The movement and platforming still feel familiar, but I do think they've been improved a bit at least. Black Mesa seems better at that, probably mostly thanks to lesser limitations. I feel like the transitions between areas might be better too - I think the original had a bit of an "oh, I guess I'm here now" issue because of switching from one set of assets to another. That makes the previous, less imaginative levels feel like a buildup to something more interesting. It also has a great effect on the pacing - this game isn't just half grey corridors and half military base in the desert with a sprinkling of something more interesting at the end, the Xen portion makes up a lot more of the playtime. It has Abe's Odyssey vibes in terms of atmosphere and some of the new content ends up being the highlights of the whole game. The weapons seem of because the gun feel didn't get the upgrade their visuals and animations did, but they did retain great sound effects. Levels feel a bit more like spaces, there's more variety in and between them, the maps use light to guide you through them and it's much harder to get lost or stuck. The visibility isn't great, but the atmosphere is. I don't mind the low fidelity textures and geometry of Half-Life - I'm actually very fond of it because of the visual clarity it brings - but the monotony of Half-Life's visuals is what really needed improving and Black Mesa nailed it. If you can get past that, there's a worthwhile game to play in Black Mesa. I don't care how privileged or out of touch you are, both 8 FPS on my hardware and the >10x performance decrease in general just aren't acceptable. That's not a typo - consistent eight frames per second. On my i5 8400, 16GB RAM and 1080Ti, the game usually ran at 110-ish FPS, but in many scenes the framerate dipped a lot. the enemies' AI and animations can feel unevenīut the biggest issue with the game's polish is performance. the music sounds inadequate and isn't used well the controller support is iffy (I don't even think you can navigate through any menus without a mouse) the game feel is generally subpar (too much camera sway on movement, screen shake while shooting is too slow, rough animation blending and so on) the revolver's reloading sound is one file, but you can interrupt the animation with shooting or aiming while still hearing the rest of the reload in the background it's very easy to get stuck on level geometry in Xen levels the jump button doesn't work on upward slopes, even slight ones every time you change any graphical setting (including adjusting brightness), the game freezes, creates a broken save file, and often crashes for good measure This carries with it some issues, but the level design makes it worth playing, as it retains the best ideas found in Half-Life while improving and adding to it with great results.īlack Mesa feels like a lot like playing an older game with mods that try to make it modern - the textures, models and lighting have been improved, but the game feel just isn't up to par in comparison, creating a disconnect that feels sort of like experiencing uncanny valley. It feels like a blend between an Xbox 360 shooter and a PS2 adventure game with some "old game modded to look kinda new" graphics. TL DR - BM doesn't feel like a modern game, AAA or indie. I've seen it played long ago and tried to play it myself recently, but I bounced off it because of levels that I found to be confusing and the irritating platforming. Super minor spoilers ahead I guess? I'm not even sure if it counts.
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