Black Mesa

I have not been interested in Valve's Half-Life games because I knew I wouldn't be able to appreciate the possible innovations they did at the time: I have already played newer games that have done same things better. Half-Life and its sequel would just feel old to me. Despite that however, due to a deep discount last year, I bought Black Mesa (or BLλCK MESA as it's stylized on the cover with the lower case Greek lambda letter) which is a third party remake of the first Half-Life (1998). Originally it was a free mod but later Crowbar Collective got approval from Valve for a commercial release.

A high quality remake

The purpose behind Black Mesa was to make a better version of Valve's Half-Life Source engine port from 2004. The attempt was clearly successful because Black Mesa's reception has been universally positive (currently at 95% overall user score on Steam). The only criticism I have seen often is about the endgame Xen chapters: Players feel the expanded levels stretch on for too long compared to the original (even if Xen was apparently considered the worst part of it).

Like in the original game, you play as theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman who is in the thick of things when a portal to an alien realm is (accidentally?) opened at the Black Mesa research facility. It eventually falls to him alone to put an end to the invasion.

Not having played Half-Life, I can't compare this remake to it -- I just have to trust others' words that it is faithful recreation. I can however tell that my expectations were correct. I didn't find Black Mesa very interesting and its mechanics were dull or even archaic. For instance, health and armor pickups always feel so unimaginative to me. Not being able to aim down sights also feels non-immersive.

I've only seen one mention of this but apparently soldiers in the original couldn't move and shoot at the same time. Even without the original experience I actually found it quite heckling to have them strafing around at full speed while laying full auto fire at me. It probably would have been even more annoying if I hadn't been playing on the easiest difficulty on which it didn't matter too much.

On a rare occasion I've seen someone including Half-Life games on the list of immersive sims. While it may indeed have influenced games like System Shock 2 and Deus Ex, Half-Life is so straightforward a first person shooter that it doesn't give you the same experience. The lack of roleplaying elements in particular is what leaves it off the list, in my opinion.

I was completely surprised by the long jump module Gordon gets for his suit though. It's not quite the vertical double jump the good modern FPS games have these days but it was cool, even if a bit clumsy. Ledge grabs would have been a welcome feature to go with it but that's definitely a later invention.

I disliked the game's sudden loading screens; they always jerked me right out of the experience. I'd rather take honest loading screen triggers like a confirmation dialogue than have the game suddenly freeze for a second or two. I suppose it allows you to carry stuff over to the next stage easier but it sure isn't a seamless experience. Sometimes you have an area transition in the middle of a ladder too which isn't optimal when you are trying to push something ahead of you.

Fun for achievement hunters

The original Half-Life doesn't have Steam achievements but Crowbar Collective made sure to add them into this remake. Their tone and unlocking requirements are very similar to those of Half-Life 2, meaning that a lot of the achievements are easy to miss and some require considerable amount of effort. The worst one is probably The Rare Specimen which requires you to carry a certain purple hat all the way from chapter 3 till the end of the game.

The hat likes turning on its side which makes it roll and often simply disappear when left on the ground: quite a lot of terrain features don't have collision with it. Ladders are bit a of struggle but not even close to the pain portals are. The hat's behavior is so wildly inconsistent with them: it can go through a portal on its own, get left behind, get launched who knows where, or just simply stay in your grasp. You never know what's going to happen. It's good the game has quick save/load feature -- it sure saw a lot of use.

As I was going for other achievements on my first run too, I had to lug around a poison cannister  as well for most of Xen. There was one jump where I thought it might not even be possible to go back to grab the other item anymore. I had to look it up but it was possible, just had to do a pretty difficult jump using the long jump module.

And as if the hat wasn't enough, there is another delivery achievement starting from chapter 13, requiring a pizza box to be taken to the end of the game as well. Some madmen have attempted doing both the hat and pizza achievements on the same run, which shouldn't be possible because carrying two things is not intended in the last chapter. I guess though that taking the pizza as far as you can saves you from having to restart so far back after finishing a run with the hat.

I didn't find the pizza as much of a struggle thanks to it staying put. However, its larger size proved to be a problem for the vents that suck you in. One floor vent very close to the end of the game I found outright not possible: the pizza would never come all the way through it with me. Finally I read a tip to place the box on the vent grate, shoot it open to drop the box in, and then throw all your grenades in the vent to have the pizza get pushed out before jumping in yourself. That worked on the first try and I was able to 100% the game.

Black Mesa ran well as was to be expected though there were some places where I noticed frame drops. The game looks good and Xen could even be described as beautiful. The Source engine's prominent human facial expressions are always impressive too.