Very rarely do I find myself playing mods or fan-creations, I don't know what it is about them but besides adding custom tracks to Mario Kart I generally stay out of it.
However, there is one fan creation I'm loving from start to finish and it's from the only fanbase who could possibly make such a wonderful thing.
As you might've guessed from the title, I'm talking about Black Mesa - a Half Life remake made entirely by the community with permission from Valve to be published on Steam.
I don't need to go into detail about how cool Valve is for things like these and such, but imagine a Call of Duty 1 remake... That'd get sued.
The changes in Black Mesa are so significant that they make the game seem entirely different to the untrained eye, and yet I feel this is exactly what Half Life needed.
Video by PlayGround
The dated GoldSrc engine does not hold up to scrutiny in modern times, and the broken Source port of the original Half Life did not fix any of the game's mistakes or add anything to the experience whatsoever... it only broke things.
Black Mesa on the other hand gives the game an entire graphical overhaul that makes it fit into what more modern audiences would expect.
And the changes don't stop there. Black Mesa also changes the gameplay in many ways, making it so the game is less of an oldschool boomer shooter and way more of a storytelling event than the original already was. For instance, puzzles are a bigger focus and entire gameplay segments have been altered to keep a more steady flow between combat and world exploration.
And that combat... Wow! It feels incredible. Taking down enemies feels a lot more meatier and the gunplay feels just plain fun. It's not modern, not ADS, no nothing like that (except maybe for sprinting) but it feels like a legitimately good upgrade from the original.
As I said, the game's difficulty and pacing has been tampered with and this gives it a way better flow, going from one chapter to the other isn't as jarring as it used to be and boss fights don't feel as sprinkled in... They do feel more difficult though, and that's honestly a welcome change from me.
The biggest change here are the Xen chapters. Whereas the original were boring and a little uninspired, here they seem beautiful, alien, somewhat mystical.
I've only watched some clips so far and seen screenshots, but I can't wait to get there and experience it on my own.
For now, whilst I don't reach Xen and take down the Nihilanth, I've been having a blast. And I think by the end of this I won't be able to properly enjoy the original Half Life outside of nostalgia factors. Sometimes it's good to reimagine some things if you keep their spirits intact, and that's exactly what happened here - a timeless important classic made even more timeless.
