Welcome liberties are taken to cut out annoying segments of the original and add more of what works. This is an engine limitation the Black Mesa development team at Crowbar Collective likely had no way of working around, but it still makes it feel very old because you just don’t see that kind of thing anymore.Įven so, the atmosphere and action that made the original game so brilliant is brought out and highlighted even more in this version. Just like in 1998, they too frequently freeze the action as you’re walking down a hallway for around five seconds, even on an SSD. The most jarring thing, though, is the loading screens. Human character models and animations aren’t quite up to the standard Valve set with Half-Life 2 in 2004 (let alone the new bar about to be set in Half-Life: Alyx) and textures are pretty rough in a lot of places. but not as good as I willfully misremembered. Everything looks a lot better than it originally did, for sure. I'd love to see more games that are based in, or similar locations to, Black Mesa before and after the incident primarily because of how amazingly interesting and intricate the complex is.As someone who hasn’t replayed Half-Life since Valve ported it to the Source engine (without updating any of the models or textures) back in 2004, playing Black Mesa and fighting off a familiar interdimensional invasion was like putting on some smudged-up rose-colored glasses. I must agree, if there was any way, which there is likely not currently or in the near future to recreate/ invent entire new areas of the complex as it would look before the disaster, along with fully interactable NPCs and interesting side plots, I would instantly buy that, even if it were $100 or more. System Shock 2 is another game that I feel is very close to Half Life in how it makes you want to see what it was like before. Half Life will always stay at the top of my list of favourite games, especially parts like the Office Complex, Biodome and Lambda Complex because of just how interesting they are. It also made me kind of sad seeing all the possible advancements that were lost because of it. I don't know why, but seeing the drastic contrast between pre and post disaster at the beginning left me throughout both the original and this game leaves me wondering what day-today life was like there, and just how efficient and amazing it was. TL DR The Black Mesa Research Facility is f-ing MASSIVE, and I call on you folks to give your predictions!Įdit: I would also like to state that I'm going purely off of in-game info, including maps from both this and the original games.īlack Mesa is quite possibly my favourite game location of all time. Personally, I think what Gordon sees of Black Mesa is really only scraping the surface, possibly only a tenth, of a facility that is most likely the size of perhaps Rhode Island. From there you can see multiple topside complexes with large radio towers, office complexes and even a SECOND DAM.īecause of the absolute sizes of the complex (Re-iterating here: Multiple security levels, surface research areas and higher security underground complexes, two dams, a nuclear reactor plus several other large and smaller generator areas, underwater canals which could go on for miles, etc.) leads me to believe the complex is AT LEAST the size of a small city, with a huge population. The largest scale that you can really see in-game is when you're on the cliffside, during Surface Tension. I'm tempted to say it's around ten square kilometers, maybe larger, but then you've the multi-level structure to it, since it goes deeper underground consistantly. The entire complex is, well, REALLY complex, since you've got entire areas dedicated to civilian activity, research areas, weapons testing complexes, missile silos, multiple biodomes, etc. This is something I've always been curious about.
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