Let’s say you could reboot the HL franchise, that is, making a remake of the franchise that only follows the original premise (experiment goes wrong and aliens from another dimension invade earth) while everything else (characters, settings, enemies, weapons, etc) can be different.
How would your reimagination of HL be?
With Half-Life being awesome as it is, I can’t think of anything better.
Black Mesa
The Black Mesa Research Facility would actually be one giant Aperture test chamber (One of MANY, that is) :jizz:
BM’s an enhanced remake not a reimagining like Battlestar Galactica.
wow… it would take me forever to think of a way to make it better than the original…
Not better just different.
I can tell some is going to say master chief as Gordon Freeman.
all the characters would race each other in carts.
How about rather than the whole… all of it
The Freeman is a spy for Aperture, attempting to steal technology to increase AS portal technology, so you can use a portal gun, along with the other myriad of weapons, however.
The portal gun upgrades throughout the game, starting off with just a basic O/B combo, but then you can fire secondary portals, using up to 4 active at a time (Red and Green?) and it gains Gravity Gun abilities.
The experiment that goes wrong is a very Metroid style of losing your BAMF portal gun in the beginning, and it’s portal technology is what causes the rifts from Xen (or whatever)
If I could thought, I’d rather it be more a prelude to HL, not necessarily an experiment gone awry, but it’s a spy for Aperture fighting through BM. Maybe you get caught in the Xen incident during it (so maybe like an alternate game like OF or BS in that case). In this the Cascade would happen about 1/2 through the game, and it ends with you having to fight new Xenian cretures, or maybe even an expansion on Race X
Just something I thought up about 5 min ago
Well I can’t imagine much of a difference, I mean look at Opposing Force and Blue Shift, they were all sort of the same: kill aliens, use the railway train thing, push buttons, solve puzzles… The aliens were a new in Opposing Force but other than that, the basic stuff is the same. So if I had to re-imagine Half-Life, I guess I would include and even larger variety of aliens (unlike HL2 which reduced the variety instead of expanding it), harder and more puzzles, more buttons to push and stuff to figure out…
I would also remove Xen entirely I think, or at least re-think it a LOT since in my opinion it was rushed and badly done, not organic enough and too repetitive. I would make it more magical and strange, with totally different physics and new elements and not just annoying trampolines… And less flying dickheads (Alien Controllers).
Nihilanth also sucked, I would make the final boss much more challenging with more thinking, using all that you have learned so far, and less random shooting.
I would get rid of the concept of Vortiguants being slaves and working in factories making Alien Grunts… That’s just kinda stupid, I liked the idea of Xen wildlife trying to kill you just for food. I liked the beast nature of the aliens and I couldn’t really fit the “civilised” alien concept into the game’s atmosphere.
Overall, I’d make the whole thing creepier, with some more cruel things going on deep down in the research labs, and I would emphasize more on the Questionable Ethics thing, with alien experiments, hybrids and stuff. I liked the Opposing Force Biodome Complex, I guess the two games could be combined into one, without the Black-Ops and the lame ending of Opposing Force (another quite lame and repetitive boss fight).
Half-Life is a great game, but after having played it 20 times I guess I see its flaws much more than I did before. Some parts are still awesome but I’m hoping that Black Mesa will once again give me that thrilling feeling that I had when playing it for the first time.
huge changes:
-big hordes of fast aliens (maybe crawling on walls and ceilings) that you have to kill in huge masses
-in order to balance it out: huge creatures tearing down everything from thin walls to entire buildings that are slow but very hard to kill. sort of like a smaller version of the ITC from the mist.
-more badass military weapons: like flame thrower; lighting gun with a deadly discharge (like a real lightning. short discharge not a contiuous beam) but poor accuracy and relatively slow reloading; pulse rifle with high firing rate.
-less small caliber weapons, if any. i can imagine it with the pulse rifle being the weakest one.
-no actual melee weapon. instead you could use many objects or pieces of debris found througout the base as one.
-the military working for the black mesa in the beginning but after the resonance cascade they go war wanky.
-a 12 hour countown in which you have to finish the game (??? it's a reimagination so why the hell not. it would add to the suspense) giving the player a chance to pick up the pace even if he wasted some time, of course.
smaller changes
-the black mesa research facility is a more organised base. like multiple 100 story skyscrapers interconnected with railroads at different levels but the whole thing under the ground
-the gman is even more casual and interacts with the player directly stopping you from shooting him by pointing the gun you are holding away from him with telekinesys.
-other freeman-like scientists are fighting through the remains of the base and you can help them or they can help you. but in the end you are the only one that makes it out.
note: i would only do most of these changes if i absolutely have to. half life is awesome as it is.
pfff… you get the idea… i’m getting sleepy. 
EDIT :s ome more ideas i just got ^
I’d make it so the Point Of View mod for HL1 is canon.
Luckily there were no two mouthed, four eyed disco aliens in half life so a reboot isn’t necessary
I’d reboot the series as a survival-horror game. Suspenseful, atmospheric, extremely gory… Dead Space, basically, but more puzzle/exploration oriented and less combat.
I wouldn’t, because reboots suck 99% of the time.
I’d play that. I’d play that nine times.
Probably I’d put dicks coming out of all the walls and in order to progress Gordon has to suck them off in a specific order but there are no hints and every time the order is random.
Your character constantly rambles about anything and everything.
All the npcs hate you and think you are annoying.
You constantly cause accidents that get good people killed yet you somehow always survive.
And your name is Gordan Freemon, Janitor.
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.