My Vision of Black Mesa/Half-Life Series

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#61

Just would like to pop in and say that Half-Life has puzzles and is not a CoD clone. It was a conscious decision to cut out cutscenes in all the Half-Life games for a good reason. And the puzzles and exploration sections break up the game nicely between the heavy action sequences.

Half-Life doesn’t need to “stay relevant”. I hate that term. I don’t give a flying flip about what’s “relevant”. Games today suck. I wouldn’t mind if Valve took the best out of what there is now (not much) and implements it into HL3 or EP3 or whatever they’re going to make, but what I do expect them to do is innovate and adapt with THEIR OWN ideas. That’s what made Half-Life great in the first place. They did something that wasn’t done before. They don’t need to copy from other games. They’re perfectly capable and much more suited to making their own innovations. You do know what the word “innovate” means right? It means breaking new ground. They’re not “innovating” by copying other games to make it “relevant”. When HL2 came out, all the other FPS’s were going with the standard 2-weapon limit (you might say, this was a “relevant innovation” or “adaption”). Meanwhile, HL2 and its episodes continued to offer a full arsenal at the player’s disposal and it did pretty darn well despite this. Imagine that.

Screw relevance.

#62

This is why I prefer HL1 over HL2: 90% of AAA games are junk, because the triple A is given from reviewers that have to give a triple A to mantain their jobs (and I don’t mean that they get paid by the companies, rather than people rage at them -see ValveTime review of BMS- when they say something which goes against the common opinion, which lately is generated from a large amount of casual gamers who think to be hardcore gamers… and here we might start a topic about what makes a casual gamer or a hardcore gamer, let’s don’t do it and try to take it as it is. And I’m not saying that HL2 is awful.)

LOL! Thank you for the grin you gifted me.
Yes! I’ve the same opinion on the cut scenes. Straight: they suck.

No, they won’t do it; but they would break the immersion.
Also you wrote “depressing” and I dare to say that I guess to understand what you mean with it, and it’s not like that. I know the game might be heavy in some parts but THAT is the immersion, you’re so taken that you want a break, but you don’t want to stop playing because you want to see what is going to happen. THIS is the success of Half Life, what made it great, and what makes Valve’s game great games on average.

This is what I didn’t like of HL2, which made me nausea in HL2:EP1, bittered me with HL2:EP2 and therefore made myself disinterested in EP3 or a hypothetical HL3. Too much Gordon do this Gordon do that Gordon clap your hands and myself “Alyx… Shh!”.

#63

As others have said, I love that the only time Half-Life has ever had “cut-scenes” is when Gordon literally cannot control himself (so even then they aren’t really cut-scenes since you cannot control just as Gordon cannot move). And even in most of these scenes you can still even look around.

Since the G-Man is observing Gordon and has not yet decided if he wants to offer him “employment” until the very end, there’s no reason for Gordon to have a scripted vision of him like in Episode Two.

#64

Dotard missed Quicktime events. That would make the game so awesome and modern.

Look, you could implement that instead of puzzles or tough encounters.

Even btter: Combine that with cutscenes, like this:

First you get a cutscene shows you the helicotper with a camera overview and flyby. Next you get some text on the screen “Press Jump repeatedly to defeat the Helicopter” (Then you get a totally cool 3rd person animation how Gordon defeats the helicopter).

And if you have lost health you can hide behind those crates so it regenerates.

Yes, that would bve awesome and totally innovative that even “Dotard the Inventor” would be pleased.

#65

Oh shit, Get this man on the DEV Team

NOW

#66

Black Mesa compliments Half-Life 2, the “cult” of Freeman makes more sense now that I’ve revisited and seen all the people Freeman kept alive, maybe they escaped too and began spreading word.

And for the original post:
It does not need anything more “fancy” There are already other scripted sequences if we’re talking about the type of “who is this guy, Freeman” You don’t have to listen to them you can pop them there and then. Like “Freeman I have a message for you” Or in the test chamber, or in lambda complex! No more is required.

And no, we don’t need that one bit of creepy to make things more interesting.

I’ll join the choir, we don’t need cinematic cutscenes for Half-Life.
The HL2 beginning and ending are the same way they were in the ending of Half-Life. Ripping the player of control is fine when the player has no control.

This is already on par with valve professionalism if not even of better quality. Yes one cutscene and one camera drive would break the game. This is a very good remaster of the original.
No need for Half-Life Solid 3.
I’d rather let the series die than please the brainless. Let Black Mesa team do Half-Life 3 rather than have it be full modern gen nancy-pansying.

#67

Got it…

#68

I hope you’re joking!

#69

Some people really have a hard time spotting sarcasm.

#70

You never know!

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.