And so it has finally been completed, the mod-turned-officially-backed-remake of Valve’s classic FPS Half-Life has been released out of early access with the revealing of its final stage, Xen. The review of this is a bit late, to put it plainly, however on experiencing such a childhood favourite I certainly wanted to take my time, and with Crowbar Collective’s vow to keep updating the game post release, this fits in perfectly with that excuse.
For those who are unaware, Black Mesa started life as a Half-Life 2 mod from the combination of two independent teams who later joined arms to become Crowbar Collective. Their efforts received ultimate recognition when Valve approached them to make this a commercial release, essentially making this an official remake (though not made or released by Valve) and eventually, by 2015, the game was released as it stood (minus Xen) in Steam Early Access to what would become a lengthy updating, community feedback and bug fixing process. Roll on March 2020 and the full game has now been released from Early Access.
To recap on the premise of Half-Life, the game puts you in the iconic boots of the young scientist Gordon Freeman as he begins another day of work at the Black Mesa research facility. Everything takes a dramatic turn when the experiment he is involved in causes some kind of massive disturbance which throws the facility into turmoil. Aliens have somehow invaded the facility and are killing all those who work there, and upon the army’s arrival it becomes clear that something much bigger is going on than your inter-dimensional experiment, as rather than rescue the science teams across the base they instead start wiping everyone out.
I won’t delve further into the story as for those who’ve managed to avoid the narrative of this game will still find its simplistic yet effective storytelling a thrill to uncover. Something very special about the way the original game told its story was in its environmental exploration – there’s very little in the way of dialogue, and as such the story is not told to you as much as it is shown. But even for those who are veterans of the game and series, this remake from Crowbar Collective does more than just replicate the story with fancy new graphics, and there are scenes and dialogue that were not in the original game which, with knowledge of the succeeding games, makes the overall narrative a little more fitting.
Half-Life offered a little bit of everything when it came to its gameplay, though primarily a first person shooter, elements of environmental puzzling and even a bit of platforming broke up the pacing. Black Mesa obviously follows suit (being the same game), but particularly with regards to platforming and traversing the environments the developers have done a good job in making things a little more accessible. No more do we have to worry about accidentally falling to our deaths from ladders, and with the crouch-jump feature now being automatic, this means any platforming is a doddle.
Though, with regards to that latter point, this is also helped by the levels themselves being given a proper overhaul. Of course, most of the environments will be immediately recognisable, however there are new areas and some existing ones that have been redesigned or extended. Actually what this results in is some new puzzles being added as well as more combat encounters, particularly I noticed with the aliens. And even better are those sections of the game that encourage you to muck about with your surroundings. I still consider the opening level to Half-Life to be one of the best openings to a game, and Black Mesa only makes this better. The addition of achievements means you can gain extra satisfaction in finding out all the ways you can antagonise your colleagues, and for those like me who can’t bear to see any scientist or security guard left behind when the shit hits the fan, your ostensibly pointless extra curricula effort is at least recognised.
For those who are unaware, while Half-Life was a predominantly solo adventure, during your fight through the facility you run into a number of AI companions. These are very simplistic companions who essentially just follow or stay on command, but some will help you in combat and others will be able to open doors that would otherwise be locked – revealing health and ammo, etc. While still simplistic in design and concept – all of your companions are inevitably stumped by a ladder or bit of fallen debris that ends your journey with them, and aside from the basic assistance already mentioned they serve no further mechanical purpose – Black Mesa at least noticeably improves on the AI where it can. There’s still the odd moment where their pathing gets obstructed and confuses them, but along with the extra dialogue and better responsiveness, Black Mesa’s companions are a little more enjoyable to join together with.
A modern title might be criticised in this department for the companions being a bit superfluous, but considering its remake status I think Crowbar Collective did as much as they could with them without having to reassess much of the level design – that and the disposable nature of them means that if you really don’t care about baby-sitting someone through the infested corridors, you don’t have to. And besides this, the companions serve more of a purpose than what they offer to the gameplay in making the facility feel more realistic and giving you a proper sense of place and a notion of how things have messed up. I mentioned about how the game shows you its story and doesn’t tell, well most of the people you meet in the game may opine something about what is going on or where you should be headed, but they are ultimately just as clueless as you. In this way the game produces an atmosphere that nearly borders on horror.
I don’t think the original has aged particular well with regards to this atmosphere (though there are still certainly some spooky moments) as much of it can seem a little camp and wooden by today’s standards. Black Mesa manages to enhance this to an extent, not just with the graphical update but also its sound design and excellent soundtrack. The game still doesn’t come close to the heights of Half-Life 2 with its immersive design, but I don’t think this was ever something to expect from it, and for those who’ve played both you’ll appreciate that the two games were independently outstanding for different reasons.
Gunplay and movement is generally improved or maintained with this remake. Weapons are the same and still provide a nice punch, just with prettier effects and sound design, and combat encounters are as quick and brutal as before. Half-Life isn’t the easiest game in terms of combat and Black Mesa follows suit. Gordon is a Rambo scientist, but he is just as squishy as everyone else and a misplaced grenade will remind you of that very quickly. I think in some places the encounters are not as well balanced as they should be to take this into account – for example a fight with a helicopter about half way through the game managed to be trickier than any of the later boss fights – and this is an area that hasn’t been improved on noticeably. Also if it weren’t for the interesting variety of weapons available and the ultimate brevity of individual combat encounters (there is a decent amount of combat, but this is no Call of Duty), I feel that this would risk becoming a little monotonous. Combat hasn’t really been evolved like other areas of the game have, and I wonder if this was necessary to keeping the feel of the original title in-tact, for good or bad.
Having said that, the boss fights and set pieces have had a deal of extra effort put into them, with sections that weren’t in the original game providing some extra oomph. Those who’ve played the original will notice that Xen is a much longer experience in Black Mesa, and this is due to areas being greatly expanded and more puzzles and combat implemented. For what was a disappointing final chapter in the original, Xen is now a fully-fledged part of the game and well-paced to end the story with drama as well as intrigue. I won’t say anything in detail, but the areas with passive Vortigaunts and witnessing their experience with the other aggressive alien races was very cool to see.
Unfortunately however, despite all its time in early access, Black Mesa still feels a tad unfinished. I can’t fault them for what they’ve done with the story and level design as these have been evolved more than remade, showing that this game is still as much a passion project as it was a commercial release, but from the very start of this experience I have found bugs, glitches, crashes and corrupted saves. I found three of my saves inexplicably unable to be loaded, resulting in the game crashing, two other independent crashes, and of course the ever present fear of loading screen glitches. The long loading pauses are almost a part of the nostalgia for Black Mesa, but along with that comes the familiar fear that if you were foolish enough to crouch or jump just before one appears then you could find yourself stuck in the floor. Some updates have been released since the game launched out of Early Access, as the developer had promised, but towards the end of May which is when I last played the game I still experienced instability.
That’s a great shame as I suppose it’s what most fear from games when they come out of Early Access, and it can do a lot to sour the overall enjoyment of an experience. I think sometimes games are left in early access for so long that it almost becomes forgivable for them to be rough around the edges in their final product – either because most people have already played the game in that state or that they are desperate for the game to come out – and I’m not entirely convinced by that notion. Yes I want this game to finally be finished, but I also don’t want to see it break in front of me – this being the reason I don’t buy games when they are in Early Access in the first place. But if it quells some of the hesitation this might bring, I think only the harshest would not be able to ignore the minor irritations of instability just to get back to experiencing the rest of what Crowbar Collective have done with this classic title.
Black Mesa isn’t just a remake, but an evolved and expanded re-imagining. Delightfully nostalgic for fans of the original, with heaps to re-experience presented in a way that won’t make you rethink why you enjoyed it so much in the first place, and heaps more that has been added or slightly redesigned so the overall experience is more fluid and fulfilling. It’s exciting and engaging in a cleverly simplistic manner, reminding what can be done to create intriguing stories just with environmental design and a small amount of contextual dialogue, and there’s no pretentiousness or OTT fan service to this remake that would ruin that. Crowbar Collective knew what they were doing with this and clearly understand its source, and with a little extra polish in some areas of its gameplay and sans the technical issues experienced, this could have been a near perfect remake.