I think the Havok badge in the loading screen is necessary when creating a source mod, because even though Valve uses a modified Havok engine, they still have to acknowledge the original creators (for licensing purposes).
Black Mesa has a license to Source proper, so they use the Havok logo as required by the original agreement from Havok/Intel now Microsoft at the time.
one thing I always wondered is where is the havok api implemented like what dll is it stored within? Because it sure isnt embeded in the client/server dlls that source mods use. I remember it being somewhere possibly in a subdirectly of the game/steam installation whose path was possibly extracted from the steam client install location in the early days before all the steampipe updates. I think I also remember trying to replace it with another physics engine but the way valve chose to initalize its engine dll makes this extremely tough even if you embed the code into the server/client code.
If you want Black Mesa to play like the original Half Life gameplay, you can turn on the "always run" option in the settings. Its odd the game doesn't ask this when starting for the 1st time, because this feature changes the feeling of gameplay quite alot.
@@zebitus5731 Well, it allowed me to dodge most enemie attacks and shoot at the same time, aswel as never needing to bother using the stupid sprint button ever again and allow the slide bunnyhop to be more concistent. So all things considered, I think the gameplay is quite similar enought.
@@lynxovski I have played HL way too much so im gonna go on but in Black Mesa having the original movement doesnt help due to the almost full rework of each enemy, even with similar movement it isnt on par with what HL did and makes NPC's not work well with that old movement style, hope that makes sense.
@@zebitus5731 Them not being able to attack and move at the same time? Because if thats the thing, Im glad they can do it now. I always ended up cheesing them out of that quirk, so Im glad for the challenge.
@@lynxovski Being able to attack and move isnt the issue, they (mainly marines) react entirely differently most of the time and the first few arenas goes against how you could handle it in the original, instead you have to hide behind cover far away so they cant throw grenades at you and the combat doesnt let you be as free.
i just replayed black mesa /w new xen. i honestly think half life is the better game. black mesa looks awesome, but did a few gameplay changes hat contradict each other + new xen just sucks. dont get me wrong. old xen sucked equally, but it took only a fraction of the time.
HLS isn't supposed to be a remaster, it was supposed to show how easy it was to port Goldsrc assets to Source. Also levitating scientist and many other bugs were because of engine updates
looking at the floating scientist bug seems like it was a precision mistake. Something like changing from x86 to x64 or single to double floating point
True, when half life source was first released it was a lot more polished and there were hardly any bugs, however the source engine just kept getting updated with the time, and half life source didn't, which created more and more bugs that valve simply didn't bother to fix because people simply weren't caring about that game anymore, and all of that resulted in this giant mess called "Half Life Source" we have today
@@NoahGooder pretty much every source game from that era has been 32 bit, I don’t see how that can be a floating point precision error, and it’s also known that it started happening with the steampipe update
I'm not sure if I'd say Black Mesa is a replacement for HL1. It definitely should be a companion piece though. While Black Mesa aims to improve a lot of things, and often does, I find that the result is somewhat bloated. The biggest example is that, while Xen is cool in Black Mesa, it was tolerable in HL1 because it could be completed in 20-30 minutes, and I think this issue in BM ruins the pace a little and makes me exhausted before finishing it, even if the result is fantastic compared to the original. I'm not even coming from this as someone that played the game in '98 and hasn't played something I liked better since then. I first played in 2017 and even then it became one of my favorite games ever. I think that a lot of people nowadays that don't tend to play older games won't appreciate Half-Life because there is a lot of jank (Physics of crates is a big one, and On a Rail + Xen), but if you're like me and can appreciate a game based on quality regardless of time released, give the original a go.
@Coração Acidental Yeah, i dislike that people just see it as a replacement even though it's basically a different game with the same story beats. I never got the argument that HL1 would be too old and clunky for first impressions, I first played it in 2020 and it felt completely natural because like every other game since was built on top of it.
@@daph__ some people are just turned off by old graphics. simple as that. Original Half-Life is probably my favorite first person shooter. i played back in 2000 and loved it. But lots of young people won't play a game with 1990 graphics. Hoplefully BL will get young people to get invested in the Half-Life series and incentivize Valve to make HL3.
The biggest issue for me with Black Mesa is how they kinda screwed up the Xen factory, (gameplay wise, it DOES look stunning) however in return for that we get proof that the Source engine still holds up over 20 years later. Source works great with square-ish enviroments (Hallways/Corridors/Vents/Sheds etc.) and due to the original half life making outstanding use of this, it translates over perfectly to Black Mesa. A big problem with trying to make Source look "realistic" is that people easily forget this "square-rule" and therefore the engine ends up being tasked with something it cannot perform optimally. Something which is (albeit not as outstanding as the original half-life) done outstandingly in Black-Mesa, even if it was just for the sole reason that it takes massive inspiration from the original.
@@whoisanarnb I honestly think Interloper should've been rebuilt from the ground up, I like what they did with the Garguanta chase and the vort village, the platforming at the start can go away, at least 3/4 of the controllers can be removed, the factory section needs to be drastically trimmed down, the plug puzzles really overstay their welcome and really should be placed with over puzzle concepts like perhaps barnacle climbing and tossing snarks into super small spaces to blow up parts of machinery inside walls and having puzzles requiring the hivehand's ability to shoot around corners, and the major change, a bossfight with the Kingpin in the area with the final elevator, instead of having to attack the generators, you have to trick the Kingpin into deflecting rockets into them, as well being limited to the tau cannon and gluon gun due to conventional weapons not being able to get past it's psionic defenses, and instead of the elevator stopping and falling halfway up for no reason it is instead forced back down by the Kingpin's psychic abilities, the first phase of the fight is just defending against it while getting a few hits in with the tau cannon due to it's ability to shoot through walls, which the Kingpin's force fields would act as, and the second phase being it forcing the elevator back down which brings drown energy crystals from the ceiling allowing you to recharge your energy weapons to actually fight it, once it's dead the elevator starts again, and for pacing bringing back the short platforming to the portal to Nihilanth's chamber with no combat from the Kingpin's death to the start of the Nihilanth fight.
Coincidentally I watched a video the other day where this was described as an issue with Binary Space Partitioning, a concept in games which dates back to Doom when John Carmack read about it in a white paper.
Your computer lagging out a lot while playing the game is so relatable. Every single other gaming channel I see always seems to have some giga god NASA setup, but seeing a fellow potato PC haver is nice to see. ✊
Black Mesa isn’t well optimized. Where Valve takes great care in culling out geometry that the player can’t see, Black Mesa has MOST of the level being rendered the entire time, even where you can’t see. It’s a shame.
I didn't even know there were friendly vortugaunts in hl1 until watching this, the fact that you can actually tell that there are friendly ones in black mesa make it infinitely better
Valve is actually fine with the usage of the source engine for third party games, however they say that to publish it the game you need to buy a Havok license, so I'd guess that's why they put the Havok logo there :D
Actually if you can rip the Havok engine out, and make your mod entirely with the old Quake physics that are still in the code (Half-Life 1 physics), you don't pay for it. Also someone recently ported a sick open source Havok killer physics engine for the Source engine, so hey.
As of now, you no longer need to buy a Havok license either for third-party source mods. Valve will cover the 25,000$ fee, and will still allow you to put it on steam within reason.
I think of Black Mesa the same way I think of REmake. It's a great experience on its own terms but I'm reluctant to call it an outright "replacement" to the original since it's such a drastically different experience despite having the same overall game structure. Personally I like Black Mesa a lot but I still prefer the OG simply because it still retains a lot of classic Doom/Quake/Duke3D era FPS DNA, and the lowpoly graphics and lofi sound design make the enemies creepier. Whereas I like OG RE1 a lot but personally prefer REmake because it's significantly more challenging and atmospheric (which are some of the most important things about survival horror).
I think that literally the only thing I dislike about this game is the redesign for the HECU combat gear. Like, the Black Mesa event occurred in the early 2000s so the outfits that the HECU wore in the original fit well when compared to the pasgt helmet and vest that real soldiers wore at the time. But in Black Mesa they are wearing what appear to be Skateboarding helmets and Molle Plate Carriers that don't match the early 2000s feel the original was going for. I simply fix this minor gripe by playing Black Mesa with a "Classic HECU" mod and it all works out for me.
My biggest and only problem with Black Mesa is that it, at least for me, doesn't flow well later on. Simply because half my focus goes into finding my way through a visually overstimulating maze. The fights and looks are super great though.
Waking up in the aftermath of the resonance cascade in Black Mesa, as well as when you first enter Xen, are probably two of the biggest "oh shit" moments I've ever had in gaming. It's like everything you thought you knew about the game immediately changes, and the game's world completely opens itself up to you, for everything that it means. Not since the moment that you first step out of the sewers in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion did a game manage to make me feel that way. Kudos to this game's designers; they truly made a masterpiece with this.
Seriously. Unforeseen Consequences is so much more intense in BM than it is in the original game. The lasers blowing the machinery up scared the crap out of me. The contrast between Gordon suiting up and making his way through Anomalous Materials to the test chamber, to seeing the immediate aftermath of the resonance cascade is incredible, they absolutely nailed it.
8:25 when it comes to that section, i actually did something counter-intuitive and did the whole route to the exit on my own, instead of waiting behind the security guard, it worked perfectly for some reason
action sequences sound tracks are great with BM but HL sound track has more "wonder" i remember getting outside midway through the campaign and seeing the tentacle monster while the alien sounding music kicked in. 100% half-life.
I finished Black Mesa a few days ago, with it being the first Half-Life game I’ve ever played. Had a ton of fun with it and it made me immediately want to jump into Half-Life 2, which I just finished today. I was so immersed in both of these games from start to finish, more so than any other game I’ve played in recent memory. The word that comes to mind when I think of these games is “raw”. The experience they deliver is so direct and honest; You’re constantly going from one place to another, left to figure out the way ahead all on your own with little to no guidance, meeting new people and gunning down enemies without ever being taken out of the action. No invasive cutscenes or blocks of text explaining exactly what’s going on; Everything is delivered in such an organic way, whether it be a believable NPC talking directly to you or a change in the environment. I can definitely see why this series is so beloved now.
@@wio1 there isn't any problem with that tbh. i can totaly see how half-life 1 got absolutely no appeal to people that just never played half-life. so black mesa is just a perfect entry point into the series for anyone who, for what ever reason, never played the original Half-Life. it's like saying "you played the steam version half-life 1 (NOT Source) but not the WON version?". don't gate-keep because someone didn't start the series with the OG version. that just hurts the fanbase.
@@Buttersaemmel No, it's not like saying "you played the Steam version of Half-Life but not the WON version?" at all. Those two games have very small differences. Black Mesa and Half-Life's differences are pretty obvious, and I'm not saying Black Mesa's differences are better.
7:13 I like how this is almost exactly how bhopping in Titanfall 2 works. The sliding "extends" the bhop window and essentially makes it easier to do. It all comes full circle. All we now is a Quake remake with slide bhopping.
For those that want to play the og Half Life, there is actually a coop game on Steam called Sven Co-op which lets you play the entire campaign with friends or alone (for free!!) I think theres a few differences, but overall practically the same game!
As someone who played this game on hard a few times, l can tell you this, the chicks(ninja assassins) can be dealt with the crossbow(getting oneshoted), Lazer traps are also your best friends if they move a around a lot, and if they are close to you, SHOTGUN up close and personal. Great video, you earned a sub ❤️
Black mesa- the almost 2 decades fan made project for half life 1, its purely a labor of love if you ask me. Having been playing all the build from the very first mod version to the retail build on steam and finally the definitive edtion with xen included, i feel like seeing the development of a character in a story, cant describe it but like proud and such moving emotion and its tranfered into the new xen so well. Even after finishing this game, i recommend installing two more workshop mod that made the game much more lively and fresh, being the character expansion pack and chapter overhaul collection/ improved chronographic and a few unused line restoration.
Black Mesa's definitely a recommended way to experience Half Life 1's story. I've seen many newcomers go "ew bad graphics" when I asked them to try HL1.
graphics should be the last thing that matter when it comes to a video game but that doesn't mean you should intentionally make one look bad plus, half life probably looked like real life when it released
@Coração Acidental What do you mean by such people not "deserving" to get recommended black mesa. If they dislike Half-Life 1 for its graphics, that doesn't imply that they won't end up liking Black Mesa for its gameplay. Do you believe there is something wrong in disliking a game because of its visuals?
When long ago I learned about ("NOCLIP")! This is where you come onto a space anywhere on the map and By using (~) and type: ("NOCLIP") you are now able to walk through walls but never walk across any low spots or walk up close to walls. It's a blast. Also, there was ("WAD") Files where any DEV within the game folder where it had DEV maps and coders that can be used as edits to open new maps. I will never uninstall the game like a lot of others. For me gaming gets rid of a lot of stress of living in this BIG WORLD OF OURS!
Black Mesa screwed letting the Marines move and shoot at the same time. This made repositioning and surprise important, when they can always shoot even when moving your movement doesn't matter, if you're shooting them then they're shooting you.
If you don't know about the Engine this game uses, It uses an Updated Source Engine called "Source 2013" where half of everything in the engine changes. It also uses the "Source 2007" engine update with Shadows, Lighting and others. But Black Mesa is completely different, They made their Own source Engine with 2007 and 2013 and called it the "Xengine" Which is why The engine's limit has been pushed... For example with the engine, Sources games such as Left 4 Dead and Portal 2 is different was because they use "Source 2007" Which had different Lighting, Textures, sounds and others but the game's Engine is a bit modified than the actual Engine it runs on. Since Portal 2 uses the 2006 Engine, The game is more updated than the Engine itself. Since it was updated, Respawn entertainment uses Portal 2's engine and update it a lot to Create "Titanfall". This shows that The Source Engine itself is More different than we used to know it for. Plus on console, The orange box uses 2007 Engine. Even though it had HL2, It's the same because they removed some stuff from the Updated engine to keep it the way it used to be.... Except for some stuff... So, Xengine is pretty much a modern version of the source engine. All of this was shown in a Video by "qyuetx" Explaining the engine of Source.
I really don't think Black Mesa functions as a replacement for the original. I know this is only a personal anecdote, but I've found people who feel the same. Black Mesa was my first Half-Life game, I quit around We've Got Hostiles because I just got bored. A couple weeks later I played the original that I got absolutely hooked on the series and that first game has become my favourite ever. I've since replayed it after completing Half-Life 2 and it's expansions and it became a far more rewarding experience. It's still not as fun as the original, but it's definitely worth playing.
Half-Life came out just a couple short years before i was broken, but i was interested in this milestone in gaming history and decided to buy and play it for the first time a couple weeks ago. it's a good game and i can see why it is so important in video game history, but about 2/3rds it just became frustrating and a bit insufferable. i may finish it, but i need a bit of a break first
I never got to play black mesa, but I saw enough reviews to know how great the game is, Too bad Crowbar collective doesn't make the remakes of the expansions, but Tripmine studio works in them
@@oskar3897operation black mesa is tripmine’s remake of opposing force, the other isn’t and is the mod remaking blue shift in black mesa made by other devs
If we talk about heavy modifications to the Source Engine we can't not look at Titanfall and Apex. At first glance they don't look like they were made on that engine but they FEEL THE SAME as on Source
2:36 Havok is an engine that must be licensed if you release a Source game. That's also why the new physics engine (Volt) by Josh Dowell and Joshua Ashton is such a big deal - not only does it get high performance but it's also open source! This is amazing news for anyone that wants to make a Source game and release it, but I don't see anyone talking about it If you can, please make a video about this
Black mesa is really great. Xen is also *so great* it drastically drops my fps from 60 fps to 20 fps even on lowest settings. 10/10 would play it again.
I respectfully disagree. Black Mesa is an amazing tribute to Half-Life and a giant accomplishment for any fan project, but it *isn't* a replacement for Half-Life 1. It's never that simple. My issue is with many of the odd changes to the level design and enemies. It's obvious that Crowbar Collective wanted to make Half-Life 1 more like Half-Life 2, but that misses the point IMO. It's kinda similar to how they tried to make the Hobbit more like the Lord of The Rings trilogy when adapting it to the movies. It irks me when people say "Oh just skip Hl1, play Black Mesa instead!". That definitely isn't the best way to get into the half-life series, IMO. Both games are amazing, I just prefer Half-Life 1 as a standalone game. Maybe just... play both? But Half-Life 1 should be first. But for the love of all that is holy, never, EVER, touch Half-Life source.
I respectfully agree with that. Though I didn't say it's a replacement, I said at the end "you should still play the OG. I was more pointing out the compelling changes in Black Mesa I liked. But still yes.
About bhopping in Black Mesa, you're able to infinitely slide and gain quite a bit of speed, all you need to do is start sliding as you normally would but instead of jumping and strafing you only strafe from side to side *without* jumping.
It is a fantastic remake that any Half-Life fan should experience. I bought the game a few months ago and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Crowbar Collective deserve all the support they can get for this masterpiece. They have put so much work into it and it shows. Nothing like the sloppy copy-paste job Valve did with Half-Life Source.
I played the original HL first, but when I want to replay it I tend to play BM instead. Even 100%ed the achievements just as an excuse to explore more of the game. I think it works best on the hardest difficulty, it really helps you get in the mind of a random research assistant in way over his head. If you ever get stuck with a puzzle or combat encounter, a bit of quick thinking will almost always lead you in the right direction. It's just so effortless, you can really feel the appreciation for Valvian game design.
Damn I was hoping you’d talk about the elevator scene right before the Nihilanth, when I played it for the first time, my god it was an incredible experience, and still is on replays.
Not sure why everyone misses this but, in the end of the stealth section, your supposed to run with the guard, not crouch or walk. If you run, you don’t get spotted every time
I played Unreal and Half-Life in a row the first time,because a special EAX sound version of it was in the box of my new shiny Creative Voodoo 2 card.... To be honest both games realy were just jawdroppingly good for the time. I mean the 2nd half of the nineties was the time when fps realy tried successfully to be creative. Games like both mentioned and System Shock 2,Battlezone:Combat Comander,UT,Quake 2 and 3 and Deus Ex...... Just wow,what a time that was. And back then it was standart to deliver a free leveleditor/sdk with it. So after you finished the game it was singleplayer mod time that prolonged the fun way,way longer.
If i look back on those times it was way more expensive to be a pc player because u effectly needed a more powerfull pc every year (!) to be at least able to play the newest games at a decent framerate (which btw meant back then the laughable low resolution of 1024 x 800....).. Well,that era was unsoldered by a time when crossplatform was introduced (including the obvious discrimination of the pc player in favour of the console player which partly continues to this day...). Although over the years it also meant that the hardware living cycle got way more expanded if you stuck to one resolution (f.e. 1080p) and not blindly follow the mainstream. I mean resolution above full hd do little in quality enhancement in a desktop environement from the perspective of a person who started gaming in the early nineties who experienced the advancements in real time and the correct historical order.
Since you mentioned a few of the achievements, let me rant a little bit about this game: Black Mesa is awesome, but what the hell were they thinking with the achievements? Most of them are straightforward and understandable, but the secret achievements are completely absurd. For example, when you get o Xen you start seeing these floating amoeba things. You need to shoot all of them for an achievement but there's absolutely nothing telling you about it. You just follow your gamer gut and hope you are right (but if you miss a single one you would never know). Also in Xen you star finding dead scientists in HEV suits all over. They usually have ammo and power for your suit. INTERACTING WITH THEM DOES NOTHING. Except it does, but only for the 7 ones you find in Gonarch's Lair. For some god forsaken reason you need to interact with those 7, AND NOWHERE DOES THE GAME TELL YOU THAT. Now, the worst offenders by far are the "carry this item all the way to the end of the game" or similar ones. Carrying the Cyanogen to kill the Gonarch instantly is a freaking mystery (good luck figuring that out without a guide), but the physics engine doesn't really help! Climbing stairs while holding an object in this game is my worst nightmare. But at least you only have to do it for like 2 chapters, right? Right?! Well, no! Because there is a total of FOUR achievements about carrying an object the entire time you are playing. The worst of all is of course the purple hat one (once again, good luck figuring it out without a guide). I understand it's supposed to be a nod to the gnome achievement in Half-Life 2: Chapter Two, but it doesn't make it any better. I got that one. I used a Guide, I found the hat, I carried it all the way to the Nihilanth. 14 freaking chapters. And then the game wants me to do it again, but this time with a random pizza found in chapter 11. WHY. THE. HELL. A PIZZA?!? This is the only achievement left for me to 100% this game and I don't think I'll ever find the motivation to complete it.
Just went through Black Mesa, HL2, HL2 EP1+EP2, finishing each of them for the first time. Wow, what a games. They are brilliant. Sadly, now we are very rarely getting quality games like them.
I only wish that the ammo drops for the 357 and crossbow weren't doubled in Black Mesa. This devalues the sensation of finding them immensely, especially considering the smaller ammo reserve. There are other issues but the good outweighs the bad in Black Mesa.
tbh i played this games : [half life-opposing force-blue shift-cstrike] but i just cant play multiplayer on pc but i can play multiplayer on mobile using xash so........ can you tell me how to fix the multiplayer problem on pc?
8:50 I actually felt like the assassins were much easier than HL1, where i swear the second my cursor was on them they had already backflipped to the other side of the map and the only way to kill them was to litter the entire map with tripmines and grenades. _So when I tried that exact same tactic on them on Black Mesa it worked really easily._ The soldiers and assassins were very weak to satchel charges and tripmines since they run around a lot and don't register them in their AI. They were probably useful in HL1 as well but that whole time I was just going "pew pew smg go brr"
When I first got to Xen in Black Mesa and walked to the top of the hill for that initial "yo, check this shit out" view that Crowbar gives you, complete with backing soundtrack, I damn near cried.
If BMS had better pacing in Surface Tension and Xen, of which they unknowingly dragged out and repeated similar valve issues. Audio design is such a mixed bag for few things and utop of all things, workshop content are tedious to install if you wanted to try your own approach to a true callback experience
First of all, you should change the clickbaity title but otherwise great video! Black Mesa is an amazing remake, but I never got around continuing it. It's just missing that GoldSrc charm the original had.
As a huge fan of the original Half-Life since I first played it way back in '98, I was a bit dubious when I heard that some collection of young upstarts were having a go at "Reimagining" the game. Eventually I got a copy of their early released levels and thought it was pretty good, but put it out of my mind because I know that 90% of the headline grabbing game projects we hear about lead nowhere. Most fizzle out after 4 or 5 years of development and end up as unfinished footnotes in gaming history, and this one looked like it was going to be WAY too big a project for any loose band of volunteer independent coders to have a chance to pull off. Jump forward almost a decade, and suddenly I noticed that this project DIDN'T fizzle out. This handful of "Young upstarts" had evolved into an organised (And large) group of dedicated and talented game developers, and during that evolution, they'd somehow managed to code all the earth based sections of Black Mesa. I got a copy of that, and played all the way through in about a week of evenings. It was amazing. It grabbed me in EXACLY the same way the original game had all those years before. Many early sections were almost a like for like (but much prettier) remake of the original map layout. There were a few added side rooms to explore, but most of the layout was the same, so you'd follow the route you almost have as muscle memory by now, moving on autopilot, and only really looking at your surroundings in the same way you would when walking through a familiar office block that you haven't been in for years, a lot of the details might have changed, but you still know the general layout, and how to get everywhere......... then you suddenly realise that something hasn't been quite right for a little while. It only dawned on you when you turned a corner, and realised that you expected to see a door into the managers office, but you're infact looking at an entirely unrecognised loading dock that wasn't there last time you were there. You're suddenly entirely lost on where you're heading because the next section has only loosely been inspired by the original game. This experience was perfect. The game was familiar AND new all at the same time. It was still "Half-Life" enough not to alienate the huge fan base who've been playing various versions of HL for most of their adult life, but still different enough to make them realise this is not just a "HL HD graphics pack", it's a new game to learn and explore. It was also pretty enough to get a lot of new players in who, up to then, had just thought of HL as an old and almost dead franchise. Black Mesa really is a visually stunning game. Even on my VERY obsolete gaming PC* (on minimum graphics settings) it still runs OK(Ish), and still looks incredibly beautiful. I actually found it surprising how well this runs on my old hardware. It has the occasional jitter as the frame rate dips to single digits, but most of the time it was happily running at between 30 and 60fps. On something this old that's not bad. The Source engine has always been a pretty well optimised lump of code, but it still feels odd that it can be pushed into doing so much more than valve had it do, and STILL run on a potato of a PC ! All in all, it's an amazing game. The goals are the same as in HL1, but how you achieve them has been tweaked so your previous knowledge won't necessarily give you an advantage. It's fresh and exciting, while not feeling disconnected from the original game. It's visually pretty, and imaginative, yet will run on modest hardware. It's about as good as a game has been for several years......... And all this was made by a bloody "INDEPENDENT GROUP" !!!! :D I've been saying for a while that Valve should give the crowbar collective a wad of cash, and everything they still have on HL3 (The plot, and any code they'd wrote before the project got canned), then get the hell out of their way. Maybe Valve could help by doing things like finding/hiring as many of the original games voice actors as they could still find, but apart from stuff like that, do nothing. Don't contact them, interfere with them, and don't "Guide" them. The CC have proved that they can do an amazing job, and I think with their current people and the skill's they've now amassed, they could most likely deliver the HL3 game that fans have been waiting for in 5 to 8 years. If it was anything like as good as Black Mesa, it would be an instant hit.......... Hell, I personally know at least 5 people who'd still buy HL3 on the DAY it was released, and another 10 to 15 who'd get it the following payday. Even now, this level of franchise loyalty can't be THAT unusual ? (* My old gaming PC was a "Money no object" beast when I built it something like 15 years ago, but it really is a total dog of a PC now. It's an overclocked Q6600 CPU running at (IIRC) 3ghz, 8gb of PC2-6400 DDR2 ram, and a 4gb HD7950 graphics card that I fitted 10 or so years back, I also swapped in a 1TB Samsung SSD as the main drive a couple years ago, but apart from that the rest of the systems been in a time warp. TBH, It shouldn't even run half the games it does ! :D)
Black Mesa had been one among the most iconic remakes. I totally respect the fact they did this not only re-imagining the game, but add the fact they respected the lore and fill in the gaps Valve didn't create, especially in Xen.
I always felt like to really appreciate BM you have to play HL, especially for the Xen chapters. A part of the experience for me was the comparison between the two.
10:27 - the best misleading screenshots of the year. Played the original Xen chapters in HL1 but I would never expect that BM's Xen chapters would be THAT MASSIVE
I think they definitely did a great job with a lot of the visuals for BM:S, and really nailed the HL2 style of game. I still personally prefer HL1 though, the gameplay may be a bit more primitive but it's always fun to start up HL1 and play through it again, I don't really get the same feel with HL2/BM:S.
To me thats like comparing Resident Evil 1 to Resident Evil remake. The remake is not literally the first game with better graphics. Both games are different and have their own charm. Everyone should try out both. Play Half Life 1. Then Black Mesa.
Enjoyed the review! Just thought you missed the opportunity to talk about the elevator part with the "Ascension" soundtrack. Besides the terrible performance, that part was insanely badass, almost fit more for Doom instead of Half-Life. It is the pinnacle of why Freeman is feared and respected. It was such a memorable part, especially when the female chorus kicks in.
My main issue with black mesa is actually the grunts. Them being able to move and shoot makes them too difficult to predict in battles where there is no third faction involved.
Ive found that it helps to play it a lot more like half life 2. Not a lot of people know this, but there's a suppression mechanic in these games. If you put rounds into an enemy, it hampers their ability to shoot back or act. So when you're fighting military, run around the map behind cover and only try to keep one enemy in your line of sight, put rounds into that enemy as you move through the map, and weaponswap when necessary
Personally I like the original half life better. I get that black mess does look great and defiantly has better zen (honestly the price tag is worth zen alone) but I feel like they made some parts of game either to short or overly dramatic. Also I hate the combat in this game, specifically against the marines. They are way to aggressive, don’t stop shooting, and when they do it’s to launch a grenade at you. Also I think the new design of the alien grunts is a crime against humanity and the actual only objectively bad part of the game
Funny how you say you hated fighting the marines in black mesa while thats easily my favorite parts of the game I definetly get how one can dislike them though especially when compared to the original
@@sergeantheavyass3471 fighting in black mesa is more serious than the original , as lamwarp said we used to b-hop and shoot all of them and having a god feeling
@@IAm-zo1bo oh i played the original many times I just prefer them in black mesa Forces me to actually use cover and use any change i get to return fire You gotta really be smart about whqt you fo or youll be turned into swiss cheese by them Hl HECU and bm HECU just require very different playstyles and some people are gonna prefer one over the other
One issue that i have with Black Mesa is that the On A Rail chapter is too short. I don't think it's bad now, but i think that they took away half of the fun from this chapter.
You don't have to sneak past the grunts with that security guy. The grunts in the room will briefly group tightly enough for a single satchel to reduce them all to salsa.
For Black mesa lovers and hl bshift ones ther is an mod called black mesa blue shift that brings hl bshift in the source engine the game is in development but it have 4 chapter and is 2-3 hours long already and now the team is working at chapter 5 Focal Point.
The whole thing about not being able to play it like half-life wasn't a problem for me since I had played lots of multiplayer source/ goldsrc so I was slightly faster and more able to deal with enemies moving and shooting than i was when i played half-life. Additionally I'm familiar with having to use cover etc because of lots of hours on non-classic fps games. In particular arma
Recently, by acsident, I learned about BLACK MESA! The game , from what i was watch in You-tub, is truly amazing. I hadn't played any games in years. Even I missed the last releases of Resident Evil. But looking at BLACK MESA I think I might give her a shot.
I played Half Life 1 along with it's dlc's(Opposing Force and Blue Shift) and i also finished Half Life 2 and both episode games, im playing Black Mesa now i must say, im having a realy good time with it.
As a great fan of the original Half-Life, I can say that almost everything about this game is perfect, as for the chapter Interloper, indeed it is way too long, but the music is super epic and badass and it was what kept me playing
One thing Nihilanth fight is missing is using some Combine technology it has. To restore itself while trying to kill Freeman. Begin it final phase, with combination of Nihilanth theme is join quietly join by the Combine theme as it slowly take over as the fight progress. A good fan service and hinting the connection between 1 and 2. Glory to our benefactor.
Tips on how to kill alien controllers: 1. Use revolver 2. Use crossbow 3. Shoot where you think they are going to be. 4. Do not use hivehand or mp5. Only use mp5 when desperate. Shotgun is optional. 5. Aim for their big head 6. Use Gluon gun or tau cannon (I prefer gluon gun) Edit: You should still follow tip 3 while following tip 5.
im a Halo and Half Life fan, if you ask me what my favorite game is I would say it depends on if its a PC or Xbox game (I dont think of Halo as a PC game because it originally came to Xbox and I played it on Xbox first)
I think the Havok badge in the loading screen is necessary when creating a source mod, because even though Valve uses a modified Havok engine, they still have to acknowledge the original creators (for licensing purposes).
It's not necessary in creating a mod, but for a full game it will have to.
Black Mesa has a license to Source proper, so they use the Havok logo as required by the original agreement from Havok/Intel now Microsoft at the time.
i was about to comment this, thank you
one thing I always wondered is where is the havok api implemented like what dll is it stored within? Because it sure isnt embeded in the client/server dlls that source mods use. I remember it being somewhere possibly in a subdirectly of the game/steam installation whose path was possibly extracted from the steam client install location in the early days before all the steampipe updates. I think I also remember trying to replace it with another physics engine but the way valve chose to initalize its engine dll makes this extremely tough even if you embed the code into the server/client code.
@Hoovy Simulator 2 as of 2022 this is now waived, rejoice!
If you want Black Mesa to play like the original Half Life gameplay, you can turn on the "always run" option in the settings. Its odd the game doesn't ask this when starting for the 1st time, because this feature changes the feeling of gameplay quite alot.
It still isnt the same, HL1 still has its own type of gameplay that BM changes so even with the same controls it still doesnt hit the same.
@@zebitus5731 Well, it allowed me to dodge most enemie attacks and shoot at the same time, aswel as never needing to bother using the stupid sprint button ever again and allow the slide bunnyhop to be more concistent.
So all things considered, I think the gameplay is quite similar enought.
@@lynxovski I have played HL way too much so im gonna go on but in Black Mesa having the original movement doesnt help due to the almost full rework of each enemy, even with similar movement it isnt on par with what HL did and makes NPC's not work well with that old movement style, hope that makes sense.
@@zebitus5731 Them not being able to attack and move at the same time?
Because if thats the thing, Im glad they can do it now. I always ended up cheesing them out of that quirk, so Im glad for the challenge.
@@lynxovski Being able to attack and move isnt the issue, they (mainly marines) react entirely differently most of the time and the first few arenas goes against how you could handle it in the original, instead you have to hide behind cover far away so they cant throw grenades at you and the combat doesnt let you be as free.
I honestly think you should play both. That’s how good both Valve and The Crowbar collective did, they’re both awesome.
decided to get it ive died to elevators soo many times im going insane
@@matthewmawson3009 skill issue
@@rainyxdays497 :(
You absolutely should
i just replayed black mesa /w new xen. i honestly think half life is the better game. black mesa looks awesome, but did a few gameplay changes hat contradict each other + new xen just sucks. dont get me wrong. old xen sucked equally, but it took only a fraction of the time.
HLS isn't supposed to be a remaster, it was supposed to show how easy it was to port Goldsrc assets to Source. Also levitating scientist and many other bugs were because of engine updates
looking at the floating scientist bug seems like it was a precision mistake. Something like changing from x86 to x64 or single to double floating point
True, when half life source was first released it was a lot more polished and there were hardly any bugs, however the source engine just kept getting updated with the time, and half life source didn't, which created more and more bugs that valve simply didn't bother to fix because people simply weren't caring about that game anymore, and all of that resulted in this giant mess called "Half Life Source" we have today
@@NoahGooder pretty much every source game from that era has been 32 bit, I don’t see how that can be a floating point precision error, and it’s also known that it started happening with the steampipe update
Yeah the day 1 version is actually somewhat good
@@DeepfriedChips well it was purely a guess based on how it how it seems like the math changed
i wonder how many unsubscribed because of the title
I did.
@@revolutionstudios5052 that's sad
Well there are 7 downvotes as of right now....
@@KesariForMugen There are zero
@@slickcalf985 Alexa, play Half-Life OST 23. Military Precision.
I'm not sure if I'd say Black Mesa is a replacement for HL1. It definitely should be a companion piece though. While Black Mesa aims to improve a lot of things, and often does, I find that the result is somewhat bloated. The biggest example is that, while Xen is cool in Black Mesa, it was tolerable in HL1 because it could be completed in 20-30 minutes, and I think this issue in BM ruins the pace a little and makes me exhausted before finishing it, even if the result is fantastic compared to the original.
I'm not even coming from this as someone that played the game in '98 and hasn't played something I liked better since then. I first played in 2017 and even then it became one of my favorite games ever.
I think that a lot of people nowadays that don't tend to play older games won't appreciate Half-Life because there is a lot of jank (Physics of crates is a big one, and On a Rail + Xen), but if you're like me and can appreciate a game based on quality regardless of time released, give the original a go.
@Coração Acidental Yeah, i dislike that people just see it as a replacement even though it's basically a different game with the same story beats. I never got the argument that HL1 would be too old and clunky for first impressions, I first played it in 2020 and it felt completely natural because like every other game since was built on top of it.
@@daph__ some people are just turned off by old graphics. simple as that. Original Half-Life is probably my favorite first person shooter. i played back in 2000 and loved it. But lots of young people won't play a game with 1990 graphics. Hoplefully BL will get young people to get invested in the Half-Life series and incentivize Valve to make HL3.
The biggest issue for me with Black Mesa is how they kinda screwed up the Xen factory, (gameplay wise, it DOES look stunning) however in return for that we get proof that the Source engine still holds up over 20 years later. Source works great with square-ish enviroments (Hallways/Corridors/Vents/Sheds etc.) and due to the original half life making outstanding use of this, it translates over perfectly to Black Mesa. A big problem with trying to make Source look "realistic" is that people easily forget this "square-rule" and therefore the engine ends up being tasked with something it cannot perform optimally. Something which is (albeit not as outstanding as the original half-life) done outstandingly in Black-Mesa, even if it was just for the sole reason that it takes massive inspiration from the original.
@@cyberman7348 Interloper was always bad.
@@TylertheCC1010fan not even BM could fix it.
@@whoisanarnb I honestly think Interloper should've been rebuilt from the ground up, I like what they did with the Garguanta chase and the vort village, the platforming at the start can go away, at least 3/4 of the controllers can be removed, the factory section needs to be drastically trimmed down, the plug puzzles really overstay their welcome and really should be placed with over puzzle concepts like perhaps barnacle climbing and tossing snarks into super small spaces to blow up parts of machinery inside walls and having puzzles requiring the hivehand's ability to shoot around corners, and the major change, a bossfight with the Kingpin in the area with the final elevator, instead of having to attack the generators, you have to trick the Kingpin into deflecting rockets into them, as well being limited to the tau cannon and gluon gun due to conventional weapons not being able to get past it's psionic defenses, and instead of the elevator stopping and falling halfway up for no reason it is instead forced back down by the Kingpin's psychic abilities, the first phase of the fight is just defending against it while getting a few hits in with the tau cannon due to it's ability to shoot through walls, which the Kingpin's force fields would act as, and the second phase being it forcing the elevator back down which brings drown energy crystals from the ceiling allowing you to recharge your energy weapons to actually fight it, once it's dead the elevator starts again, and for pacing bringing back the short platforming to the portal to Nihilanth's chamber with no combat from the Kingpin's death to the start of the Nihilanth fight.
@@whoisanarnb the point is that it is actually kinda good, but lasts way too long
Coincidentally I watched a video the other day where this was described as an issue with Binary Space Partitioning, a concept in games which dates back to Doom when John Carmack read about it in a white paper.
Your computer lagging out a lot while playing the game is so relatable. Every single other gaming channel I see always seems to have some giga god NASA setup, but seeing a fellow potato PC haver is nice to see. ✊
It feels terrible when I see a 12 year old with a nasa pc and here I am with something that struggles to play Mario 64
@@Duckbusinessman my computer crashes
Black Mesa isn’t well optimized. Where Valve takes great care in culling out geometry that the player can’t see, Black Mesa has MOST of the level being rendered the entire time, even where you can’t see. It’s a shame.
And here I'm like 4K120 maxed out on a 3 year old PC, lol.
@@killcount6534 I mean, it's running the best it can given the team structure and budget.
Xen is brutally heavy vs the Earth parts tho, hardware wise.
I didn't even know there were friendly vortugaunts in hl1 until watching this, the fact that you can actually tell that there are friendly ones in black mesa make it infinitely better
There's even an achievement for not killing any vortigaunts in interloper, you just gotta kill the controllers and the vortigaunts stop attacking you
Wait did you attack all of them?!
Valve is actually fine with the usage of the source engine for third party games, however they say that to publish it the game you need to buy a Havok license, so I'd guess that's why they put the Havok logo there :D
well yeah, havok isnt owned by valve, if it was im sure they would allow people to use it freely since they are quite nice with such
Actually if you can rip the Havok engine out, and make your mod entirely with the old Quake physics that are still in the code (Half-Life 1 physics), you don't pay for it. Also someone recently ported a sick open source Havok killer physics engine for the Source engine, so hey.
As of now, you no longer need to buy a Havok license either for third-party source mods. Valve will cover the 25,000$ fee, and will still allow you to put it on steam within reason.
@@BSPNode oh shit
@@BSPNode wait what?
I think of Black Mesa the same way I think of REmake. It's a great experience on its own terms but I'm reluctant to call it an outright "replacement" to the original since it's such a drastically different experience despite having the same overall game structure. Personally I like Black Mesa a lot but I still prefer the OG simply because it still retains a lot of classic Doom/Quake/Duke3D era FPS DNA, and the lowpoly graphics and lofi sound design make the enemies creepier. Whereas I like OG RE1 a lot but personally prefer REmake because it's significantly more challenging and atmospheric (which are some of the most important things about survival horror).
I think that literally the only thing I dislike about this game is the redesign for the HECU combat gear. Like, the Black Mesa event occurred in the early 2000s so the outfits that the HECU wore in the original fit well when compared to the pasgt helmet and vest that real soldiers wore at the time. But in Black Mesa they are wearing what appear to be Skateboarding helmets and Molle Plate Carriers that don't match the early 2000s feel the original was going for. I simply fix this minor gripe by playing Black Mesa with a "Classic HECU" mod and it all works out for me.
My biggest and only problem with Black Mesa is that it, at least for me, doesn't flow well later on. Simply because half my focus goes into finding my way through a visually overstimulating maze.
The fights and looks are super great though.
Waking up in the aftermath of the resonance cascade in Black Mesa, as well as when you first enter Xen, are probably two of the biggest "oh shit" moments I've ever had in gaming. It's like everything you thought you knew about the game immediately changes, and the game's world completely opens itself up to you, for everything that it means.
Not since the moment that you first step out of the sewers in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion did a game manage to make me feel that way. Kudos to this game's designers; they truly made a masterpiece with this.
Seriously. Unforeseen Consequences is so much more intense in BM than it is in the original game. The lasers blowing the machinery up scared the crap out of me. The contrast between Gordon suiting up and making his way through Anomalous Materials to the test chamber, to seeing the immediate aftermath of the resonance cascade is incredible, they absolutely nailed it.
I'll still never forget the whole feeling that this game even gives. It really does hit your soul😮
8:25 when it comes to that section, i actually did something counter-intuitive and did the whole route to the exit on my own, instead of waiting behind the security guard, it worked perfectly for some reason
One thing I prefer from the original Half-Life is the soundtrack. I dont know why, but I prefer Kelly Bailey's work more.
i liked hl1 soundtrack, BUT...
- questionable ethics 1
- we've got hostiles
Kelly's ost just hits the spot, black mesa tries to be cinematic with the music and sort of fails imo
action sequences sound tracks are great with BM but HL sound track has more "wonder" i remember getting outside midway through the campaign and seeing the tentacle monster while the alien sounding music kicked in. 100% half-life.
I finished Black Mesa a few days ago, with it being the first Half-Life game I’ve ever played. Had a ton of fun with it and it made me immediately want to jump into Half-Life 2, which I just finished today. I was so immersed in both of these games from start to finish, more so than any other game I’ve played in recent memory. The word that comes to mind when I think of these games is “raw”. The experience they deliver is so direct and honest; You’re constantly going from one place to another, left to figure out the way ahead all on your own with little to no guidance, meeting new people and gunning down enemies without ever being taken out of the action. No invasive cutscenes or blocks of text explaining exactly what’s going on; Everything is delivered in such an organic way, whether it be a believable NPC talking directly to you or a change in the environment. I can definitely see why this series is so beloved now.
Now you gotta play Portal 1 and 2, their story lore is connected 👀
@@t77snapshot Already played those many years ago, love them too! Replaying them again recently was what got me to try getting into Half-Life.
You played Black Mesa but not Half-Life 1?
@@wio1 there isn't any problem with that tbh.
i can totaly see how half-life 1 got absolutely no appeal to people that just never played half-life.
so black mesa is just a perfect entry point into the series for anyone who, for what ever reason, never played the original Half-Life.
it's like saying "you played the steam version half-life 1 (NOT Source) but not the WON version?".
don't gate-keep because someone didn't start the series with the OG version.
that just hurts the fanbase.
@@Buttersaemmel No, it's not like saying "you played the Steam version of Half-Life but not the WON version?" at all. Those two games have very small differences. Black Mesa and Half-Life's differences are pretty obvious, and I'm not saying Black Mesa's differences are better.
People keep thinking it's still the original Doom engine from 1993. It's not. What we're using mostly is GZDoom. It's a port
7:13 I like how this is almost exactly how bhopping in Titanfall 2 works. The sliding "extends" the bhop window and essentially makes it easier to do. It all comes full circle. All we now is a Quake remake with slide bhopping.
For those that want to play the og Half Life, there is actually a coop game on Steam called Sven Co-op which lets you play the entire campaign with friends or alone (for free!!) I think theres a few differences, but overall practically the same game!
*which LamWarp made a video on*
Whos LamWarp
@@najaklar6737
⚫ ⚫
__
As someone who played this game on hard a few times, l can tell you this, the chicks(ninja assassins) can be dealt with the crossbow(getting oneshoted), Lazer traps are also your best friends if they move a around a lot, and if they are close to you, SHOTGUN up close and personal. Great video, you earned a sub ❤️
Black mesa- the almost 2 decades fan made project for half life 1, its purely a labor of love if you ask me. Having been playing all the build from the very first mod version to the retail build on steam and finally the definitive edtion with xen included, i feel like seeing the development of a character in a story, cant describe it but like proud and such moving emotion and its tranfered into the new xen so well. Even after finishing this game, i recommend installing two more workshop mod that made the game much more lively and fresh, being the character expansion pack and chapter overhaul collection/ improved chronographic and a few unused line restoration.
Black Mesa's definitely a recommended way to experience Half Life 1's story.
I've seen many newcomers go "ew bad graphics" when I asked them to try HL1.
graphics should be the last thing that matter when it comes to a video game
but that doesn't mean you should intentionally make one look bad
plus, half life probably looked like real life when it released
i cant get it :(
@@slickcalf985 I can assure you it didn't look like real life, it definitely looked good but real life was not blocky
And yet those same kids are fine with playing roblox and minecraft
@Coração Acidental What do you mean by such people not "deserving" to get recommended black mesa. If they dislike Half-Life 1 for its graphics, that doesn't imply that they won't end up liking Black Mesa for its gameplay.
Do you believe there is something wrong in disliking a game because of its visuals?
When long ago I learned about ("NOCLIP")! This is where you come onto a space anywhere on the map and By using (~) and type: ("NOCLIP") you are now able to walk through walls but never walk across any low spots or walk up close to walls. It's a blast. Also, there was ("WAD") Files where any DEV within the game folder where it had DEV maps and coders that can be used as edits to open new maps. I will never uninstall the game like a lot of others. For me gaming gets rid of a lot of stress of living in this BIG WORLD OF OURS!
"hey dude what happens when you press play under half-life?"
"it starts"
bind pressing play to one somehow to have it start with one
Black Mesa screwed letting the Marines move and shoot at the same time.
This made repositioning and surprise important, when they can always shoot even when moving your movement doesn't matter, if you're shooting them then they're shooting you.
*screwed up.
If you don't know about the Engine this game uses, It uses an Updated Source Engine called "Source 2013" where half of everything in the engine changes. It also uses the "Source 2007" engine update with Shadows, Lighting and others. But Black Mesa is completely different, They made their Own source Engine with 2007 and 2013 and called it the "Xengine" Which is why The engine's limit has been pushed...
For example with the engine, Sources games such as Left 4 Dead and Portal 2 is different was because they use "Source 2007" Which had different Lighting, Textures, sounds and others but the game's Engine is a bit modified than the actual Engine it runs on. Since Portal 2 uses the 2006 Engine, The game is more updated than the Engine itself. Since it was updated, Respawn entertainment uses Portal 2's engine and update it a lot to Create "Titanfall".
This shows that The Source Engine itself is More different than we used to know it for. Plus on console, The orange box uses 2007 Engine. Even though it had HL2, It's the same because they removed some stuff from the Updated engine to keep it the way it used to be.... Except for some stuff...
So, Xengine is pretty much a modern version of the source engine.
All of this was shown in a Video by "qyuetx" Explaining the engine of Source.
I really don't think Black Mesa functions as a replacement for the original. I know this is only a personal anecdote, but I've found people who feel the same. Black Mesa was my first Half-Life game, I quit around We've Got Hostiles because I just got bored. A couple weeks later I played the original that I got absolutely hooked on the series and that first game has become my favourite ever.
I've since replayed it after completing Half-Life 2 and it's expansions and it became a far more rewarding experience. It's still not as fun as the original, but it's definitely worth playing.
I’m happy to say slide bhopping hasn’t been patched in Multiplayer Deathmatch
Half-Life came out just a couple short years before i was broken, but i was interested in this milestone in gaming history and decided to buy and play it for the first time a couple weeks ago. it's a good game and i can see why it is so important in video game history, but about 2/3rds it just became frustrating and a bit insufferable. i may finish it, but i need a bit of a break first
Broken?
@@madmonty4761 I guess that’s just a wrong autocomplete, I suppose it was meant to be born, not broken
@@ej22_gc86 i thought your comment was about how half life saved your life
I never got to play black mesa, but I saw enough reviews to know how great the game is, Too bad Crowbar collective doesn't make the remakes of the expansions, but Tripmine studio works in them
There are two mods being made that aim to recreate Opposing Force and Blue Shift, 'Operation: Black Mesa' and 'Black Mesa: Blue Shift'
Tripmine Studios seem to have a greater grasp on HL1's visual direction than Crowbar Collective ever did.
@@oskar3897operation black mesa is tripmine’s remake of opposing force, the other isn’t and is the mod remaking blue shift in black mesa made by other devs
If we talk about heavy modifications to the Source Engine we can't not look at Titanfall and Apex. At first glance they don't look like they were made on that engine but they FEEL THE SAME as on Source
9:41 Suicide Houndeyes had me rolling for some reason.
the HEV zombies gave off survival horror vibes with the sound design and I love it
Something about the glitched HEV voice was always pretty spooky
2:36 Havok is an engine that must be licensed if you release a Source game. That's also why the new physics engine (Volt) by Josh Dowell and Joshua Ashton is such a big deal - not only does it get high performance but it's also open source! This is amazing news for anyone that wants to make a Source game and release it, but I don't see anyone talking about it
If you can, please make a video about this
This guy never fails to make me laugh with that calm, yet sarcastic voice
Black mesa is really great.
Xen is also *so great* it drastically drops my fps from 60 fps to 20 fps even on lowest settings.
10/10 would play it again.
14:27 This Nihilanth appearance with that sound made me laugh more than it should
Gordon doesn’t need to hear all this he’s a highly trained professional
I respectfully disagree. Black Mesa is an amazing tribute to Half-Life and a giant accomplishment for any fan project, but it *isn't* a replacement for Half-Life 1. It's never that simple. My issue is with many of the odd changes to the level design and enemies. It's obvious that Crowbar Collective wanted to make Half-Life 1 more like Half-Life 2, but that misses the point IMO. It's kinda similar to how they tried to make the Hobbit more like the Lord of The Rings trilogy when adapting it to the movies. It irks me when people say "Oh just skip Hl1, play Black Mesa instead!". That definitely isn't the best way to get into the half-life series, IMO. Both games are amazing, I just prefer Half-Life 1 as a standalone game.
Maybe just... play both? But Half-Life 1 should be first. But for the love of all that is holy, never, EVER, touch Half-Life source.
I respectfully agree with that. Though I didn't say it's a replacement, I said at the end "you should still play the OG. I was more pointing out the compelling changes in Black Mesa I liked. But still yes.
@@LamWarp your video is titled "Half-Life is Great... Don't play it"
@@42kitter 1:19
@@LamWarp that doesn't excuse the title, c'mon man
@IAm-zo1bo the clickbait meta has been the youtube standard for 10 years now
Admitting to clickbait doesn't make it any better.
Yeah f*ck this video and f*ck this channel.
this is truly a warm lamp video
hi noclick
i agree
Indeed
About bhopping in Black Mesa, you're able to infinitely slide and gain quite a bit of speed, all you need to do is start sliding as you normally would but instead of jumping and strafing you only strafe from side to side *without* jumping.
only issue i remember having with blackmesa was the fact that barnacle instantly kill npc making it impossible to save them
It is a fantastic remake that any Half-Life fan should experience. I bought the game a few months ago and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Crowbar Collective deserve all the support they can get for this masterpiece. They have put so much work into it and it shows. Nothing like the sloppy copy-paste job Valve did with Half-Life Source.
I played the original HL first, but when I want to replay it I tend to play BM instead. Even 100%ed the achievements just as an excuse to explore more of the game. I think it works best on the hardest difficulty, it really helps you get in the mind of a random research assistant in way over his head. If you ever get stuck with a puzzle or combat encounter, a bit of quick thinking will almost always lead you in the right direction. It's just so effortless, you can really feel the appreciation for Valvian game design.
“Half-Life is great, don’t play it”
New Mission: Refuse this mission
I actually didn’t know the difference between remaster and remake so thanks
Damn I was hoping you’d talk about the elevator scene right before the Nihilanth, when I played it for the first time, my god it was an incredible experience, and still is on replays.
Not sure why everyone misses this but, in the end of the stealth section, your supposed to run with the guard, not crouch or walk. If you run, you don’t get spotted every time
I played Unreal and Half-Life in a row the first time,because a special EAX sound version of it was in the box of my new shiny Creative
Voodoo 2 card....
To be honest both games realy were just jawdroppingly good for the time. I mean the 2nd half of the nineties was the time when fps realy
tried successfully to be creative. Games like both mentioned and System Shock 2,Battlezone:Combat Comander,UT,Quake 2 and 3 and Deus Ex......
Just wow,what a time that was. And back then it was standart to deliver a free leveleditor/sdk with it. So after you finished the game it was
singleplayer mod time that prolonged the fun way,way longer.
If i look back on those times it was way more expensive to be a pc player because u effectly needed a more powerfull pc every year (!) to be
at least able to play the newest games at a decent framerate (which btw meant back then the laughable low resolution of 1024 x 800....)..
Well,that era was unsoldered by a time when crossplatform was introduced (including the obvious discrimination of the pc player in favour of
the console player which partly continues to this day...).
Although over the years it also meant that the hardware living cycle got way more expanded if you stuck to one resolution (f.e. 1080p) and
not blindly follow the mainstream. I mean resolution above full hd do little in quality enhancement in a desktop environement from the perspective
of a person who started gaming in the early nineties who experienced the advancements in real time and the correct historical order.
*says this is a normal day in New Mexico
Meanwhile, Walt is teaching another boring chemistry lesson and Jimmy passed the bar exam
10:19 “there’s barely any music in half life”
Who needs other music when you got klaxon beat?
Since you mentioned a few of the achievements, let me rant a little bit about this game: Black Mesa is awesome, but what the hell were they thinking with the achievements? Most of them are straightforward and understandable, but the secret achievements are completely absurd. For example, when you get o Xen you start seeing these floating amoeba things. You need to shoot all of them for an achievement but there's absolutely nothing telling you about it. You just follow your gamer gut and hope you are right (but if you miss a single one you would never know). Also in Xen you star finding dead scientists in HEV suits all over. They usually have ammo and power for your suit. INTERACTING WITH THEM DOES NOTHING. Except it does, but only for the 7 ones you find in Gonarch's Lair. For some god forsaken reason you need to interact with those 7, AND NOWHERE DOES THE GAME TELL YOU THAT.
Now, the worst offenders by far are the "carry this item all the way to the end of the game" or similar ones. Carrying the Cyanogen to kill the Gonarch instantly is a freaking mystery (good luck figuring that out without a guide), but the physics engine doesn't really help! Climbing stairs while holding an object in this game is my worst nightmare. But at least you only have to do it for like 2 chapters, right? Right?! Well, no! Because there is a total of FOUR achievements about carrying an object the entire time you are playing. The worst of all is of course the purple hat one (once again, good luck figuring it out without a guide). I understand it's supposed to be a nod to the gnome achievement in Half-Life 2: Chapter Two, but it doesn't make it any better. I got that one. I used a Guide, I found the hat, I carried it all the way to the Nihilanth. 14 freaking chapters. And then the game wants me to do it again, but this time with a random pizza found in chapter 11. WHY. THE. HELL. A PIZZA?!? This is the only achievement left for me to 100% this game and I don't think I'll ever find the motivation to complete it.
Just went through Black Mesa, HL2, HL2 EP1+EP2, finishing each of them for the first time. Wow, what a games. They are brilliant. Sadly, now we are very rarely getting quality games like them.
But not HL1?
@@wio1 yeah me too
These are absolutely my favorite PC games of all time
I only wish that the ammo drops for the 357 and crossbow weren't doubled in Black Mesa. This devalues the sensation of finding them immensely, especially considering the smaller ammo reserve. There are other issues but the good outweighs the bad in Black Mesa.
tbh i played this games : [half life-opposing force-blue shift-cstrike] but i just cant play multiplayer on pc but i can play multiplayer on mobile using xash so........ can you tell me how to fix the multiplayer problem on pc?
i hope they make a black mesa opposing force because i want to experience black mesa but with a military style
3:12. GZdoom is arguably a different engine entirely when compared to the old doom engine.
8:50 I actually felt like the assassins were much easier than HL1, where i swear the second my cursor was on them they had already backflipped to the other side of the map and the only way to kill them was to litter the entire map with tripmines and grenades. _So when I tried that exact same tactic on them on Black Mesa it worked really easily._ The soldiers and assassins were very weak to satchel charges and tripmines since they run around a lot and don't register them in their AI. They were probably useful in HL1 as well but that whole time I was just going "pew pew smg go brr"
i didnt know that they added creeper into the game 9:37
Now they can remake Half Life 2 in Source 2.
When I first got to Xen in Black Mesa and walked to the top of the hill for that initial "yo, check this shit out" view that Crowbar gives you, complete with backing soundtrack, I damn near cried.
If BMS had better pacing in Surface Tension and Xen, of which they unknowingly dragged out and repeated similar valve issues.
Audio design is such a mixed bag for few things and utop of all things, workshop content are tedious to install if you wanted to try your own approach to a true callback experience
First of all, you should change the clickbaity title but otherwise great video!
Black Mesa is an amazing remake, but I never got around continuing it. It's just missing that GoldSrc charm the original had.
As a huge fan of the original Half-Life since I first played it way back in '98, I was a bit dubious when I heard that some collection of young upstarts were having a go at "Reimagining" the game. Eventually I got a copy of their early released levels and thought it was pretty good, but put it out of my mind because I know that 90% of the headline grabbing game projects we hear about lead nowhere. Most fizzle out after 4 or 5 years of development and end up as unfinished footnotes in gaming history, and this one looked like it was going to be WAY too big a project for any loose band of volunteer independent coders to have a chance to pull off.
Jump forward almost a decade, and suddenly I noticed that this project DIDN'T fizzle out. This handful of "Young upstarts" had evolved into an organised (And large) group of dedicated and talented game developers, and during that evolution, they'd somehow managed to code all the earth based sections of Black Mesa. I got a copy of that, and played all the way through in about a week of evenings. It was amazing. It grabbed me in EXACLY the same way the original game had all those years before.
Many early sections were almost a like for like (but much prettier) remake of the original map layout. There were a few added side rooms to explore, but most of the layout was the same, so you'd follow the route you almost have as muscle memory by now, moving on autopilot, and only really looking at your surroundings in the same way you would when walking through a familiar office block that you haven't been in for years, a lot of the details might have changed, but you still know the general layout, and how to get everywhere......... then you suddenly realise that something hasn't been quite right for a little while. It only dawned on you when you turned a corner, and realised that you expected to see a door into the managers office, but you're infact looking at an entirely unrecognised loading dock that wasn't there last time you were there. You're suddenly entirely lost on where you're heading because the next section has only loosely been inspired by the original game. This experience was perfect. The game was familiar AND new all at the same time.
It was still "Half-Life" enough not to alienate the huge fan base who've been playing various versions of HL for most of their adult life, but still different enough to make them realise this is not just a "HL HD graphics pack", it's a new game to learn and explore. It was also pretty enough to get a lot of new players in who, up to then, had just thought of HL as an old and almost dead franchise.
Black Mesa really is a visually stunning game. Even on my VERY obsolete gaming PC* (on minimum graphics settings) it still runs OK(Ish), and still looks incredibly beautiful. I actually found it surprising how well this runs on my old hardware. It has the occasional jitter as the frame rate dips to single digits, but most of the time it was happily running at between 30 and 60fps. On something this old that's not bad. The Source engine has always been a pretty well optimised lump of code, but it still feels odd that it can be pushed into doing so much more than valve had it do, and STILL run on a potato of a PC !
All in all, it's an amazing game. The goals are the same as in HL1, but how you achieve them has been tweaked so your previous knowledge won't necessarily give you an advantage. It's fresh and exciting, while not feeling disconnected from the original game. It's visually pretty, and imaginative, yet will run on modest hardware. It's about as good as a game has been for several years......... And all this was made by a bloody "INDEPENDENT GROUP" !!!! :D
I've been saying for a while that Valve should give the crowbar collective a wad of cash, and everything they still have on HL3 (The plot, and any code they'd wrote before the project got canned), then get the hell out of their way. Maybe Valve could help by doing things like finding/hiring as many of the original games voice actors as they could still find, but apart from stuff like that, do nothing. Don't contact them, interfere with them, and don't "Guide" them. The CC have proved that they can do an amazing job, and I think with their current people and the skill's they've now amassed, they could most likely deliver the HL3 game that fans have been waiting for in 5 to 8 years. If it was anything like as good as Black Mesa, it would be an instant hit.......... Hell, I personally know at least 5 people who'd still buy HL3 on the DAY it was released, and another 10 to 15 who'd get it the following payday. Even now, this level of franchise loyalty can't be THAT unusual ?
(* My old gaming PC was a "Money no object" beast when I built it something like 15 years ago, but it really is a total dog of a PC now. It's an overclocked Q6600 CPU running at (IIRC) 3ghz, 8gb of PC2-6400 DDR2 ram, and a 4gb HD7950 graphics card that I fitted 10 or so years back, I also swapped in a 1TB Samsung SSD as the main drive a couple years ago, but apart from that the rest of the systems been in a time warp. TBH, It shouldn't even run half the games it does ! :D)
Black Mesa had been one among the most iconic remakes. I totally respect the fact they did this not only re-imagining the game, but add the fact they respected the lore and fill in the gaps Valve didn't create, especially in Xen.
What if you port Half Life into the source 2 engine
I always felt like to really appreciate BM you have to play HL, especially for the Xen chapters.
A part of the experience for me was the comparison between the two.
10:27 - the best misleading screenshots of the year. Played the original Xen chapters in HL1 but I would never expect that BM's Xen chapters would be THAT MASSIVE
I think they definitely did a great job with a lot of the visuals for BM:S, and really nailed the HL2 style of game.
I still personally prefer HL1 though, the gameplay may be a bit more primitive but it's always fun to start up HL1 and play through it again, I don't really get the same feel with HL2/BM:S.
HL1 gameplay is, for lack of a better word, "crunchy." I just don't get quite the same level of satisfaction in a BM shootout.
@@Crazy_Diamond_75 That makes sense, imo HL1 gameplay is good but there are few good shootouts
To me thats like comparing Resident Evil 1 to Resident Evil remake.
The remake is not literally the first game with better graphics. Both games are different and have their own charm. Everyone should try out both. Play Half Life 1. Then Black Mesa.
8:40 I exploded in laughter with the sound of the shotgun 😂😂
Enjoyed the review! Just thought you missed the opportunity to talk about the elevator part with the "Ascension" soundtrack. Besides the terrible performance, that part was insanely badass, almost fit more for Doom instead of Half-Life. It is the pinnacle of why Freeman is feared and respected. It was such a memorable part, especially when the female chorus kicks in.
I still let my friend played Half-Life first and Black Mesa last (after HL2EP2) and yes it impressed him very much
My main issue with black mesa is actually the grunts. Them being able to move and shoot makes them too difficult to predict in battles where there is no third faction involved.
Ive found that it helps to play it a lot more like half life 2.
Not a lot of people know this, but there's a suppression mechanic in these games. If you put rounds into an enemy, it hampers their ability to shoot back or act. So when you're fighting military, run around the map behind cover and only try to keep one enemy in your line of sight, put rounds into that enemy as you move through the map, and weaponswap when necessary
I remember about 1 years ago when I asked you in a Q&A if you played Black Mesa. I've been waiting for this ever since.
bro tried to fight Alien Controllers 💀
The movement speed is just as fast you have to toggle sprint in the menu so. It's always on
Personally I like the original half life better. I get that black mess does look great and defiantly has better zen (honestly the price tag is worth zen alone) but I feel like they made some parts of game either to short or overly dramatic. Also I hate the combat in this game, specifically against the marines. They are way to aggressive, don’t stop shooting, and when they do it’s to launch a grenade at you. Also I think the new design of the alien grunts is a crime against humanity and the actual only objectively bad part of the game
''black mess'' I know that was an unintentional typo but it's funny to read contextually
Funny how you say you hated fighting the marines in black mesa while thats easily my favorite parts of the game
I definetly get how one can dislike them though especially when compared to the original
@@sergeantheavyass3471 did you play the original? The marines were better there not that black mesa one was bad
@@sergeantheavyass3471 fighting in black mesa is more serious than the original , as lamwarp said we used to b-hop and shoot all of them and having a god feeling
@@IAm-zo1bo oh i played the original many times
I just prefer them in black mesa
Forces me to actually use cover and use any change i get to return fire
You gotta really be smart about whqt you fo or youll be turned into swiss cheese by them
Hl HECU and bm HECU just require very different playstyles and some people are gonna prefer one over the other
finally lamwarp uploaded a video
One issue that i have with Black Mesa is that the On A Rail chapter is too short. I don't think it's bad now, but i think that they took away half of the fun from this chapter.
7:38 this is even more op with the long jump module you get before reaching xen.
Edit: damn you still check your comments?
You don't have to sneak past the grunts with that security guy. The grunts in the room will briefly group tightly enough for a single satchel to reduce them all to salsa.
For Black mesa lovers and hl bshift ones ther is an mod called black mesa blue shift that brings hl bshift in the source engine the game is in development but it have 4 chapter and is 2-3 hours long already and now the team is working at chapter 5 Focal Point.
1:25 I am going to gently put my hands around your neck.
The whole thing about not being able to play it like half-life wasn't a problem for me since I had played lots of multiplayer source/ goldsrc so I was slightly faster and more able to deal with enemies moving and shooting than i was when i played half-life. Additionally I'm familiar with having to use cover etc because of lots of hours on non-classic fps games. In particular arma
my opinion is that the original is better, but black mesa is still good
I agree
Recently, by acsident, I learned about BLACK MESA! The game , from what i was watch in You-tub, is truly amazing. I hadn't played any games in years. Even I missed the last releases of Resident Evil. But looking at BLACK MESA I think I might give her a shot.
I played Half Life 1 along with it's dlc's(Opposing Force and Blue Shift) and i also finished Half Life 2 and both episode games, im playing Black Mesa now i must say, im having a realy good time with it.
First time playing Black Mesa, it took me like half an hour looking for the crowbar where I thought it should be.
As a great fan of the original Half-Life, I can say that almost everything about this game is perfect, as for the chapter Interloper, indeed it is way too long, but the music is super epic and badass and it was what kept me playing
One thing Nihilanth fight is missing is using some Combine technology it has. To restore itself while trying to kill Freeman. Begin it final phase, with combination of Nihilanth theme is join quietly join by the Combine theme as it slowly take over as the fight progress. A good fan service and hinting the connection between 1 and 2.
Glory to our benefactor.
Love how you add subtitles, i have bad audio processing hearing so thank you
bot are good. they are different enough to warrant playing both.
also interesting that they sort of backported slide hopping from titanfall
8:31 he spotted the guard. Not you.
Tips on how to kill alien controllers:
1. Use revolver
2. Use crossbow
3. Shoot where you think they are going to be.
4. Do not use hivehand or mp5. Only use mp5 when desperate. Shotgun is optional.
5. Aim for their big head
6. Use Gluon gun or tau cannon (I prefer gluon gun)
Edit: You should still follow tip 3 while following tip 5.
It starts with one
thing and i dont know why
im a Halo and Half Life fan, if you ask me what my favorite game is I would say it depends on if its a PC or Xbox game (I dont think of Halo as a PC game because it originally came to Xbox and I played it on Xbox first)
0:14 oh no mr krabs forgot to download counter strike : source
Lol