izigame.me

Black Mesa is an interesting project; not only because it's a ground-up remake of one of the most influential FPS games in history. It was originally planned as a free mod (and indeed an older version is available for free) but Valve suggested turning it into a paid-for product to the dev team. This relatively laid-back approach to their IP gave produced the best HL1 experience you can play right now. Then again, it also resulted in the existence of Hunt Down The Freeman, so I guess it balanced itself out.
Good stuff
+ Much improved visuals - textures, particles, character models, etc. This is to be expected since the engine was updated from GoldSrc to Source, but is also looks noticeably better than HL2. As a result, the atmosphere is probably the best of all non-VR HL games.
+ The Crowbar Collective improved on Half-life series' biggest strength - world-building and environmental storytelling. *Most* of the chapters have been changed to be less frustrating and more engaging to the player. In particular, On A Rail and Xen (more on this one at the bottom) chapters have been significantly improved. Virtually all maps have loads of new assets and nice little details added, making them far more interesting places that don't feel as artificial as in the original.
+ Gameplay has also seen a lot improvements, some brought over from HL2 (e.g. AI, physics), some brand new (auto crouch jump, ability to roll grenades). This also includes a combat rebalance - player carries much less ammo for the conventional weapons but enemies seem less damage-spongy. As a result combat is more dynamic and tense.
Bad stuff
- Not a lot of accessibility or UI-related options. Couldn't change crosshair colour which was annoying in the desert area.
- Occasional performance dips, with one instance where the game got stuck below 10FPS for some reason; fortunately, reloading a save created ca. 20s earlier resolved the problem.
- Loading times are kinda long-ish, particularly when a map has to be loaded, so when loading from main menu and when transitioning to a new area. This is pretty standard for Source games but still worth noting.
Xen stuff - a lot to discuss here so pulled it into a separate section
> It's no secret that the last few chapters of HL1 taking part in Xen are considered to be weaker than the ones taking place in Black Mesa. The developers were aware of this and as a result massively redesigned the entire Xen section of the game, which has taken them 5 years. Yeah, it was an ambitious plan but then again the challenge was also huge. The earlier levels have had noticeable changes as well, but nothing on this scale. As a result, the quality of Crowbar Collective's remake was bound to depend in large part on how good their take on Xen was.
> It starts off strong; the first chapter, 'Xen', is quite amazing. The visuals and the ambience are stunning. The gameplay is enjoyable, with a stronger focus on exploration rather than combat. Immediately some improvements are noticeable, with removal of fall damage being probably the most welcome one. All in all, very good start.
> Gonarch's Lair has been massively expanded, with the boss battle now being a huge, tense multi-stage experience. It felt just a tiny bit too long, but still pretty good.
> And then, there's Interloper. Ohhh Interloper... Widely considered as the single worst HL1 chapter, it needed the most amount of rework; but considering the strength of the first two chapters I was cautiously optimistic. The very beginning is pretty good with a fun fight in the vortigaunt village. Unfortunately it quickly goes downhill from there. This chapter is still filled to the brim with tedious platforming and puzzle-solving, with each of the puzzles repeated numerous times with minor variations; what little combat is there ranges from boring fights against the same 3 kinds of enemies over and over, to absolutely terrible (looking at you, conveyor belt fight). You'll be basically forced to main the 2 energy weapons as you will have little to no ammo for the rest. Sure, the dumb rotating platforms are gone, but every bad thing left in this chapter is magnified due to its length. Interloper goes on for way too long, much longer than the original. It's an absolutely excruciating gauntlet of platforming in drab environments -> rehashed puzzle -> annoying fight, repeated so many times that by the end I was completely exhausted and numb to most sensations. I cannot understand how this team of talented developers that managed to improve virtually all parts of the original title dropped the ball so hard with Interloper. If I ever replay Black Mesa I'll use cheats to skip this part. Still, it doesn't quite manage to overshadow the rest of the game.
> The final fight against Nihilanth is much more challenging and interesting than the original. Apart from the insta-death lasers, I enjoyed it. Good fight.