there's reasons why old games can still be better than their modern equivalents despite decades of technological improvements and learning. One of those reasons and the reason why half-life one is still one of the best games ever made is the level design. Proper design is timeless and unfortunately somehow seems to be reverting in modern-day, in my experience. As demand for videogames increases and the market grows larger, developers have to be wary and design their levels in a way that allows every person regardless of videogame experience to enjoy the game and not feel like they get lost often or don't know how to progress. Half-life's solution was to make the game almost entirely linear but still have it feel like a real place. The black mesa facility is so well designed not only from a gameplay sense but from a visual sense that you can completely see how people can go to work there. By having a good balance between a cool location that seems like a real place and subtle linearity that makes it hard to get lost in what would normally be a sprawling, huge science lab that the player has no clue the floor map of, it lets the player have the benefit of feeling like they won't get lost in the area yet still have the ability to see all there is to see in the great facility. Very unique zones and amazing set pieces, which is the first undeniably improved part of black mesa over half life. So many amazing action-packed moments or fun puzzles with an amazing music score that just makes you feel so cool. The set pieces are also amazing because they link perfectly with this games most awesome aspect that hasn't been properly imitated until dark souls: You control how much you interact with the story. You are gordon and you choose how much you care about other people. You can kill every scientist or barney and leave them as bullsquid bait so you get a head start. Or you can play a hero that leads everyone to safety, which would at some points feel like trying to drain the ocean with a straw. It links into the set pieces because you can decide how you see each moment. You can think "Woohoo! I just killed those marines! I am so cool. Alright now I gotta get out of here" or, if you pay attention to the story, "Oh my goodness! The Resonance Cascade, which I inadvertently caused, is self-sustaining! And the military backup that was sent to deal with it is gone! We're on our own! Oh no, they even evacuated all of New Mexico! What a disaster!"
By not forcing the player to feel any kind of remorse or connection with the story outside of the actual player's own choosing, you never get moments like Doom Eternal where doomguy sits down in front of this old guy as he explains the deep lore to him. If I were doomguy, I would turn around and walk away. But I cant do that. Now if some scientist was telling me that "oh you need to go here and do that did you know if you carry this fluid with you to the gonarchs lair you can use it to kill them instantly why don't you try that oh oh oh I'm a scientist nerd" You can walk away because you don't care about the stupid story. I would pay money to be able to walk away from some game stories. Skipping cutscenes and dialogue can only get me so far. All this awesome stuff is why it has such a high rating, and now we come to my two negative points. One: The overall maximum ammo you can carry , your reload speed, and move speed have been lowered from the original. To fit "Modern sensibilities" of what a shooter should be. Yeah if everything were to fit modern sensibilities I wouldn't be playing this shitty medium id move on to another art form like radio dramas or flip books. Obviously this was an attempt to ground the game a little bit and encourage using different weapons, as in the original you could mostly stick to the smg or shotgun or whatever weapon you liked. I'm not totally against this change and it's more balanced because now you can sprint. Not a huge issue more of a preference thing. And the actual issue I have is xen. So for some context, in the original half life xen was godawful. Legit irredeemable terrible. But in this, it's not so bad. It's got better design both visually and gameplay wise but its sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong. So boring. Keeps going on and on and on especially interloper its cool but its just conveyor belts for 90 floors and since its 90 floors your framerate tanks cus it has to render 90 floors and 900 conveyor belts moving 90000 boxes. Jeez. Yeah, if Xen were cut in half this would be a 5 star. Half life is the best and this is just half life with mostly fixed elevators, so hell yeah.
By not forcing the player to feel any kind of remorse or connection with the story outside of the actual player's own choosing, you never get moments like Doom Eternal where doomguy sits down in front of this old guy as he explains the deep lore to him. If I were doomguy, I would turn around and walk away. But I cant do that. Now if some scientist was telling me that "oh you need to go here and do that did you know if you carry this fluid with you to the gonarchs lair you can use it to kill them instantly why don't you try that oh oh oh I'm a scientist nerd" You can walk away because you don't care about the stupid story. I would pay money to be able to walk away from some game stories. Skipping cutscenes and dialogue can only get me so far. All this awesome stuff is why it has such a high rating, and now we come to my two negative points. One: The overall maximum ammo you can carry , your reload speed, and move speed have been lowered from the original. To fit "Modern sensibilities" of what a shooter should be. Yeah if everything were to fit modern sensibilities I wouldn't be playing this shitty medium id move on to another art form like radio dramas or flip books. Obviously this was an attempt to ground the game a little bit and encourage using different weapons, as in the original you could mostly stick to the smg or shotgun or whatever weapon you liked. I'm not totally against this change and it's more balanced because now you can sprint. Not a huge issue more of a preference thing. And the actual issue I have is xen. So for some context, in the original half life xen was godawful. Legit irredeemable terrible. But in this, it's not so bad. It's got better design both visually and gameplay wise but its sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong. So boring. Keeps going on and on and on especially interloper its cool but its just conveyor belts for 90 floors and since its 90 floors your framerate tanks cus it has to render 90 floors and 900 conveyor belts moving 90000 boxes. Jeez. Yeah, if Xen were cut in half this would be a 5 star. Half life is the best and this is just half life with mostly fixed elevators, so hell yeah.