A strong argument against this lingering notion that many gamers seem to have that a fan-made “fixed” remake, remaster or otherwise invasive revision of a game that actively changes core aspects of its identity should ever be taken in as a first impression of, or worse replacement for, an original work of art. And to be perfectly clear, I don’t believe that on any step of the development and production of Black Mesa that Crowbar Collective sought for this to be the intent nor the response to their work. Above all else, Crowbar are very obviously fans of Half-Life, and that passion shines through even from an outside observation of the time, effort, and communication the team put into creating this reimagining. I am also a big fan of Half-Life. That is, a big fan of Half-Life, the 1998 game. The other titles in the franchise haven’t ever quite worked for me the way the first one did, but I can of course acknowledge their very real and important place in both the history of Valve Software and of course the greater gaming industry and its progress at large. With that in mind, the permeating thought I simply couldn’t get out of my head with every later-entry-adjacent puzzle, every bombastic music cue, every chopped-in tie to the later Half-Life series, was that the developers and I were fans of the original game for flat out contradictory reasons.

I would say that I overall had a fairly good time with Black Mesa, but if I were to go down the list of pros and cons of the experience and then proceed to skin that list of the stuff provided by the original Half-Life, I think the list of positives is rather short. I’d like to address those first, because I want to come off at least somewhat positive about an experience I overall… liked. Some of the supplementary radio dialogue did well to add context without feeling invasive to the tone of Half-Life, especially late into the HECU breach as the Xen aliens begin to take over the rest of Black Mesa. I was happy to see the entire Half-Life tool-kit accounted for - Black Mesa was not so revisionist as to excise a weapon or two for the sake of streamlining the experience. Most play rather well but I do feel a greater imbalance was created leading players to favor the shotgun and SMG, which while fun to use shouldn’t and didn’t feel as overwhelmingly obvious selections in most scenarios in the 1998 title. I think the initial Tentacle encounter is probably a little better than the original game as far as detection of sound makers. For all the many, many issues I would have with this game’s take on Xen, I will admit that the abandoned base early on was really cool and felt in line with something the original game could’ve done tonally. And… that’s about where my Black Mesa-specific positives end, unfortunately.

I wish I didn't even need to acknowledge technical problems, but the loading times were worse than the original, my saves got corrupted like four or five times through a single playthrough, and sometimes flags just didn't work several times in a row. Much as I'd love to say these were my biggest issues with this project, sadly they're more of a negligible piece sitting in front of my actual, core problems with Black Mesa.

The overwhelmingly tone-deaf approach to reimagining Half-Life that plagues Black Mesa makes almost every change hard to swallow. I feel as if Half-Life was treated as a game to be ashamed of its own unique tonal identity in the execution of Black Mesa, given how many changes were contingent to keeping pace with the rest of the lesser entries of the series which would follow. And even then, I certainly can’t say that Half-Life 2, Opposing Force, or any of the other entries got nearly as bombastic and maximalist as this. Epic gamer metal tunes blast through previously alienating and uncomfortable hallways and gauntlets. Previously quiet and pensive strolls are stopped in their tracks for far less meaningful interactions than those they emulate from Half-Life 2. Tense, brief, but memorable boss encounters are stretched to the point of nearly a fucking hour at their very worst - frankly, the Gonarch encounter is embarrassingly bad. The entire heart and soul of some of Half-Life’s most curious locations is sucked out and spat out - is this supposed to be Xen, or application art to work on the next Avatar film? It’s frustrating how passionate this piece of art is, because there’s clearly a lack of mutual ground I share with why the game it’s trying to reimagine is so special.

Over twenty-five years after the original release of Half-Life, it remains my favorite first-person shooter ever made. It’s just as fresh, just as alien, just as unique as it was in 1998. Thanks to a massive rewrite of the sequel from its original 2001 concept and the subsequent influence it would have on both the remainder of Half-Life as a series and the greater market of first-person shooters, Half-Life remains one of a kind. There really is nothing quite like it. Black Mesa takes that ball, runs with it, and proceeds to make it feel more and more similar to everything else out there. The game is reimagined, but the heart is lost in the process. And no amount of polish can piece that together once it’s scrubbed out. That’s just my take on it, though. I really do send all the hardworking and passionate individuals at Crowbar my earnest congratulations. I respect the dedication, the execution, the grind. It clearly impressed Valve well enough, too. Keep making games, no matter what. Don’t let my equally passionate love for Half-Life put your flame out.

I'm speechless. Words can't do it justice.

Absolutely phenomenal game that succeeds on almost all fronts. I expected very little coming into the Crossbell games given my disappointment with the Sky games, but Zero and especially Azure blew me away.

The game has great pacing, one of the best in any JRPG I've played actually which is surprising because pacing has always been the series' weakest part for me. The cast is fantastic and a lot of them are well fleshed out with only a few exceptions. I love Randy and Wazy especially, their arcs really moved me. KeA is so adorable and she must be protected at all costs.

Lloyd motherfucking Bannings is such a great protagonist man. The perfect one for crossbell. A guy willing to stare at the face of despair and struggle with all his might no matter how hopeless the situation is. He's the perfect representation of the indomitable human spirit. He's also a great representation of Crossbell as a state, always being the underdog with constant oppressors holding them back, yet they will never ever backdown no matter what.

The plot was surprisingly complex too, escalating tremendously from the straightforward but solid narrative of Zero, tackling incredibly ambitious ideas with it delivering never ending, nail-biting twists until the very last moments of the game. Yet somehow all these twists never serve to muddy the core message of the game which is to rely on the people around you in order to overcome the mistakes of the past instead of taking the easy way out with ones problems. The game never crumbles from the weight of its own ambitions which is something I greatly commend the game for.

The antagonists are hit or miss, but generally I don't have a problem with them very much and I think they're better handled than Sky SC's antags as their dynamics with the cast feel more relevant to what's actually going on in the story instead of it being fueled by some random past history that's irrelevant to the plot. There are a few exceptions to this in SC but generally this is the case. Imo at least.

As for other stuff about the game, the ost is absolutely fantastic, easily one of my favorites in any JRPG with many bangers such as Inevitable Struggle, Mystic Core, Get over the Barrier, To be continued! And much more. The gameplay is stellar too, taking the already great foundation of the series and making it even better with the addition of Master Quartz which adds a lot more decision making in the gameplay.

All in all, Trails to Azure is essentially a masterpiece with very little issues and fixed nearly every problem I had with the series up to this point. The last stretch and conclusion of the game left me in shock and awe. Not only is it such a satisfying conclusion to the game thematically, but it also made me incredibly excited for the series moving forward.

Though it took a long while, I suppose Trails won me over at this point.