My impressions and verdict

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#1

For first, I want to thank you all for great work.
This isn’t meant to be a review, as the game isn’t finalized, I will make one for sure later.

The base of the mod is just flawless. All the additions make it feel more alive, but I felt like there are declines in quality in some parts.
For first, I was aware that 2-3 chapters are noticeably cut, but realized by how much only after being done with the game… the most important parts were removed, and this makes me sad.
It was only in the end when I found it strange and have asked myself: “Am I already at Lambda Core?” and recalled that there were some epic scenes missing.
This is weird, as I remember a few pre-release screenshots with those, and looked solid to me.

For the second, the gameplay balance is completely off.

  1. Again the aim bot… couldn’t enjoy the game as much as I would do so if it wasn’t for this. It has broken the game completely IMO
  2. Snarks are bugged, and do glitch often… not to mention they are useless.
    -When I throw them, they land on top of each other and make a “tower” and stay in place for a while or land inside of an object/a wall, till they bother to attack me INSTEAD of enemies. Yes, yes… tried it a few times, even hid but instead of attacking Alien Grunts and Vorts, they just stayed there and the moment I went out of the hiding, they became hungry for Gordon. Might just an occasional issue, can’t say for others.
    -Throwing length and height are too low.

    These 3 things need to be fixed, well 4 when taking into consideration how late they are found.

If the devs do read at least some of our posts, they are likely aware of all the other issues/rants, so I take it they know what’s on.
Final words, the mod is simply unfinished and is in need of:

  1. Re-balancing all 3 difficulties, weapon/enemy placement and the stupid AI or what’s that, which causes the enemies to be more aware than they should and their projectiles/attacks being guided (HAX!!!)
  2. Increase the MP5’s damage (over Glock) and magazine size, but reduce it’s accuracy/add some recoil.
  3. Fix Bugs/glitches
  4. Xen, missing parts/areas and the Deatmatch

It’s highly likely that we won’t be seeing much of these things resolved, as according to the devs, the HECU can’t be fixed and maps won’t be completed as a mapper had left.

In my opinion, it should be taken as an open beta for now, and hopefully “BlackMesa v2.0” is as fun and solid to play as the rest of this mod’s greatness is.
Thanks again

#2

I have similar views to you. Xen will come, so maybe they will have a new mapper for that.

#3

Thanks, all this mod needs is completion and re-balancing (in my opinion of course) I know they are doing it for free in their spare time and without sufficient resources and manpower, but if they managed to go this far, I’d wait for these improvements another year if it be so.

#4

Snarks are Xen creatures. They don’t attack Xen creatures. Never have. Never will. Only humans.

#5

That’s incorrect.

  1. Snarks attacked Xen forces in HL1
  2. The behavior should be for them to have a priority to attack enemies instead of Gordon when they are close, but in BM it doesn’t work often…
#6

Nevermind, I must have been playing HL1: Opposing Force. They don’t attack Race X aliens. I stand corrected. I also spent the last hour or so messing around with them and yeah…I threw 15 on one soldier and he killed them all. :’(

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.