Black Mesa PC Game Review - Xen Incognito 

Well... if you want to get the achievement, you can just use the grav gun

@@aqshabagus4487 But expecting to lose more health to get through it.

@@Angsc09 Not really. If you know the layout and what to do, you can finish it pretty easily.

@@oneblacksun "if you knoe the layout" lul, this guy tryna expect new players to know the layout. Stop being a moron

@@Ghost1170 Like new players are gonna complete the gravity gun only achievement on their first try.

i love the npc chatter it does wonders for the atmosphere

I love how they added female NPCs as well and not just a sausage party like the original. Makes it feel a bit more realistic for today’s society

@@hristokaludov8149 Valve originally wanted to have female NCPs, but there were memory limitations that necessitated their removal.

Nothing wrong with that, friend.

Yeah its not half bad tbh. Honestly sometimes simplicity is key. I hate when shooters try to implement a cover system when just crouching behind a barrier is just as effective and not nearly as confusing.

I find the sound design a major factor in enjoying it, also the animations - it feels so smooth.

for me what makes it enjoyable is the responsiveness, the consistency of the sound and animation, and the fact it runs at such a high framerate

Well in comparison to Half-Life 1 then yeah.

I love the guy's reviews, but honestly sometimes it just seems like he reacts to something different than the rest of the crowd just for the sake of being different. This holds true for basically most of his reviews, and the second you call him out on it, he turns to his dickish attitude.

Dickish attitude? Is responding to criticism a dickish thing to do now?

I don't know, I thought HL1 had better shooting.

Gggmanlives Your past replies haven't been just 'responding to criticism'. The DESYNC review was a good example of that.

Yea, i found the whole review odd, i haven't played HL1 in a long time and i wont, as i know it back to front, this game brought me back to the universe and it was awesome, there isn't really anything to complain or criticise about, id say this review is nit picky at best.

that's true. That's why the alien grunts are so hard to kill, it's because people don't bother to shoot at their weak spots like the stomach.

Pepper Millers wait how different are the damage multipliers for the head compared to the stomach?

Erik Bänder Ans actually, if you shoot a helmet someone is wearing, the person won't take damage. Try shooting Barney in the helmet. He'll shoot back, but he won't take damage. I think this only works in the goldsrc version though.

Yeah, I remember that, if you shoot armor, you get that little gray particle effect

@@half-lifescientist1991 Goldsource didn't allow to pierce metal Helmets in Half life if i remember correctly.

For me it's actually his strongest points. It decides to feel new and suggestive while keeping it very canonic

Lol good job on excusing bad gameplay, let's just make the enemies 1 hit kills and say that gordon isn't as strong to defend himself.

blah blah okay shut up i don't wanna talk about you

That doesn't justify how, in the original mod version, the marines had wall hacks and were 99% accurate full auto at long range while they were moving. I remember the devs saying that was going to be fixed in the paid version, so I guess they took the feedback to heart. It was bad from a gameplay point of view, as it made combat feel rushed, encouraged you to memorise enemy placement and exploit quick save and AI flaws. From a "realism" point of view, as already mentioned, I don't know of any military training allows you to shoot with 90% accuracy from the hip, while sprinting sideways, at long range (across a dam for example) at full auto.

Leave it to people who don't know how something works in real life to tell you how something in a game is justified with "realism".

dragster1018aone Not an excuse. Gameplay comes first, NEVER let realism take over the gameplay design. No one wants to play a game where they have to sleep for several hours every in-game day.

Half Life 3 is going to happen, it's just that we'll never see the story arc of Half Life 2 and the episodes get tied up.

oh *brilliant*. a spoiler.

Uber Panzerhund Heey, what are you doing in Half-Life video comment sections? Make more discount Vaughy videos! :P

Uber Panzerhund What do you mean it's going to happen? Won't believe it till its playable.

We still have the backup.. *Turns around* It's time, Mr. Shephard..

DudeSkinnyTall I know right? When are they to finally finish it and give us Xen?

Andre Hernandez Xen is coming in 4 months

it's Half-Life related, so yes lol

It's not the size, Sonny Jim, it's how you use it...

How do you know its coming in 4 months?

really... not that original, in fact I've heard it so many times as soon as someone mentions 'size' I anticipate it..

It fit with the video

No, you did not get the joke, the joke is that ggmanlives has a girlfriend.

Well that's like 1/4 of the joke I guess?

u like benis ewww

Aside from the unfair AI of the soldier, yeah.

It’s exactly the same, save for the addition of Xen

Oh the humanity.

Episode 1 also has an achievement like that...for the whole game

when you diss the game for being a reimagining when it's just that seriously I love you but sometimes I wonder if you've gone off your rocker.

Fucking how?

@@dragster1018aone sure they've reimagined but some of them for me have been poorly remade

why does this have 19 likes

Clashman The Third Why not?

Disgusting! Disgusting!

Hugh Mungus wot m8?

I literally commented the same thing and then I found this comment lol

Yeah the gameplay was confusing and the only good part about it was the visuals

Computer-Monster "lets wrap this up quick" You should really play System Shock 2. That game has a "fuck, it comes out tomorrow?" type of ending.

Computer-Monster have you seen the screenshots to the new xen, they look stunning!

For a lot of longer games, especially rpgs, developers typically have to half ass the ending due to release dates, budgets, etc. The excuse is that most people wont even finish the game, so they put all of the effort into giving the player a good first impression. It sucks, but a lot of the time its a nessecary evil. I mean look at Grandia on ps1, a lot of disc 2 kinda sucks compared to disc 1.

The xen was a disappointment. And how the hell that ending connects to HL2?

I agreed 100% BM Rocks !

I agree that the mod has a far better quality than most triple A games, no doubt there. I said in the video it's a huge accomplishment and it is. It just feels like a better looking, worse playing version of Halflife to me and seeing as I value gameplay over graphics, I took issue with it. If you're enjoying playing it then that's fine and dandy.

ChiuaruStefan Saying that he doesn't care is his right though. Nothing pathetic about that. Want to know pathetic? Taking 9 years to remake a game with all the love and dedication in the world, only to slap a paywall to it BEFORE it's finished and still taking 2 damn years to finish the last stretch of the game. It's like Duke Nukem forever. Once you take so long, people kinda stop caring.

you can still play the mod version for free.

It actually tries to be HL2 way too hard and in moments forgets that it should be the first game. As said in the video, the game has no identity and the dev team probably don't know what they're doing .

Opinions are like assholes.

Gggmanlives people like us, we got a lot of assholes.

eh, I honestly disagree on the combat, I felt the original got the combat right. Sure, the SMG wasn't accurate, but the pistol sure as hell was (but then they changed that in HL2).

Oh yeah I totally get that with we've got hostiles. When I first got there in half life 1 I either had to run or take potshots from the hangar because of how much shit was going on. I dont think black mesa really improved that part for combat, but rather it seems to have emphasized that you should just run away.

Look, there are some things you need to put into consideration too. First of all Black Mesa already had a good ground to start on. They didn't have to reinvent the story and in some aspects it does creates a bit of a mess (for example in newly released Xen; all they added was basically just reskinned Earth with some cool floating rocks, while Valve made a completely new world.. and sure it wasn't as good as it could get but again, back then there were such story-driven games before Half Life). They added few cool features (that don't necessarily made sense in some areas btw) and improved graphics but that's as far as it really goes. Second, you can't really blame them (neither can you blame Valve). Half Life's prime focus was on the gameplay and storytelling so it would be impossible to make an improvement there AND keep it similar to the original, it's just not possible. They would have to either make a whole new story or change this one a lot, but that's not what they wanted to do. So really it's not their fault but most importantly we shouldn't really compare them to the original Half Life either. Neither is better or worse because Black Mesa and Half Life aren't the same thing. Half Life was a breakthrough in gaming history and it will forever stay part of every modern game. Without it we wouldn't have CS:GO and many other great FPS games that later on inspired even more games and are going to do so for a very long time. Black Mesa was a mod for Half Life that wanted to bring some cool visuals and add some nice features. They both succeeded in what they tried to do and we should stay at that.

If I See Purpp Thats A Homi The pacing in the games is practically incomparable, what are you talking about? Did you ever play Half-Life 1 or are you basing that statement off of Half-Life 2's gameplay and assuming the pacing in that game was similar to the pacing in the first game?

I've played half life one since I was 12 and have beat it numerous times on every difficulty. So yeah the pacing is the same as half-life one. Go play the two side by side every chapter and you'll see it for yourself.

+If I See Purpp Thats A Homi Even though in Black Mesa you walk by default and the maps are much larger while in Half-Life you run by default in much smaller maps?

First, you can toggle the run in the mesa settings tab. And second I mean play each chapter at a time and compare them. They keep the pacing in tact very well. I love half-life 1 but black mesa has made it almost unplayable for me because it's such a better polished version of half life.

+If I See Purpp Thats A Homi Yeah, you can toggle running, but you should keep in mind that up until about a year ago that option was extremely faulty. And even now, if you hold down shift while using that option, you don't slow down like you did in the original. Still better much better than the way it was before though. Half-Life was a fast paced game in design. A lot of weapons, a lot of enemies thrown at you at once, a lot of running. It's clear that Black Mesa went with the somewhat slower pace of Half-Life 2 but with the same constant spawning of enemies/numerous weapons that Half-Life 1 had. Sometimes it mixes well, other times it doesn't. I have my problems with Half-Life 2, but it's consistent in pace. The devs seemed to be aware they were making a game with a slower pace than Half-Life 1. There's rarely a moment where you're overwhelmed with enemies, and if there is, there's usually some barrels or a train or some physics puzzle you use to take a bunch of them out at once. That and there's fewer weapons. The many massive areas and the default walking speed in Black Mesa suggest a slower pace, but it'll often throw more enemies into a map than there were in the original Half-Life. which just sends mixed signals. Most of the time I find myself peeking and shooting at a bunch of enemies from a distance in Black Mesa which is a stretch from the gameplay style of Half-Life 1 and 2. Both of those games encourage the player to take more a close quarters approach. You rarely find yourself peeking and shooting 12 enemies from 100 feet away in Half-Life 1 or 2. I think Black Mesa's main problem is it focuses too much on making its environments look realistic as opposed to making them combat-friendly. The annoying abundance of random physics objects lying around in Black Mesa also suggest that this was the case during the game's development.

I'd imagine it's more noticeable in Black Mesa though. In the original I don't recall much difference between shooting an alien grunt in the face as opposed to the chest.

People seems to forget that Black Mesa started as a fanmade mod.

disk9434 It's funny how ppl defend BM and shit talk Cinematic Mod. Yeah the slutty models are crap but you can easily remove them. Both try to update the game and both do remove the original art style.

Tenzing Khedup I think the biggest reason why people didn't like the cinematic mod (including me) besides the stupid model is that the original Half-Life 2 still ages verry well. Once in awhile i reinstall the game and it still feel amazing and innovative to play. It not like the late 90' brick lego model and insane hitbox that Half-Life suffer. Also BM has a more sincere, respect and understanding of the original game aesthetic unlike just make the game more brown and bloomy like a COD game approach in cinematic mod.

Yeah but I hate that in BM, the black ops bitches dont have the boob physics. I mean it was realy funny. Thank God the feminists didnt find out lel.

rip Boob physics.

Yea it's arguably more fun to only use the gravity gun in ravenholm than normal guns. It's just that the part where you wait for grigoris elevator is a bitch to get through

@@jjmerrow8062 you can actually skip that part and call the elevator without all the zombies

What are your thoughts on the shooting mechanics? Do you agree with him that half life was just okay? Which games would you say had perfect shooting? What aspects played a role?

agreed, BM feels more alive than the original.

Thanks!

HL2 was only good because of the Source Engine and the gravity gun. Everything else was just ok. Half Life 2 was nowhere near Halo 2 or even Halo 1 in terms of gunplay.

@@alsenar2 I have not seen anyone write about halo ever since...ever since halo 5 came out.

Half-Life's combat systems always felt like they lacked the punch that it's contemporaries of it's time, such as something like Quake 3 or even console games like Halo had. The atmosphere, design, and overall narrative make the original 2 half-life and it's corresponding episodes what they are. Even the shotgun, while powerful up close, never made me FEEL powerful.

I wouldn't say the combat is bad, but it's definitely not as involved as other FPS games are. The lack of responses from your attacks just makes weapons feel weaker than they're supposed to. I'm not saying it's "bad", but it's gotten basic and outdated.

I'll probably do an impressions video on it or something.

Thanks, bro.

yeah seriously why the fuck did they say HL:S was in the source engine but barely improved the fucking graphics seriously

Half-Life: Source was a testing ground for porting GoldSrc content over to the Source engine and to iron out bugs; it was never meant to be a visual overhaul/upgrade to the original.

What's wrong with half-life source? They never said they'll completely change the game graphics, but what they ported in from source into the game made it more enjoyable. The explosions, blood splatter, reflections, bullet impacts and the lightning really made the game even more fun to play. The guns became satisfying to use and it ironed out all the bugs from the original game.

I remember Half Life Source being buggy compared to Half Life.

Well half life source was at the very least a good port though....i'd stick with the original though.

Thanks!

Most people will justifiably tell you not to play half life source. Its literally the original game but with source engine water, ragdoll physics, and apparently a ton of bugs. The new water also doesnt fit well with the old environments. Its not like counter-strike source where they remade the maps. Its just a mediocre port. Im pretty sure the disapointment that was half life source is actually what made black mesa so popular.

that was the best 'SHEEEIIT!" so far :P

But you forgot about da suit boi

I was thinking exactly this as I was watching this vid

They fixed it, or at least toned it down since they are much easier to deal with in the Steam version

It's definitely been toned down.

Thanks, that's good to know. It wasn't the impression I got from your video but I guess I can only tell if I play it.

To be fair those ARE supposed to be special forces.

@DrRisen - Yep, and this is where realism and gameplay contradict. Every game needs some balance of the two.

It’s easier to get footage for since you could load any chapter you want.

@@cirava but you can do it in GoldSrc HL too tho eg: ’map c3a2’ in console

Isn't the shooting in counter strike exactly the same? They also have spray patterns but no real recoil in a sense that the cross hair moves. What exactly do you think would have to be improved to make the shooting in the Half Life games perfect?

HL1 did shooting right, I guess SiN did it rather well. First QUAKE is fun as heck.

Duke Nukem 3D and Doom

This is a list of highlights since 1993 (when original Doom was released). I've included both first person and third person shooter options, as well as wildcards some bonus picks. These are games where the shooting feels great (even if other elements may be lacking here and there). First Person Shooters: * Doom and Doom II (with WASD control scheme--play through gzdoom; I prefer the level design of Doom to Doom II, but you really cannot go wrong with either game); * F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. Extraction Point (F.E.A.R. is fantastic, and its first expansion pack, Extraction Point, is maybe even better. Extraction Point has some of my favorite shootout locations ever designed for first person shooters, with particular highlights being the Church location and the Subway location. F.E.A.R.'s second expansion pack, Perseus Mandate, is better than F.E.A.R. 2, but not as good as the original game or Extraction Point); * Shadow Warrior, Blood, Sin, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, and especially Soldier of Fortune (all classics, but in my view not as good as the original Doom or F.E.A.R. Extraction Point); * Crysis and Crysis Warhead (some design issues later in the games, but the shooting generally feels fantastic); * Serious Sam 1 (which includes both First Encounter and Second Encounter), Serious Sam 2, Serious Sam 3 (Serious Sam 1 is probably the best of the three, but the shooting generally feels great in all three games. Serious Sam 2 has weird art and character designs, and the Serious Sam 3 took the series in a new artistic direction, but in my view the shooting always feels pretty darn good); RAGE (in my view the driving portions of this game and the open-world/sandbox aspects are dull, but the shooting feels awesome and the level design in the shooting stages is pretty good overall). Wildcard Pick: Dishonored. Dishonored is not really a shooter, and is clearly not meant to be played with that kind of mindset/approach. That said, I think the shooting in it feels surprisingly great. Better than it had to be. Bonus Picks: - Turok 2: Seeds of Evil. I am not much into console shooters, but I really enjoyed the PC port of Turok 2: Seeds of Evil. It's levels are overlong and somewhat repetitive in their design elements, and the weapon selection and enemy types are a bit limited. But I think the shooting in this game feels quite good. (It feels pretty good in Turok 1, as well.) - Doom 64 EX and Brutal Doom 64. I think these are both excellent mods, and to me, Doom 64 is basically what Doom 3 should have been. Also, about Project Brutality, I just want to say that I am not the biggest fan, primarily because of the addition of reloading. To me, reloading does not belong in Doom. That said, I like the Hell on Earth Starter Pack, and I also like the Brutal version of Doom 64. Heck, I even like Brutal Wolfenstein a bit. - Dusk. We'll see how it turns out, but so far, so good. - F.E.A.R. 2 Reborn. I do not care for F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, but this expansion pack, called Reborn, is pretty good, and shows what kind of potential F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin squandered away. This is how F.E.A.R. 2 should have been done. - And then you also have games like Half Life (1 and 2, and especially the Half Life 2 Episode 2 expansion), Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy, and Deus Ex, where the games are good but for reasons other than their shooting mechanics. For me personally, nostalgic value is a big part of the reason why I cherish these particular games. Third Person Shooters: * Max Payne 3: I think I prefer Max Payne 1 and Max Payne 2 overall for their aesthetics (and ability to skip cut scenes). However, if I am being completely honest, I think I would have to conclude that the shooting in Max Payne 3 is the best, most responsive overall of the entire series. It just feels good, precise, responsive. * Dead Space 2. Bonus Picks: Red Faction: Guerilla, and Red Faction: Armageddon. I think I am one of relatively few people who prefer Armageddon to Guerilla. However, both have nice shooting for third person shooters. Even More Bonus Picks: Here are two side-scrollers that have great shooting: * Broforce * Butcher [As an aside: I also want to bring up Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. That game is not a shooter; I just wanted to bring it up because I wish more people knew about it. I think it is a terrifically fun game, but not very well known (and easy to overlook when you have about 40,000 other Warhammer 40,000 games out there).] Those are my highlights for the last 24 years or so. There are plenty of other good ones, but, for me, these are the ones I feel most nailed their shooting mechanics and for that reason are infinitely fun to return to.

WarmSoftKitty dude, destiny 2 isn't even out yet

Shamaboy S I cant wait for Destiny 2

WarmSoftKitty Destiny 1 still has a very active player base

cloud waves i still play it weekly

NMS isn't an FPS, I don't really see the point.

Woot.

Gggmanlives I absolutely love your videos mate! Even the old ones are always fun to come back to!

hazzmati you can change sprinting to always run in the menu, but it still feels off.

There are some mods that do that in the workshop

You don't need to remove sprinting. There's a button in the options menu to enable "Always Run". I have no idea why people don't turn it on.

and yet there are no mods for making the marines run really fast....yet.

+Hijynks They don't do it, because they may want a more modern/realistic experience or they just don't know it's there.

Hugh...Mungus...

Gggmanlives Disgusting! Disgusting!

HOW DARE YOU?!

Gggmanlives You have triggered me Im going to write a strongly worded tumblr post calling you out but doing no research what so ever and making things up. Love you

StillGotShit4Brains ravenholm.

It's Ravenholm. No offense, but turn the subtitles on.

No, he pronounced it as Ravenhome lol.

It's pronounced "ravenhome" Like Stockholm is pronounced stockhome

Ravenholm is pronounced "Ravenhome", just as much as Stockholm is pronounced "Stockhome"

It's coming this december.

Supposed to arrive in December. Some of the screenshots they released are really nice.

Jeez I hope the oposing force remake will be relased soon too...

While I like the screenshots, I don't like how they changed it from Blue to Green.

A trailer for Xen just got released. FINALLY! (i was really surprised as well..) Xen will be available Q2 2019.

He let his MP5 drop, I guess

It just says something like "Gordon Freeman Status: Detained" or something along those lines.

Beginner pistol is accurate too. Prefer using it over the crap submach, em, automatic bullet dispenser.

the SMG is not that bad if you shoot it in short bursts.

The pulse rifle has decent tapfire accuracy. Try not spraying.

the guns are amazing don't you diss 'em

They're not really amazing, but they do the job.

Kolbe Howard You can't blame them for keeping the weapons true to the original game, when Gearbox's HD Content Pack hadn't been released.

But it had by the time Black Mesa was in development right? Even even if it hadn't they've had plenty of time to change it. I know it's a petty complaint but it's the weapon I use probably the most in the game and it's a shame the model for it is so silly and unsatisfying to use.

Nah the original still feels very much like the real thing, (although yes, On A Rail specifically remains a bit of a pointless pain in the butt) and Opposing Force still kicks ass imho. But I like Black Mesa on its own, quirky flaws and pretty improvements included.

+hazzmati Have you played HL1 recently? Because I don't understand how the shooting is any better in the original. The shooting isn't great in either of them but that's not really the point. It's everything surrounding the shooting the makes these games great.

Kolbe Howard If you consider the current MP5 model to be silly, you should see the 2012 mod version of it.

I literally did.

GmanLives sorry I didn’t notice it sometimes RU-vid be doing that. But after I searched for the review it popped up my bad. Keep up the great work!!

All G!

Veymex And it's pretty good huh

Pretty decent

Why

The video aged fine, it was his opinion and he recommended the game in the end anyways

You are very right but if you are going for a first time run, half life is better

@@dr.strangeglove1734 Why is that?

@kfir levy so you can get the original feel and experience

@@dr.strangeglove1734 Guess I did an oopsie when I started with Black Mesa then. Anyways I'm enjoying the hell out of that game.

With the first portion of your post, I agree that is what it felt like he was wanting. Which, if it was a 1 to 1 then it might as well just be the original game with updated graphics. So... essentially another Half-Life Source.

The problem that he was stating to have with Black Mesa was that the game was unsure whether it wanted to be a warts-and-all remake with updated graphics/sounds (Halo CEA/2A), or a complete reboot/reimagining that makes multiple, large-scale changes in an effort to address the original's shortcomings, expand upon what worked and/or add several original features to keep the game feeling fresh.

Notice how gggmanlives didn't respond at all. He truly has been defeated

Pearce Boit or he's moved on to making other videos instead of bothering with butthurt people in the comments?

I don't think calling people "nostalgiafag" will get their attentions.

I'm being constructive in the video though.

"it felt like you were shooting a sponge until it would finally react when it was dead." Enemies in original Half-Life series have flinch animations and sounds. Along with blood splatters. What you're describing with that quote is problem with Black Mesa exclusively. Also there are more problems with BM gunplay than just that. edit: I went to play HL1 to refresh my memory and I was wrong, enemies don't have flich animations or I didn't notice them. But other thing I recalled about combat is how quick my movement is. Having such mobility means I'm not standing in one place shooting enemy when I can "fly around" to quickly reposition.

They don't flinch much though.

they flinch enough for me! :- D

Halo has sponges that you shoot until its dead

Yeah, they flinched as if someone just sucker punched them, it looked nothing like taking an actual bullet, not that I would know what that would feel like.

It's Halflife Source.