Black Mesa Mod Goes Retail For Steam

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Comparing this sort of news to the various statements we get from microsoft and EA, and...well...*sniff* * wipes away a teardrop* I cant help but get a little emotional ya know. In such dark, cynical times of gaming. Heartwarming stuff.
Or maybe it was that oxytocin i sniffed.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

snip

All of that is moot because:
-It's a mod
-On PC

What I mean by that is that the software is your *****, not the other way around.

First thing I did after getting the SMG in Black Mesa (and realizing they went "pathetic HL2 ammo reserves" on it) was edit skill.cfg to have 50/250 for it, 6/36 for the Magnum, 8/108 for the shotgun, 5/50 for the crossbow, and so on.

As for the jumping...
bms_normal_jump_vertical_speed "200"
bms_normal_jump_crouch_vertical_speed "200"

It sounds like the ammo and jump should be something that's an option, say, Classic Jump, Classic Ammo Reserves, and Classic Ammo Clips. Although, aside from the AI changes, I kinda wish the vortigaunt electrical attack was a bit slower so it's easier to dodge - It gets a bit tiring to pick up a battery charge only to lose it to a vortigaunt attack five minutes later, despite my best efforts to dodge it...

 

[SayHelloToMrBullet]

If you played both for longer than the intro, you would notice that there are difference in movement, weapon-handling, AI-behaviour, puzzles, and pretty much everything.
For example, you basically can't jump in Black Mesa. What they call "jump", I call "standing on your toes". In Half-Life, I can jump over a handrail no problem and on some crates. Black Mesa? I can't do anything involving jumping unless I constantly crouch-jump. Which makes crouch-jumps as seperate feature complete pointless when it's THE ONLY THING I am allowed to use.

Other example would be the MP5 (or M4 in Half-Life with HD pack).
HL - 50 rounds, 250 spare, full-auto with semi-auto on tapping, good on mid-range and okay on long range.
BMS - 30 rounds, 120 spare, full-auto with BURST-FIRE on tapping, short range only.
Shotgun - a secret one in "Office complex" early, with two near the end in HL, somewhere in the middle of "We've Got Hostile" in BMS.
Crowbar - HL gives you pretty much right away, you only need to deal with one headcrab. BMS? Well, have fun dodging like 50 zombies for half an hour because your only way of defense is a guard unable to shoot. And once you got the crowbar, the first thing you're supposed to smash most likely KILLS YOU ON THE SPOT DUE A EXPLOSIVE CRATE AMONG THE THINGS YOU HAVE TO BREAK TO CONTINUE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Yeah, the two games are like night and day when it comes to gameplay. With Black Mesa doing everything wrong I can think of.

Just a question, are you implying that all these changes are what make the mod's gameplay bad? (If not then ignore the rest of this post).

I mean, the jumping thing I understand. I think everyone who played Black Mesa can agree that there was too much crouch jumping.

But the weapon differences? Really? Does anyone even care? How on earth are they flaws?

So what you don't get the crowbar right from the start. All you have to do is throw flares and let the guard shoot the zombies and voila. Easy.

It sounds like the ammo and jump should be something that's an option, say, Classic Jump, Classic Ammo Reserves, and Classic Ammo Clips. Although, aside from the AI changes, I kinda wish the vortigaunt electrical attack was a bit slower so it's easier to dodge - It gets a bit tiring to pick up a battery charge only to lose it to a vortigaunt attack five minutes later, despite my best efforts to dodge it...

Yeah the Vortigaunts were a bit annoying. I found the Bullsquids worse though. I could never dodge them properly cause the acid just went absolutely everywhere.

OT: Awesome stuff for the team. They could use the financial support.

 

[Vigormortis]

Now if only they hadn't changed the music. I quite like the Black Mesa mod, except for its soundtrack. There is just something about Valve's Half Life music that absolutely sells the desolate and yet exciting setting. It feels alien, while retaining familiar elements. It uses synthesizers a lot, yet still uses electric guitar. It just sounds unique.

The Black Mesa mod throws all that out in favor of generic "drama" music with violins and sweeping orchestra pieces. It's like the change from Jack Wall and Sam Hulick for the first two Mass Effect games to the pretentious Requiem for a Dream guy in the third game. It just doesn't sound like Mass Effect, much like Black Mesa doesn't sound like Half Life.

This was always my biggest gripe with the mod since it's inception.

The level redesigns I can take. The weapon changes and movement mechanics I can handle as well. I can even tolerate the creature alterations.

But to just throw the ENTIRE original soundtrack and score out, only to replace it with an orchestral set that feels so out of place and so standard precedure[footnote]I really do hate to say that as it's not a bad set of tracks by any stretch. It's just not that memorable.[/footnote].... It just didn't work for me.

I could have accepted the BMS composer intermixing his own pieces with the old tracks. I could even have accepted him replacing the entire soundtrack and score with one that at least sounded thematically and stylistically similar.

But what they actually did is just...baffling. It just doesn't have the same effect. It doesn't illicit the same sense of dread or excitement. It doesn't convey the same kind of atmosphere the original did. It just feels so out of place.

Which is a damn shame, really. All other minor gripes aside I was incredibly impressed with the mod teams efforts.

 

[Glaice]

It's a good thing I got it for FREE when it first came out.

 

[Bindal]

Kind of nitpicky, dontcha think?

Those are differences. They are different games. I wouldn't call those problems or mistakes. Black Mesa plays slightly differently from the original Half Life, but the experience is largely the same.

Nitpicking would be complains about minor things - not the core gameplay. Which heavily different from Half-Life. Honestly, I tried TWICE to play Black Mesa: once in the original state, which I quit after three hours, uninstalled it and instead launched Half-Life up instead and finished it on one go to wash out the bad taste the mod left. And the second time, I quit even sooner despite those "fixes" which didn't fix enough - only the ammo-problem with the MP5 was. But things like weapon behavious, enemy AI and pretty much everything else was still broken.

Just a question, are you implying that all these changes are what make the mod's gameplay bad? (If not then ignore the rest of this post).

I am not implying anything, I straight up say so.

All of that is moot because:
-It's a mod
-On PC

What I mean by that is that the software is your *****, not the other way around.

First thing I did after getting the SMG in Black Mesa (and realizing they went "pathetic HL2 ammo reserves" on it) was edit skill.cfg to have 50/250 for it, 6/36 for the Magnum, 8/108 for the shotgun, 5/50 for the crossbow, and so on.

As for the jumping...
bms_normal_jump_vertical_speed "200"
bms_normal_jump_crouch_vertical_speed "200"

The jumping only works ONCE - if you change the map, you have to repeat it. So, it's not a fix at all. And things like weapon-behaviour and everything else listed above I can't "just change" without going deeper into the coding.

Except for the whole "being free" thing, you mean.
And the whole "fan-made labour of love" thing.
And the whole still being in development thing.
I understand nitpicking, I do it all the time! But nitpicking a free, fan-made mod? Ostensibly created just to be a shiny remake of Half-Life?
[...]
Reserve your judgement until the mod is finished.[...]

"Being free", "being a mod" and "being still in development" are no "get out of jail"-cards for and kind of critizism. The latter is in fact a reason to critizise it even more because now changing it is way easier than on a finished product.
And no, it is not "a shiny remake of Half-Life", it is a different game in terms of gameplay.

Wait, how are ammo and gun differences night and day again? Semi-auto compared to burst? This isn't Counter-Strike balancing we're critiquing here, right? It's a... it's Half-Life. Is there something inherently wrong with a... with a burst fire on the MP5...?

You clearly have not a clue what you're talking about. I explained how the weapon are different with the MP5 being one example (there are more weapons that are different and the only one I like the change was the Shotgun by having "only" less ammo)
And yes, there is something wrong with an MP5 forcing me to burst-fire - that I am not able to fire single rounds. Have you PLAYED Black Mesa? Have you TRIED to shoot a single bullet from the MP5? Doubt it otherwise you would notice that you are ENTIRELY UNABLE TO DO SO. If you tap it, you fire three rounds, regadless how many rounds you really want to fire. You go Rock'n'Roll by holding down but going LESS than three? GOD FORBID THAT HE WANTS TO SAVE AMMO OR MAKE ACCURATE SHOTS!

 

[Bug MuIdoon]

SNIP!!!1!!1!!1

So, let me get this straight. What you want is basically an exact replica? Why not just stick with the original game? If the fact that the MP5 now has burst fire evokes this sort of reaction from you, chance are you're not going to be happy with anything this game offers.

It's a fan made mod, one made "as a labour of love." They're changes that the modding team wanted to see. It seems like they didn't particularly like being able to single fire the MP5, so they decided to make it burst fire. It's things they wanted to see for themselves, it's not necessarily for you or me.
As some others have also mentioned, I'm not a fan of the new music score, but so what? It's like me going in to a kids primary school and screaming at the kids because their drawings of Spiderman aren't how I want him to look.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is, it's a free mod made by people for free who liked the game. If you don't like it, don't play it and don't purchase the Steam version. If you want to play an exact copy, go play the original or make your own mod. Also, typing in caps doesn't make your argument any more valid.

 

[Metalrocks]

the mod is all fine and so but still not the same as the original. even when the levels were different which sure was a different playthrough, it wasnt good enough for me to play it again as i did with the original.

 

[josemlopes]

It's a good thing I got it for FREE when it first came out.

I think it will still be free, only if you want to give money to the team you buy the premium.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

I already own this but I will be more than happy to support these guys with my money. They did a phenomenal job and deserve it.

PS, really you people didn't like the music? Wow I thought the general consensus was that everyone loved it. Damn it once again i am in the gaming minority!

 

[Steve the Pocket]

If they're going this route, I wish they'd just go all the way and hire the team to be part of Valve, help them finish the game, and release it as an official remake.

And I will laugh if they're actually porting this to the Dota 2 engine and putting in real-time lighting and stuff. That would make it ironically the first Half-Life game to run on post-2007 technology.

 

[Zefar]

If they're going this route, I wish they'd just go all the way and hire the team to be part of Valve, help them finish the game, and release it as an official remake.

And I will laugh if they're actually porting this to the Dota 2 engine and putting in real-time lighting and stuff. That would make it ironically the first Half-Life game to run on post-2007 technology.

Isn't Black Mesa already one of the prettiest games on the Source Engine by now? :/
Don't recall any other Source games being that good looking.