Recent reviews by K U Y O

I love this game mechanically, aesthetically, thematically, etc. It was my main contender for GOTY and it's extremely fun with friends. I was long a fan of the previous game and this was beyond my expectations.

The PSN requirement has been removed entirely, for now. This is good. However, the game is still not available for purchase in the original range. I understand that this may be due to legal matters between Sony and Steam due to the problem Sony caused Steam. Due to this, I do not feel comfortable changing this review to be positive.

This used to be a positive review. I can't really explain it but man, this game is cool but the combat in practice leaves me utterly unsatisfied, at least in larger battles. It's objectively better than Warband in a few ways, but for every hour that I learn something or particularly enjoy the game, there's another hour where I am mostly just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoyed and spinning plates.

it's unfinished, lacks a few features and the AI is currently quite poor. The AI really is incapable of properly using thrusting attacks or lances. I don't have a particularly great argument, but whatever.

cool rougelike

also i would not be suprised if there is a crypto miner inside this thing

good game but i can't say yes until i get past the filter (update pending)

edit: i got past the filter, i should read harder

VERY IMPRESSIVE MAP GENERATION AND A WELL THOUGHT OUT PROGRESSION SYSTEM THAT DOESN'T RELISH IN WASTING YOUR ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ TIME YET STILL HAS MANY HOURS OF DEPTH. GAME IS ENJOYABLE EVEN WITH A LOW LEVEL OF PLAY AND INVESTMENT, BUT HAS A LOT TO OFFER BEYOND THAT

I played maybe 40 hours of this game on a cracked exe then 140 on a legitimate copy. Guess which one had less serious and concerning problems. Guess which version will function without constant connection to an external server?

No. "Offline mode" on Uplay does nothing.

Great game, absolutely shambolic online functionality and DRM, even taking into account the negatives of a platform like steam.

Not quite perfect, but an incredibly unique experience - this is NOT Half Life 1, this is it's own thing, re-imagining Half Life 1. It adds a lot to the world and the atmosphere, focusing not just on Gordon's perspective, but fleshing out the world around Gordon with many small tragedies and crises.

While Half Life 1 is something of a classic shooter with strong horror elements, and Half Life 2 is something of a power fantasy, Black Mesa is a combination of the two, you feel very powerful when encounters go to plan but unless you stay fast and quick you will have some issues. The game isn't particularly challenging until the late game, where the difficulty begins to seriously ramp up. The power fantasy note only intensifies towards the end of the game, Xen is fantastic, and the ending segments up to the end boss are remnicient of the Citadel sequence from HL2 wherein you're suddenly very powerful, but you're pitched against encounters where a slight misstep will kill you. Compared to HL1, the Black Mesa Freeman really does feel like a demigod warrior, and even a protector, fitting his reputation he will later acquire.

If Half Life 1 ended on a pumped up note, Black Mesa ends on a pessimistic note - things are bad, they got worse, and it's only down from here, but there's still a glimmer of hope; Freeman. The Tone of BM is much darker than HL1, much more in line with HL2 with some of the charm of HL1. Fantastic and moody music by Joel Nielsen alongside the jarring tones from an Emergency Broadcast System while in an office surrounded by hostile aliens and dead bodies sets the kind of theme BM has throughout, much more attention is given to just how dire the situation is.

Some people seem to dislike the voices for the HECU marines, either complaining that they're not gruff enough or they sound young - I get the angle, but I mean... who do you think the HECU are? The chatter and AI for the HECU was done very well, it's a different approach from HL1, but I think it humanises the soldiers in an interesting way, makes fighting them feel more like you're fighting actual people, whether it's screaming in fear or cursing at their subordinates to "kill him already!" when they're losing, I do sympathise - I wouldn't want to be facing up to Half Life's equivalent of the Doomguy.

Game is a little bit buggy but none of it actually effected gameplay, I got a couple of crashes over 12 hours of gameplay and I didn't lose any time. Gameplay is very tight - remember that the SMG on full auto is very accurate if you control the spray ala Counterstrike.

it had some problems, most have been ironed out, no crashing, no bugs for the most part, if you liked the og trilogy you will like it

it's good

This review was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cringeworthy and I have removed it.