You can always download a HD pack to your Half-Life: Source and get “Half-Life with better graphics” just look it up on youtube
EDIT: @Bloodshot, actually that’s the best thing they did. Colt Python had little to no purpose in the original game, this way it’s being used more.
Would that that had better graphics. Half-Life: Source is just as dated as the original, except it has ragdolls and the cliff face has a very rushed 3D backdrop instead of a 2D one. Truth be told, I’d rather play Half-Life over Source, because at least for that I can use the Blue Shift high-rez weapons pack.
As for changes, I really don’t mind Black Mesa not being a perfect copy of Half-Life. It’s not the same game, after all. And indeed, the changes are outright better in a lot of places. The trouble is that the Black Mesa team clearly didn’t like everything in Half-Life, and a lot of the things they “fixed” I actually really enjoyed. On a rail, for instance, has been cut down to no more than half its length, with most of the non-train sections outright removed. Surface Tension has, similarly, been cut down drastically. There was supposed to be a whole other building in-between Barney letting you into the weapons store room and getting to the cannon to blow up the gate. That’s gone completely.
I wouldn’t go as far as to badmouth Black Mesa for it, but it really is considerably shorter than the original Half-Life because it simply misses large chunks of level in many, many places. As well, a LOT of the platforming segments that still exist have been bypassed almost entirely. Residue Processing is the most obvious. There’s no more jumping on floating meat chunks, the pistons room has partially-collapsed catwalks that provide static rest stops between piston jumps and the mixer tank no longer requires you to jump from mixer to mixer, because there’s a path which leads to the forward mixer and right out to the next room.
And for not being a carbon copy of Half-Life, Black Mesa still has sections that ARE carbon-copies of Half-Life locations. The main chamber in Blast Pit is a perfect recreation, right down to where the grating on the floor is, where it’s broken and even the hidden area that you have to be pulled up into by a barnacle creature. There’s also a spot in Questionable Ethics - climbing a set of stairs - that’s one-to-one exact with Half-Life, right down to the enemy spawn points, and those are non-talking enemies.
If anything, I wish Black Mesa were longer, and I’m not just referring to Xen. I want more “On a Rail” and more “Surface Tension” and more "Residue Processing and so forth. I can see the need to cut them down as a Source engine game takes a LOT longer to make levels for than an old Half-Life style 1990s FPS, so I’m not holding them to task… But I miss the chunks that aren’t there.
I do think Surface Tension could have included some more of the original elements. Like from when you get the snarks and the vent gets pelleted with bullets, skips straight to the Garg sequence and the mortars. That took me by surprise, and doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. IMO it probably would’ve been better if they kept everything that should’ve gone in-between.
Overall it really isn’t bad though.
I actually like the maps being altered. Half-Life? I knew Half-Life’s maps, there was nothing to explore, I’d seen it all. Black Mesa? I get to go “Ooo, what’s over here? And there? Oh man, what’s that!?” all over again, just like I did in 2000 when I first played Half-Life on my Pentium III machine.
Black Mesa is not Half-Life with better graphics. Think of it as a remake of an old movie, with new effects, actors, and also a refreshed story with modified scenes. The iconic things are there, but many things are different.
Imagine if after 8 years of development, and a decade and a half after the original game came out, all you would have is Half-Life, but with better graphics. If every enemy, every room, every corridor was the same, just looked better… You could play it with your eyes closed, and it would not even stimulate your mind.
jackiechanwtf.jpg
Seriously, if you have a problem with the devs’ interpretation of what Black Mesa should be, then why don’t you go off and spend the next eight years of your life remaking Half-Life in its entirety, fully voice acted and featuring a professionally composed soundtrack.
You’re complaining that the devs made the mod how both they and pretty much everybody else here in the forums thought it should be - but you didn’t. And I’m sorry to say, sunshine, that the world doesn’t revolve around you. Everybody here loves the devs’ interpretation of the mod. You don’t? Go to forums.wehateblackmesasource.com and voice your complaints there to the community who really care about what you have to say.
Okay, let’s stop here before anyone gets hurt.
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.