https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_remake
wat
You’re assuming all the weapons will behave exactly the same in single and multiplayer versions; they very likely will not. If you’re criticizing the single player experience based on how well you think it will carry over to multiplayer, you’re doing it wrong.
Edit - After looking back over the topic, I never saw the OP reply to my counter-arguments…so I am not gonna argue again. I assumed he was still going at it because it was still alive. If a mod wants, they can delete my post.
Skyface65, did you even play the game? First of all, you say that the crowbar is horrible against zombies in Black Mesa and great in Half-Life 1. In reality, zombies were harder in hl1 because of their long melee range. Killing zombies has been exactly the same throughout all of the Half-Life series: Hit twice, back up, hit twice, back up. In Black Mesa, it’s even EASIER, because of their nerfed melee range.
As for the Glock 17, I saw no real difference to it’s mechanics, except for the removal of the useless alt fire and nerfed max ammo, which I’ve personally never had a problem with.
As for the 357 Magnum, the decreased max ammo takes away some of how the weapon was over-powered.
So you say that the Mp5 (whose name you got wrong twice), is horrible in Black Mesa because of the nerfed ammo. First of all, the ammo the clip supported in Hl1 seemed to be very overpowered, and I’m glad it was reduced to 30. You say the max ammo of 150 that it shares with the Glock is bad, but, seriously, I rarely ever saw the ammo counter go below 100. You get Mp5 clips out the wazoo in WGH!
As for the Spas-12, no comment either.
As for the zombies, houndeyes, barnacles, bullsquids, and vortigaunts…
As I said, zombies were practically not changed at all.
The houndeyes were changed for the better. Honestly, they rarely ever got a chance to do damage in Hl1.
As for the barnacles, there wasn’t really much change. They were always easy to avoid, and even if you do get caught in one, just shoot it instead of crowbaring it when you finally reach it so you can take even more falling damage.
I honestly didn’t even notice the changes to the bullsquid until you brought it up.
You say the vort’s charge time was decreased, well, yeah, of course. In Hl1, you easily kill them before they even damage you. Also, the vorts seemed to have a rather dumb AI in Black Mesa.
I’m not surprised you didn’t complain about the Ichthyosaur, because what Black Mesa did there seems to be exactly what you want for every other enemy in the game. That cute little fella was nerfed a lot in Black Mesa. Two crossbow hits, a full Glock clip, or ten hits with the crowbar (each hit resets his attack, making it so he can’t do any damage at all)
If the weapons don’t get changed in the deathmatch remake, so what? As far as I can see, that’s a good thing! Judging by how much Black Mesa singleplayer felt like Hl1 singleplayer, deathmatch is going to be perfect.
I, personally, play with a modified version of the skill.cfg. Mostly increased enemy’s health, like the Ichthyosaur. I’ve also decreased and increased the health of the HECU Marines and Vortigaunts, in order to bring back the feeling of “On a Rail,” which was intended in Hl1 to make the player think, “Holy $#*%! Aliens are invading and not even our own military can stop them!”
While there were some things I didn’t like at first, overall Black Mesa captured the feel of Half-Life perfectly.
I disagree. I played on easy because I think I’m a complete and utter noob (and I am slightly) but really when it comes down to it, I just wanted something I could manage, experiencing a good remake where I’d have a great amount of challenge without getting frustrated. That said, I did have to cheat a couple of times and most of the aliens were pathetic.
Combat hasn’t changed at all for me though I kind of wish Houndeyes charged a little bit slower or at least had a short delay; at bare minimum, maybe you should possibly TRY to use the whole charging sound, dammit. Headcrabs were also too fast for anything except a well-timed crowbar hit, though I think that’s just crappy reflexes. Every other NPC was great, except the soldiers and their magical MP5s of accuracy. Barnacles take four pistol rounds on easy, just like HL1. Bullsquids are badass, just like HL1. Zombies are disturbing and not too hard to kill, just like HL1 and honestly, I’m used to killing Ichthyosaurs with 2 bolts because I played both games on easy.
The only weapon I can possibly complain about is the MP5 (excuse me, OP, it’s not an M4 or an M16, it’s an MP5) because it’s so fast it feels uncontrollable and you can’t hold many M203 rounds, but it’s way more accurate than HL1 or 2. It’s just that it’s way too fast, just so it could be burst-fire. Whose idea was that, anyway? It was a good weapon in HL1 because it was slow enough to use properly.
My main point though, is that you aren’t a wimpy pussy if you play on easy. Easy is for if you maybe aren’t so great or if you want to see every lovely aspect without huge amounts of challenge and frustration. As someone said, Deus Ex: Human Revolution explicitly said that easy mode wasn’t it’s way of saying “lolololol n00b” but for if you wanted to just experience the narrative.
Of course we needed all these base combat changes. Otherwise the game might actually have some redeeming quality besides looking nice.
I like a challenge. The worst thing you can do to a game, is make it too easy. That’s why WoW is going down btw. They listened to the whiners.
If it is too difficult for you, play it on easy or normal mode.
Some things have become easier in BMS compared to HL1, some harder, in sum it has become a little harder which is good because it used to be too easy.
Headcrabs and zombies are easier to kill now. Crowbar rules.
Houndeyes pose a much bigger challenge cause they home in very quickly in groups, have a way shorter charging time but do a little less damage with one charge. Also they take more damage. I deal with them in two ways, depending on the situation: MP5, one mag is enough for 3 of them. Or satchel charges, exploding barrels, hand grenades, whatever the situation prefers.
Bull squibs, they die easier now (2 shotgun rounds to the ugly face, or one 'nade) but do much more damage, and much more spash damage now. Takes a lot of movement skill to avoid their acid spray while trying to get a shot at them. Bottom line though they seem to be a bit easier to me than in HL1.
Soldiers, didnt change much. If anything they got a bit easier in 1 on 1 but they increased their numbers a bit. Also their tactical behaviour is more aggressive, they home in on you faster and in bigger numbers.
Black ops, not much difference, maybe a bit easier now.
Barnackles, harder to kill, takes 8 pistol rounds instead of 4, but only one shotgun or .357 magnum round, also no more one-hitting them with the crowbar.
In general, it mostly takes some time to get used to the new mechanics, just like it was when we played HL1 the first time. For a mod, BMS is very well balanced.
The only thing that annoys me sometimes is the HL physics engine that often interfers with my movement in very unpredictable and unnatural ways. There is so much stuff littering the ground, barrels, boxes, traffic cones, palettes. You want to run or jump behind a cover but you get somehow glued to a traffic cone that lies in your way and extremely slows you down for no good reason. Thats why Ive come to clean the battlefield if possible before I attack.
when it comes to deathmatch bm should be a 1:1 remake concerning the weapons, gamespeed and movement… otherwise it will be shit and i won’t play it.
configs are fine but too many different game-styles / balancing-settings are bad for the community. there should be one great standard (original HL) which should be taken for singleplayer, public and competetive matches. everything else should be done with mods.
seriously i was more than dissappointed because of all these unnecessary gameplaychanges… i played it through one time… and did not touch it since then… and i loved the original so much… now bm ruined everything that was so great about half-life. i can only hope they will patch the bad balancing at some point…
sorry but its imposible that BM could be a 20/20 remake; some things must be obligatory changed.
I cant disagree with the original post. The game is definitely a different game and there are going to be some that are not joyous over every change. Ya cant fault him for it.
For me, I think the only thing that I didn’t like to begin with, and never got used to even over the long haul, was the placement of the weapons / aliens. I know they worked hard to mix it up and make it unique, but for me it never seemed right. I either never had the right weapon at the right stage of the game, or when a new alien was introduced I wasn’t forced to try a different tactic due to previous weapons being ineffectual.
Originally, an intro to a new weapon always seemed to set you up for an intro to a new alien. This gave you time to play with and learn how each weapon could serve a specific purpose. Here, it seemed we were given a new weapon but no valid reason to use it over the others already in your cache.
For example, getting the hive hand was an awesome moment, (props for the butt rape scene!) but was it really the weapon of choice for the fire fight directly after?
Maybe not, but that’s how it was in HL, too. 
I think that was partially the point, and I think people might be forgetting, HL was made in '99, and game design then wasn’t exactly ‘balanced’, but was most definitely fun. We’ve been spoiled as of late with things that are ‘new’, and some of us older gamer’s might get a little disappointed about the way things have been changed, while newer people might not know it at all.
Personally, I think Black Mesa was a good honest change over while doing it’s darnedest to keep to the original feel and purpose as the game the best they could. Hell, half the time I’m playing it, I almost wish I never played Half-Life or forgot everything about the game so that Black Mesa is truly a ‘fresh experience’. There are times I hate having that, ‘Oh snap I know whats coming ahead’, knowledge. But the developers has still done a great job.
Oh no, another thread about the balancing. Someone needs to keep me out of these, help
Are we playing the same mod? The changes that they’ve made to how things work are a lot better. Are there minor problems? Yes, but as a whole, I would say it’s a much better experience as a result. I honestly think Black Mesa works and feels much better than Half-Life 2 does. Your mileage may vary (and apparently does), but that’s how I feel.
Crowbar - “Sucks against zombies”? No it doesn’t. Hell, the crowbar’s better against zombies in BM than it was in Half-Life. I’ll agree about Barnacles though, I find it kind of off-putting how it takes about four crowbar hits to kill. Are you sure you’re using the crowbar right?
“Houndeyes were never meant to be a hard enemy”? Well, okay, first off, you don’t know for certain that those were Valve’s intentions. Second off, there’s a difference between an easy enemy and completely useless, which is pretty much how they were in Half-Life. In BM, they’re actually a threat. Headcrabs are easy enemies without being a waste of space, it makes sense that Houndeyes would be stronger than them (they’re bigger, and you start encountering them a bit later on).
Which is exactly the same as in Half-Life 2. It takes two shots on a Headcrab, like both HL1 and 2, around half a dozen shots on Barnacles, like Half-Life 2, and several headshots on zombies, like Half-Life 2.
The MP5 does the same damage per bullet at the pistol does, so I’ll agree with it being a bit underpowered. Your comment about the shared ammo pool is moot, as the crowbar isn’t as underpowered as you seem to think it is.
Also, “storming a bunch of enemies at once” is not how you’re supposed to play this game. I’m pretty sure the Half-Life manual actually said something along those lines, I’ll have to dig it out and take a look at some point.
Most of the mechanic changes were done to make the game more balanced, and some of the ones you’re claiming are a problem just aren’t true, like the crowbar. The MP5 is a much better weapon than it was in Half-Life - In Half-Life, the bullets scattered all over the damn place. It was never supposed to be a long-range weapon. In BM, you can use it at a longer range, and it’s still pretty effective up close against one opponent. You shouldn’t be using it against groups, except the grenade launcher.
Then you’re doing something wrong. While I’ve found that it’s a bit awkward trying to aim at security guard zombies due to their gait, overall the zombies are way easier to dodge in BM than they were in Half-Life.
A sole Houndeye is perfectly well balanced. I agree, a single pack of them handled poorly shouldn’t kill you immediately, but they’re a much better enemy than in Half-Life, both difficulty-wise and balancing-wise. They’re fun to fight against instead of just a nuisance (they can still be annoying, but in Half-Life they were just kinda there).
The crowbar, definitely. Harder to kill with the pistol than in HL1? Yes. Harder to kill with the pistol in HL2? Definitely not.
Are you kidding? Vorts do so little damage, there’s no point. Their health is really low as well, they don’t stand a chance against… Anything, really.
The spread of the Bullsquid acid should be a bit tighter, in my opinion, as-is it can be painfully annoying to dodge sometimes. They also have too little health, I think. Other than that, they’re fine.
No, there were a lot of problems with balance in Half-Life’s singleplayer. The pistol’s nigh-on identical to how it was in both games (other than the barnacle/zombie damage, they’re pretty much the same), the MP5’s a much better weapon overall (albeit still underpowered), and it’s very, very similar to Half-Life 2’s gameplay, only improved (the weapons feel more useful and the difficulty in BM is more consistent). It’s a blend between both games, I have no idea where you’re getting some of these claims from.
Shit you are an idiot
And Half Life is still around. You want to play Half Life? Go play Half life. Just because this game is different to the original doesn’t make it bad
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.