I think this was deliberate… you ARE a random nobody scientist that happens to be in a non-combatant suit (even if it was adapted for military use, according to OpFor). It’s interesting and keeps you on your toes. You ARE fighting military, not dumbasses. (in b4 “redundant hurr hurr hurr”)
But, yeah, it gets frustrating at times.
I started my second play through today, apparently the soldiers don’t get the idea of a fire blast door in we got hostiles. I was coming up to the elevator that takes you to the surface. I was still in the top floor, shot the emergency button, and started to shoot the marines that tried to come through, when the door shut, I opened it back up again and rolled a grenade under it. When the door was fully open only one was left standing which I shot and killed with a burst fire.
Good strategy with those HECU b*stards: using the crossbow(even without the scope, at medium-short range) and smartly throwing a couple of granades while you are hiding in a cover, to form a good explodin’ cover can help you so much.
Another weapon I suggest, is, obviously, the .357 Magnum with the ironsight at high distances even the short ones(remember to shoot them right in the face), and the pistol, which is better than the assault rifle at high distance(imho, infact, this one is better at short-medium range).
And yes, this HECU soldiers often appear to have a Robin Hood’s aim -.-’
Yeah, the HECUs will fire at you constantly if there’s line of sight. The only effective way to take them out is to fire from partial cover and at a long distance with the magnum or the crossbow. This will minimise the damage you take. At short range, probably the shotgun is the most effective weapon, since they tend to roam in packs of four. You WILL take damage though. It’s simply not possible to sneak up on these guys (except when it is possible on a couple of occasions). I was playing Deus Ex before Black Mesa was released, so this was a bit jarring for me, gameplay-wise…
I don’t get why people are whining about soldiers since they’re more or less reskined combine soldiers, dificulty wise crank HL2 up to hard and go against a combine soldier with a shotgun, you die so fast.
And besides, a well placed .357 shot to the head kills them outright JUST LIKE in HL2. Soldiers are fine, seems to me like a classical case of “learn to play”.
A lot of people are saying this, but the Soldier’s AI isn’t taken from the Combine Soldier, it was made for BM.
I have a suggestion:
[list][*]0.0 is reduced accuracy with existing reaction time
Wham. A simple variety. Some soldiers will still snipe you (with more of a delay) and some soldiers will still have godly reflexes (at the cost of accurately). And many will have a compromise of somewhat reduced accuracy / slightly slower reactions, gently assuaging the type of complaint found here.
They are fine, but we are “whining” because they have sort of “innatural” aim, not because we need to “learn to play” or something like that…
For example I’m finishing the game @ hard difficulties, and despite the numerous situations when they literally have fued my HEV-suited ass, I’ve ever managed the fights with appropiate thinked strategies and moves after the save-reload, and finally I’ve fued THEIR asses, ever.
Here we’re discussing about a simply restyling of their AI: it is possibile for the devs, in an eventual future release of the mod, to set a little handicap for their unreal aim? It’s kind of robotical one right now…this is the question that I would to know.
I’m thinkin’ that I’m not the only one which want to suggest this “feature” to the staff.
I’ve noticed 2 main complaints about the combat, the first being the aimbot on the marines and the second being the “suckiness” of the MP5.
First of all, the aimbot is not that bad if you’re smart about it. The trick is to stay at range or in cover and to use explosives on groups whenever possible. For example, the part in Questionable Ethics when 5 marines come in from one door. Placing a satchel charge there and right clicking the MOMENT the marines walk in makes the fight a WHOLE LOT easier.
Now, to address the MP5. The MP5 is a damned beast in BM. The first problem is people trying to fire it full auto at the legs of enemies. Fire in BURSTS and aim for the upper torso. It annihilates Marines at mid and long range, to the point where it’s more effective than the crossbow or the magnum. The second problem is people using it at short range. Using it at short range is akin to setting off a satchel charge at your feet. The shotgun is a much, MUCH better choice at that range.
I started getting annoyed at the marine AI at the QE ambush, bush after my 15th attempt (medium difficulty) I realised that, while I was running and shooting, I was not thinking. Or living. So I tried changing up my strategy. Timing a grenade to take care of the first two marines to vault down through the windows. Switch weapons on the fly. Finding cover and health packs. Throwing a satchel charge at the door as a welcome for the second wave of marines. After four tries, I completed the ambush and boy, I don’t think I’ve ever felt such satisfaction in a video game. I just felt like such a badass, dispatching waves of elite marines like some sort of bearded ninja.
tl;dnr
The marines are challenging at first, but apply some patience, planning and on-the-go thinking, and they make for some extremely satisfying gameplay.
Basically, more modern shooters have gotten easier. There’s no two ways about it. This is old school.
To be honest, at first I felt the marines were too hard (playing hard difficulty), but then realized health & armor recharge stations, ammo packs for crossbow & magnum are frequent for a reason. Terrain can be abused aswell - sitting behind a corner with double-round shotgun ready works wonders.
Yep, sudden appearance of 4-5 marines will most likely result in a reload or two, but then, you will feel even better after finishing some big fight involving marines and machinery 
Question: How often did you have to play this scene in order to perfectly know the timing of all this? This is my major gripe with the game and why I simply think it’s not fun. Sure I can most likely beat the game on hard (currently playing on medium and having an okay but not too much fun time) but it would just be tedious. (Not hard! TEDIOUS) In order for this to succeed all I have to do is spam save and reload until I know where all enemies are and how to best blow them up or snipe them with whatever I have.
For me this is NOT fun. Sure this is old school but the fun in a game for me is to make it possible to play the game without dying until I have memorized every single enemy location. The above description feels for me like cheating. Sure I can drop a grenade to a location I know a soldier will pop up in a few seconds, but then I might as well just switch on god-mode and be done with it.
Run, Think, Shoot, Live is how it SHOULD be, right now it’s more like:
Run, Die, Think, Run, Shoot, Die again, Think, Run, Shoot, Die again, Think, Run, Grenade, Snipe, Shoot, Live
^To each his own I guess. Although I wasn’t even born when these so called old school games were around, I quite enjoy this style of gameplay. It’s a nice change of pace from the modern shooters we are all so accustomed to. And it’s just such an awesome feeling, learning the routine and then executing it perfectly like a ballet dancer of death. I’ve never played another game like this, but I am loving it.
The HECU marines are old school, just like in the original. That’s why they are hard to fight, in modern school games you only have to tap buttons to defeat enemies, in Black Mesa (and HL1) you have to use strategy to win, otherwise you’re dead.
I found that in the QE ambush, I only died once but that was because I didn’t expect the reinforcement of marines to come from a side door and I didn’t know there were marines above me. Survived the second time with 5 hp. The first fight I was also not thinking because I didn’t use my cover well. The second time around, I used different weapons, I shifted between different points of cover, and I still made mistakes. It was fun as hell and I would redo it twenty times because it would be done many different ways.
Actually, I’m pretty sure that they use bits of it. I was just discussing in another thread that the shotgun soldiers will try to rush just like they did in HL2.
I just got through the end of Questionable Ethics and the start of Surface Tension and I can honestly say that I have never sworn so much at a game in my life.
I must have died 15 times trying to get past the end of QE. Occasionally I noticed that one or two soldiers would drop medi packs, which would help. But 90% of the time they didn’t.
Here’s a fairly accurate description of my use of language when fighting those zipwire assholes…
WHAT THE FUCK? YOU FUCKING CUNT FUCK ASS FUCK FUCK YOU FUCK FUCK died FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING…FUCK DIE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK died FUCK…FUCK…FUCK YOU FUUUUCK died WHAT? JUST…died NO NO NO FUCK YOU NOOOO died
repeat 15 times.
The devs just have to find a way how to fix the aim bot (somehow)
Original poster here.
Update: I finally got through the sewers part that I mentioned in my first post. I used the Whack-a-mole strategy that someone mentioned, and after several deaths, it finally worked.
I am still playing on Hard and have done ever since. I do enjoy the extra challenge. But I still think sometimes it’s exaggerated, since as some other people posted, I wish I could continue to fight without think about quicksaving after every 2 kills or so. I am to the point where I will actually quicksave in the middle of a firefight. That, my friends, breaks a little bit the immersion.
I will say this, though. I do get an extra satisfaction of seeing the pile of bodies of HECU, knowing that every single of one could have killed me in a fraction of a second but I managed to overcome all of them.
But like some other posters, I miss old school shooters where you could run around and kill everything without practicing 10 times before. This feels more like a Call of Duty Modern Warfare game, where every bullet counts. It’s not the same game play as what I originally remember from Half Life. If BM would have reduced HECUs reaction time OR accuracy to a more realistic level (and even if they had added more enemies to compensate), I think it would have felt more old school.
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.