Black Mesa (PC)

Today I'm looking at Black Mesa, formally known as 'Black Mesa: Source', a free fan-made remake of the legendary first person shooter Half-Life (made with Valve's blessing!)

Yeah it's only been a couple of months since mecha-neko played the original game but whatever, I'm playing this anyway. Half-Life's one of my favourite games, and I want to see what happened when these fans got hold of it and decided to 'improve it'.

Click the pictures to view in extreme 1280x800 resolution. Yeah, yeah, I know, I should buy a new monitor.

Straight away it's obvious they haven't just redrawn some textures and made some new character models, because this entire area has been redesigned. In Half-Life this is basically some sloping walls, a few windows and a tunnel.

They've kept the train ride in though, where you get to experience Gordon Freeman's entire journey to work in real time. Over five minutes, stuck in a box. Everyone who owns Half-Life has probably sat through it at least twice by now, and now I gotta sit through it again.

Crap, a mid level loading screen. The one thing I was hoping they'd have gotten rid of. The original Half-Life barely pauses here on modern PCs, but this remake has enhanced loading times so I'll have to just be patient.

Awesome, the Apache gunship is still there. Well, it's in a place moderately similar to the location it was in the original game, and I can still see it from the train anyway.

I do get the purpose of the train ride by the way. It's to show the epic scale of this research facility and how much trouble it'd be to get out once we're down in the core of it with all the huge metal doors locked shut. I just don't much like being locked in a box for five minutes in my video games.

You want to know why I running late? Because the reimagined train ride is even longer than the original one! It seems to clock in at around 7m 40s before I'm finally able to step out of the train, not counting loading times. I suppose I should restart and double check my numbers... but nah.

The development team couldn't reuse any resources from the original game, so they had to rerecord all the dialogue themselves and the results so far are, well... good. The security guard sounds a lot like he used to, and even though they decided to meddle with his lines, it's worked out fine.

To be honest I'm not generally a fan of people reimagining things. Sharpening up the details, adding more realistic textures etc. is fine, but I know what the Black Mesa Research Facility reception lobby looks like from playing Half-Life, and it doesn't look like this. It doesn't even have this layout.

But fuck it, right now I don't even care. That just looks awesome. And it looks 'right' as well, they've matched the style of the original game so it doesn't look out of place. Just... bigger.

Alright, I'm finally free to go wandering around the offices, overhearing the new conversations while trying to find where they've put my HEV suit now.

   Half-Life 1 (1998)                        |                    Black Mesa (2012)                     |                  Half-Life 2 (2004)

People just can't help tweaking the look of the HEV suit. To be honest though I didn't notice a difference until I put them side by side, so I'll give them a pass on this.

One change I did like though is that Gordon's movement speed increased when I put the suit on. It's a nice way of showing that this thing's actually powered armour, not some bulky hazmat suit that'll slow you down. There's new music for when you put on the suit as well, but that couldn't really be helped seeing as they weren't allowed to use anything from the original soundtrack. But again it's fine, it works.

Hey it's Doctor Kleiner and his crack science team. In the original game it seemed that half the scientists in the base had his face, but now he's unique. The scientists actually have more personality in general this time, having their own conversations as I walk by, making them a lot more likeable.

I'm honestly amazed at how well done this is, graphics aside I could believe this was actually produced by Valve themselves.

Half-Life

Not that I'm complaining about the graphics. I mean, look at how it compares to the original. Computers back then weren't even powerful enough to give the poor scientists some shadows. Or chairs it seems. They all have take turns on the one in the corner.

I'm just saying the game looks a little dated compared to modern day AAA titles, which is what you'd expect really considering this was made for free by a group of students and hobbyists in their spare time and originally planned for release in 2009. I'd have expected a lot worse to be honest.

Hey it's Doctor Vance as well. Well okay he doesn't really sound the same, but the dialogue's been tweaked to make it clear that these are both the same characters from Half-Life 2.

But I can't hang around chatting with old friends all day, I've got science to do, things to push around.

Here's a new addition to Gordon's skill-set; he now has the ability to carry objects and create art. These stuffy scientist types are all a bunch of impatient philistines though, and would rather Dr Freeman got into the test chamber already and pressed buttons for them instead.

Don't worry, their time will come.

That new monitor screen showing the control room is a nice touch. Now I don't feel so alone in here, trapped in an active test chamber.

It is funny how the Black Mesa geniuses can set up a ridiculously elaborate (mostly) automatic train network, but can't find a way to automatically push a sample into an anti-mass spectrometer. But then who needs an automated sample pushing device when you've got an athletic theoretical physicist in an expensive cutting edge hazardous environment suit to shove it into the beam for you?


A SHORT CATASTROPHE LATER.

Well now we know not to push orange crystals into energy beams. That's what science is all about, making theories, then trying stuff out to see what actually happens.

I hung around here for a bit to see if this guard by the test chamber door still pulls through, and sadly he does not. Whoever this poor guy was, the Black Mesa developers have decided that this time he must die.

On the way back up from the test chamber I came across a locked elevator door, with people screaming on the other side. In Half-Life this is where you get the crowbar, and can decide whether you want to smash through the door, or to press the elevator call button under a big 'DO NOT PRESS THIS BUTTON IN EMERGENCIES' sign. Either way an elevator full of scientists soon goes splat, but if you chose to press the button, it feels like it was your fault. And this remake totally takes the choice away. There's no crowbar here, so it's button or nothing as far as I can tell.

Oh, word of advice: be careful about backing up into corners to take awesome screenshots. I ended up getting trapped in the wall here and had to reload. Same thing happened to me in Half-Life at one point as well though, so don't think I'm saying this is has obvious bugs, because it really doesn't.

I'd love to help this guy out, but the game still hasn't given me a crowbar yet! Could this game actually be telling a tragic alternate universe tale set in world where Gordon Freeman never found a his iconic melee weapon? I did throw a couple of flares at them, but I guess burning enemies take a while to drop.

Eventually we cleared a path through the monsters, and the two of us headed for the surface to get word out that there are survivors down here.

Overcooked, crushed by a teleporting headcrab, then set on fire. I'm no chef, but I think that microwave casserole is pretty much a lost cause at this point.

By the way, in case you don't know already, these creatures are the zombie-like remains of the Black Mesa science team, controlled by face-hugger like aliens called head crabs that teleported in when the anti-mass spectrometer incident triggered a resonance cascade. Of course they immediately grew long spiky fingers and gained the strength to rip a person apart with their bare hands, because this is science fiction, and looking cool is more important than making sense.

They've finally let me have a crowbar! Thank fuck!

Hey, I don't remember fighting zombie security guards in the original game. Never mind, a few smacks with my mighty crowbar will put an end to his reanimation, and then I can take his gun!

Actually no, it turns out that Dr Gordon Freeman never did figure out how to unfasten the strap on a gun holster, so the pistol remains out of our grasp. Shame my security guard sidekick couldn't find his way in here, I bet he'd know how to get the gun out.

The layout of the complex seems generally the same as it used to be in the original game, with a few altered routes and some other changes. For one thing, I'm having to crouch jump to get onto things a lot more than I used to, which seems a weird thing to change, as all it does is make it more awkward to get around. It's a bit of a pain in the ass when I'm trying to make my way around a huge chasm, where any missed jump could end with Dr Freeman observing a high-speed collision between a scientist and a solid concrete floor, from a first person perspective.

Uh... what?

Honestly, I think a Chuckle Brothers mug was the last thing I ever expected to find in the depths of Black Mesa. I half thought about dragging it around the base with me, like the Gnome in Half Life 2: Episode Two, but then I realised I couldn't be bothered.

The cup works pretty well for target practice though. Bullseye'd from across the room with the Glock. Shame I still can't one shot enemies with good headshot though.

By the way, they've made the pistol fire ridiculously fast now. Damage output per second seems more or less the same though, as I have to put a fair number of bullets into anything to put it down.

Well the 'crates hanging over a chasm of instant death' room is present and accounted for. And now thanks to the miracle of real time physics, the boxes have a gentle sway when you land on one. Fortunately quick saves are present and accounted for as well.

Don't get me wrong, I'm actually not complaining about this section being in the game. First person platforming can be a terrible idea, but Half-Life usually pulled it off pretty well, and it adds variety. Plus as long as I always aim for the chain in the middle of the box I'm leaping to, I can't overshoot and fall off.

I decided to be creative and combine my new ability to pick things up with the new physics, to see what happened. The plant pot just bounced right off the window. But then I put a couple of bullets into it and tried again, and got a nice shower of broken glass out of it.

It's funny, despite all the changes to the core of the game, this still feels more like a genuine Half-Life remake than a mod for Half-Life 2 to me. I'm just able to interact with the world a bit more now.

I don't like how they've got these enemies teleporting in here though. These guys were just hiding around the corners in the original, and that worked fine. I was able to sweep each corridor systematically. But now this has turned into a reaction test, as I try to shoot them as they appear.

Fortunately the magnum still takes care of them in a single shot. Wait a second... you get the shotgun, not the magnum at this point in the original game. They've been changing things again!

Oh here's another small difference from the original Half-Life: there are female characters now! Like I said earlier, I don't like it when people change things for the sake of bringing their own vision to the project, but this is one change that makes total sense. Black Mesa obviously had women working there, but aside from the holographic Hazard Course instructor you just never saw them.

You know, I'm sure there's more enemies in this than there used to be. I'm playing on medium difficulty, and it does feel more challenging than the original game did. Though to be honest most of my deaths so far have come from messing up jumps and falling down chasms. I blame the game for making me crouch-jump so much.

Also they must be really proud of this valve handle they've modelled, because they keep giving me handles to turn everywhere I go. And they take a good while to turn compared to the original game. It'd be nice if they were actually stealth loading screens, and I wasn't wasting my time waiting here, watching it turn. But somehow I doubt it.

Plus barnacles, those things that sit on the ceiling and drop their tongues down to grab hold of anything passing by, the developers seem to love barnacles. They keep showing up everywhere in this game, in all the places you wouldn't want them to be.

The scientists seem a bit more eager to get to the surface than I remember, but they've also got more specific lines to explain why they can't continue. For instance, this guy isn't going to follow me anymore because he knows he'll never be able to make it to the ladder. Not exactly cutting edge stuff, but it's a step up from the original game where I'd just abandon him here.

Oh and then I didn't make it over to the ladder either. Took me several tries to jump this lift shaft in fact, before I realised that I had to be looking upwards for him to get hold of the ladder.

Oh come on man, the door wasn't even that low yet! I don't mind you scientists getting crushed to death if there's honestly no way to get through, but exploding just because it reached head-height is unforgivable laziness for someone from the elite Black Mesa science team.

It took me a good while before it occurred to me to try picking up the auto-turrets and using them as a weapon, Portal style, but it actually works! Fortunately they didn't go as far as giving them cute voices. Wouldn't really suit the mood.

Hey, I've finally reached the surface! It looks a little different than I remember though somehow...

Half-Life

Whoa, it actually looks a lot different. They've added a whole warehouse here, just because they could. Luckily for me I'm way past the point of nitpicking the changes, and now I'm just enjoying it for what it is.

Well I'm trying to enjoy it anyway. But this section is bloody difficult, in both versions. For me anyway, I'm sure a talented player would breeze through it, laughing as the missiles smash through the buildings all around him. Me, I'm just trying to make a run for the bunker and get back underground before I get blown up.

Over and over again.

Actually forget that last section, this bit is where the challenge has been ramped up. This one air shaft. Because I have no idea who keeps shooting me dead a few seconds after I walk in here. There's no regenerating health in this, so I'm going to have to get through with just the pitiful amount of HP I've managed to hold on to.

It took me a ridiculous number of tries to find where they were hiding and get them in the end. Turns out one of them was shooting from a couple of floors below. Thank fuck for quick-saves is all I'm gonna say.

I couldn't just give up on the game and quit playing until I reached the Blast Pit though. Had to pay a visit to the old tentacle monster and see how he was doing.

He's doing pretty well for himself actually. They've recreated his movement and AI pretty much as it was as far as I can tell, as he still taps around on each floor hunting for prey, immediately darting to attack anything he hears. Like grenade explosions for instance. I feel like sticking around and taking him down again, but I've already got a stupid number of screenshots, so I should really turn this off now.

Though what I actually did is keep playing anyway, without the screenshots, because it's still Half-Life and I have to dammit.


I've made no secret of the fact I'm totally biased here, but as a big Half-Life fan I have to say that I'm a big fan of this Half-Life remake so far. Seems that they've nailed it. It's ridiculously well made and polished for a fan project, and feels like an alternate version of the game, rather than some barely recognisable reinterpretation of it. It's basically a prettier Half-Life with some new dialogue, and reworked levels is what I'm saying, rather than some bullshit reimagining, featuring QTEs where you make Gordon Freeman do backflips off missiles, in third person, while making angsty one-liners.

Plus it has a level select!

     

The game is a completely free standalone total conversion, no Half-Life or Half-Life 2 install required (though you will need to download the Source SDK base for free), and you can get it from GameFront, Mod DB and other places. They're still working on finishing the last few chapters though, so it stops before the Xen levels. But wants to go to Xen anyway?