Hi everyone. I have never played Half Life 1 or 2. I’m waiting for the Black Mesa mod to completely finish before I give it a go.
I have played Half Life 1 and 2. I have also played Black Mesa. Go figure.
…Congratulations?
You should first play HL 1 and then BM for better experience …and then you can play HL2 and Episodes for the rest of the story …only if you want
I’m not sure I agree. While I started with HL1 just a few years ago, and loved it, I don’t think it’s for everyone. As far as I’m concerned, the average gamer is better off simply playing Black Mesa instead. Pending Xen, of course.
What he said ^
A lot of Black Mesa’s appeal to long-term Half-Life fans is definitely the nostalgia involved, but you don’t really get that if you weren’t already a HL fan. That said, I do think having played HL1 would help understand the lengths CC has gone to reimagine the game, but I don’t think playing HL1 first will give you much other benefit.
I first played Half Life 2 and Ep.1 and Ep.2, then Black Mesa, and then Half Life 1.
And i gotta say, experiencing Half Life 1 in HL2 graphics was is awesome. (IS because waiting for the rest of the game. *Xen *cough)
Gotta say, didn’t expect this discussion when I saw the post of the creator, lol.
Yes, HL1 will appeal only to a certain type of gamers. It’s not for anyone. HL2 may be on the other hand, but it depends.
When I first got into HL I began with HL2. I did play HL1 before it but didn’t manage to finish it until much, much later. I always got stuck in Unforeseen Consequences with no idea what I was supposed to do. HL2 was the first game I’ve played from start to finish from the 1st attempt. Then the Episodes and after them, HL1. Finally, it was a success. Then Blue Shift and Opposing Force.
I’ve played the mod version of BM back in 2012 when it came out, and it was very good. It felt fresh, new, and easily noticed how much effort was put into it.
However, something else that I immediately noticed beside that is, and I’m pretty sure about it, that purists will absolutely hate it. The main thing is that It will not appeal to those who want a 1:1 remake (not re-imagining) of the original. They should instead play HL:S with the Ultimate Definition pack, which replaces pretty much EVERYTHING in the game, aside from a very small number of textures.
Likewise, it may not appeal to those who are not familiar with the franchise either.
And I do recommend playing the original before BM as well, for an overall better experience.
It’s definately not all nostalgia. I prefer Half-Life 1 because it’s just better gameplaywise. I know Black Mesa is in Early Access and it’s not a finished product. But still… At the moment I feel like it’s taking forever to get any updates for the game.
I think Crowbar Collective should handle Early Access differently. For example there should be a big hint in the main menu “This game is Beta” or something like that. Just so that people know they can’t expect BM to be perfect in it’s current state.
Also they should consider to form 2 seperate development teams. 1 team should work on Xen and the other team should work on Multiplayer only. Also they should try to improve their communication to the public (what exactly are they working on and what’s the roadmap?)… and push MP gameplay updates more frequently and based on player feedback (We waited ~ 6 month for 1 Update with 1 new map, slower rechargers, bugfixes and new weapon models… They teased even more and some of the announced features don’t work or are still missing - for example the announced weapon-placement changes (less tau-cannons)).
I don’t really know what’s taking so long for them to make (some) of these requested changes. I guess as long as there is no Xen, we won’t get fast and frequent MP updates.
But yea… I think they should communicate it more clearly that this is an Early Access product. I really hope Multiplayer will gain more popularity after more updates and that it can get a healthy competetive scene at some point.
You made some strange assumptions there that are silly enough that I’m not sure they’re even worth pointing out.
Yes, I would suggest maybe a huge, brightly colored banner that takes up a quarter of the game’s store page.
Wait a sec…
Regardless, the topic is whether one should play HL1 before playing BM. Not whether the developers’ update schedule appeals to you.
I’m pretty sure there’s already confirmed to be separate parts of the team working on MP and Xen.
There are several reasons why updates seem to take forever. First and foremost, people at CC does not spend all day coding BMS. They got work-, school- and family-stuff to take care. Would you put game programming before all that? Second, I don´t think it´ll be very practical to release every little fix and tweak separately. It´s a lot more exciting and satisfying when they release a bigger update, atleast for me. Third, you probably feel it takes forever because you spend all your time waiting for it.
I don´t mean to seem preachy but I know how frustrating it is when somebody rushes you to be both productive and creative at the same time.
Agree with everything said here about the updates.
The fact that we waited 6 months+ for a crucial performance fix that took me and an ex developer (1 man) less than 2 hours to diagnose and fix is RIDICULOUS, in fact it wasnt even included in the Crossfire update, i am happy its out on beta now but really guys…you are moving Very slow with the updates and fixes, very slow.
On the multiplayer side we basically waited 6 months and got 1 map (that runs terrible) and bug fixes that take 1 week to make…and i believe i am being very generous when i say 1 week, lol.
I’d vote for smaller more frequent updates than larger slower updates any day.
Please discuss updates and schedules elsewhere. This is not an appropriate thread for it.
My opinion is that it’s not necessary to play Half-Life before playing Black Mesa, honestly. IMO BM is a perfectly fine introduction to the series.
That’s true, as of the story and the feel of the game, they are somewhat equal.
But then again, the differences between the two games are massive.
I honestly think there were some things that BM did better than Half-Life (though on the flip side, I also think some parts were weaker too). It all evens out in the end (minus the obvious parts that are still WIP and Early Access, etc.), and I feel that a modern gamer, not having touched the series before, would be more willing to explore the series if they start with Black Mesa rather than HL1.
It’s interesting that a person starting out with BM and continuing on with the Half-Life series will actually be taking a step back in time in terms of graphics at least, and possibly also in game design and mechanics. It’s been years since I played HL2 or the episodes, though, so I don’t really remember how they compare to Black Mesa.
Black Mesa is far superior in terms of graphical fidelity compared to Half-Life 2, so taking a step back in time in terms of graphics would certainly be a fair assessment.
My face when this thread
