Poor Hivehand.
“There’s ALWAYS Time for Lubricant!”
The resonance cascade in the test chamber felt pretty epic and the final fight of questionable ethics
I can’t pick a moment, there are too many for different reasons!
But starting was amazing, I really didn’t expect the quality and atmosphere. Inbound was amazing, I was like a child on a train, running to each window to look out at what was happening… grinning all along. Same with most of the first two chapters, playing with things, hearing people speak. SO IMMERSIVE!
my favorite moment is the whole freaking mod except when I saw that on a rail was butchered.
So many different parts of the mod that were beautifully done, but by far my favourite was Questionable Ethics.
The original level in Half-Life was a flat and flavourless experience and one of my least favourite levels in the game along with Residue Processing. I was astounded when Black Mesa turned it into one of the most beautiful, creepy and detailed levels in the entire game.
The ethics and the realisation that the aliens were being experimented on went completely over my head in the original. This time though, the lighting, the ambient screams in the background had me on edge throughout the entire level. Also it was great from a player’s point of view to be able to see and admire the effort that went into the models and animation when you saw the Xenians tied down on operating tables and in cages.
Not only was the level hugely expanded upon but also the dialogue, which was brilliantly done throughout the entire game and which also plugged large gaps in the logic of Half-Life. It was in this level that it was noticeable most.
Finally, the detail seemed far greater than any other level, at least to me. Not only were the maps detailed and informative but they were accurate and intriguing, leading me through the level so I could check out the Xenian flora room.
And what better way to end the level than with an enormous laser punching a hole in the wall? My mouth dropped when I saw this. I remember years ago lengthy discussions we had about how BM was going to solve this particular problem. None of us guessed the solution and it was one of the most jaw-dropping moments, alongside perhaps ST’s cliff-face, where the technological advancement and prowess of BM was shown over the dated and clumsy graphics of Half-Life.
Beautifully done guys, beautifully done.
Most things I liked most are already said here (repeatedly), so I’ll spare you these and talk about “the little things” I liked most:
- When I first saw the tiny cockroaches. I have to confess, I was a tiny-little-bit disappointed that I couldn’t stomp them
But I loved that they included them. - The first time I saw the disfigured faces of the scientists killed by headcrabs. Really well done.
- At QE, when you walk into the room where the scientists blew themselves up with the tau cannon, and you see those smoking boots
- Last but not least: No fucking leeches in the water! I hated those so much. Thanks for killing them off.
I wish. I must have spent ten minutes trying to hit that button. I kept trying to lure the Garg closer thinking it wasn’t in the right place for the scripted sequence, I never noticed those damn plugs.
There was this absolutely awesome moment, I don’t know, sometime around the middle of Forget about Freeman where you are towning around the sewers and come upon one of the automated turrets. A headcrab was ambling towards me and, simply having had it out, I hit it with the TAU cannon.
The head crab happened to be just in the right position in front of the turret that, after being hit by the tau cannon, was blown backward into the turret, knocking it over. I really enjoyed that.
the bombing of the distant building complex in the background of the cliff side… that was absolutely unexpected and i was like Wooow!! oO
incredible progamming skills, whoever did this…
and then the fight in the questionable ethics lobby… it was pretty hard, but rewarding… genious idea… so so good…
Seeing the wreck of the anti-mass Spectrometer. I stared at that thing for like a min.
Gordon shoving his hand up the Hivehands butt :retard:
I’m in the process of playing Black Mesa to death (as if) and every time I hear Eli’s voice I like it more and more. At first I was a little put off by it, not really liking how it sounded. But as I kept coming back to that scene, it became apparent that the VA really studied the voice behind Eli and tried his best to match his mannerisms and overall tone. The guy did a good job for coming real close to Eli (at least a younger version of him).
The elevator scene right after the cascade where you send a group of scientists to their deaths (albeit unintentionally) gave me chills. It really made me feel like I had just accidentally killed people.
Alsooooooooo, the “DIE FREEMAN” on the wall is spelled right, unlike the first game! It makes the HECU guys look less idiotic.
While the ally system leaves a lot to be desired (annoyances like a guard being lit up by vortiguants/HECU and not turning around to shoot them), I still find it worth the effort to bring a guard or two with me as backup.
I liked the part of the planes Fight in Forget About Freeman, The fights against the assassins, the Cliff section of Surface Tension , and many more, i mean the hole game in general
Wow, too many to make it easy to choose.
Apart from the beginning when you just go “WOW, look at that!!!” every 30 seconds, I think the best one was the end of QE, from the moment you shut down the surgical unit right through to the beginning of surface tension. I went into the ambush with my glock and with a lot of luck (I am actually not such a good shooter gamer), I managed to take all the marines out with my 9mm pistol practically without taking damage. When the guy comes in afterwards and goes “I can’t believe what you just did”, I just thought “yeah mate, neither can I, actually.” Brilliant experience right there.
Also, when you bring that one guard from the underground bunker all the way through to the large armory later on and meet up with the other guard, they have a really nce little chat which was awesome.
Coming out at the cliff side is great too but I saw that one in some video already unfortunately so it wasn’t really new at that point.
IU think the final battle at the lambda teleporter is really great as well. The scene with the scientists before the battle was really nice, I always love it when the dev team put in some more dialogue and gave the characters (however brief their appearance) a bit more personalty. During the fight itself, my framerate dropped suddenly (for the first and only time) so I had quite a hard time with the battle. It went so far that by the end of it I was down to about 25 health and had to time my positioning just right to be able to jump through the teleport right on time and excape the two grunts.
There are many more of course but these are the main ones from the top of my head. It’s just a fantastic experience over all.
Office Complex when leading the huge group of survivors, On a Rail when comming out from the tunnels and launching the rocket, going through the destroyed buildings in Surface Tension, and the last time in the surface before going into Lambda Complex.
Also the ambush in On a Rail was epic. I don’t know why I liked it so much, maybe because you’re not alone.