Published 2024-09-17
tag(s): #gaming #reviews
The reason I added the "(short?)" in the title is that my intent is that the review is not
too extensive, but I have no idea because I never wrote one before.
And the (pre) before review is because I barely started on the portion that has the most
changes, Xen. I got out of the laboratory, walked around a bit, and haven't played again.
Since getting the Steam Deck[1] one of my self-imposed rules is that I
will focus more on new games rather than replay things I have played a lot of times before.
In a way, Black Mesa is toying with that rule a bit, since I replayed Half Life a few times,
but years ago. And because this is a remake, ehhhh...it is
OK? [2]
The first thing to note is, instead of using GoldSrc, a descendant of the Quake engine, the
game uses Source. It has that gliding feel when walking that Half Life 2 has.
Graphics look modern enough, I am not big on graphics to judge this, to be honest. I like
games that have a consistent style. This one gets it right, as far as I can tell. It doesn't
look particularly impressive nor too dated...which is also something I am probably not the
best judge too, as I haven't played many current-gen games.
One of the better changes is how many models of scientists there are now, which is cool. You
can tell them apart easily, and they actually put this fact to good use (more on that in the
story section).
The weapons also look better, and the enemy models are much more detailed.
If you are an older gamer, you will find Black Mesa's graphics, sound and feel "fine". They don't get in the way. Maybe someone younger would say they look like crap compared to the latest CoD, but since I haven't played one, I wouldn't know.
I don't think anyone that can stomach my very plain website is young enough that they will be spoiled by reading this mini-review. And we can all agree not to revisit the story with detail, at this point it would be like re-telling Spider-man's origin[3].
As one of the first narrative-heavy FPS games, Half Life was definitely a novelty. Having a (somewhat) deep story with a silent protagonist was an interesting choice back then, and it still resonates nowadays for completely different reasons. Modern games have very talkative protagonists, and you chose how to reply/act in many cases. Some "modern" games that spring to mind as having a silent protagonist and heavy in story are Bioshock and Dishonored, but in those cases the world is very much fleshed out using TONS OF TEXT.
Half Life, and in this case Black Mesa as this hasn't changed much, instead uses very
light set pieces and some dialogue to convey what's going on. This economy of story is
something I appreciate myself, I think it strikes a good balance between "just shot
everything" and trying to give too much detail.
I read a comment in reddit lamenting the shift in tone from "unintentionally funny or campy"
dialogue to the more "relatively serious tone" in Black Mesa's. I don't agree, this is like
saying that you want the latest Batman movie to be as campy as the 1960s version. It was fine
back then but it would be very jarring now. The new voices and dialogue are a good change. The
story is a simple as it was before, but told in a way that feels immersive.
It wasn't a mind-blowing thing to see the Marines shooting the scientists for the first time,
the satellite launch, or the section where you activate the test rocket on top of the big
alien. It was nice to revisit them, there was a sense of nostalgia, but by now we have seen
much bigger set pieces.
One thing I guess I appreciated was that by being simpler, these scenes also felt very
interactive. A more modern game would have a bunch of quick time events around this kinda of
setups and to me that feels like a cheap way to get you to "play a cut-scene".
And one last very cool change, is that some of the scientist models and dialog now are retconned into characters that appear in Half Life 2. This isn't done in some exaggerate or fan servicey way. It felt pretty organic/natural.
I haven't played Half Life in a long, long time. Some of the maps weren't fresh in my memory
to do a 1:1 comparison. I did recall the rail section being much longer, and I appreciate the
simpler map they used for this episode.
I remember Questionable Ethics making an impact on me, and maybe because I am older, or maybe
because I wasn't as invested in the story, this time the chapter wasn't as memorable. I read
online that there are changes to this map, so maybe the original was very different?
Like I said in the intro, I just started the Xen section, and I can already tell how much it
has changed. I looked up some videos comparing it with the original game, and honestly, it is
a huge difference. I don't think it is a coincidence that when I saw it, it kinda blew my
mind.
I mentioned how some of the story beats didn't hit as hard, because there wasn't a surprise
factor. I suspect I had a bigger reaction to Xen because it was "new" 🤷 but I don't want to
take away from the amazing work the devs did with this section, aesthetic wise at least.
The weapons feel as distinct as before, which is awesome. I am not one for super-realistic military shooters, so having more variety is always welcome.
Part of me is like "give Crowbar Collective a pass, it's just a bunch of volunteers". But then again, Half Life 2 got this right ages ago, and nowadays there's TONS of console shooters, so really, there's no excuse.
Controller support in this game is terrible. Auto-aim is implemented in the weirdest way,
instead of being a little nudge to help, it is a feature that makes certain sections way too
easy, or impossible.
With autoaim on, your reticle "sticks" to an enemy and it is very hard to get it to
change to another enemy or to stop sticking so you can take cover. It is a very weird
implementation.
At first I stopped playing the game on the TV and used the Deck's trackpad and gyro. Eventually I tweaked my keyboard layer for gaming, and played in the desk with mouse. It improved the experience a lot[4].
I read online people suggesting there's still value in playing the original version of Half Life. I would like to think that yes, but honestly I would recommend new players start with this one. I think older gamers (like myself) take certain things for granted or we are used to an amount of friction that would turn off younger gamers.
Also, a lot of the original's games coolness, is not diminished in any way by the new graphical style. Look online for a video comparing the Half Life's "jump to Xen" scene, vs Black Mesa's, there's a lot of detail around the lab and portal that make the new version feel much more alive.
I don't know what prompted me to write a review for a game that is neither new, nor under-reviewed, but here we are. Spur of the moment posting, baby 😎