Hi there, and welcome to my project to "uncut" Black Mesa! Black Mesa was a crowning achievement for modding for sure, but it felt like it was lacking a little in some areas, particularly Surface Tension. For those of you that were not aware, Black Mesa's version of Surface Tension cut out a map from the original which was integral to the story's progression. Its replacement felt rushed and poorly implemented. My mod attempts to add that little something back into the game. I took the liberty of re-adding the cut chapters from Surface Tension as I feel their omission strongly harmed the story and really damaged the tone of Forget About Freeman. I've given them the same treatment Black Mesa gave everything else. This mod currently adds 40 - 50 minutes of gameplay and story to Surface Tension, improving the Black Mesa experience and it's overall narrative. It integrates seamlessly with the Black Mesa campaign too, just like it should. Why not give it a whirl?
This review may contain spoilers
Just excellent! Adds back to Black Mesa with some all new twists, so it is familiar but not simply repetitious of the original HL1. Adds in seamlessly to Black Mesa,as promised, although for some reason I had to use the zip file and extract directly, as the installer program somehow missed the directory.
The only complaint I might have at all is the same complaint I might level at the original; that the two battle sequences between alien goons and HECU are fun to watch, but not really something you play yourself, at least until one the action calms down and they come looking for you. Or maybe that's just how I handle it.
The only thing I would like to see more of -- and I know this is largely beyond your control, as it is the nature of the game, is less linearity. I think you mention that yourself, and trying to at least give the feel of more open-endedness. B ut I'm sure a big part of that too is that so many of us have played this through SO many times now that we know pretty much exactly what we have to do, and that naturally contributes to the linear feel. I hope you can do some pure mods that go more that way!
Excellent work, and congrats on getting pulled for the Black Mesa team!