Black Mesa Source

finished it...

pros:

- hivehand first time animation

- environments == huge wins

- good manuscript with a lot of cool references

- multiple player paths in some places (also a big win)

- mod that is essentially a stand alone package released for free

crits:

- shaving off various cool areas from the original

- balance

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(teleporter end encounter at lambda complex was basically flipping the bird to the player in terms of balance, also helicopters are not heavily armored, and even if they were, 20+ rockets would be overkill)

- randomly getting stuck on objects because fuck using clipping volumes

- no real light guidance made it hard to figure out some areas that should otherwise not have been hard

- not being able to revisit older areas in some places (like

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questionable ethics

)

overall i'm impressed this ever came out, and there's been a lot of nostalgia revisiting going on in my playthrough. and so, despite the few flaws it has, the game is a superb A+ product that i would play again and recommend to others.

Guys, use charged Tau-cannon shots and the heli comes down pretty easily. It did in HL1 too the same way.

Also, I'll be writing my thoughts tomorrow about BM now I have finished it.

Why are people falling off ladders so much? When you +use to dismount, you automatically slide to an info_ladder_dismount entity... well, usually, if the mapper placed them.

Well really enjoying BMS but I'm kinda stop in my game.

Anyone knows where to climb, jump because I tried everywhere

[Blocked Image: http://tof.canardpc.com/view/5b1dacfc-eb45-4426-8bdc-17e2c6360fb9.jpg]

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go up one story to the right and then through the door, should be able to jump down through a hole in the floor from there on.

I would normally make fun of everyone getting stuck in this thread but I just ran around for 5 minutes after the bridge explodes after the cargo elevator with the head crabs dive bombing you. Didn't even notice the giant pipes I had to crawl across, what a dumb ass. And that isn't even an area that changed from the original HL, good lord. Gotta stop playing Dota and play some real games again, I'm losing it.

I'm stuck too!

I have no idea where to go after crossing that wooden bridge in the mountains. What am I missing?

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keep moving on the edge of the cliff. the entire level is along those edge cliffs and jumping from broken platforms to broken platforms.

Quote from e-freak

Well thanks e-freak!

Just got the awesome crash after questionable ethics. That's enough for tonight.

Wow just got about 2/3 through WGH and yeah, seems like hgrunt damage is too high or their accuracy needs to get halved? Also wish they dropped mini health packs like the Combine soldiers. Right now, what usually happens is that I drop down to single digit health, then have to start slicing the pie everywhere with the 357 to get instant headshots / exploiting the AI / camping because I can't take risks anymore... which is interesting, but gets tedious.

Done. That's was better than expected. Gradulation to the whole team.

Quote from Campaignjunkie

Wow just got about 2/3 through WGH and yeah, seems like hgrunt damage is too high or their accuracy needs to get halved? Also wish they dropped mini health packs like the Combine soldiers. Right now, what usually happens is that I drop down to single digit health, then have to start slicing the pie everywhere with the 357 to get instant headshots / exploiting the AI / camping because I can't take risks anymore... which is interesting, but gets tedious.

medics drop a medpack

>people getting stuck / lost

>people having trouble because of enemy damage and ammo management

>not being able to close your eyes and play through half-life from start to end

>scrubs, scrubs everywhere

What I like most, is how Black Mesa takes you back to an age in which I still loved shooters. Of course they got Half Life to thank for that but they didn't fuck it up with crappy modern shit. So no regenerating health and stuff like that. They knew the fans would kill them if they did. But even the changes they did make, were subtle and right for the game.

I especially like the fact that it takes a while before you are armed. Your depending on the security guard as you would probably need to do if the situation was real. The abilty to throw things at zombies and eventually burn them with flares, all add to the immersion that you got to make due with what you find. Even how the crowbar was placed is logical. Attention to these details is what makes it stand out for me. Even more than the visuals.

It's been 14 years since Half Life and the gameplay still stands strong. I rather replay this mod 10 times then play the new Medal of Honor or Call of Duty. The only shooter coming out that looks promising is Far Cry 3 with it's sense of freedom instead of generic FPS title 10.

Quote from Rick_D

>people getting stuck / lost>people having trouble because of enemy damage and ammo management

>not being able to close your eyes and play through half-life from start to end

>scrubs, scrubs everywhere

Actually I think that rather than romanticizing half-life or making it seem like the greatest game in 2012, Black Mesa brought a lot of the issues the original had right back to the forefront, made them really apparent.

The game does require a lot of odd back tracking, and is unclear in many spaces (in both versions, or in one or the other), and it does have odd pacing. That said, it's still telling a really cool story. Just far from perfectly.

i can't remember the original being this unbalanced, especially towards the end. regardless, the gameplay still holds up, and it's the only game i was able to play continuously for a long, long time.

I dunno if anything I think this just, again, shows how pussified games and shooters in particular have become. Players getting stuck for a few minutes or having to use their resources appropriately are not symptoms of bad design they`re traits of developers not nervously attempting to correct something that totally isnt a problem.`

Also backtracking is pretty much always a good thing unless your game is dull as shit to walk around in.

Quote from FMPONE

Actually I think that rather than romanticizing half-life or making it seem like the greatest game in 2012, Black Mesa brought a lot of the issues the original had right back to the forefront, made them really apparent.

The game does require a lot of odd back tracking, and is unclear in many spaces (in both versions, or in one or the other), and it does have odd pacing. That said, it's still telling a really cool story. Just far from perfectly.

One of the things i think half-life did extremly well was the pacing, and I think BMS managed to preserve that in a nice way.

I think there are a few things than contribute to it feeling "harder".

The weapons take an AGE to reload in comparison to hl1.

MP5 has 30 rounds so you can't just spray and pray forever.

Grunts are using cover a lot more and rape your ass with accuracy, good challenge.

Vorts take a split second to charge and fire their green shit at you. In hl1 I could kill them with a glock before they fired once. You gotta be real quick with them now.

Although that said, I'm actually finding it super generous with ammo and pickups. I'm literally tripping over ammunition and grenades; I feel the game is saying to me "HERE HAVE MORE AMMO. WHY WON'T YOU TAKE MY AMMO I HAVE SO MUCH TO GIVE YOU."