ability of the Hivehand is to seek out the Ichthyosaurs when they are difficult to see or spot deep in the water.
As for Snarks, they are also useful for the following reasons:
1) You can use them as area denial weapons in high traffic player areas where players often spawn or have very high activity for lazy free kills, and I did this many times by spamming a huge volume of snarks into those places.
2) After picking up a highly valuable item drop spawn location, like rocket launcher or Glon Gun spawns, then place a large volume of Snarks on the spawns since players really would want that item for them to fall into a trap. To add to this trap tactic, this can also be an effective troll tool of putting many snarks around health kit spawns and health stations to trap players that to those locations when they are low on health in Deathmatches.
Killing Ichthyosaurs it's the best feature 😭
Haven’t even watched the video yet, and I’ll say that it is definitely worth playing! Super immersive, great gameplay, and the additions that Crowbar Collective added to xen breathes so much more life into the game.
After watching the video, I think I agree with a lot of what you say! My only gripe was about the game being too dark, and the game not holding your hand. The tentacle section is meant to be stealthed, and you’ll hear a guard mention that it can only hear before you enter the area.
Overall I really liked your video, great job dude!
Thanks for the comment and feedback! Yeah I ended up crouch walking and throwing grenades at the tentacle section to complete it, I must have missed the guard talking about it.
I was just about to say the same thing, but not as well said as this. The moment I saw the title, I immediately knew the answer to the question.
I picked it up for 4€ few days ago and for that money it's a steal.
Nice vid!
There's actually a pretty well made mod for Black Mesa called Black Mesa: Blue Shift. Chapter 4 just released and it's awesome
Thanks. I'll have to check it out
@@iampanax Seconding this, I actually like the Blue Shift remake better than the base game now
@@naturesquad9174 crowbar collective actively supports the creators of said mod by promoting them every time a new chapter comes out
I think still worth it for today because Black mesa has a good storytelling, great graphics, friendly for mods
I was born in 1984, thank you very much. I was following the development of the original Half-Life for years before its release. It was originally intended to be a hub-based world, although I feel like the way it came out was probably the right choice. 😀
excellent review. the game is a fiver again. cost me 1.04 since i had some credit. Can't wait. I remember very little of HL. I'm upper 50s so I played this when it first came out.
I watched my oldest Cousin playing the "questionable ethics" chapter back when I visited him as a little kid and it blew my mind. I only found out about Half-life in 2020 and was trying to remember what that amazing game that I saw my cousin play was. When I found out about Half-life and Black mesa, I of course wanted to play it.
So, even though its on a personal level, I do think that black mesa is worth playing in 2023
Yeah it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be initially. I'm glad that it was recommended to me.
Personal Opinion, but many point you made are either skill issue problems or, it just shows how games have devolvled in the modern time.
I love that in all the Half Life games there is no active thing showing you where you have to go, its all good map design, and the game doesn't treat you as some dumb player...
Same goes for having puzzles and having to think. It's great that Xen is Longer than it is in the OG Half Life.
And many have already said why the tram part is great and I think it isn't outdated it fits greatly into the world building.
"Crossbow is kinda like an AWP with a 5 bolt clip"
*CSGO gets updated so the AWP only has 5 rounds in its magazine*
...Oope.
I disagree completely with your tram ride comment. It's not unnecessary at all. It's world building. It's "a normal day of work." You get to see the detailed facility, and future areas that you will be heading to. It's not just for the devs to show off the engine or their extreme attention to detail and passion for the project, but it's also immersive. The combination of the music and the sights just set the mood and tone. When I play a story/progression heavy game, I don't sit down with anxiety to quickly get through it as fast as possible. I sit down ready to enjoy the direct and environmental storytelling, and in this game its a treat, due to the fantastic soundtrack and the artwork/visuals.
fun fact this game was never made to "replace" or "remake" half life 1. it was a replacement to half life source. half life source is a half life 1 on half life 2 engine however it was a buggy mess and valve had no care about it. half life source was said to be a "remaster" of half life 1 which people though it was going be like black mesa. so fans made this to be a replacemnt to half life source. for people who wanted a true remaster of half life 1. half life source is now delisted on steam the only way to get is through steam buddles. if you do go back and play the origanl play half life 1 and not source beause source is a buggy mess.
Hey, I am the setanexample guy from the multiplayer part of the video, I was at the top of the scoreboard. This game normally doesn't have problems with bots or cheats, since the servers for black mesa aren't very good, you're bound to see some choppy gameplay so it would seem like the players are bots.
dude theres a section like maybe an hour into HL:A and you just see them terrified of the vortigaunt
instantly stopped being scared of them
I get chills everytime I see a poison headcrab in HL:A
It does i played it over christmas (played hl2 like 2 years ago and never got the story) but man i had a blast
Awesome gameplay an the graphics are sick to
I'm curious now. Did you use both firing modes for the hive hand? One is rapid fire and the other tracks enemies. Even tracking over walls and around corners.
I dont remember really. I think I just used LMB which followed around walls.
Theres nothing about it that is really bad, just a lot of smaller nitpicks that add up by the end, otherwise an absolutely amazing and faithful take on an iconic game
I've been playing it recently. Have mixed feeling on it. It's a smoother experience, but good lord can it be a very frustrating game.
Yeah I was ready to be done with Xen towards the end.
playing it right now its a masterpiece and rivals "real" modern games. AI is tough, graphics look sexy as hell, the mood, the shadows, the lighting and soundtrack.
It’s crazy this came out like a year and change after Duke 3d
It's a good video. Hopefully you'll play the original more and try out its expansions.
Thanks. The expansions are definitely on the list
the tram ride.
the thing is that in most game there is a tram ride.
exept that in thoes game its a heavily scripted cut scene where maybe you can walk and look at what you want but usually its just you and two other dudes in a truck foe 30 min plot dumping.
then explosion and right into action except you still can´t do anything. you might as well not bother to shot as enemies don't really care if you hit them or not.
your friends are so heavily scripted that a bug will soft lock the game if a trashcan falls over a railing on the wrong side (the devs fix was to put a invisible wall over the railing making sure the trashcan can´t land in the wrong place).
also there is a blue shift version out now Black mesa Blueshift they released chapter 1 to 4 last year.
Well with quicksand if you quick save after a poor or right before a poor platforming segment where you can't escape you are kind of screwed unless you have manual saves lol
True. Luckily I didn't run into that issue
@@iampanax I ran into that issue with a different game it sucked and I saw someone trying to a let's play of a game he quicksaved at a point he can't escape dying right before the last boss and had no manual saves.
I get that HL1 is old, but black mesa will be the first time many new players like me get to experience it. I stopped the video because it's way too spoiler heavy for me. Many descriptions of what Happens in specific levels, not so much critique
I tried the same thing you did at the end of the video.
I gave up after two minutes. Don't think you can get in there...
The tram ride was made longer in black mesa lol
Good review. Black Mesa is a lot of fun. Can't go wrong with any Half-Life game.
If you can figure out how to get blue shift mod to play it’s really fun as well
I still haven't played Blue Shift or Opposing Force yet. I haven't checked to see if the remakes are out yet
@@iampanax blue shift up till you hop into xen then it’s to be continued. Haven’t heard much about opposing force. Hopefully soon! I’d spend 30 bucks to play as a scientists pov tbh
It's alright bro I didn't play half life 2 until 2008 and half life 1 until 2013
I was born in 90
My opinion half life is a classic up there with OG DOOM
The only major gripe I have with Black Mesa is Xen.
Yes, Xen was a broken mess in the original and was obviously rushed, but it doesn't overstay its welcome. Black Mesa's Xen absolutely DOES imo, its way too long and I honestly got bored long before it was over.
I get WHY they made it so long, it took them so long to finish that if they'd made it the same length as the original's Xen ppl would've updated the game expecting this grand finale only to be met with severe disappointment, but making the new Xen so bloated and padded was not the solution imo. To this day there does not exist a version of HL1 that makes me actually want to keep playing after I get to Xen.
install some workshop mods like improved xen and you might reconsider
@@mokior8609 Eh, maybe.
As it stands though, in either version I usually just throw in the towel after the big teleporter setpiece. Both are amazing games and one of them is definitely in my top ten (I just flipflop on which tbh), but neither one sticks the landing imo if I'm being honest.
Come to think of it, alot of my favorite games have really bad final areas. System Shock 2 is my favorite immersive sim and my second favorite horror game after the original Dead Space, but MAN does it go downhill fast once you reach the Body of the Many or whatever
I have to agree. Xen feels like it was made by inexperienced devs. It looks great, but they didn't test the pacing or progression enough to see how flawed the whole area is.
@@rodryguezzz kind of ironic considering they had early access public data for years on end...
I am loving it so far and I'm in VR.
0:37 you were in elementary school, I was in high school in year 8
Having to compare this to halo and doom as i never played helf life. Zen looks really good.
'the crossbow is kinda like an awp with a 5 bullet clip' welp that didnt age well...
Did the nerf actually do anything competitively? I can't think of many instances where having 5 or 10 bullets really matters either way.
@@iampanax 5Ts push you miss a shot...
I was 18 when half life 1 released 😭
You can change the crosshairs characteristics with console commands
I use the hive hand for barnacles and zombies to save ammo
ive been on the one multiplayer server that has bots, they can talk for some reason.
Strange. How do you feel about the Black Mesa multiplayer?
@@iampanax really fun but the gluon gun is fucking annoying and should just be removed from dm maps.
short answer: abso-fucking-lutely YES
Have you played the opposing force or blue shift remakes?
@@iampanax I've played Black Mesa Blue Shift, and love it, unfortunately operation black mesa has not released but once it does then it will be the only thing I play for months
Is Black Mesa Worth Playing in 2023?
yes
What do you like about the game?
Imagine not having played HL1. Geez
It really is the epitome of the patient gamer, though. Wait 25 years for the game to reach its full potential
I'm a little slow 😅
black mesa is amazing!! original is great too but black mesa just made everything better.
Half life deathmatch is a good example of why multiplayer in half life sucks in my opinion. People who have never played any other fps besides counter strike just flying around insta killing you makes for a really not engaging experience.
@@KawaiianArgument ill just stick with Squad
This game worth playin in 2123 too
Good to know. Got any powerball numbers I can have?
How do you know what cleaning your ears out with peroxide sounds like
Experience. Put a couple drops in your ear, hear the sizzle and clean out the ears.
Absolutely incredible remake. Interloper still sucks though.
Yo do you recommend it? It for like 5 bucks rn
Yeah go for it! It's not perfect by any means but I'm glad I finally got to experience the original Half-Life story
"I never played the original Half-Life"
ò_ó go play the original right now!
~Seriously though, despite Black Mesa being incredible, and in my opinion, *THE BEST REMAKE EVER,* and yes, totally being able to give the original Half-Life vibes, and also being able to actually introduce you to the series, I still think everyone needs to play the original Half-Life because of all the importancy and all it did to genre, to see how pretty much all FPS games you play today started from, it being the basic gameplay, to the programing on enemies AI, or their skeleton structural body...
Haha I'll have to give it a playthrough one of these days
Be glad you're not playing the 2012 version
yes
Why
Without watching. Yes.
NEW BLACK MESA?
New?
Back in 1998, all the other kids talking about Half-Life giving them night terrors. I was just casually playing the game & enjoying my time.
No, because I said so
Lol haven't played the original Half-Life or Black Mesa. What a wasted life 😀
This was a great review. Thanks.
Thanks 😄
omg its id software not ID software
Have you played half life 2 and its episodes?
I played Half Life 2 over 10 years ago but never played Episode 1 or 2.
@@iampanax you should def play ep 1 and 2
@@iampanax no way u didnt
How can I play this on my Mac
You could try Parallels. I've run Windows CAD/CAM software on Macs with Parallels. I don't know how smoothly a game would run though.
gamerboy80?
VERY WORH PLAYING!!
Like 3 ads in less than 10 minutes here. WTH
Just play the original instead.
The most annoying npc are the military. They are hard to kill. Fucking skill issue
💯
They are literally just the HL2 Combine Soldiers with different character models and higher weapon accuracy.
Bro, I have a question, can you make a video or send me a link to download black mesa for free and complete please😢
Its currently at its lowest price ever on Steam for $4.99
This still needs higher textures in it for me it just looks bland
Why can't we have FPS like that anymore?
Nowadays, we got some stupid competitive multiplayer FPS (never even played any of those, so I don't even know what they're all about), retro FPS with simplistic gameplay, and "FPS on rails", like the Call of Duty games.
Where are the REAL good old FPS with engaging stories, fantastic level design, making us feel like we're living an exciting adventure?
I never feel that anymore.
WOW. YOU'RE NOT VERY GOOD LOL😅
It was a nice video until you started crying about the tram and getting lost and a whole bunch of crap. Go, take your dislike
lol I didn't realize I was crying, thanks for the support.
@@iampanax if you complain about the tram you are totally a crybaby
@@Nandreani Nah
I'd rather play the og game tbh
Ive played half life 1 and black mesa. Black mesa miles better i dont care what anyone says.
Bro you complain about the introductory scene of 8 mins and I've just watched like 3 minutes of your video and I'm out
The original is much better
How so?
Each to their own but to the majority no chance
How ?
Better gameplay and gunplay, better music, better voice acting and Xen isn't as bloated
Yes, it certainly is worth playing in 2024, especially for people who’ve never played it before, it is very challenging, the soldiers were tough, and it is a really fun game; I played it over and over because I love it and lots of times I changed it up a little bit as to how I play it like I give myself different kinds of objectives to do if you play it a lot; Like how perfect you can do something or how fast you can do something just make sure to save it first lol ☕️ or 🫖🥯
yes
What do you like about it?
@@iampanax in my opinion, I think this remake surpasses the original half life! The story is practically the same with a few spin from "Crowbars interactive" and a graphical face life.