Playing through Black Mesa: Blue Shift’s opening chapter gave me the same feeling I had when I first loaded up Gordon’s tram ride back in 2012 - wonder and awe. The contrast in Barney’s journey from Topside Dormitories to Area 3 between the original Blue Shift and HECU Collective’s re-imagining is night and day. The striking vistas of the outdoor environments and distant mesas as Barney first leaves the station, the impressive subterranean food court and nearby helipad, the intricate workings of the pedestrian bridge, and the increased amount of personnel really helps elevate BM:BS’ rendition of the tram ride past its predecessor. Like the base game, BM:BS does a great job in making the BMRF feel lived in; the sideline conversations, the banter of the guards, the richly detailed environments and tight scripting. These all work together to make the facility feel dense and in constant operation. The Half-Life games have always excelled at immersing the player into the in-game universe through a seamless combination of player autonomy and making the gameworld feel larger than it really is. Mid-way through this chapter I can already tell that HECU Collective continued in that same tradition to deliver an impactful first chapter. Lastly, I wanted to touch on the arrival of Barney into Sector C (6:33). The combination of Aslan Akhmetov’s excellent score as Barney’s tram turns the corner into Area 3 Dormitories and the callback and connection to the opening tram station of “Black Mesa Inbound” from the base game (complete with Gordon Freeman waiting for the tram) is just pure video game magic, and washed me with a wave of nostalgia. As well, I especially loved the smaller moment of seeing how the scientist at 6:56 got into the position we see him at during Gordon’s tram ride. These tie-ins help provide a sense of continuity between Barney and Gordon’s respective journeys and again makes the universe of Half-Life feel larger than what we actually see.
The world building is so incredible in the half life series! How characters stories cross between one another is simply amazing. Seeing Gordon on his way to work and passing by barney all the while we all know what is about to happen is just the best! Can't wait to see more from you SN! ❤️
In the next map, it would be cool if at some point an alarm started playing and a guard talked into their radio saying “what the hell is going on up there. Did someone pull the fire alarm or something? Murtaugh? Murtaugh, come in.” And you hear a sad “Yeah I’m here” along with the rest of the conversation from central’s perspective
Hope you guys enjoy this first video of Black Mesa: Blue Shift! I will be covering this game in its entirety and will continue this series as chapters are released. At the time of this comment, 3/8 of the chapters are out, so my next focus is on uploading my playthrough of "Insecurity" and "Duty Calls", both lengthy chapters but fun to showcase nevertheless (can't wait to do the elevator sequence/Resonance Cascade!). Of course, I will be eagerly awaiting Chapter 4: Captive Freight in the meantime - that and Power Struggle are my favorite sections of the original game, so I can't wait to see HECU Collective's renditions :)
If I'm not misremembering, this version is rather close to survival horror - that is, a lot of things trying to kill you, not a lot of ammo. Reminds me about Ravenholm chapter - have to be careful with bullets)
I'd imagine Barney would've been very busy working undercover at Civil Protection, but maybe had some time to squeeze in a quick game with the boys haha
This makes me really excited for how the tripmine team will execute their remake of blue shift and how their remake and HECU collectives remake compare and differ from each other
Yay! You're back! I never got to play Blue Shift so I am going in this one completely blind. Love to see another cinematic play-through from you, first I watch the video, then I read the description to see what I've missed. Love the experience! Have fun on the future chapters and let's hope we'll find out why Barney owes Gordon that beer.
Good to see ya again! Whenever I plan out my uploads that's exactly what I hope for viewers to do haha, it's like reading up on a movie after watching it the first time. See you on the next one :)
0:19 lmao. I like the music during this part! 8:15 Hello Gordon! Also "Suckerrrrr"! (Freeman's Mind reference). This looks lovely! I'm gonna try to download and play the chapters (I've heard there's been 3 chapter releases already). Hopefully there won't be any fps dips haha. I can't wait to see what they did for the Xen Chapters in Blue Shift, hopefully they won't be as painfully tedious (and unoptimized :P) as Interloper.
Yup, 3 chapters are currently out. I did encounter some FPS drops in certain sequences, but I had settings on Ultra. I've turned it down since and we'll see how it pans out as I go through the other two chapters.
Let's GOOOOO! Everything about this chapter is amazing. They reimagine and expanded the sections outside of facility in the style of Black Mesa and featured Maintenance Workers somewhere seen!
Another project by Suxy Nutella being started? how how exciting, I didn't even know they were making a blue shift version. I don't keep up well..I kinda like how the scientist snub you more as calhoun. he's a security guard, not a colleague..and..yah, thats how it felt they treated him. :D
This mod is developed by HECU Collective rather than Crowbar Collective :) It's a blast to play through for sure. The scientists are snarkier to Calhoun, though they don't seem to be outright hostile like their HL1 counterparts are.
Never really been a fan of the first two chapters of this expansion, but "Captive Freight" and "Power Struggle" are both seriously intense, and I still vividly remember genuinely enjoying playing them. Now that we've seen how mesmerizing and immersive the Xen level can look in BM, I'm also super excited to see how "Focal Point" is going to play out! Some of the combat segments in BS, were definitely a cut above from what Gordon had to grind through, which makes me think was a way to compensate for the fact that the game didn't introduce anything new in terms of weapons, or enemies.
Those are my favourite two chapters as well. Focal Point I'm equally excited to see, and I'm wondering if they'll make the HECU break-in in "Leap of Faith" more intense as well
I've watched this video a lot of times and it still impresses me how human you look while playing, like an actual NPC! I like it better when you stop to interact, walk around, It feels like a movie. In any way, nice gameplay as always.
An improvement over the first just the same as Black Mesa was a remaster of its own first. All it needs now is Gordon Freeman shouting 'SUUCCKEERRRR' at you while his tram goes by. I wonder if that could be modded in?
This is suprisingly well done! When I heard it was a mod I lowered my expectations a bit, but the first chapter alone has much better quality than I was expecting, and I wasn't even expecting something bad, I'm really excited for the next chapters!! :) I have a question though, was this mod made after the definitive edition of Black Mesa or it was made before and then updated? I say this because the rocks in the outside parts resemble the ones from the definitive edition, after they updated the surface maps.
@@Infamous_Val_05 Time sure does fly! Every year that goes by brings us closer to the release of Operation: Black Mesa, Guard Duty, and the rest of this mod though ;)
@@Sexy_Nutella @Sexy Nutella it was great! I love the little things you do to give Barney some character, like continuing to pound on the door and shaking the screen like he's shaking his head
Subtitles (WIP): [Guard]: “Aww… shit! No, no, no, NO! NO!” [Tram]: “Good morning, and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System.” [Guard]: “God dammit!” [Tram]: “This automated train is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa Research Facility Personnel. [Tram]: “The time is: 8:42 AM. Current topside temperature is 91 degrees, with an estimated high of 105.” [Tram]:
You guys agree they should also do Opposing Force Ok I know there is a Remake of Opposing Force called Operation: Black Mesa, but there isn't a playable beta so we should get some sort of remake for Opposing Force released P,S do you guys also think they should also Remake Half Life Decay and play coop with better graphics
I would totally play an OpFor mod based on Black Mesa. This one already is so much fun. Also, there is currently a remake of Half-Life: Decay in the works - check out Peer Review on modDB
@@Sexy_Nutella u can try a mod called Black Mesa Military. It's a nice mod with 7 chapters. U control a marine soldier 🪖. Remembering: it's not Shepard, and when u reach the area in questionable ethics near that door to go in the begin of surface tension chapter, Freeman will appear to u and ur HECU mates, to kill him.
Sadly, we can’t do that due to closed game code. But, just one “*BUT*”, if we’ll have an opportunity, we may do it too, IF there’s will be an opportunity tho...
They are releasing the chapters of this game (fully completed) one by one. So the entire game is not yet finished, but they are actively working on chapter 4.
Callhoun arrived at ur final job's place and tried insert ur pass ID manies times without success and knock the door... Toc! Toc! Toc! Security guard inside the facility: Hold on a second! I'm trying to unlock the door.. Callhoun knock again... Security guard: calm down man! I'm trying to open this damn door! Callhoun: I'm late, open this fu... door now! Security Guard: I think got it. Sorry about it, colleague, but we're suffering with these all problems around all over the facility. Like system crashes and malfunctions. Today is a critical day. Callhoun: I see. I almost lose my job today and btw I saw Freeman on train's ride going to sector C anomalous lab. Security guard: Interesting. Time to u go for job. Tonight me and the others guys will play poker. Bring ur chips, right? Callhoun: I always win 😁.
Don't you just feel an itchy pain knowing the Train speaker texture is the same as HL1 and it was also present in Black Mesa DE? They'll never change that thing, lol, it's funny.
For newcomers into the HL/Portal universe, it feels more right to play this rather than the regular HL. Collective Crowbar did absolute justice to the first HL instalments and it definitely shows the incident as big as it must have been. In the first HL, Black Mesa feels somewhat isloated and pretty empty in terms of personal compared to this one. This truly shows how big Black Mesa truly is. Its an entire city that has its own tram system, helipads, military base next to it and maybe around 700 people that work in Black Mesa. I also LOVE the fact the developers went the extra mile and put in few more details to make it look more real. Like the fence getting stuck mid-way, thats something you don't see in the original Blue Shift. And you actually get to see Gordon getting on his tram before you arrive. I know about their own Opposing Force but I also hope they will make HL: Decay with this amount attention to details. Valve themselves approved this game and they were very impressed from the finished product.
I do think that there is something incredible about first playing the original Blue Shift, then this re-imagining - the revamped version hits twice as hard in that regard. Though I wouldn't fault anyone who decides to jump immediately into this one. Slight correction - this mod is being developed by a team called HECU Collective, not Crowbar Collective :) though they use some of the same voice actors
@@Sexy_Nutella Well, we know where they took their inspiration from lol. They did awesome job nontheless just like Crowbar Collective did. I hope to see more games like this from the franchise for sure! Wouldn't mind seeing them doing a mod for Portal or Portal 2 that shows hows life was there before GLaDOS killed everybody... Potal 2:Reloaded, Portal Stories: Mel and Aperture Tag are all awesome in their own way but they all show the one perspective of what happened after certain incidents... Portal Stories: Mel shows us a bit what happened before the incident but I wish to see more of it.
I would like to fix a little mistake in your comment. The Black Mesa Personnel isn't just 700 people, the B.M.R.F hires an amount of 1,500 people from 5 different countries and 1,500 people from 5 different states in U.S.A.
@@karolynesuguimoto2222Soo we could say is around close to the 10s of thousands of people that works daily from Black-Mesa. from Engineeer's, Security, Soldier's, Janitor's, Mechanic's Science Staff, Office Worker's, Firefighter's & Logistic Personnel. it would make sense due to the sheer scale & complexity of Black-Mesa system & Construction
Great play through even if it was just you standing on the train for 8 minutes. But just seeing how stunning this is and how good it looks, it has the same black Mesa feeling, and not mention just the fact that this is happening while you're also experiencing what it's like to be Gordon Freeman. Also who did that music cuz it sounded really good?
I also get the same vibe - this really does seem like a proper expansion pack for Black Mesa the same way Blue Shift was for HL1. The music is created by Aslan Akhmetov (username Daver) - his channel can be found here: ru-vid.com/show-UCjoL6M9_8-93vmxjO4W5R9w
@@Sexy_Nutella I haven't watched any of the playthroughs so yours will be the first. I'm excited to see where this ends up, and also thank you for recommending the music channel to me :)