Half Life 1 or Black Mesa in 2022

[BimBimOppa]

I have a question for you guys in steam community. I already wishlists half life series complete, but the black mesa just remix original ( Half Life 1998 in half life series complete ). Should I buy black mesa or both complete and black mesa? pls help.

[ReBoot]

I suggest, you get Black Mesa. I fully agree with Pinky on that one, it's a great remake, not truthful to the original in every little detail, but it's a great game.

Then, if you fall in love with it to the point of wishing to experience it's roots, you can still get the first HL. And play it without the HD models, obviously

[BimBimOppa]

Then, if you fall in love with it to the point of wishing to experience it's roots, you can still get the first HL. And play it without the HD models, obviously :cozywolfmedalion: [/quote]

ok thank you for the advice ❤️

[J4MESOX4D]

All of these games become heavily discounted during any sale where they are available so it's definitely worth picking them all up. I would still play the original Half Life as you can then experience the expansions; Opposing Force and Blue Shift with the same visuals and engine. The original package is very dated but still playable and incredibly iconic. Playing Black Mesa after can then show how amazing that improved upon everything.

If you just wanted to play Black Mesa, then it's still an amazing recreation of the original plus you can then try Half Life 2 which still holds up today superbly.

[crunchyfrog]

Yup, I'd also echo going for the Black Mesa remake. It's more suitable for today and you'll probably enjoy it more jumping in.

But if you like it, I'd thoroughly recommend waiting until the next sale (which should be the Lunar One at the end of this months or so). Then pick up the original cheap (or more as Valve tend to offer these games bundled cheap with others of theirs.

This would give you the vanilla game, but the addons likely - Blue Shift and the other one. Plus you'd get the platform to install mods and other stuff into.

So even if it's just for a casual bash at or play around, if it's cheap it's then worth having.

[cinedine]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

you can then try Half Life 2 which still holds up today superbly.

"Superbly"?

- Alternate fire where nowadays iron sight lies, causing you to accidentally shoot more often than you want.
- Incredible janky weapon selection.
- Forced physics puzzles. It's actually amazing how much fun it is to stack bricks unto a plank so you can overcome a should high wall. No wait ... fun isn't the right word ...
- Mute protagonis who is perfectly fine taking orders from pretty much everyone without questioning
- First person jumping puzzles
- Long stretches of absolutely ♥♥♥♥ all
- constant loading between maps

It was fine for its time. But saying it's still superb today is a pretty hefty pinch of nostalgia.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by cinedine:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

you can then try Half Life 2 which still holds up today superbly.

"Superbly"?

- Alternate fire where nowadays iron sight lies, causing you to accidentally shoot more often than you want.
- Incredible janky weapon selection.
- Forced physics puzzles. It's actually amazing how much fun it is to stack bricks unto a plank so you can overcome a should high wall. No wait ... fun isn't the right word ...
- Mute protagonis who is perfectly fine taking orders from pretty much everyone without questioning
- First person jumping puzzles
- Long stretches of absolutely ♥♥♥♥ all
- constant loading between maps

It was fine for its time. But saying it's still superb today is a pretty hefty pinch of nostalgia.

You probably enjoy waypoints, x-ray vision, specialists and aim assist. Half Life 2's AI, environments and general gameplay is stil highly regarded. It doesn't have to be realistic or military precision physics to hold up well. Sounds like the game was too hard for you based off your nitpicking.

[RamiroRa]

Unpopular opinion, but I don't really like Black Mesa, not that I deny the effort the devs put in the game, but the changes they made, it's totally a different game. I would suggest If you want the original experience, Half Life. If you can't pass the 90s graphics and controls, then Black Mesa.

[Unn4m3d (♥AUT♥)]

Originally posted by cinedine:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

you can then try Half Life 2 which still holds up today superbly.

"Superbly"?

- Alternate fire where nowadays iron sight lies, causing you to accidentally shoot more often than you want.
- Incredible janky weapon selection.
- Forced physics puzzles. It's actually amazing how much fun it is to stack bricks unto a plank so you can overcome a should high wall. No wait ... fun isn't the right word ...
- Mute protagonis who is perfectly fine taking orders from pretty much everyone without questioning
- First person jumping puzzles
- Long stretches of absolutely ♥♥♥♥ all
- constant loading between maps

It was fine for its time. But saying it's still superb today is a pretty hefty pinch of nostalgia.

The alternate fire can be annoying especially if you come back from game with sights, I'll give you that.
But other than that this is BS.
The physics puzzles are quick to solve. The jumping puzzles are easy.
The loading takes a second.
And I never thought the weapon selection as janky.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by RamiroRa:

Unpopular opinion, but I don't really like Black Mesa, not that I deny the effort the devs put in the game, but the changes they made, it's totally a different game. I would suggest If you want the original experience, Half Life. If you can't pass the 90s graphics and controls, then Black Mesa.

That IS a fair point. I t definitely does affect the feel and the pacing especially.

However for someone new jumping in (and probably younger) Ifeel it still remains the better advice to go for the more modern game to make it a more easy transition.

Then with the sales, one can pick up the original cheap. Even if you just use it for reference it's a fair purchase then.

[Edifier]

The problem I have with Black Mesa is the gunplay.

In Half Life they made it so soldiers would burst fire because otherwise they would be too deadly.

In Black Mesa they just unload the entire magazine of bullet on you. This makes every single encounter a cover shooter because you can not just be out in the open. You will die way too fast.

Even with full shield and health you can be killed really quickly.

Originally posted by cinedine:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

you can then try Half Life 2 which still holds up today superbly.

"Superbly"?

- Alternate fire where nowadays iron sight lies, causing you to accidentally shoot more often than you want.
- Incredible janky weapon selection.
- Forced physics puzzles. It's actually amazing how much fun it is to stack bricks unto a plank so you can overcome a should high wall. No wait ... fun isn't the right word ...
- Mute protagonis who is perfectly fine taking orders from pretty much everyone without questioning
- First person jumping puzzles
- Long stretches of absolutely ♥♥♥♥ all
- constant loading between maps

It was fine for its time. But saying it's still superb today is a pretty hefty pinch of nostalgia.

Alternate fire mode is more fun than Iron sight. You get more fun toys to play with.

The 1 to 5 weapon selection works just fine. This means you don't have to stretch all the way to 9 and 0 to equip some weapons. Besides I use instant switch and use the mouse wheel to get to the weapon I need.

Physics puzzle are not that boring.

Gordon knows who he can trust.

First person jumping puzzles are not hard at all. It's easier because you see what's in front of you. It's also easier to judge distance in first person mode when you've ran around in it for hours and jumped a lot.

There might be two levels with long stretches with little content.

Loading scenes being constant is only a problem for people speeding through the game in a speedrun manner.

[Jamebonds1]

While both are good game. I would suggest you to play half life 1 then Black Mesa. There is no harm in looking back to good oldie 1990s game.

[Xhoas]

Black Mesa.

[BimBimOppa]

Originally posted by MilkBought:

Black Mesa.

ok thank you.

[Start_Running]

Half-Life 1.
Black Messa is nice, but it's more linear. There's less reward for creative approaches, and the difficulty curve has been sanded down in many places.

[BimBimOppa]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Half-Life 1.
Black Messa is nice, but it's more linear. There's less reward for creative approaches, and the difficulty curve has been sanded down in many places.

ok, gotcha