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Half-Life is a shooter that was different from others of its kind when it released. It showcased an immersive world and fantastic level design with almost uninterrupted gameplay. Other than the brief load times that separate levels, the player is never pulled out of the experience. It was innovative stuff in 1998. Valve did port the game to the Source engine as Half-Life: Source in 2004 and not everybody was happy with the result. In fact, from what I understand, Black Mesa was developed in response to Half-Life: Source. Apparently, two teams were working on their own remakes and decided to join together.
Developed by the Crowbar Collective, Black Mesa was published as an early-access title in 2015, followed by a full release in 2020. It was initially published as a free mod but at some point Valve approved it for a commercial release. I guess you could say Black Mesa is a fan remake and it does run on the Source engine. I’ve been looking forward to playing it for a while and I never did try it before the full release. I was waiting for it to be finished and at some point I remember reading that the developers were going to completely redo Xen which excited me because it’s the worst part of the original game in my opinion. Black Mesa does come with multiplayer but I couldn’t get any games going so this review will only focus on single player.
Black Mesa is considered a remake. Not a remaster. It’s not simply Half-Life running on the Source engine. It’s Half-Life reimagined. That means redesigned environments and updated and improved visuals and audio. I’ll even quote a portion of the game’s Steam page, “A completely reimagined and refined single player campaign, including all new and expanded Xen levels”. I assume Half-Life aficionados have put Black Mesa under the microscope to analyze everything from the color palette to hitboxes. That’s what happens when a classic game is remade and there’s really nothing wrong with that. Some people can be very insightful, actually. But it also brings out the negative nellies. I don’t mean those with fair criticisms, I mean those that criticize every little thing because it’s not exactly like the original. But I really don’t know if that’s the case here because I made sure to avoid watching videos and reading reviews of the game before playing it because I wanted to go in with the mindset that it’s not going to be exactly like the original. And I didn’t want my views tainted by nonsense. So I went into Black Mesa expecting things to look different, sound different, and feel different hoping it would capture what made the original so good. Because that’s my idea of a good remake. If I wanted the exact same experience, I would play the original.
For the most part, I would say Black Mesa succeeds at being a good remake. It tells the same story as Half-Life but with new voice work and new and updated NPC models. The player still assumes the role of theoretical physicist, Gordon Freeman, who participates in an experiment that goes wrong and opens a portal to another dimension. Many lines from the original game are here and the narrative is still conveyed through dialogue and by seeing and listening to what’s going on around you. The environments have been redesigned but still flow together nicely, levels are still separated by load points, and G-Man still makes his mysterious appearances throughout the campaign. I would say Black Mesa does a good job at conveying the same type of tone and atmosphere as the original. In fact, I would say much of the game feels familiar. To me, Xen is the only thing about it that feels both different and mostly unfamiliar.
I think Black Mesa’s gunplay is good thanks primarily to the audiovisual presentation, gore, and physics. Guns feel satisfying to fire and enemies can be blown to gibs. The Gluon Gun can disintegrate foes, you can aim down sights with the Colt, and ammo capacities were reduced for some weapons. I did play through the game on the Black Mesa difficulty and feel it puts up a fair fight and can be challenging at times. You still need to be careful, know what weapons are best for the situations, and enemies can drop you quickly if you’re not frequently on the move or use cover during firefights. But changes have been made and some are significant. One of the first things I noticed is that it’s easier to evade Vortigaunt attacks now. But they can also emit a shockwave when you get close and will attempt to dodge your attacks. Another change I noticed is that Alien Grunts can fire more shots or hornets from their Hivehand but they don’t home towards Gordon and this makes a big difference because it results in some encounters being significantly easier. I would even argue less frustrating.
If you’ve played Half-Life, you will notice a lot of things will be familiar. Some areas are laid out very similar to their original counterparts and simply look better thanks to the updated visuals but many are laid out differently. Some levels even feel extended and that’s not exclusive to Xen. Some include more foes and/or pickups and there are some new and different puzzles. Many of the new puzzles will have you finding and attaching valve wheels or unplugging and plugging things in. To be honest, I enjoyed many of the changes here and felt some of the new puzzles are clever. Some hazards are changed or removed and some areas are simply made less tedious or frustrating to navigate. For example, you don’t have to manually rotate the track at the end of the chapter, Power Up, and the Residue Processing chapter is a little easier to get through thanks to some changes made to hazards and how to progress.
Then there’s chapters like On A Rail and Surface Tension which feel very different. I would even say overhauled. During On A Rail, the rails are no longer electrified and you don’t have to worry about switchable rails. Some foes have been move around and others were replaced or removed. Furthermore, some areas have been entirely redesigned like the rocket launching area for example. The developers basically made this level more straightforward. The way I see it, these changes make the areas flow together a little better and I personally found certain sections to be a little less frustrating which is good.
Surface Tension is a chapter that received some of the biggest changes. For one thing, you can see the mines in the minefield so you don’t have to waste bullets shooting at the ground and the Apache doesn’t constantly chase Gordon through the desert area. As a result, it’s easier to navigate certain sections and you don’t have to worry about ducking and dodging shots from the Apache. Some areas have been entirely redesigned and this chapter does seem to up the action with more enemies and more intense skirmishes.
Xen contains my least favorite levels in the original game. They’re not consistent with those set at Black Mesa and I think one of final sections is just a slog to get through. I guess I’m not the only one who didn’t care for Xen because the developers of Black Mesa redesigned it entirely. From the look and feel to the level design. Not only has Xen been redesigned but you’ll spend a lot more time there. And I’m talking hours. These level extend the length of the game significantly. I did enjoy the new aesthetics and more diverse areas. Xen’s presentation still manages to convey an “alien” feel and I like that more attention was paid to details like the fact that research teams were there before and died. You’ll navigate through some areas that contain what I assume are labs of some kind that were clearly set up by those teams. But most of the areas are pure Xen and the level design feels more straightforward and more in line with that of the levels set at Black Mesa. This all good as far as I’m concerned.
Now for what I don’t like about Xen. I think I spent somewhere around three hours in Xen and despite the positive changes when compared to the original game, I still don’t think it’s as enjoyable as the environments at Black Mesa. The levels have been extended significantly and there’s a lot more puzzles to solve. But it also doesn’t have the same balance of action, exploration, and puzzle solving as the rest of the game and I think that’s my real problem with it. You’ll blast away some aliens here and there along the way but the more exciting action doesn’t really kick in until you get towards the end and the exploration and puzzle solving just go on and on.
At first, I was really enjoying the new Xen but then I was starting to get a little burnt out and that’s when I realized just how much time had passed and I hadn’t even encountered the first Xen boss yet. It’s just area after area and puzzle after puzzle and on and on it goes and I think it was over an hour before I finally reached Gonarch. So I finally encounter him and thought okay, maybe I’m close to the end now. Boy, was I wrong. For one thing, the battle has been extended to a ridiculous length in my opinion. You blast him and he runs so you chase him and then he chases you for a while and eventually you reach the final showdown. Then once he’s finally out of the picture, you proceed through more areas and puzzles that go on and on until you finally reach Nihilanth. Ultimately, I like this new Xen but it drags on way too long and overstays its welcome in my opinion.
Visually, Black Mesa does look pretty great. From the texture work to the character models to the lighting, everything looks great. When compared to Half-Life, there’s more scientist models, more detailed environments, and much better visual and gore effects. Much like the original game, music doesn’t play all the time but does kick in at certain points, helping to elevate tension. I enjoyed most of the new tunes and really enjoyed the tunes heard in Xen. Not only do these tunes really fit the “alien” environments on display but they also help drive home the feeling of an otherworldy atmosphere. On the technical side, I’m happy to say the game ran smooth for the most part. I think I noticed the frame rate dip once or twice but I did not encounter any major issues.
In the end, I feel Black Mesa is a phenomenal remake overall. A phenomenal remake that overstays its welcome. Just like the original game, my biggest issue with it is Xen. But unlike the original game, Xen’s level design is much better here. It just drags on. Other than that, I enjoyed almost everything about Black Mesa. I like most of the changes and feel the developers did a good job at capturing what made the original game so good without compromising anything major. Even with the changes, the level design here is still fantastic and I would even say the same for the Xen levels. They are well crafted. Certainly better than the Xen levels in the original.
I can see some players picking apart things like certain changes to enemies and aspects of levels but I feel the game balances out the changes in different ways while managing to keep the original kind of tone and atmosphere intact. Some changes simply optimize things which is good in my opinion. For example, the developers removed or changed things that may have been unnecessary or didn’t really add anything to the experience. But they also added new areas, puzzles, and encounters so there will definitely be a few surprises for Half-Life veterans. I would argue Black Mesa is a little more forgiving than the original but I don’t see that as a bad thing. Personally, I think Black Mesa is refreshing. It’s a refreshing take on a classic and it’s excellent.
I would recommend Black Mesa and I think you will appreciate it a lot more if you play Half-Life first. And you should play it anyway because it’s still a great shooter. A classic. Black Mesa was clearly made by people who love and understand Half-Life and I think it’s one of the better remakes out there. Not only is it good, it supports mods and there’s plenty out there so if there is something you don’t like about it, there’s a good chance there’s a mod out there that fixes it. Definitely check it out.