Black Mesa Mod finally coming out (well part of it is)

[Mr. Analog]

After 8 years the Black Mesa Mod is finally coming to fruition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_mesa_mod

The mod, using Valve's Source engine has been plodding along for many years now and has over that period garnered some interest/support from Valve itself.

From what I gather it was a ground up rewrite of the original game by an all-volunteer staff.

It goes live in 9 days.

[Thorin]

Wow, that's some dedicated fans.

[Mr. Analog]

Wow, that's some dedicated fans.

Yep, so dedicated to Valve they work in Valve time (j/k of course, I'm glad they did this).

My only fear is that if things get complicated legally for them they could end up high and dry like a couple of other fan-made projects.

[Mr. Analog]

So, downloaded it and gave it a whirl, it's pretty epic, they've changed enough stuff to add new and interesting challenges AND of course it looks amazing.

Certainly worth the price of admission (FREE!)

[Mr. Analog]

Played all the way to "Surface Tension", so here are some thoughts

Good Points
-It looks AMAZING

Honestly this is a visual feast with tons and TONS of detail, quite an achievement especially since they appear to be using the 2007 Source SDK. From broad vistas to moody corridors everything looks amazing. As well they updated all the maps for more in-world consistency as well as sprucing up puzzles, very few video gamey contrivances, they have actually worked out how to make most stuff appear to fit in-world.

-Enemy AI is actually challenging

The soldiers actually flank you rather effectively not to mention attack in waves with covering fire, monsters like bull-squid will use their abilities rather intelligently (instead of just locking on to you and spamming their unique attacks). I had a room of Vortigons appear and I ducked back to avoid getting zapped and reload, when I popped around the corner THEY'D MOVED to a better spot. The ninja type characters jump and flip and are legitimately tough to hit, I had to get sneaky to beat them (shooting explosive barrels they were going to run past).

So far the scariest was the big juggernaut guy with flamethrower hands, when he actually stooped down to look in the tunnel I was hiding in and blasted fire down there I nearly crapped my pants!

-Good puzzles are back, crappy puzzles are gone

Remember that one part in Half-Life where you have to push a button and then get up a ladder really fast to jump on a floating platform to get to the bottom of a tank? That puzzle is gone, replaced with a new challenge. They also put a twist on some old puzzles that force you to pay attention to what you are doing rather than try to remember how the old puzzle was solved

-Sound

The game sounds great, all new voice acting (don't worry the "test chambeererereerrrrr" stuff is preserved ) all new music and sound effects as well as environmental noise really set the tone.

Bad Points
-LADDERS!

The detection on ladders is atrocious. Ladders have killed Gordon Freeman more times than any other foe. First there is a very narrow radius you can grab onto (basically you have to be directly in front of it) and when you're latched on to one getting off it is a total gamble; movement keys don't always detach you and jumping has a 50/50 chance of just dropping you straight to your doom. You fall off so many ladders even Faith facepalms.

-Drowning!

Drowning is bad enough in any game, but in Black Mesa it flashes bright blue while you're running out of air, so not only are you dying and lost but now you can't see. I've literally been inches away from survival but couldn't see it until after death because of the freaking blue-strobe effect. Remember the epilepsy warning on old game instruction manuals? They should have one for this because wow.

-Some AI seems like it's broken

The headcrab AI is awful, half the time they don't detect you and when they do they jump in the wrong spot. I'm not sure if this was intentional but sometimes I've been standing right next to one and didn't realize it was actually still alive!

But the worst is...

Spoiler

The fight with the giant tentacle in the Blast Pit!!

In Half-Life you could distract it with grenades and all three tentacles would go for the sound. Pretty cool right? And logical too! In Black Mesa it just doesn't work, so you end up having to use trial-and-error (over and Over and OVER). You can use crouch mode to sneak around but I guarantee you will take damage. Couple that with the dodgy ladders and it gets really frustrating really fast.

[close]

-Steam

It's not available on Steam yet and the achievements / screenshot saving feature seem not to work on my system, nit-picky I know but still, would have been nice to have right off the bat as most of the download links on the Black Mesa site don't work (use the torrent link provided on the downloads page).

Conclusion!

Anyway, for all its warts this is an amazing total conversion mod made with the Source engine that brings Half-Life up to date and adds some new twists to a classic game.

If you're a Half-Life fan you gotta check it out, if you've never played Half-Life before you REALLY gotta check it out. Black Mesa is a truly worthy prequel to Half-Life 2

[Mr. Analog]

Just gonna casually bump this.

'Cause really, Black Mesa is the most fun I've had in single player for a long time, and it's FREE!

Requirements:
http://wiki.blackmesasource.com/System_Requirements

[Mr. Analog]

FYI Black Mesa was released to Steam last week, it's $20 but man, is it ever good.

If you ever wanted to relive a re-imagined Half Life I highly recommend this game