Run. Think. Shoot. Live. Source. Black Mesa is the Half-Life 2 total conversion of the original Half-Life game. Utilizing the Source engine and its endless array of possibilities and powers, Black Mesa will throw you into the world that started the Half-Life continuum and introduced Gordon Freeman to the world as a gun-toting, bullet-dodging Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics.
7/10 - Agree (2) Disagree (16)
Note: just got past the Tentacle boss
Visually, the mod looks outstanding, prop design and art are top notch though there are some oddities (like the lowres stuff on the tram's ceiling in Inbound, and some textures) but otherwise the team did a good job. Levels are excellent too, filled with various levels of detail.
Audio wise, there are some problems (music overpowering voices/gunshots/etc.) but it's good overall; the Magnum feels satisfying to use. Voice acting's also good but it was odd to see Eli Vance (and other fellow African American scientists) with a 'white guy voice'. The soundtrack is excellent but as mentioned before, occasionally overpowers the in game sound.
Gameplay: This is the best (and worst) part of Black Mesa. It's basically just Half Life 1 but with Source graphics. Sure, there are some minor differences (mostly story related, you can use the zoom in feature with the revolver, etc.) but generally it's a close 1:1 match to HL1. So, your enjoyment level is strictly based on whether or not you love Half Life 1. If you loved it (or if you never played HL1) you'll appreciate the 8 years spent on the project. If you're like me and didn't really enjoy HL1 in its initial 1998 release (or you just got tired of it after finishing), you'll won't like it as much
Misc: The game suffers some stability/performance issues, which is unfortunate. Crashed several times (mostly death related) and the FPS can really drop in open areas. I'll attribute those problems to the Source 2007 engine though, since it's extremely outdated and unstable for detail oriented TC mods. I ran this mod on a i7 ivybridge clocked at 3.2 GHz with an AMD 7970.
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In conclusion, this mod is worth a download to see how much work the team did. They really did a good job. However, don't expect too much on the gameplay side. In the end, after all the hype, it's Half Life 1 on Source and for some players who've been waiting for 8 years, that's a disappointment.