Arcane Azmadi
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
 
 
If I don't say anything about myself, it's because I don't want you to know anything about me.
Favorite Game
43
Hours played
33
Achievements
Favorite Game
23
Hours played
14
Achievements
Review Showcase
28 Hours played
Half-Life legitimately is one of the greatest and most-influential games ever made. It didn't just reinvent the FPS, it broke new ground in setpiece-based videogame story telling and immersive first-person narrative, and despite looking like it's made from old shoeboxes held together with string (even with the HD upgrade pack) and playing a bit rough in places, it still totally holds up today and should be played by all serious PC gamers.

Black Mesa is Half-Life redone, updated, polished, and arguably perfected. Not just a 1-1 remake with new graphics, it reinterprets, redesigns and expands upon several aspects of the original game to create an even more gripping experience. Nowhere is this more apparent than Xen, once a byword for rushed, awkward, disappointing endings, now a vast epic adventure in its own right coming at the end of the game, and particularly the reworked Gonarch battle, which has gone from a rather dull scuffle with a giant lumbering testicle that takes maybe 5 minutes to a vicious life-or-death clash against a remorseless predator that encompasses an entire level. And don't even get me started on how much more epic the new version of the end boss is. The entire game has seen similar tweaks that will make it feel like an all-new experience even for Half-Life fans who are so familiar with the original game that they could play through it in their sleep.

Despite what I said, the game isn't quite perfect, though. They still never managed to fix the Source engine's issues with getting onto and off ladders, and there are still maybe a few too many of the irritating first-person platforming segments which were always the worst part of the original, even if the terrible floating island hopping from the opening part of Xen is gone now. And speaking of new Xen, it's nice that they were able to upgrade the original disappointing levels, but they go on maybe a bit too long. The new version of Interloper in particular drags, especially the segment where you have to open three different doors to proceed. Sometimes less is more, and maybe a full hour could probably have been cut out of Xen overall to improve its pacing.

Nevertheless, Black Mesa is now arguably one of the greatest FPS games you can possibly play. It's no boomer shooter, but if you have a hankering for something just a bit slower, more intellectual and more narrative-heavy, you would struggle to do better than this. This is a 98/100 game. You have no excuse not to play it (although as I implied in the opening, you really should play the original Half-Life first regardless).
Salien Stats
Level Reached
6
Bosses Fought
0

Experience Earned
35,665
Steam Year In Review 2023
157
Games Played
2,957
Sessions
1,964
Achievements
83
New Games
13%
9%
7%
5%
4%

Recent Activity

1,730 hrs on record
last played on Mar 18
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last played on Mar 18
248 hrs on record
last played on Mar 18