Black Mesa missed the point of Xen and also made it way too long. In the OG game Xen is a quick scamper through a place that should not exist, it's like one of those dreams where you are falling; comparatively, BM made Xen very Earthly and it takes up 1/3 of the runtime
the devs fell for the xen bad meme so originally black mesa released without it
then they spent another year or so making their own version thats practically its own game
lel the free version of black mesa released when I was still in fricking high school. I think it only got finished when I was several years out of college.
Original Xen is fine. Most people complain about it because a truly 3D space is too much for them to wrap their heads around. Same thing with the Water Temple from OoT.
Black Mesa missed the point of Xen and also made it way too long. In the OG game Xen is a quick scamper through a place that should not exist, it's like one of those dreams where you are falling; comparatively, BM made Xen very Earthly and it takes up 1/3 of the runtime
Original Xen is fine. Most people complain about it because a truly 3D space is too much for them to wrap their heads around. Same thing with the Water Temple from OoT.
honestly OG xen is pretty forgettable.
all i remember about it is the headcrab queen fight, the space baby fight at the end and maybe some alien factory in between that while everything else was a blur. i haven't played BM's xen but if i end up remembering more of it than the original then it's an improvement in my book.
king order is Blue Shift, Half-Life 1, then Opposing Force
BS is underwhelming after the first game, and it fits snugly first canonically. since Barney makes it out of the facility first and sees Gordon arrive to work, and later dragged to the trash compactor. if you dont play it before the first game then you're missing out on literal ludo kino
based order & explanation but i'd probably tweak it as...
BS > HL1 > uplink > decay > OF
You forgot Decay.
decay would be before opposing force since you can find cross or green's corpse in one of the places you can teleport to with the displacer and decay doesn't end with the whoever survived escaping the facility.
It's just the same game but way buggier and it has some MINOR adjustements to the gameplay and graphics. It also replaces the very good death animations with ragdolls.
You still played Half-Life, but like a Star Wars Special Edition version.
All I needed to hear. I can't believe people kept track of this for over a decade. Who gives a frick. Same people complaining when a 2d 4th gen game gets remade, probably.
The original is superior to Black Mesa, except the gun play. But you can get improved gun play for the original with the original game + Half-Life MMOD
BS is underwhelming after the first game, and it fits snugly first canonically. since Barney makes it out of the facility first and sees Gordon arrive to work, and later dragged to the trash compactor. if you dont play it before the first game then you're missing out on literal ludo kino
HL1 combat is unique because it feels like every fight is just about dumping massive firepower to wipe out whatever is in front of you. Drop into a room, 4 grunts, lob a few smg nades, switch to the shotgun and let off a few double blasts. It's fast, frantic, noisy and over in a few seconds. Other games aren't as gnarly with the damage you do.
yes, original is better and the game has aged great. i'll be honest i haven't played the black mesa remake, but there's no way anyone could do it better than the original. player movement is way better in 1.6 than source engine as well.
true, the combat is fun and is really about choosing the right gun for the situation since you can carry all of them at a time. also a big thing that's important is using cover and movement well and not just standing out.
I'm a zoomie and I prefer this to Black Mesa. I think CC completely missed the point of Xen and made it even worse by ironically making it way too long and overdesigned. The whole game is weird and anachronistic because of the stupidly long dev time, like Duke Nukem Forever. Some of the music and sound design isn't as memorable/good as it was in the original game. And then there's the fricking shitty AI and weird weapon balancing in BM. I still think it is an amazing achievement, but it feels amateuristic and misses the point at times.
A lot of people seem to forget that half-life was really the first game where sound was an important factor in game design. The enemies would hear your squeaky footsteps to locate you. That’s why the original HL sound effects are so deeply etched into my brain. Just not the same without the crunchy compression and constant reverb.
Yes and you should have played it first
elaborate?
Black Mesa missed the point of Xen and also made it way too long. In the OG game Xen is a quick scamper through a place that should not exist, it's like one of those dreams where you are falling; comparatively, BM made Xen very Earthly and it takes up 1/3 of the runtime
I STILL HAVE THAT MUCH LEFT IN THE GAME?
WHY THE FRICK IS BLACK MESA SO LONG
the devs fell for the xen bad meme so originally black mesa released without it
then they spent another year or so making their own version thats practically its own game
>another year
Did you mean to say "decade"?
>been waiting since 2012 for it to come out
>they completely change what the game was going to be
lel the free version of black mesa released when I was still in fricking high school. I think it only got finished when I was several years out of college.
While I agree with this sentiment, I still think that xen being so short is a cope for shit level design.
Original Xen is fine. Most people complain about it because a truly 3D space is too much for them to wrap their heads around. Same thing with the Water Temple from OoT.
honestly OG xen is pretty forgettable.
all i remember about it is the headcrab queen fight, the space baby fight at the end and maybe some alien factory in between that while everything else was a blur. i haven't played BM's xen but if i end up remembering more of it than the original then it's an improvement in my book.
based order & explanation but i'd probably tweak it as...
BS > HL1 > uplink > decay > OF
decay would be before opposing force since you can find cross or green's corpse in one of the places you can teleport to with the displacer and decay doesn't end with the whoever survived escaping the facility.
You should have played it first.
really? a "fan" remake instead of THE classic itself? and you need elaboration?
I played HL:Source first, is my experience forever tainted?
yes
depends when you played it.
I did the same thing back in 2008 when it wasn't even remotely as busted as it is currently.
It's just the same game but way buggier and it has some MINOR adjustements to the gameplay and graphics. It also replaces the very good death animations with ragdolls.
You still played Half-Life, but like a Star Wars Special Edition version.
yes but it doesn't matter that you played black mesa first
No. Black Mesa is superior in every way. Don't waste your time
But you've missed one thing: Black Mesa is not Half-Life.
Gameplay is completely different. Black Mesa is basically "let's have Half Life 2 in Half Life 1" rather than sticking to the gameplay mechanics of 1
Yes.
This. HL1 is a lot more fast paced than HL2/Black Mesa.
All I needed to hear. I can't believe people kept track of this for over a decade. Who gives a frick. Same people complaining when a 2d 4th gen game gets remade, probably.
yes because at least HL1 doesn't crash or glitch out every 2 mins.
works on my machine
:^)
The original is superior to Black Mesa, except the gun play. But you can get improved gun play for the original with the original game + Half-Life MMOD
when the frick is that black ops campaign getting released.
the what
assuming some sort of mod where you take the role of black ops in the original story like how blue shift and opposing force did security and marines.
Yes, then play Opposing Force after. But not Blue Shift, BS is fricking boring
Blue Shift is worth one playthrough. It's not that bad.
Yeah I guess it's fine for ONE playthrough, but after that one I can't imagine most people would ever want to play it again.
blue shift is fine it takes like 20 minutes.
king order is Blue Shift, Half-Life 1, then Opposing Force
>Blue Shift before base game
Yeah, nah. True order is HL1 > BS > Uplink > OF.
You forgot Decay.
BS is underwhelming after the first game, and it fits snugly first canonically. since Barney makes it out of the facility first and sees Gordon arrive to work, and later dragged to the trash compactor. if you dont play it before the first game then you're missing out on literal ludo kino
once you go black, you never go back
I think both are worth playing. One thing that BM misses is the humor of the original. It isn't funny/goofy anymore.
HL1 combat is unique because it feels like every fight is just about dumping massive firepower to wipe out whatever is in front of you. Drop into a room, 4 grunts, lob a few smg nades, switch to the shotgun and let off a few double blasts. It's fast, frantic, noisy and over in a few seconds. Other games aren't as gnarly with the damage you do.
yes, original is better and the game has aged great. i'll be honest i haven't played the black mesa remake, but there's no way anyone could do it better than the original. player movement is way better in 1.6 than source engine as well.
true, the combat is fun and is really about choosing the right gun for the situation since you can carry all of them at a time. also a big thing that's important is using cover and movement well and not just standing out.
Is the shitposter gone?
OP here, I'm still stuck on Xen, been here for a few hours and apparently I still have like 3 chapters left.
Don't remember a FPS as long as this one
the original is comically bad
Is worth if you are interested in playing the best game ever.
Just to see the differences if anything. If you don't mind lower fidelity graphics it still plays fine.
As someone who started playing the half-lifes last year, I prefer how much more boomer shooter-esque hl1 is compared to hl2/bm
i'm suprised that you played BM first since valve practically gives half life away while you had to pay for BM.
Yes it's the goat
Frick no. It's awful.
It sucks
I played this one and it was so bad it convinced never to play of the other games in the series.
I'm a zoomie and I prefer this to Black Mesa. I think CC completely missed the point of Xen and made it even worse by ironically making it way too long and overdesigned. The whole game is weird and anachronistic because of the stupidly long dev time, like Duke Nukem Forever. Some of the music and sound design isn't as memorable/good as it was in the original game. And then there's the fricking shitty AI and weird weapon balancing in BM. I still think it is an amazing achievement, but it feels amateuristic and misses the point at times.
A lot of people seem to forget that half-life was really the first game where sound was an important factor in game design. The enemies would hear your squeaky footsteps to locate you. That’s why the original HL sound effects are so deeply etched into my brain. Just not the same without the crunchy compression and constant reverb.