So it this the best way to experience HL1 if i never played it before?

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[Spamwad]

I never played it either and I am enjoying it greatly right now. Planning on playing HL2 and the Episodes afterwards.

[Grapesalad]

i played a little bit of half life 1
so far black mesa has been more fun to play than hl1

[StarFall]

I would say the original still has a lot of charm and is very playable (not source port, the real original).
Black mesa is the better way to play if you are new to the series but going back to play the original after finishing black mesa is something I still would strongly recommend to see just how much things have changed.

[Balkoth]

I played the original Half Life about 15 years ago and went back every year or two to replay it.

After finishing Black Mesa for the first time recently I went back for my traditional Half Life run, but this time I was constantly thinking "This is so much better in Black Mesa."

Edit: playing on Hard difficulty in both, Black Mesa is significantly harder.

[Vassago Rain]

The best way to experience half-life is to play half-life.
BM will never be a 100% replacement, and wasn't meant to be.

[maelstrm]

Single player - for sure, 100%. Multiplayer - no, HL1 is a much more dynamic deathmatch + Black Mesa does not have lot of servers

[vizthex]

one of my friends (who's really into Half Life) told me that "if you have no nostalgia for Half Life 1, play Black Mesa instead".

so i'm gonna take his word for it.

however, if you do wish to experience what it's like to play a game in a 3-decade old engine, the original game regularly goes down to a dollar or so with every sale.

you can always own both versions of a game, after all (as evident by me owning all 3 versions of QUBE, lol).

[Eze]

Half-Life is a great game, but most aspects are so dated that this remake is the most recommended way to try it.

In general, the huge graphical upgrade (tech & aesthetics) is reason enough.

Yes, I'm a Half-Life fan.

[vizthex]

Originally posted by Eze:

Half-Life is a great game, but most aspects are so dated that this remake is the most recommended way to try it.

In general, the huge graphical upgrade (tech & aesthetics) is reason enough.

Yes, I'm a Half-Life fan.

i tried out the original game way back when they had a free weekend for the anniversary, and yeah i 100% agree that it's clunky af nowadays.

i kinda like the blocky style of games made from ~95 - 2005-ish (it's just weirdly charming, ya know?), but by god does everything else drag it down.

it's definitely held back by the fact that it's well over 20 years old now, so the combat, movement, UIs, etc. are so old you can literally feel it through the screen lmao.

[SophieSkyrim1984]

I have both the original and this one and about to play both. looking forward to it