Playing Black Mesa if you haven't played Half-Life

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#1

Hello guys!

So I’m a big fan of Half-Life 2 and Valves games in general. I actually consider HL2 to be the best game of all time, and yet I haven’t played its predecessor. I do own HL1 and I’ve tried it for a few hours, but I didn’t really get into the game for some reason. It didn’t get me that great feeling I get from HL2, maybe because I’m bothered by the fact that it’s an old game.

Anyway, I haven’t played HL1 and now BM is about to be released and I’m unsure if I should really play BM wihout playing HL1 first. Do you think I would have a better experience of BM if I’ve played HL1 first, or vice versa?

I’d really appreciate some opinions on this ‘problem’. :slight_smile:

#2

Play or don’t play. There is no try.

#3

Hello, we are exactly the same :slight_smile: I’m a [COLOR=‘Red’]HUGE fan of Half life 2 and source engine games but I haven’t played any GoldSrc games. BM is getting released in 3 hours according to the countdown so just wait for BM

#4

I think you will enjoy it either way. If you didn’t play HL you probably won’t get this nostalgic feel, but however I don’t think that playing a really outdated game will increase your joy in playing bm.

#5

I know how you feel. I also pushed myself through HL only to experience it before Black Mesa so I can constantly stay in awe while playing BM and exhibit every difference they made. I have seriously no idea if it’s better to ply HL or BM first.

#6

To be fair, Half-Life is completely outdated now, which is one of the reasons why Black Mesa has been created.

I love the game and still play it from time to time, but completely understand that the younger audience have difficulty getting into it due to it’s age. It’s 14 years old, in graphics and gameplay.

I’d recommend you play it at some point, just to see what it’s all about, but don’t feel obliged to do so before you play BM.

#7

The way I see it, you’ll only get the best possible experience if you’ve played Half-Life years ago and loved it that way Black Mesa has all that nostalgia and you get to experience the game again in a whole new fresh way. Black Mesa will almost guaranteed be a great game regardless, though. If you don’t like old graphics, just wait these last 3 hours.

#8

I’m in the same boat. Some call us “graphics whores”. What some have to understand is some of us didn’t grow up with the first Half-Life or didn’t know about it until after the fact. I found out about Half-Life 2 because of it’s dystopian setting back in 2005. I love that type of setting. Then to learn that the first one is not only Not a dystopian setting but released years before through me off. I have no problem with older graphics. I play Tomb Raider 1-6. I grew up with those so I have that same nostalgic feeling I get when playing them. I don’t have that feeling with Half Life. I’ve tried playing it but I just couldn’t jump from Half Life 2 to THAT. Just couldn’t push myself through it. Black Mesa will be My true first Half Life. Some may get upset with that idea but that’s just how it is For Me. I’m really excited to experience the story of the first game because now I can see how it all began.

#9

My fifteen year old stepson is an avid gamer and he has tried to play the original, but couldn’t stick with it having been brought up on the likes of Skyrim and the HL2 games amongst others.
So give BM a whirl and dip into the original when the fancy takes you.
Enjoy!

#10

I have pretty much memorized the whole run through HL1 in my head, so it should be interesting to compare the two games while playing BM.

#11

^ Best piece of advice going around.

Personally, I found the first playthrough of HL1 to be mind blowingly awesome. It may be that you want to reserve this experience for BM (I wouldn’t blame you), but it’s worth playing HL at some stage in the future for reference and for the experience. With time pressing on, if you rush through HL1, you’re not going to feel any nostalgia going through BM with HL so fresh in your mind. I’ve been putting off replaying HL for a while now for that reason.

Half Life may be growing old and outdated, but it’s far from unplayable. Maybe it’s because I grew up playing wolf3d, but I don’t think the graphics are that bad.

#12

Anyone else think that yellow spider robot at the start of the game is ridiculously high detail compared to everything else?

#13

Some games are never outdated.
Doom, Duke 3D, Hl, Deus Ex.
Talk about gameplay & level-design masterpieces!

#14

Ha, same here, even down to most of the NPC placement.

Yeah, I always thought about that, it’s weird.

Au contraire. They’re outdated, but that doesn’t make them bad. Think of it like this, bows are outdated what with crossbows or guns laying about, but they’re still pretty great.

#15

Considering HL2 “the best game of all time”

Never having played the original that set up the entire story for HL2

Play the original first, otherwise you won’t be able to gain full appreciation for Black Mesa.

Plus, Black Mesa won’t have Xen on release so.

Half-Life: Source wasn’t GoldSrc, but it’s the exact same as the original with no changes whatsoever, except on the more stable Source engine.

#16

Great to see so many responses!

Yea makes sense. Chances are I will enjoy BM a lot more simply beceause it’s a newer game, I can’t force a nostalgic feel even thoguh I would play HL before playing BM.

Thanks for your understanding! I will definetly play HL at some point after I’ve played BM.

I also play a lot of older games so I don’t really think that is my problem with HL1. It’s just that I keep comparing it to HL2, which just feels better in every possible way (which makes sense since it’s a newer game).

#17

HL:Source has Normalmapping applied to the textures, and a couple of other source features, really badly tacked on. Some of the normalmaps were awful “cones” which cast really bad shadows over the textures.

#18

Oh? I stand corrected then, I suppose.

A few small texture problems doesn’t mean he shouldn’t play HL:S because it’s “bad” or something. I played through it and I didn’t even notice what you’re describing, so.

#19

It also had what I’d like to call “simulated cubemaps.”
No matter which version, He should play Half-Life at some point. It’ll more or less be the same experience.

#20

I didn’t discover and play System Shock 1 & 2 (and I finished them both) until 2008. Missing out on a game at release is no excuse to not play due to graphics. You should really give HL a go, especially since it has aged rather well (many games start to look AWFUL and either not run or play very badly on newer machines. Half-Life runs great and doesn’t look too bad).

You should definitely play Half-Life, maybe not first, but definitely at some point.

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.