Now Playing: Black Mesa

After playing through Half-Life 2 and the Episodes in VR and replaying Half-Life: Alyx I was looking for some more Half-Life action so I thought I’d replay the original. But then I saw Black Mesa was on sale and given its overwhelmingly positive reviews, figured the best way of returning to Half-Life may just be this fan-made remake.

And it was … mostly – but we’ll get into my issues later. I do kind of wish I’d replayed the original game before playing Black Mesa because it would have made it easier to compare both versions – but I didn’t, so I can’t. I do remember Half-Life pretty well though, at least in terms of the ‘main’ sequences. It’s the smaller stuff in between those that remain a little fuzzy, although I doubt they’d matter much to my overall review.

So, let’s not waste any more time and get straight to the point – Black Mesa is a fantastic remake of Half-Life but it’s certainly not perfect. It’s visually impressive and has a pretty great soundtrack. I don’t know how much of the music is original or simply remixed, but it’s great nonetheless. Taking such a beloved and important game like Half-Life and ‘reimagining’ it could have proven a dangerous disaster, but to their credit, the developers pulled it off.

They did this by largely replicating Half-Life exactly as it was with only minor tweaks here and there – at least until the Xen chapters, but we’ll come back to those later. A few sequences have been expanded – or at least, they felt expanded from what I recalled – but none of it felt bad or out of place or too disruptive to the pacing.

Everything about Black Mesa up until the Xen chapters is pretty much perfect as far as a modern remake of Half-Life could be. I don’t remember the soldiers being quite so aggressive or mobile in the original – or headcrabs being quite so lively and damaging – so this remake does feel a step up in terms of difficulty from what I recall, but that’s no bad thing.

I think the most contentious issue people will have with Black Mesa is how the Xen chapters were remade. Actually, ‘remade’ is the wrong word because the Xen chapters in Black Mesa are so massively expanded and contain so much new content compared to the original that simply saying they’re a ‘reimagining’ would be an insult.

The Xen chapters in Black Mesa are almost like an entirely new game in and of themselves. Yes, they do touch upon the few key points of the original Xen levels, but that’s about it. And in many ways, the Xen chapters were the part of Black Mesa I was looking forward to the most. Why? Well, the Xen levels in the original were – and I think many would agree – the weakest part of the experience.

 

And when I reached Xen in Black Mesa I really was blown away by how good it looked and how much work had gone into not only expanding but completely overhauling this aspect of the original game. But a few hours later, I hate to say it, but I was getting kind of sick of it because Black Mesa was having such a good time with its new Xen content that it just didn’t want to end.

Sequences began to drag on for far too long and the novelty began to wear off. Because for all the weakness of the original Xen levels, they were at least fairly short and that made sense – because by the time you reach Xen you feel like the game should be wrapping up. It’s the final act. But not in Black Mesa. In Black Mesa, entering Xen is more like the half-way mark.

Okay, maybe not quite, but that’s what it feels like. Because like the original, once you enter Xen in Black Mesa you feel it’s time for the game to wrapping things up. But it doesn’t. It just keeps going. I want to be clear that I don’t think any part of the new Xen is bad. But so much of it desperately needed trimming down or cutting out entirely.

 

It feels like the game needed someone to cast a critical eye over the Xen content and make cuts to trim it down to a more suitable size. Yes, it sucks if you’ve spent time crafting content that then gets cut but it feels like because they didn’t want to waste anything they’d done or upset anyone working on the project they just put it ALL in the game regardless of the impact on pacing.

The pacing in Xen in Black Mesa kind of sucks. By the time I hit the endless ‘sucked through a vent’ or ‘riding a conveyor’ sections I really was getting sick of it. Once again, nothing wrong with those sequences as such – they’re just far too long. It’s a shame because for me, the way they kill the pacing kind of spoils the experience.

I don’t want to spend any more time complaining about Xen in Black Mesa though because this remake is far more than that. It really is an impressive accomplishment and despite my issues with how Xen was handled it really is a fantastic way to experience the original Half-Life. And hey, I’m sure a lot of people won’t agree with me and actually wanted more Xen content. But those people are obviously wrong. If you’re a Half-Life fan, this is a must play.

8/10