Black Mesa

I read a very good point regarding Black Mesa over on RPS the other day.  Someone pointed out that if the world is this excited about a game we've already played (seeing as how Black Mesa is just Half-Life remade), then he fears to imagine what would happen if a NEW Half-Life game were to be announced. I'm pretty sure that I myself would start to orgasm from orifices that are not meant to be orgasmed from.  There's a nice image for your Monday.  You're welcome.

In any case, Black Mesa was released on Friday.  If you've been living under a rock for the last 5 years or so, then I'll explain that Black Mesa is a game created by a certain group of people.  I don't know who they are.  They recreated the original Half-Life in the Source engine.  If you are a fan of Half-Life, you may be saying right this moment, "Well wait a minute:  There's already a Half-Life: Source."  Yes, this is true.  But it's just a straight port into the Source engine and doesn't take advantage of any of its features.  So basically, there are no improvements whatsoever.

The team that worked on Black Mesa has recreated the entire game.  It uses all of the Source engine's features, to include dynamic lighting and all the other bells and whistles that the Source engine has been given over the last several years.  The result is immediately noticeable and is nothing short of amazing.  I recently played through the original Half-Life a couple of months ago, so the look of that game was pretty fresh in my mind when I started on Black Mesa on Friday.  Black Mesa's visuals simply blew me away.

And that's not really all that's different.  The game is filled with custom models for the scientists and security guards.  Every security guard looks different now, instead of them all being exactly the same.  And there aren't just three models for the scientists now, but many, and there are now females.  Seems that Black Mesa is now truly an equal-opportunity employer.  Add in all the brand new voice acting, new animations, and some concepts and mechanics that have been tweaked, and you'll find yourself in a very weird place if you've played the original.  I'm left with this feeling of comfortable familiarity while at the same time not quite certain exactly what's going to happen next.  Just enough of the game is different to make it suspenseful, but everything that should have been left alone has indeed remained the same.

In playing Black Mesa, you get the feeling that it's truly a fan's love letter to the original Half-Life.