I don’t think his point is that it’s BM’s fault for being just a remake. That would be silly. He is just saying that you can’t compare BM to anything that Valve have created.
Well it doesn’t look groundbreaking for me, I’ve seen lot of games that look better from that same era. The only thing that I agree was new is the implementation of the physics system. But for everything else it’s just a normal FPS.
Can you name any?
Far Cry, Max Paynw 2(It’s not even a FPS but it’s got a similar physics system and it’s older than HL2) and some CODs.
Far Cry had groundbreaking graphics for its time just like HL2. Doesn’t really look better to me though.
https://www.oyunindiriyorum.com/wp-content/uploads/Far-Cry-1-7.jpeg
Can’t say much about Max Payne 2.
https://gamesters.org/Image/covers/max-payne-2-the-fall-of-max-payne/max-payne-2-the-fall-of-max-payne-image994666.jpg
CoD
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/32/CallDuty1PC.jpg
HL2
https://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/halflife2/waterhazard2/1.jpg
(found all screenshots on google)
If you don’t like fps like HL, that’s entirely subjective. But if you say HL2 wasn’t anything special you are just factually wrong.
Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ddJ1OKV63Q
From what you have posted so far, my guess is you weren’t really “there” at that time. So all the stuff they are presenting in that video will look old to you. But pay attention to the reactions of the crowd and you might get an idea of what an impact the source engine must have had.
What? No.
While it’s a great game and all it has far too many minor (and major) flaws for me to call it “Valve Quality”. That’s not to say it isn’t a great game or anything, it’s just that it is not Valve quality and is riddled with flaws.
Half-Life 2 was the first game I’d ever seen that didn’t look fake. I was blown away by how it looked when it came out because unlike games like Doom 3 or Far Cry that had that plastic-like look to people, HL2 looked real. The textures themselves looked like actual real-world materials (if a bit low in resolution by today’s standards), the character models looked like people and not messes of polygons with almost cartoony texture-work (Doom 3, Far Cry) etc.
Sure it may be outdated now, but Source really was a testament to what could be achieved without requiring millions of fancy resource-hogging effects and such. And for being such an old engine, it really doesn’t look to bad compared to other game engines, and requires a fraction of the processing power.
Source still rocks, but it’s showing it’s age already… looking at you loading times “_”
lim game(x) = Black Mesa
x->vq
Seriously though, I do think Black Mesa comes pretty damn close. The level of detail and production values are off the charts. The only nitpicky thing that I feel BM does worse than Valve’s games is gameplay balance, but it is minimal and rarely annoys me.
If Valve made Half-Life 1 with the same Source tech and audio/video quality as Half-Life 2, it would be like Black Mesa. Black Mesa is extremely high quality and not once has it felt like a mod to me.
I hate to say it, but Half-Life 2 honestly made me sort of “half hate” the Source engine. Some thing about Half-Life 2, it’s story, progression, and look, just makes me a tiny bit disgusted in a corner of my mind. While I liked the HL2 series a lot (especially Episode 2), some thing about them all I just hate the feel of. Bringing that to Half-Life 1 with Black Mesa still makes it an awesome experience, but I am always getting a bit of that feeling playing Black Mesa, just because of Half-Life 2. Any one understand me or am I alone here?
What has to be taken into account when making comparison, is the time. Creators of black mesa had access to newer software while hl2 and its episodic content was finished ages ago. Also they took much time to polish this mod. Hl2 was groundbreaking during its era. True comparison could be made if Valve would’ve started doing this remake too. But yeah, it could be considered as valve quality imo if just using other hl2 games as benchmark.
If Valve remade the game they would have access to their latest source files. That means the game would look a crap ton better than Black Mesa.
If Valve only had access to SDK 2007 like the BM team, then I think the end result would be comparable to Black Mesa.
If you think the budget they had and that they have made it without any external support, I say a straight and big YES. These guys are incredible, the did all this for free and result is a mod that can compete with most commercial titles. I can’t be more proud than this. Great job guys. 
My opinion too
I don’t know how you can say such thing. They didn’t have the resources and money of Valve and they had released a professional product that is better than most overpriced titles. Really, I don’t get why people have the guts to say such things. I hope you’re trolling. Because just a troll can say things like these. It’s shame that this world it’s full of ungrateful jerks. I’m ashamed. You really don’t know how much it’s difficult and costly making a game from scratch without any “big company” support and resources. Just imagine what they could have done with Valve support and resources. Think before saying bullshit.
I think many parts of the game really stands out as VALVe quality mapping and structure and finess. But the game as a whole isnt. But that’s probably because of all minor bugs, an unpaid team doing it on their free time etc.
Sequences with VALVe quality:
QE chapter + end battle (this part blew my mind).
Lambda Core (the reactor, OMG… too bad it’s laggy)
Resonance Cascade whole chapter
Office Complex
The cliff
Many more stuff, but these parts stood out, atleast for me.
I’d say it’s ‘close-to, but not quite’.
Give me a patch that fixes the buggy tentacle beast in Blast Pit, makes the enemy AI a bit less prescient/hair trigger, and changes the jumping mechanics to something closer to HL2, and I’d be happy to refer to it as ‘Valve quality’.
One of the biggest complaints I have about any review/expectation of a sequel of any title, is the fact that it is compared to something and has a standard to live up to, and is expected to exceed.
When Half-Life came out, it had no criteria to meet, no fans to please, and no expected qualities and story line, and due to this, it was received very well and created a rather large following.
Even though Black Mesa isn’t a sequel per se, it is being compared to Half Life, and that is an extremely tough crowd to please.
The thing that puzzles me the most are the first few posts on Valve Time, complaining about the soundtrack being shit.
I’m sorry but I’m still to this minute listening to the soundtrack by itself, it’s fantastic. Yes, it isn’t remastered, recreated versions of the Half Life soundtrack, but I wouldn’t want it to be. I would honestly find that extremely boring and unoriginal.
So in terms of the question is it Valve quality, yes I think it’s on par with Half Life considering this is a free mod done by people who most likely had nothing to do with HL or HL2, but at the same time no, not in the way most are expecting which can be summarized as “OMG I’m going to be able to play Half Life on the Source Engine, with updated graphics and physics! This will be EXACTLY like it was 10+ years ago!”
i play fps for 15 years and im playing bm in hard. i can say that enemies are as hard as they should be. i dont know about normal or easy though
That’s my take on it, as well. Black Mesa impresses, and greatly, in all ways visual. The game, simply put, looks amazing in every single location.
But a game is more than just visuals, and actual gameplay is where I find Black Mesa falters. Marine AI just doesn’t work for me, some weapons seem very bad while others seem far too good with far too much ammo. Some of the jumping puzzles seem suspect, as well.
The “storytelling through environment” could also be better. Because of how things were cut and reshuffled, the game’s “alien invasion” angle is drastically downplayed and its “military invasion” angle massively over-emphasised, changing the overall feel for something I just don’t think works as well. The original was more Doom 3 while Black Mesa is more FEAR.
I don’t know if it’s “Valve quality,” but that’s a pretty high water mark to aim for. I still feel that Black Mesa is a great AAA game, but I still feel it can use major tweaks and additions.