Have to give special credit to the mapper on this area for staying true to the original so well. Because its probably not the most glamorous level from the original game, doesn’t feature much combat and has lots of environment navigation puzzles (which don’t seem to be very popular these days) I was half expecting a drastically altered version. But the one I found was satisfyingly atmospheric and visually pleasing (compared to the original which is probably one of the ugliest levels). Nice job.
I found it about 5% less annoying than the HL1’s version, but about 10% more confusing 
I agree with Dotard.
I loved the river of poop. I really didn’t want to jump into it.
It’s always good when something occurs in the game which actually causes the player to think ‘eww…I don’t want to do that’.
Appreciation? Kind of.
This was one of my least favorite areas in HL, because of how confusing it was (with so little sense). In BM, though, I got around alot quicker, and was able to be like “Oh, so that’s where this goes…” at alot of places. The original level just revealed enough to let you know that you need to be going somewhere, while BM gives you a better picture as you explore. Less WTF Why Am I Here.
Also, the visual upgrade was VERY good (of course). Lots of nicer, industrial stuff to look at instead of just flat metal and boring staircases.
Actually in BM’s version, I had no idea what’s going on, why I’m there, what am I doing and what I did when I was gone. Much more confusing than HL1’s… especially the underwater passages when it’s moving Gordon on it’s own
In BM, honestly I figured out the maze of conveyors and the shit river really quickly. Every time I play Half-Life’s version, I end up getting confused to hell.
Guess it depends who’s playing it.
Thought this chapter was a pretty much perfect remake. The soldiers beat you half to death and tried to smash you in a trash compactor. You escape the trap, but you’re still in the middle of no where in black mesa. You have to fight your way through the garbage disposal area of the complex to get back into the fight and attempt to escape with your life. That is what happened. It seems obvious enough to me.
I found myself enjoying this level a lot more but I also took a lot more time to go through it. I tried to explore quite a bit and maybe that is my excuse for getting lost a bit haha but I really liked how it turned out.
I agree - this level was interesting.
But also still confusing - I had to sleep on it to come up with a solution about where to go 
And I also liked the swimming part of it, when you’re being pushed by the water. It felt right, made me feel dizzy in real life. That’s what you’ll probably feel while swimming in a dirty water after a serious beat-up by military without sleeping for a long time and all the horrors you’ve seen so far.
Good job!
I’m a Half-Life veteran, I know how he ended there. I was talking specifically about the environments, it was confusing to me, so can’t imagine the hell for a noobie
I actually found myself not wanting to go into the water, thinking that there was a grinder or crusher waiting for me haha. I also found myself feeling similar feelings against Mr. Fishy (Icythesaur(sp?)) and the gargantuas. Not many games make me stop and want to just keep in a safe hiding spot because of an enemy that I really don’t want to get too close to.
noobie here: had no confusion problems to speak of… at one point it took me some time to find the right shit-river sidearm to continue, but that’s it.
but i got down to the crowbar at one point! i needed all ammunition for the bullsquids, and used the last two bits of ammunition at all, two satchels, for the two proximity mines. i would’ve had to tank through if i had depleted them somehow, too.
seriously, who boobytraps his waste disposal conveyor belts?
TL;DR: no navigation issues, but severe ammo shortness.
Maybe because I’ve been playing Half Life for more than ten years, I recognised absolutely everything in this level. There are no changes from the original(There are even the same corpses in the same places). The only thing that I noticed is that the part of the “river of shit” is larger.
One question: How did you manage go the opposite direction of the conveyor belt at the same time that crouching? I had to jump+crouch+go forward but that was very odd.
i felt that too. it was one realistic river of poop
I liked that they enhanced the visual hint for which conveyer belt to use to complete the puzzle. Just look for the one with the tripmine in it.
Never liked Residue Processing in the original HL, but somehow Black Mesa made it a bit more enjoyable, but not by much.
Still, the work they put into it is amazing.
That’s how it used to be in the original
I very well knew the way, and I always knew where I had to go in order to proceed.
BUT, since I was playing this in fully nostalgia mode I made damn sure to check every place and every door. Areas that made no actual sense of exploring. There were crabs and spitters to waste ammo on, but nowhere to find ammo. So when I eventually got to the end I had only the crowbar and (thank god) 2x bomb pouches (forgot the damn name on them???). So I used the pouches to blow up the trip mines at the hoops and then got out of there with only a crowbar. This made me rage a bit.
And also, going through all those doors always makes me cry (iirc it was the same in HL) because usually the door you walk through just takes you to an area you’ve been at before, just that the door was locked from the other side around (if this makes any sense).
But all the fancy machinery really was of high quality, and like someone else said that water really made me think “eeew”. Other than that I can’t say it was much different from the original.
I really enjoyed this chapter, after I’ve found out that many does not… It’s probably because of how much I love the gameplay mechanics of the source engine, the quake era of gaming is gone and Source engine is just about the only engine around that offers that old school feel to jumping and just general feel of gameplay, so jumping around with it feels very free, it’s not automated, there are no animations playing out for you making every jump that needs to be made, all is on you and that’s something I love a lot.
I had an absolute blast in the final area of Lambda Core bunny hopping with the jump booster thing, can’t wait to jump around like crazy in Xen with that thing
you just repeated what i said earlier: we had the exact same experience XD