It was obviously in there at one point, too, the audio files for it are still there.
The one time I played On A Rail (from my only HL1 run through) I remember liking the level. I remember it being the most complicated segment, but I don’t recall thinking “oh this sucks.” And man, Xen was my favorite level. It was the hardest, but most fun.
Guess what I put regarding this in the disappointment thread fits here:
“The single major disappointment so far (I’m at the start of “Questionable Ethics”), has been “On a Rail”. I already knew it was being cut down and I was okay with that as it is kind of long, but I wasn’t expecting it to be butchered such that literally about 70% of the chapter is missing, even a couple more sections would have been enough, but, as it is, when I got on the final train and “Apprehension” popped up after about half-an-hour I was like… really?. It doesn’t even help the pacing much either as it now has the opposite problem of feeling short and unfinished rather than too long (it might be the shortest chapter so far for me), plus that chapter had a lot of alien vs human fights and similar that are now entirely missing. I will give that I did like making the rocket more prominent, but that makes it even more disappointing in some sense as the rocket-silo would have made a perfect “hub” to climb up through various side-areas.”
As people have said, even one more level could have been enough, but as it is that chapter has almost been removed from the game.
I should mention, totally agree everything above. The original did seem a bit disjointed in that you spend hours traversing the facility, get to the last area and sort of remember oh yeah I’m supposed to launch a rocket. So the new puzzle there was a brilliant idea well executed and seamlessly integrated (in the original game you do pass through the rocket launch shaft but only briefly, and there is no interactivity.
I honestly wish there was more to On a Rail, while I get why people don’t like it because it’s like a maze, I also have to wonder why? It adds to gameplay. It adds length into the game. I miss all the little exploration areas that told a story, finding piles of dead bodies around aliens, the shotgun guy at the bottom of the rocket fighting headcrabs and losing.
It felt like the guard was saying “When you find it, just at the end of this track here, launch the rocket and get it into orbit so we can fix this mess.” Instead of “If you can find the rocket, launch it into orbit. I’m not sure where it is exactly, but it’s somewhere in this old railway. Good luck Gordon, you’ll need it.”
I just wish that the chapter was longer, because it felt so much longer in HL1. Taking out the whole maze thing and the track changing was perfectly fine, but it would just be cool if it was just overall longer. Whatever though, it was still amazing. The part where you take over the rocket launch area is just incredible. I felt SO badass in that part, killing all of those HECU. And that music was just so nice. I literally got goosebumps.
“A maze” is a legitimate gameplay element, and one that gave Half-Life more variety and a little more depth. As it is now, the game barely has an element of exploration. All the side paths the old game had seem to have been clamped down. For instance, the old Surface Tension had a neat little branching area in the desert where you need to open the Storm Drain. That’s now gone, turned into a linear series of locations with just one side path with nothing in it that basically loops in on itself.
The truth of the matter is I like Half-Life and I don’t wish for it to be “better.” that’s what Half-Life 2 and modern gaming in general is for. I miss many of the elements old games used to relish that contemporary audiences no longer have the patience for. I miss platforming, I miss complicated mazed to explore, I miss puzzles and backtracking. I can’t find any modern games that have that any more, and taking it out of Half-Life does not strike me as an improvement.
Like I said in another thread - I sincerely hope the same doesn’t happen to Xen. Xen IS low-gravity platforming. To remove that removes any reason to have it in the first place. Might as well just dump Gordon at Nihilath and get it over with. But I’m told the developers are not looking to preserve Xen as a major part of the game.
THe reason why platforming is very much omitted in today’s first person shooters is that not only the games themselves are striving to be more realistic, but platforming in first person isnt fun in general. U cant grab ledges and u dont have enough visual cues to judge the jump ure about to take. Black Mesa’s controls arent top of the class either.
So when u miss the jump or overdo it for eyt another time it becomes frustrating. THank god we have quicksaves. But endless loop of quicksaves = bad design. Lots of frustration = bad design.
Similar with mazes - First Person Shooter are about shooting stuff, not looking for a way out. During my playthrough with BM I thought a couple of times “god I miss some shooting” even though the game cut substantial parts of the original HL. And when I was playing On a Rail all those years ago I even forgot what direction I had to go. So i jumped a level.
I recently booted up Duke Nukem FOrever, another oldie - I almost broke my keyboard because of the friggin keycards. I was a bit stuck in some places in BM too. Sometimes because of the added source features that i didnt see coming and sometimes because there was not enough visual/dialogue/design clues of what to do next.
It should be like this: you shoot people, you shoot some moar people and then there is a downtime. Back in the day u did platforming, looked for keycards, handles or a god damn hidden vent. Now you solve puzzles or have multiple approaches to an objective. You think why HL2 hasnt got much platforming? Because extensive FPP platforming usually sucks ass.
I am SO glad they got rid of most of the On a Rail. Maybe a tad more train riding would have benn great but that is all. Not sure about surface tension. Last time I played HL1 was 10 years ago, I vaguely remember it.
See, Black Mesa devs? This is what modernizing the game has done. It’s attracted this kind of person to your fanbase. I hope you’re happy. 
/partiallyjoking
I hope you’re completely joking, because he’s right. First person platforming isn’t all that great, and neither is maze-like level design.
That said, I do think On a Rail should have been longer. Not saying it has to be just like the original, but it was just way too short this time around. There was no sense of exploration, and it didn’t really feel like you had gone anywhere at all. In the original, reaching the rocket felt like a great achievement, but in BMS I could only think “that was it?”.
I like HL on rail, however I dont complain how it is changed on BM. However I do miss part of map where we could reach bottom of rocket, where headcrabs and soldiers spawns, as well as another part of map where is that lair of barnacles. Not that theyre that important, but they were the rewards of exploring first part of “on a rail” chapter, therefore finding them and lurking them out was exciting experience, however rail on BM don`t yield such rewards for explorers.
I am tracking BM’s development almost since the beginning fyi. I just assess the games fairly. Back in the day people didnt give much damn about q&a. Also quake 2 holds up nicely. You’re almost the type of a person that says that graphics were better back in the day, because they left more to one’s imagination :x That’s like saying masturbation is better than actual sex.
Some of you that expressed concerns about certain parts of “Surface Tension” from HL that are missing from BM should check out this thread concerning TextFAMGUY1’s project. It’s absolutely fantastic!
https://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?t=15065
I’ll also paste my comments, from that thread, concerning On A Rail, as follows:
- “Stellar work, really, and what you’ve accomplished in such a short time is utterly amazing. If you had been a member of the BM Dev team, maybe it wouldn’t have taken 8 years… never mind… that water’s passed under the bridge.”
“Along with “Surface Tension”, the “On A Rail” level also left a lot to be desired, in my view. Not to ignore how much work you have left to do with finishing up “Surface Tension”, are you considering doing something similar with reworking the “On A Rail” level as well? How did you like the way “On A Rail” turned out?”
and
- “To follow-up, seems to me that the OaR level was the start of the on-going escalation in the conflict between the aliens and HECU. There are several battles in OaR between Vorts and HECU that you hear off in the distance prior to coming upon and witnessing them first-hand. You end up mopping up the survivors. At first the HECU appear dominant but then the Vorts turn the tables and become dominant. I agree, it’s not as crucial a plot point as ST is, but to me it lays the groundwork and is the prelude to the beginning of the end for the HECU, which eventually occurs in ST.”
Yeah, On A Rail was far too short and castrated of exploration and several encounters between aliens, HECU and Gordon. I enjoyed OaR in HL and wish that BM could have included more content similar to the original.
The Atmosphere in on a rail is really great but If it were extended then I think only one more section would do the trick here to be honest.
The things that I felt I missed the most were dodging the boxes and the elevator where you send a satchel up to a room and explode it to clear the path. Having to shoot the track switch was also cool.
And a few fights ok But it was nothing spectatcular if that could be brought to a single extra section I think it would do the trick
To be honest I would rather have Uplink tagged on the end of On A Rail so you stay on the surface a bit longer and theres vorts vs HECU in that… Dish Uplinkto control the sattalite you just launched and it is at night so it’s in keeping with the setting
The original was repetative as all hell… and maze-like in parts. BM’s On a Rail is technically more enjoyable, and the atmosphere is great… but yeah, it is way too short. D’oh!.. Maybe a better middle ground could have been met. Trying not to complain too much… I am pretty thrilled with BM… especially after disabling HECU speech. BM is perfect.
At least hl1 on a rail made more sense as length Gordon had to cover was pretty realistic for railroad. I mean otherwise there would be no point to build railroad there. So in that sense hl1 on a rail captured the right atmoshpere of traveling on train. Its not like were any different when we every day have to drive to work/school.
I’m doing a mental redesign of On A Rail right now, and it’s actually longer than HL1’s OAR or BM’s OAR, but has more actual content than either.
I loved the old On a Rail, but I’m okay with the new one. What bugged me the most was Surface Tension.
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I swear the parts that everyone hated about the original were some of my favorites. I personally LOVE First Person Platforming…
I didn’t like the original On A Rail because it was so long and I always got lost! Haven’t got to the part in Black Mesa yet (currently on Power Up) but will look forward to seeing the new version!
There were a few things that I wish the dev team left in, like the rail switching, dodging the electricity, and the huge rocket launcher thing.
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