For example, there are no on-screen objectives to complete, no compass guiding you to waypoints, no dull audio logs and – most mercifully of all – no voice yammering in your ear about what to do next. One other thing I appreciated was a bunch of stuff that isn’t in Half-Life that plagues modern games. The Half-Life franchise has also always been a dark comedy at heart (something fully expressed in the Portal games) and Black Mesa doesn’t miss a beat in adding fresh gags of its own – coming in a particularly high density during the pre-disaster ‘Anomalous Materials’ chapter and the mad scientist fever of ‘Questionable Ethics’. It’s a masterclass in environmental storytelling. ![]() There’s a touch of The Simpsons‘ nuclear power plant too: the game full of leaking barrels of green radioactive goo and extremely shonky safety regulations. From the initial train ride onwards the facility tells its own story through the high-tech super-secret advanced science stuff nestled within cold-war era Brutalism and the dusty corners filled with ancient analogue tech. The team particularly nailed the firm feeling of place and history of the Black Mesa Research Facility. ![]() It’s been so long since I played the original that I can’t really compare the two side-by-side in my head, but it evokes the exact same emotions and sense of fun that I felt in ’98. ![]() This fan effort to port the game over to Valve’s Source engine was a 15-year labour of love for the developers and the final product is an interesting beast, doing so much right… and eventually so much wrong.Ī lot of Black Mesa can be summarised as ‘ Half-Life, but better’. I’ve replayed it a couple of times over the years, though since 2012 I’ve been steadfastly waiting for Crowbar Collective’s Black Mesa to be complete. It’s difficult to appreciate without having been there, but the realistic level design, contiguous levels and cutscenes taking place during gameplay was a genuine revelation after years spent playing DOOM and Quake.
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