Black Mesa is... a masterpiece in dedication from long time Half Life fans. The fact Valve allowed a game like this to be created is both really heartwarming and really annoying when you think about it.
Heartwarming in the sense that Atlus had enough trust in CROWBAR COLLECTIVE (the studio that made this remake) to allow them to make this amazing remake. Annoying in the sense that Valve themselves didn't want to do a remake for Half Life 1.
The game is a master piece in terms of visuals in Source Engine 1, it's almost impressive how they were able to translate the original game and build it from the ground up in Source.
The game does a great job replicating the lengths of all the levels in the original game, while adding a couple of new segments in this remake to make the experience both longer and better, which can be seen as both a positive and a negative.
Positive in the sense that Crowbar Collective took the weakest aspect of the Original Half Life, being Xen, and made fleshed it out making it so fun to play through, especially with the fight with the Gonarch, even if the fight is a bit long. Xen in general got such an amazing update, it really is a fantastic upgrade to a weak part, making it the definitive way to play it. Though on the negative side, Crowbar Collective decided that some levels that were already perfect needed to be longer... which is where Surface Tension comes in. The length of the original level in the original game takes about an hour to complete if you're going at your own pace instead of speeding through, which even then might take you a rough 25-27 minutes if you're running through everything somehow, but takes roughly an hour and a half if you're going at a regular pace without taking deaths into account.
Crowbar Collective for some reason felt out of all levels to need longer lengths, they chose Surface Tension needed to be an hour longer, turning an already long level into an EVEN LONGER ONE.
This is to where the level starts off enjoyable... then you a get a bit confused but calmed when the level continues... then being more confused making you wonder how long this level is... then to annoyed that the levels somehow still continuing on in length... getting even more annoyed at how this levels STILL NOT OVER.... reaching a segment that makes you think you're at the end and finding out that's just the half way mark... continuing to grow more annoyed and bored at how long this damn level is... until finally reaching the end and feeling that a level that would've been considered great, has now become a level you will 100% never play again because of how damn long it is.
The weapons and animations are brought in from Half Life 2, with weapons not scene in Half Life 2, but in Half Life 1, brought back and updated into the Source 1 Engine to give us an amazing updates of said weapons.
The music is still just as good as the original with new tracks getting you pumped for every fights.
The enemies who appear in Half Life 1 have these beautiful updated designs to fit the Source 1 engine and look absolutely spectucular.
The scientists for the most part are just updated standard models from Source 1 engine, with some wearing outfits from Half Life 1 like guard uniforms or scientists outfits.
The headcrab zombies are still just as terrifying with them using the original sounds but updated that still makes them horrifying to encounter, and I appreciate the detail that on Xen, some scientists were wearing "HEV Suits", but are still controlled by the head crabs. The HEV Suit being the suit Gordon is wearing, almost like the game is saying "this could be Gordon if he failed to survive a headcrab attack," almost like it's taunting the player.
Crowbar Collective did an amazing job maintaining the creepfactor of the original, but putting it in Source Engine.
Apart from me criticizing how damn long Surface Tension is, there is 1 thing I would've wanted Crowbar Collective to reduce and that's how many damn barnicles there are, while yes barnicles are stationary and the only way they can hurt you is by you accidently walking into their extended tenticle, the amount of them in the game is a bit ridiculous, I know they wanted to keep the remake accurate, but reducing the amount of barnicles in the game wouldn't have been an issue, since for the most part they were put in to pad out the segments a bit, by making you worry about killing them when progressing through a certain location.
The unique enemies from Half life one like the HECU Soldiers, the Vortigaunts, Alien Grunts, and Alien Controllers are all updated to look so good in the Source 1 Engine, it's just amazing what Crowbar did with them here. And the 2 bosses in this game are just sooo amazing how updated they look with the Gonarch and Nihilanth being updated to look so spectcular in the Source engine.
I do think Crowbar could've updated some of the voice acting lines, but in general they just reused voice clips from the original game and dropped them into BLACK MESA, but updating the audio of the original recordings to sound smoother.
Still I think they could've added more voice actors for background roles instead of just reusing the original recordings for background characters, but then again I understand perhaps the budget went into development, and they didn't need nor want to spend resources on an aspect that was already completed.
I think this is a fantastic remake that Crowbar Collective made, I think if you want to experience the original Half Life in an updated way, I 100% recommend playing Black Mesa as the definitive way to play Half Life 1. Legit what Crowbar was able to pull off is absolutely astounding.
Only thing is they never made BLACK MESA BLUE SHIFT Nor BLACK MESA OPPOSING FORCES were made. They are in development by 2 different mod groups with Blue Shift Remake being called: "BLACK MESA: BLUE SHIFT" having completed 4 out of 8 chapters so far. With Opposing Forces, it's remake is called: "OPERATION: BLACK MESA" though we have no clue how long the spinoff chapters have been in development for, however it does has an official Steam Workshop page.
BLACK MESA BLUE SHIFT Link to Chapters 1-4: https://www.moddb.com/mods/black-mesa-blue-shift-remake
OPERATION: BLACK MESA Steam Workshop Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/311810/Operation_Black_Mesa/
This remake is absolutely amazing, if you love Half Life, or never experienced HALF LIFE 1 at all, I absolutely recommend BLACK MESA, this is a fan remake that is such a love letter to the franchise and is a fantastic addition to the franchise. I really hope whatever CROWBAR COLLECTIVE is cooking up next, is just as fantastic as what they recreated here. Whether its an original product or a remake of another Valve property, I'll be right there waiting and supporting them!
I absolutely recommend BLACK MESA -DEFINITIVE EDITION- it is an absolute masterpiece in fan dedication and remaking of an already amazing game.
Thank you so much for reading.
Heartwarming in the sense that Atlus had enough trust in CROWBAR COLLECTIVE (the studio that made this remake) to allow them to make this amazing remake. Annoying in the sense that Valve themselves didn't want to do a remake for Half Life 1.
The game is a master piece in terms of visuals in Source Engine 1, it's almost impressive how they were able to translate the original game and build it from the ground up in Source.
The game does a great job replicating the lengths of all the levels in the original game, while adding a couple of new segments in this remake to make the experience both longer and better, which can be seen as both a positive and a negative.
Positive in the sense that Crowbar Collective took the weakest aspect of the Original Half Life, being Xen, and made fleshed it out making it so fun to play through, especially with the fight with the Gonarch, even if the fight is a bit long. Xen in general got such an amazing update, it really is a fantastic upgrade to a weak part, making it the definitive way to play it. Though on the negative side, Crowbar Collective decided that some levels that were already perfect needed to be longer... which is where Surface Tension comes in. The length of the original level in the original game takes about an hour to complete if you're going at your own pace instead of speeding through, which even then might take you a rough 25-27 minutes if you're running through everything somehow, but takes roughly an hour and a half if you're going at a regular pace without taking deaths into account.
Crowbar Collective for some reason felt out of all levels to need longer lengths, they chose Surface Tension needed to be an hour longer, turning an already long level into an EVEN LONGER ONE.
This is to where the level starts off enjoyable... then you a get a bit confused but calmed when the level continues... then being more confused making you wonder how long this level is... then to annoyed that the levels somehow still continuing on in length... getting even more annoyed at how this levels STILL NOT OVER.... reaching a segment that makes you think you're at the end and finding out that's just the half way mark... continuing to grow more annoyed and bored at how long this damn level is... until finally reaching the end and feeling that a level that would've been considered great, has now become a level you will 100% never play again because of how damn long it is.
The weapons and animations are brought in from Half Life 2, with weapons not scene in Half Life 2, but in Half Life 1, brought back and updated into the Source 1 Engine to give us an amazing updates of said weapons.
The music is still just as good as the original with new tracks getting you pumped for every fights.
The enemies who appear in Half Life 1 have these beautiful updated designs to fit the Source 1 engine and look absolutely spectucular.
The scientists for the most part are just updated standard models from Source 1 engine, with some wearing outfits from Half Life 1 like guard uniforms or scientists outfits.
The headcrab zombies are still just as terrifying with them using the original sounds but updated that still makes them horrifying to encounter, and I appreciate the detail that on Xen, some scientists were wearing "HEV Suits", but are still controlled by the head crabs. The HEV Suit being the suit Gordon is wearing, almost like the game is saying "this could be Gordon if he failed to survive a headcrab attack," almost like it's taunting the player.
Crowbar Collective did an amazing job maintaining the creepfactor of the original, but putting it in Source Engine.
Apart from me criticizing how damn long Surface Tension is, there is 1 thing I would've wanted Crowbar Collective to reduce and that's how many damn barnicles there are, while yes barnicles are stationary and the only way they can hurt you is by you accidently walking into their extended tenticle, the amount of them in the game is a bit ridiculous, I know they wanted to keep the remake accurate, but reducing the amount of barnicles in the game wouldn't have been an issue, since for the most part they were put in to pad out the segments a bit, by making you worry about killing them when progressing through a certain location.
The unique enemies from Half life one like the HECU Soldiers, the Vortigaunts, Alien Grunts, and Alien Controllers are all updated to look so good in the Source 1 Engine, it's just amazing what Crowbar did with them here. And the 2 bosses in this game are just sooo amazing how updated they look with the Gonarch and Nihilanth being updated to look so spectcular in the Source engine.
I do think Crowbar could've updated some of the voice acting lines, but in general they just reused voice clips from the original game and dropped them into BLACK MESA, but updating the audio of the original recordings to sound smoother.
Still I think they could've added more voice actors for background roles instead of just reusing the original recordings for background characters, but then again I understand perhaps the budget went into development, and they didn't need nor want to spend resources on an aspect that was already completed.
I think this is a fantastic remake that Crowbar Collective made, I think if you want to experience the original Half Life in an updated way, I 100% recommend playing Black Mesa as the definitive way to play Half Life 1. Legit what Crowbar was able to pull off is absolutely astounding.
Only thing is they never made BLACK MESA BLUE SHIFT Nor BLACK MESA OPPOSING FORCES were made. They are in development by 2 different mod groups with Blue Shift Remake being called: "BLACK MESA: BLUE SHIFT" having completed 4 out of 8 chapters so far. With Opposing Forces, it's remake is called: "OPERATION: BLACK MESA" though we have no clue how long the spinoff chapters have been in development for, however it does has an official Steam Workshop page.
BLACK MESA BLUE SHIFT Link to Chapters 1-4: https://www.moddb.com/mods/black-mesa-blue-shift-remake
OPERATION: BLACK MESA Steam Workshop Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/311810/Operation_Black_Mesa/
This remake is absolutely amazing, if you love Half Life, or never experienced HALF LIFE 1 at all, I absolutely recommend BLACK MESA, this is a fan remake that is such a love letter to the franchise and is a fantastic addition to the franchise. I really hope whatever CROWBAR COLLECTIVE is cooking up next, is just as fantastic as what they recreated here. Whether its an original product or a remake of another Valve property, I'll be right there waiting and supporting them!
I absolutely recommend BLACK MESA -DEFINITIVE EDITION- it is an absolute masterpiece in fan dedication and remaking of an already amazing game.
Thank you so much for reading.
Lollycakeman
4 days ago