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this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2024
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I was always a console gamer in my childhood so I missed the boat on a lot of the most iconic PC games.
I feel like I might catch some heat for this one, but recently I tried Half Life 1 and I just couldn't get into it. The game just feels so...lifeless. I got about 10 chapters in, which is like 60% or so of the way through, and every moment just feels like I'm playing House of the Dead in the arcade, walking down a hallway and shooting jumpscare enemies. I think the lack of any semblance of story or motivation for what I'm doing is especially egregious to me.
We're you playing Black Mesa, the fan remake, or the original? Black Mesa is the way to go now, although the original did get a patch recently.
I was playing through the patched version of the original. I picked up the entire Valve bundle for a few bucks on sale about a year or back.
As someone who is an outsider to the series, I was under the impression that Black Mesa was a unique game set in the same universe?
Black Mesa is a fan remake of HL1. It's basically a ground-up complete remake. And as such, it revamps a ton of outdated mechanics, improves a lot of weird maps, and of course, improves the graphics and sound design. Actually, what I'm really impressed by is how they're able to change so many things but still keep the core "vibe" of the game.
I was in the same boat as you, I really bounced off HL1 when I tried it. But Black Mesa is great. If you liked HL2, you'll definitely like Black Mesa
I was planning on doing a playthrough of HL2 after the first, so I haven't actually played it yet. The first has kind of left a sour taste in my mouth though and as far as I can tell the second isn't a huge change in terms of the issues I felt the first had. If they did a good enough job with Black Mesa to fix the hallway simulator vibes of the first I may definitely have to give it a shot.
I don't mind the dated mechanics and graphics as much. I do mind the lack of player agency and objectives or direction. A lot of similar shooters of this period really survived on the atmosphere they created and I just don't feel that in this game. It just makes it hard to overcome the "why am I playing this, I'm very bored" feelings.
The vibes is exactly why HL1 was successful, but I agree it doesn't really hold up compared to modern games. I think Black Mesa brings it close to the same level of modern games, while still being HL1. It's still a lot of hallways (especially early on), as that's the setting of the game. BM just makes them look better and adds more detail the original couldn't have. It also adds physics, so it feels more alive.
HL2 was one of the first games with physics, and as such used physics as a gimmick too frequently in my opinion. It doesn't hold up as well as Black Mesa makes HL1 hold up. HL1 is just a shooter with an interesting story, and importantly never takes control away for cutscenes or anything, which was new for the genre. There's no gimmicks, just a good game.
At this point I'm definitely going to finish the game, so we'll see if my opinions change at the end of it all. If I'm still struggling to get into it I'll definitely give Black Mesa a shot so I appreciate the suggestion and clarification.
I guess my expectations were way out of whack because I'd heard nothing but praise of the game for 20 years.
The best way to describe Black Mesa is Half-Life 1 with HL2 graphics.
Personally I'd wait for the inevitable RTX Remix mod of BM before giving the game another chance. I don't know if you've seen the HL2 RTX mod, but it looks as good as a modern game to my eyes.
If that's truly what the game is about I don't know that it's for me then. Outdated graphics aren't actually a big issue for me and with the updated patch on the base game they really are not bad at all.
Most of my issues come from game direction and design. I can only run straight down a hallway with no idea why for so long before it just starts to feel tedious. If the Black Mesa map redesigns helps to give more area traversal options I would definitely think again though.
I don't think that I'd go back and play Half Life 1, but it introduced a lot of things that were, for the time, unusual for the genre, like an actual story (if you don't like HL1, earlier FPSes were absymal), aircraft and vehicles, interesting weapons.
Someone above -- talking about Half Life 2 -- mentioned that there are games that are significant not so much because they stand up well today, but because they introduced improvements to a genre that became widespread.
Yeah, I think ultimately my expectations got the best of me for this one. I'd heard nothing but praise of the game for so long and wasn't looking at the game through the lens of the development limitations of it's time period. I'll still probably finish the game, but I am a bit disappointed and probably won't play the second.