Black Mesa Game Review
Black Mesa, released 6/3/2020, available as early access since 2015, is a first person shooter and third party remake of the cult classic game Half Life. It was being developed as a free mod for Half Life 2 before gaining the blessing of the game's original developers, Valve, for full standalone release with official support.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/
Story:
As a remake, Black Mesa's story is very faithful to that of the original, although the developers put additional story elements in, adding more context to certain objectives, and greatly extending the overall length of the game's story.
Black Mesa, like the game it is based on, follows Gordon Freeman, the player character, who is a scientist working in the top secret US research facility Black Mesa. After an experiment goes wrong, Gordon, with the help of his iconic orange HEV (Hazardous EnVironment) suit, must navigate through the massive underground complex of Black Mesa and through the caverns of the New Mexico Desert, which is where Black Mesa is located.
Along the way, the player fights mysterious alien beings that are seemingly teleporting into the base and US Marines that are determined to eliminate any survivors or witnesses to keep the truth from getting out.
Along the way, Gordon meets fellow survivors, both scientists and security working within the complex, and must help or be helped by survivors during his escape from Black Mesa.
Since the game is a remake, it of course has the same plot as the original game. It is interesting though to see where the stories diverge from one another though, mainly through additional mission segments where the player must reactivate something that could help stop the invading aliens, or deactivate something impeding Gordon's progress. The remake also greatly enhances the player's interactions with NPCs. Such changes go a long way in making the game feel like more of an upgrade than a simple fresh coat of paint.
Black Mesa, like the game it is based on, follows Gordon Freeman, the player character, who is a scientist working in the top secret US research facility Black Mesa. After an experiment goes wrong, Gordon, with the help of his iconic orange HEV (Hazardous EnVironment) suit, must navigate through the massive underground complex of Black Mesa and through the caverns of the New Mexico Desert, which is where Black Mesa is located.
Along the way, the player fights mysterious alien beings that are seemingly teleporting into the base and US Marines that are determined to eliminate any survivors or witnesses to keep the truth from getting out.
Along the way, Gordon meets fellow survivors, both scientists and security working within the complex, and must help or be helped by survivors during his escape from Black Mesa.
Since the game is a remake, it of course has the same plot as the original game. It is interesting though to see where the stories diverge from one another though, mainly through additional mission segments where the player must reactivate something that could help stop the invading aliens, or deactivate something impeding Gordon's progress. The remake also greatly enhances the player's interactions with NPCs. Such changes go a long way in making the game feel like more of an upgrade than a simple fresh coat of paint.
Gameplay:
Black Mesa is a first person shooter, and has over a dozen different weapons to collect over the course of the game. The player starts off with conventional weapons, such as a pistol, shotgun and assault rifles, before eventually obtaining experimental weapons, or weapons belonging to the aliens themselves. The diversity in the weapons you can obtain, and thus the strategies you can use against enemies, is something I really enjoyed.
Of course, what good is a weapon in a game without and enemy to use it on? The enemies in Black Mesa are even more diverse than the tools you use against them. The Human enemies include various types of marines, who wield assault rifles, shotguns and grenades, and the Black Ops Assassin, which is a fast moving enemy that can leap onto high platforms, and who is very fond of running and hiding from the player, only to pop out behind or above the player and hit them with a surprise attack. The marines also use various vehicles while hunting Gordon throughout the facility, sending tanks and helicopters after him.
In the alien faction, the player will come across Headcrabs, which are small creatures that jump at the player to attack, Zombies, which are people who have been infected and controlled by Headcrabs, Vortegaunts, who are bipedal aliens with ranged attacks, and many others.
Of course, what good is a weapon in a game without and enemy to use it on? The enemies in Black Mesa are even more diverse than the tools you use against them. The Human enemies include various types of marines, who wield assault rifles, shotguns and grenades, and the Black Ops Assassin, which is a fast moving enemy that can leap onto high platforms, and who is very fond of running and hiding from the player, only to pop out behind or above the player and hit them with a surprise attack. The marines also use various vehicles while hunting Gordon throughout the facility, sending tanks and helicopters after him.
In the alien faction, the player will come across Headcrabs, which are small creatures that jump at the player to attack, Zombies, which are people who have been infected and controlled by Headcrabs, Vortegaunts, who are bipedal aliens with ranged attacks, and many others.
There are also several boss fights, usually large military vehicles or monsters, and these are always fun but stressful encounters, where the player needs to keep moving in order to survive.
Moving on from the combat, Black Mesa has many, many sections that require quick thinking or problem solving skills. Through the Black Mesa facility the player will encounter many jumping segments that require skill and timing to get through, and many puzzles that challenge the player's ability to piece together environmental clues. Overall, Black Mesa involved challenge after challenge, but was always fair, and I never felt the need to look up a walkthrough or solutions to any puzzles I came across.
Moving on from the combat, Black Mesa has many, many sections that require quick thinking or problem solving skills. Through the Black Mesa facility the player will encounter many jumping segments that require skill and timing to get through, and many puzzles that challenge the player's ability to piece together environmental clues. Overall, Black Mesa involved challenge after challenge, but was always fair, and I never felt the need to look up a walkthrough or solutions to any puzzles I came across.
Audio:
The audio in Black Mesa is very stylized. Every gun you fire has a distinct sound, but while they were interesting sound effects, it couldn't be said that they were particularly realistic. This is a staple of the Half Life series, and many of the sound effects from Black Mesa were actually borrowed from Half Life 2, particularly the weapon effects. Even when breaking objects apart with Gordon's signature crowbar, the clonks and clangs the impacts produced were fairly silly, but oddly satisfying.
The music in Black Mesa was fantastic, a mixture of electronic music and rock, with the genre changing depending on the situation. Some boss fights would involve the use of rock or metal music, while smaller fights would have fast paced electronic tunes, and exploring without any combat would sometimes be quiet, but would also sometimes have calmer, slower electronic music. The music in Black Mesa is of a decent quality and matched each scene well.
The voice acting in Black Mesa is much better than the original game. The developers had the original voice actors re-record their lines from the original game, as well as many new lines to accompany the new interactions and story sequences. They also brought in a few new voices to diversify the cast. In the original game each random scientist you came across would have the same voice, and it was very noticeable and immersion-breaking. In Black Mesa, while I still heard the same voice coming from several characters over the course of the game, the additional voices and dialogue greatly helped preserve the immersion as you interact with these characters.
The music in Black Mesa was fantastic, a mixture of electronic music and rock, with the genre changing depending on the situation. Some boss fights would involve the use of rock or metal music, while smaller fights would have fast paced electronic tunes, and exploring without any combat would sometimes be quiet, but would also sometimes have calmer, slower electronic music. The music in Black Mesa is of a decent quality and matched each scene well.
The voice acting in Black Mesa is much better than the original game. The developers had the original voice actors re-record their lines from the original game, as well as many new lines to accompany the new interactions and story sequences. They also brought in a few new voices to diversify the cast. In the original game each random scientist you came across would have the same voice, and it was very noticeable and immersion-breaking. In Black Mesa, while I still heard the same voice coming from several characters over the course of the game, the additional voices and dialogue greatly helped preserve the immersion as you interact with these characters.
Conclusion:
Black Mesa as a fantastic and faithful re-creation of a genre defining game, and is very engaging and challenging throughout. I enjoyed my time playing it, and even though it still looks quite aged for it's time, it's still of a noticeably higher quality than the original, and it's a high quality game in it's own right.
Overall I would give Black Mesa an 8/10
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