I fell in love with Surface Tension.

[Fracture94]

I didn't remember that level was so insanely good. The cliff section, battle with the chopper, the mine fields, amazing and colossal fights against both soldiers and aliens, destroying tanks, the platforming in the mines hangar, a little stealth section, the mortar, etc... its so long, so varied, and so good overall. Plus the awesomeness of the updated graphics. I couldn't stop playing till i finished. By far my fav level. What do you think about it? I kind of understand some people may find it a bit too long, but i swear i enjoyed every single second.

[-{SALT}-]

I did enjoy this chapter as it does signify events ramping up around Black Mesa. However, the achievement hunter component of my mind says otherwise.

[Hamther]

I agree, Surface Tension is fantastic. I played it before it was upgraded to BM 1.0 and I think the changes have made it even better. Big Mac Davis has a brilliant walk-through of Black Mesa - at the moment up to Lambda Core. He only completed the one for Surface Tension a few weeks ago and unfortunately just before some of the changes were made but it's well worth a look if you're a bit stuck.

[GustavGlaven]

Did you get to Xen yet?

[Fracture94]

Nop, cant wait tho! Its way longer than the original? Or just a few added sections?

[Mkilbride]

Xen is stupidly longer. They really increased it's length and I found it beginning to drag. Never thought a Half-Life game would feel like it's dragging =/

They added 5 whole new areas / maps to it, and it's mostly platforming with a few puzzles. Can take forever though.

[Fracture94]

Love it already xD.

[ComputerDude]

Surface Tension is probably the best chapter of the game. But I feel Questionable Ethics comes in a close second, but that was is more fun in terms of exploration.

[GAMING_Alligator]

It was the best one in the original as well. I was always disappointed that they went in the direction of fighting more aliens after that, instead of more soldiers.

[DreamSphinx]

I remember before they updated the level to be more complete, Surface Tension was a pretty big disappointment to me. It was meant to show the marines getting their ass kicked and losing hard, and the original version of Black Mesa's Surface Tension didn't really show that. Once they expanded the level and added in a lot more set pieces, it ended up becoming my favorite chapter in the whole game!

[thray]

The original Steam release did not have the awesome Surface Tension that we have today.
Surface Tension Uncut came out a year later as a content update , I remember playing it for hours. 😀
https://steamcommunity.com/app/362890/discussions/0/364041776188597284/

[Fracture94]

Well, just finished the game. While Surface Tension keeps been my favourite, Xen was an outstanding experience. I do agree it drags a bit, Interloper is almost a 2 hours level, but it was overall a 10/10 on level design, which is the thing i like the most in the Half Life series.

Awesome visuals and music too, and the Nihilant boss fight was a massive improvement over the original. The chaos of the second phase may be one of my favourite videogames moments, because despite that chaos, you can actually dodge everything! And of course, i declined G-man offer xD.

What a fantastic game, Half Life is one of my fav games, but this remake took its place.

[PsyWarVeteran]

It is awesome because it was based on the Surface Tension Uncut mod, the initial version was gutted like On A Rail.

Another proof that cutting chapters in half instead of making them interesting to play is a bad idea.

[I've ran out of profile ideas h]

Surface Tension is much better in this version. I got bored in the HL version and stopped right then and there. This one was much better designed and it was more chaotic.

[NighT WolF]

Very impressive how huge some levels are. It proves that the foundation of source can still be a great game engine even after all these years. But yeah, Xen is long. It feels like i will sit here another week before completing it. The achievements for the hat and pizza also make it ten times longer. :D

[Malidictus]

In the original Black Mesa release, Surface Tension was cut to basically nothing. Rumour has it that large sections of it had to be scrapped due to poor quality, but the result was that the chapter was severely shortened and missing most of the famous setpieces. Basically, it went from being shot out of a vent in the auto shop to the Gargantua chase (you fall out of the vent in front of the Gargantua).

Chon Kemp released two Black Mesa mods - Surface Tension: Uncut and On a Rail: Uncut. The Surface Tension you see today is a pretty significant redesign and remake of his original mod, I assume done by himself after joining the development team proper. It used to have a gas pump station in place of the furnace room and a large building interior in place of the hangar fight. Basically, where the Marines lose an Osprey, you used to be able to go into a building behind it.

Surface Tension is honestly quite awesome as it stands in Black Mesa. It's a nice depiction of the scale of the ground conflict and it consistently shows the Marines getting slaightered and pushed back. That's kind of the point. The whole game has been leading up to going back to the surface to escape the disaster in the facility - typical horror movie plot. Except when you actually GET to the surface, it rapidly becomes clear that... No, the disaster isn't inside the facility. It's everywhere, and it's only getting worse.

Personally, I just wish On a Rail: Uncut would receive the same treatment. People still insist that it was cut because "No! It was too long and congfusing! It should have stayed cut!" To anyone who's played Xen, that argument should feel comically naive. On a Rail had its place just as much as Surface Tension. Maybe one day we'll actually get it, but who knows. At least the mod still exists.