Recent reviews by Light08⁧⁧ ⭐

Playing this game makes you realize just how soulless a lot of AAA games have become nowadays. The bigger companies don't seem to make games anymore out of sheer joy and passion, but rather out for money. Microtransactions, buggy games, unfinished/scrapped content all in the name of finishing their products within the deadline.

Meanwhile, Larian Studios out here proving to everyone just how great AAA games could be. Used to be in Early Access (which a lot of games may as well be labelled lol), but they never abandoned this game. Finished and refined this game into a stellar release experience. Still working their butts out to squish all these bugs to this day, as well as add more minor (feedback-related?) features like better accessibility options, etc. past its release. A company who isn't out of touch with its' playerbase but rather listens to their feedback is sadly rare in this age. Did I also mention there's no microtransactions in this game? Go figure.

TL;DR:
Mad respect to Larian Studios, these guys nailed it with this title. Absolutely recommended, especially if you can grab some friends for the pure chaotic experience this title offers! High replayability.

Hunt Down The Mossman, but actually really good?
Great level design, fun gameplay, and even the story is quite decent for how limited they can work around this.
Massive improvement from the first installment (which was okay-ish only).

Also, Xen Grenades have to be my absolute new favorite grenades of any game.

Easily one of the most fun coop games that came out in recent years.

Absolute masterpiece.
It's a must-buy for any VR Headset owner.


Also: Knowing the plot of Half-Life 2: Episode Two is highly recommended. Are you prepared for some unforseen consequences?

Nearly 22 years after the release of the original game, and we get to experience the classic adventure all over again, all in a completly new resolution and quality.

Two decades span enough time for newer generations to have missed out on a gem like this, and granted, the graphics and quality of the 1998 release are more than dated to make it worth to give it a try nowadays. The game was known for being highly innovative of its era. And its thanks to the excellent gameplay, rich atmosphere and unique aswell as interesting story buildup that made this game world famous and popular, resulting in Valve gaining its today's unrivaled position in the video game market with Steam.

With the Source Engine and its highly improved quality in physics and graphics came it's sequel Half-Life 2, which was a leap in improvement towards everything Half-Life 1 offered. And yet a part of the community thought "How would Half-Life feel if it were built upon the Source Engine?". One and a half decade later, this vision got realized after so much work and effort put into it. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, they've actually managed to do it after all these years. Ironically also released right before the next Half-Life installment which runs on Source 2.

Black Mesa brings back everything Half-Life had to offer... all in an upgraded look, gameplay, audio, and everything else that was part of it. People who never got the opportunity to play the original game for whatever reason have now a reason to give it a try after all. And they're not going to regret it. Not only does this game let you re-experience Gordon Freeman's legendary journey, but the improvement of all the game's aspects push this game's original potential even higher.

The scenery is as beautiful as it could be, especially the borderworld Xen which just blew my mind on how gorgeous it looks. The A.I. got smarter, the soundtrack felt like having an intense impact, and the gameplay got an upgrade with all the new possibilities Source Engine brought compared to the old GoldSrc Engine, like brand new physics that introduced more and diverse puzzles to the game.

The Xen part was shipped only several years after the original Early Access release of the game. They sure took their sweet time working on it and after all the waiting and playing through it, I can see why. Not only has the Xen segment been improved on Source standards, but it also got a massive size improvement of times 4. Apparently Xen has always been supposed to be this big compared to the original release. Every moment of it was great and who knew Xen could have been this beautiful and fun to play?

There's only been minimal hiccups / issues with the game. The most annoying were massive framedrops during certain parts of the game, 'specially some Xen parts. Might have been compatibility issues with my PC since I'm apparently the only one, even though dropping from 100+ to 5 fps on Ultra Settings is quite suspicious. However, that didn't ruin my experience for the rest of the game.

Wether you're new to the franchise or someone who played the original game back then, this game brings old and new alike together to rejoy the masterpiece that Half-Life is. Absolutly recommended.

So far it's fine.


Will update once I beat the game.

Pretty good game.
Easy to get in, even without playing the former one (like in my case).
Offers long sessions of fun, especially with friends.
Game supports modding which allows for custom experience and will likely keep the game alive in the future, even tho it's not officially supported yet, but that's planned.

All the game's really missing is some more content. As an Early Access it's lacking it to keep the game fun for too long, but the developers listen to feedback and are constantly working on new content.

Bought this game 10 years ago and I still play it at times.
That tells a lot. Sandbox games never die out, especially this one.