Ok, I See Why People Like Black Mesa

Black Mesa is a remaster of the original Half Life, a game created by Valve, you know, the people who you buy all your games from. I literally know nothing about this game and have no idea what to expect so we'll see what happens.
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#blackmesa #halflife

[@HostileMustache]

you are now obligated to do the entire Half Life series up to Alyx

[@ThroarbinGaming]

And exactly how many Half Life games are there....?

[@HostileMustache]

@ThroarbinGaming not much, but a good amount of hours HL2, HL2: Episode 1, HL2: Episode 2 and HL: Alyx

[@damqn4etobg]

@@HostileMustache wait episode 3?

[@incognito6737]

Episode 2*

[@HostileMustache]

@damqn4etobg woops, my bad, fat fingered it Unless Lord Gaben possessed me for a bit and is trying to tell us something

[@profsrlojohn635]

Part of why things weren’t explained as much back then, is because you were expected to read the manuals. They would try and get the basics across in-game if they had the space and time to do so, but the manual was your main source. You were expected to read especially since you needed it in order to install the game in the first place. It’s less bad design and just limitations and expectations of the era.

[@Nevet1987]

that and the limited attention span of the next generation. Nobody absorbs and intuits information from these things anymore. I used to spend hours just snooping around in HL1 and trying to divine information from nothing, like that stupid "is this X?" meme People just want information launched into their mouth with an air cannon nowadays

[@Chris-qr8ng]

Never had the manual, never needed it because of the training room.

[@HiddenWindshield]

But Half-Life didn't come with a manual....

[@ips2124]

half life had a tutorial, but black mesa doesnt

[@Bottle_O_Glue]

@@HiddenWindshield yes it did? Depending on the version, at the very least

[@3axapTv]

OG Half-Life 1 have a training room, it's a tutorial chapter. It even explains which glass is breakable and specifically mention that crouch = stealth mode.

[@crov4924]

no wonder i find it odd he's a bit confused on stuff, i thought he simply skip the tutorial room on the video, turns out there's none to begin with

[@pannomic1818]

@@crov4924 I think there are one... but is a addon from workshop so... xd

[@Swordbound]

Made me think of how the original game puts the crowbar directly in front of glass you have to break, so even if you don't play the hazard course there's no way to miss out on glass breakability.

[@hotpocketsat2am]

@@Swordbound yeah uh black mesa is kinda bad sometimes lmao

[@wedoalittletrolling723]

@@pannomic1818 because BM devs intended you to play the first OG HL first before BM, but...

[@devoutrelic1228]

"Humans are the bad guys because we invaded them first" is not AT ALL what they were going for. None of the aliens you fight are even naturally FROM Xen, they also teleported there from their different home dimensions just like we did, Xen is the link between all dimensions, nothing is actually native to there. The aliens were invading us to escape from something else, which makes us perfectly justifiable in defending ourselves.

[@ThroarbinGaming]

um...well alright, I didn't get any of that from playing

[@devoutrelic1228]

@@ThroarbinGaming That's fair, that information is definitely not at the forefront and is pretty obscure. The most that is clear to get from the game is that the Vortigaunts are slaves, which you did pick up on (though it was much less obvious in the original). The original Half-Life was not a perfect narrative experience, but it's worth noting that this game *invented* many aspects of storytelling in video games still used today. The amount of environmental storytelling is just something you didn't get from many games back then.

[@arnabbiswasalsodeep]

Well, while true based on how you'd describe it but in the same way humans invaded the world if our dominant version species started from Africa. So no really the case, yes they were transported there but doesnt mean they didn't make it their own way of living there with a thriving ecosystem, and thus we are the ones who are invading and that's literally what the devs intended, both valve & black mesa devs.

[@quarreneverett4767]

​@@devoutrelic1228unreal 1998 there are others as well

[@globe0147]

@@ThroarbinGaming Look it’s hard to Explain but Basically the stuff you see in Xen is not native to Xen, they were escaping something else, (play half life 2 😊) In Questionable ethics you see that humans have stumbled upon Xen and have been doing experiments on them for a while now but it was the resonance CASCADE that allowed a mass flooding of aliens to earth through random portals

[@jasiek1376]

Idk if anybody has pointed this out yet but the lesson they were going for around 45:00 wasn't that humans are the bad guys, it was more of a "humans fucked around and found out" type deal

[@dilloncs605]

**spoiler** the truth is that this was always going to happen. the combine wanted technology from earth and commissioned GMAN to create a bridge from that planet to earth. thats the reason we see gman in the opening scene and throughout the game. gordans presence and survival was always by gmans design because this was always going to happen because it was what the combine wanted.

[@turtlesupremacy3778]

@@dilloncs605that is a theory. canonically, no explanation has been given toward the G man nor his employers

[@haydenmitchell9260]

the original half life did a better job of tutorializing weapon switching and breakable glass, because you get the crowbar while standing in front of a glass door thats jammed and forces you to break it.

[@turtlesupremacy3778]

I liked black mesa tutorial more, it really enforces the lack of power a random scientist would have

[@Jan12700]

The start in the train is nowadays not so impressiv, but back in the day it was the first time a game did something like a interactive intro. Every Half Life Game did revolutionize the Gaming Szene. 2:40 It was a thing at Valve that someone unintentionally blew up food in the Microwave. So they made it also a insider Joke in the game.

[@davidmacdonald1855]

I remember that intro blowing my mind away back in the day. The first half hour of a game having no enemies or fighting was something I had never experienced before, especially in a fps. It really upped the tension. You knew something was going to happen but had no idea what or when:)

[@colororb4105]

The tram ride alone was included with some GPUs as a tech demo CD

[@saudade347]

I do think it would have been a better idea to play the original Half-Life 1, Black Mesa is a cool fan-made remake without a doubt, but it does lack some of the design the original game has, I feel. Still glad you enjoyed it.

[@Geiger_]

Totally, it's way better to play the OG, go through the entire series, and then play Black Mesa

[@ponponpatapon9670]

@@Geiger_ i agree with playing the original first, but going through the *entire series* too? why??

[@delawarevex4976]

​@@ponponpatapon9670mainly because one of the things that give charm to half life 2, is the graphical/technological advancement from half life 1 to source engine, black mesa uses effects and graphics from 2020, so when you go to play half life 2 after playing black mesa, you feel dissapointed since half life 2 still has 2004 graphics and looks worse than black mesa.

[@TheLostProbe]

you can't really appreciate all the changes and improvements that Black Mesa makes unless you've experienced the original as well I played through the series like this: Half-Life -> Half-Life 2 -> EP1 -> EP2 -> Black Mesa I did OpFor and BS at some point after to scratch the "I need more Half-Life" itch. I knew before going in that they weren't really all that integral to the story so that's why I didn't play them earlier, like after HL1. but I do think it was a bit of a bad decision and I recommend that people new to the series play OpFor and BS after finishing HL1, although of course it's your choice to make

[@tsfreddie]

playing titanfall2: felt weird killing human characters playing black mesa: "Can I kill him?"

[@ThroarbinGaming]

I have already been desensitized

[@Rain0T]

Black Mesa is missing the Hazard Course, which was Half-Life 1's tutorial chapter, and is the only place certain mechanics are explained. someone remade it so it's available on the Steam Workshop though, which is nice. doesn't explain the turrets, but it does explain the fact that crouching makes you quiet

[@wedoalittletrolling723]

because turrets are just automatic defense system, it targets ANY living thing as it can't differ what is foe or friend (it doesn't discriminate) and it's just a level-specific enemy if you can call it that.

[@darktail67]

The reason you were struggling so much with the turrets is that yeah, bullets don't have enough force to knock them over. Now, if only you had tools in your arsenal that had a bit more force...like, enough to send things flying...

[@ThroarbinGaming]

Actually, earlier I had been able to knock them over with the revolver. The ones I was talking more specifically about, for whatever reason, would not fall over when I shot them with the revolver, resulting in the confusion. Never even occurred to me to try grandes though

[@uligallardo8110]

@@ThroarbinGaming Funny, considering that you got a certain unorthodox energy weapon that has the ability to charge its shots, and was presented with a mini-cutscene that warned about _not letting it overcharge._ Edit: To be honest, I barely did use the Tau Cannon either. I just kept my thought of "I'll need it later".

[@janistomasuns3384]

Kudos on delving into a fantastic remake of a classic game. I hope you will explore the sequels as well. That being said, I was generally perplexed by the occasional moment of cluelessness on display here. It's all water under the bridge now, when you have finished the game already. But just to point out a list of things that others might have noticed in your video, because I need to affirm my sanity: There is an actual fully immersive, in depth and thoroughly enjoyable tutorial BAKED IN. Launches from the main menu... The basic pistol fires under water. Your expectation that all things are scripted (I have no agency) really struck a chord with me. The original half-life was very heavily scripted, but not in a way the modern shooters are. To answer a point you made about not being able to save anyone (it's intended humor, I know), you have SO MUCH agency in this game, as was proven when you gave that scientist a 12 gage dental job, just to see if you could. The quick movement pace of the half-life series (especially the first entry) gives more modern audiences the illusion that this is an action shooter, similar to COD's and such. Which causes tunnel-vision to many players. You dash through the game, never expecting interaction or important details to be present in the environment. Coupled with the ability to move around while lore and plot is being explained, this seems to render already short attention spans even more stunted. Obvious things in the environment, such as buttons, seem increasingly difficult to notice for many younger gamers, since the aforementioned fast-pace action has trained them to look for big red/yellow signs, pointing them to the "interaction" button.

[@ryanstover8433]

Exactly this. This entire video made me try so hard not to make a comment every minute he missed something then blamed the game for him not finding it.

[@LukeWatson121]

I wonder how many people noticed at 2:41 one of the quick options on the microwave is "Head Crab"

[@EmperorAmbrose]

1:50 This is a reference to the player model of the original half life, where Gordon Freeman has a little ponytail lmao Also, at 45:00, it's a bit difficult to call it "overdone" when Half Life was basically one of if not the first to use this trope.

[@DarthBiomech]

It didn't even used that trope, I think that's the Black Mesa's interpretation, the original game had scarcely any of the human tech in Xen, and when I've played it I got the impression that it was the case of "fuck around and find out". Especially considering that HL was inspired by "The Mist".

[@BenisDD]

This is your brain on modern slop

[@pannomic1818]

Half-Life is a game that you have to pay attention and reason when you play it, so this is where you can appreciate the damage that the newer games with a lot of tutorials ingame and arrows guiding you where to go..did lol

[@pannomic1818]

Black Mesa is allowed to exist becouse Valve made a horrible remaster to Source. Then Crowbar Collective did Black Mesa and Valve help them to end Xen.

[@wedoalittletrolling723]

So in short, they actually don't want fan-remakes, it just that BM is an exception because of that.

[@pannomic1818]

@@wedoalittletrolling723 Valve is open to everything. They exist becouse of modding other games. If you can do an excelent job they probably congrats you, help you or in the best case, hire you. Valve is not rockstar.

[@Wayward_Warlock]

@@pannomic1818 That being said, Valve are rockstars in gaming. It's a big deal to have time working at Valve on your resume, it's huge street cred with a lot of gamers and game devs. And to be honest, even with the missteps that Valve make, they earned all the star power their name carries.

[@uligallardo8110]

@@Wayward_Warlock Yeah, that's true. He did not say that wasn't the case. He meant that Valve is not like Rockstar Games, where they'd allow cheaters and heavy griefers in every platform, but would ban you if you tried to use an exploit to make money in the game, as that would affect their Shark Card sales.

[@unknownrecordingsofthefeud8200]

"Plus, they are gross, so we are right" dude just summarized colonialism

[@gwenie9246]

I love that it isn't the voice actors being bad, they're just mimicking the exact tone of voice of the original half-life NPCs because they know it's iconic

[@rhyneredpanda5443]

That first tram ride was showing off the game engine capabilities

[@crov4924]

you better get along well with that crowbar, since it'll be your buddy till the end of time

[@hotpocketsat2am]

black mesa really isn't a replacement for the OG half life

[@Geiger_]

that's 110% true

[@hotpocketsat2am]

@@KawaiianArgument so your response is just “ok boomer” lmao but really, half life was revolutionary and it’s very worth it to actually see how modern shooters were formed and there’s also a ton of sections that black mesa just removes or butchers for some reason, god i miss on a rail.

[@turtlesupremacy3778]

@@hotpocketsat2ampeople miss on a rail?

[@hotpocketsat2am]

@@turtlesupremacy3778 i quite like it honestly

[@haydenmitchell9260]

the original game (with some notable exceptions) often was better at giving tutorials, but for the best examples for good tutorials, half-life 2 is the way to go. also the voice acting is way better in the original game

[@FrederickMiles-bg5vz]

One of the Half-Life games' main traits is that you can always learn mechanics by experimenting, press F6 and see if something works or how something works and pray it doesn't kill you.

[@conahanbarbarian9719]

All the talk at 45:15 seems a little bit misplaced to me. Whatever the status of the tropes discussed in gaming generally, it is definitely not the case that Half Life is trying to get you to merely feel bad for the residents of Xen. Rather, you see that the experiments done by the scientists, whicha re ethically questionable in themselves, have terrible consequences for earth and humanity which they were unwilling to see clearly even as they understood how wrong things could end up being. In the final chapter the game encourages you to go forth and kill the creature responsible for keeping the portal open despite your efforts to close it at Black Mesa; this isn't about whether we are the conquerors and the Xen are the virtuous victims, but rather that humanity tampered with forces we didn't understand and thus it falls to us to try and make up for our mistakes. They do show you the exploitation of the Vortigaunts, but the point is not only that they are being colonized by humanity, but that the both of us are being manipulated and exploited by other powerful forces. The Nihilanth is an exploiter just like the scientists at the facility were, so for all parties involved Freeman is as close to a liberator as the context of the games allows.

[@DarthBiomech]

IIRC the Nihilanth's role was almost exactly the same as the role of Breen in HL2.

[@brickstonesonn9276]

A lot of the game design criricisms you made, like in around 17:50 mark, are misplaced. The game wasn't relying on you knowing game conventions to know what to do there. It's relying on you using your head to piece things together. -You were told to be quiet; so you know the monster is sensitive to sound. -You were given an infinite supply of bombs. Which makes you want to throw it to see what happens. (Which you did) -When you do throw the bombs, you were supposed to notice that the monster reacts to it. A bomb that explodes at the bottom makes them go to the bottom. (Which you didn't notice? Even though you were seeing if the bombs will kill the moster?) You're supposed to realize in this moment that you can use the sound of the bombs to distract the monster. Thats why the game gave you an infinite supply of bombs there. Half Life *does* do a lot of hand holding, it's just not spelling it out in big letters. And when it introduces a mechanic, it introduces it in a way where the player sees the mechanic in plain sight in a safe environment. It's a show don't tell type of approach to introducing mechanics. I don't blame you for not getting any of this though. Modern games constantly spell things out to us so much, that us gamers just subconsciously expect that we don't need to think when learning mechanics in a game. Plus, a lot of old games *are* badly designed in the way you described. So i cant blame you for thinking that Half Life had the same design problems when it really didn't. Also there's a tutorial level that teaches you all the fundamental mechanics you complained about not being taught to you; like the item switching. Don't know if Black Meaa has it tho.

[@ThroarbinGaming]

it's not a modern game vs older game thing. For that example with stealth, everything you said was right except maybe the infinite bombs. I remember throwing a few and then not having any more so maybe I missed the rest of the stash. When I saw the monster move I did actually move into the room only for it to attack me. I had also tried crouching as I approached and got hit, although this was when the thing was on the same level. What I had expected was that being quiet would mean I wouldn't get hit but it felt as though the thing still new where I was after having crouched. I didn't make the connection between the need to throw the explosives to get the thing to move and crouching and was thinking of the two as separate from each other.

[@Richard-iv3ii]

Valve science facilities trying to piss OSHA off as fast as possible:

[@synthesis870]

you should’ve played the original 1998 Half Life, as it does have some things that never made it to the fan revision of the game

[@_G3M5_]

what are you thinking of ? are the big terrarooms in black mesa ?

[@synthesis870]

@@_G3M5_ i’m thinking of the entire Xen chapters plus the entirety of “We’ve Got Hostiles”

[@Pain74312]

Nobody can stop me from playing with the ceiling noodles

[@tierghan5433]

Half life as a series is very heavy in environmental storytelling. Also Xen was entirly redone from the ground up from the original game, its a major improvement and incorperates lore later esablished in hl2 and hl:a.

[@erikpng]

I will say playing the original first is a bit of a better experience because you can then appreciate all the little things in Black Mesa. And Black Mesa has a bunch of mechanics from Half-Life 2. So it will make the jump to Half-Life 2 way less impressive.

[@Gibson-yu5bc]

The microwave is very important to the lore. But yes, the terms near the beginning in a nutshell are just making sure the lasers are cleared out properly. Hand holding is rare in Half Life games, as that obstructs the point of their games, which is to promote player experimentation and creativity, and wants the player to find their own solutions to problems. Watch the documentary on the creation of Half Life for its 25th anniversary

[@MrMe-rr6nr]

You get confused too often... But regardless I love to watch people experience half-life. Keep up the work though man.

[@winternightst7001]

dude just cant take a clue

[@rylsdark]

THE START HAS ME IN PAIN ON HOW OBLIVIOUS THIS DUDE IS TO INTUITION-BASED GAMEPLAY, HE WOULDN'T TRY THINGS, JUST BE BUMMED IF WHAT HE INITIALLY THOUGHT DIDN'T WORK

[@mattemattics5667]

Black Mesa was my first Half Life experience, and it was a hell of an experience

[@robuxyyyyyyyyyy4708]

49:19 It's implied they were remotely controlled through their shackles

[@cheddar9188]

He 100% should've played the original first

[@chad3888]

If you hop backwards in half life 2 you can go mach jesus

[@GageEakins]

The "little turkeys" are infant headcrabs. Gonarch appears to be the mother of all the headcrabs.

[@jumpyed]

17:30 You are given some hints in this area though they are subtle, for example you need to be quiet which means walks/crouching instead of well RUNNING which shouldn't need gamer knowledge as well as being given explosives which are definitely louder to draw it's attention away. 18:30 It was possible in the original I do not know if Black Mesa kept that part. Regardless it required most if not all of your ammo of everything to defeat specifically explosives iirc. 21:50 Use explosives against turrets.

[@usedtissue2328]

half-life (1998) is different enough to warrant a playthrough

[@_G3M5_]

mh id say it insanely similar lol

[@garyjohnson119]

I think the thing which stood out to me the most in this video is you pointing out that it never actually says that crouching = quieter. It's one of those assumptions I've just developed over the years and so just kind of took it as a default. The original game does somewhat communicate this with sound cues, but I don't know how much Black Mesa preserved it. Your footsteps in Half Life are quite loud, especially on certain surfaces (eg metal walkways), and crouchwalking does make them much quieter. Your experience with the floating barrels puzzle after the rocket launch is kind of funny to me because it's ripped almost 1-1 from a physics puzzle in Half Life 2. Half Life 2 in general had a lot more physics puzzles on account of the shiny new physics engine they were showing off.

[@djmir4]

The voice lines always gave me the giggles. Theres one guy doing all the security guard lines and another 2 doing all the male and female scientist lines.

[@wiekszapoowamirabelka7844]

Second! I am just like you, I missed on all classic games as a kid ( like portal), I am really enjoying discovering these games with you for the first time :)

[@ThroarbinGaming]

Hey, that's awesome!

[@DimentiosLoyalest]

The HL2 video should be titled "Ok, I See Why people Like Half-Life 2 Too"

[@kala1780]

You said a couple of times: "this game does not tell or establish a thing/mechanic X" - there is a tutorial in the game that does just this or at least the original game had. Not sure if Black Mesa did.

[@ThroarbinGaming]

according to other comments, it apparently is not included in Black Mesa

[@kala1780]

@@ThroarbinGaming I guess they wrongly, thought only HL1 veterans would be interested in the game. 😅

[@stevoisiak]

I really enjoy seeing your takes on classic games. It's fun seeing these games through the eyes of someone who hasn't been exposed to the series before. Especially the side of someone who isn't used to all the quirks that could be overlooked to those familiar with the series.

[@MegaChickenfish]

11:46 I love the way he just looks silently at the skull. "Alas, Horatio, _I didn't know him that well."_

[@GageEakins]

The button at the bottom of the rocket starts the fuel up procedure.

[@Lrofmaulol]

Magnusson does, in fact, hold a grudge on you for killing his casserole.

[@GageEakins]

Had you saved the guard behind the gate towards the beginning of the game, he unlocks the gate for you and allows you to get the shotgun much earlier.

[@bobafettjr85]

8:24 "I would love to." Walks right past a first aid kit.

[@PetstoUwU]

I miss games where you had to figure out game mechanics on your own

[@plantor0728]

We didn’t invade xen, we simply started exploring it, xen and the nilanith started to invade our world to get out of xen.

[@xotmatrix]

No, thank you, I don't need a Fony. I already have a Magnetbox.

[@johnfrostman9389]

Got to love how this was recorded before subnautica, but posted after lol.

[@Hyper-active-studios]

SHOULD HAVE PLAYED THE OG HALF LIFE BUT STILL AWESOME U GOTTA PLAY ALL GAMES

[@patrikkarlsson9463]

You *can* actually burn them, you just didn't get close enough and instead allowed it to swat it away.

[@Coconut-219]

Gordon Freeman and Gordon Ramsey battle to see who can create the best meal using ingredients from Xen.

[@phildathrill2000]

I have yet to play Black Mesa, but just from watching this video, I feel like it takes away a certain charm the original had, the goofy sound effects, the antiquated style, even the level progression is slightly different.

[@mistucha3]

i love your channel! the effort put in the videos is soo good, and also super fun

[@langaming9956]

During the development, the original character model for Gordon Freeman had a ponytail but it was later removed. Lorewise, its just Black Mesa imposing uniform rules on their employee.

[@GageEakins]

The turret is anything but advanced. It is a dumb defense. It shoots anything that moves when it is active.

[@KabraxisOblivion]

Thank you for your videos!

[@wesplybon9510]

Don't overlook playing through Opposing Force and Blue Shift, oh, and maybe the original Half Life game

[@space_core_123]

you are now with us in Half-Life universe

[@duncanquan5471]

Heres a tip, in the control scheme in options menu from esc you can select fast weapon swap, which cuts out the select menu entirely and just swaps the weapon on scroll, the reason old games are very hard, is cause preparing yourself before entering the game, is standard.

[@Cats_Gaming]

the turrets are physics based, you need to push them over to deactivate them

[@GageEakins]

The rocket launcher is actually laser guided or manual, you can turn it to manual mode by right clicking. It will then fire where you last pointed it.

[@NewExile]

The unkillable monstrosity IS killable if you have the weaponry for it, but this one is much better to kill using the trap puzzle.

[@luizzeroxis]

I wish people stopped played Black Mesa first.

[@jaYC294]

I cant wait for u to experience all the other half life games

[@ZeallustImmortal]

Glass that looks bullet proof cant break, glass that looks like normal glass can break. Pretty obvious.

[@pikaporeon]

its funny that HL2 was probably the game that did handholding the player the best

[@zeoxdragon]

Not sure if you are interested in recommendations, but if you wanna test if a game can make you cry of sadness or not, I heavily recommend you the game of "The Walking Dead By Telltale Games, Season 1". (don't look at the other seasons, as they might have screenshots that can spoil you which characters survive the first game). I promise you, it's an amazing game, it's not hard to beat, and the story is... it will leave you without words. And I bet you it will make you cry, not just feel sad, but actually make you tear up.

[@Cpt_H00K911]

oh yeah btw you gotta do the whole series now. from start to finish

[@denifnaf5874]

in a week no sleep

[@williamfrederickson1702]

I'm sorry, but watching many of these "first time playing Half-Life" type videos and just about all of them giving me some sort of "the game didn't straight up tell me how to do everything therefore I refuse to actually try things" is hilarious. Sometimes, it really, really isn't the game's fault for expecting you to use your brain a little bit.

[@ThroarbinGaming]

There's a fine balance in games and different people are looking for different things. Spelling everything out gets boring but if a game presents you with an obstacle with the solution being doing something you have never had to do before, it can be very frustrating. It's not a matter of "using your brain" it's being frustrated when you get stuck in a place for a very long time for reasons you don't understand and all you want to do is continue playing the game rather than dope around doing nothing.

[@ponponpatapon9670]

i guess i wasn't using my brain hard enough to know to go to this really specific well-hidden vent obscured by boxes behind the marines i just killed to progress, meanwhile the level's layout seems to suggest i should keep moving forwards in the main area like you'd expect in every other area in the game. Black Mesa is amazing, but it isn't perfect ffs

[@GageEakins]

The military is there because Black Mesa is a major defense contractor. They called them to the facility and it is heavily implied that this is the plan for an incursion. Later in the game, you realize that it is known that they go to other dimensions. There is an emergency broadcast that plays during Office Complex that tells you that a state of emergency has been called and that authorities are quarantining The Black Mesa Research Facility.

[@QuentinRevell]

Turrets aren't unkillable, you knock them over with explosions or by doing enough damage.

[@leongashwig]

he needs to play helldivers so he can bring democracy to aliens for real now

[@ThroarbinGaming]

yes

[@GageEakins]

The turrets can be killed via explosives.

[@connla]

maybe its different in Black Mesa remake but it feels like you went very far in the initial outbreak without the crowbar compared to the original

[@contramuffin5814]

Yes, it was an intentional design decision in Black Mesa to move the crowbar farther back. It forces you to pay attention and learn the attack patterns of the headcrabs/zombies before giving you a weapon

[@GageEakins]

It can't because it is not a machine gun, it is an SMG. It uses the same ammo as the pistol, so yeah a bunch of tiny 9mm bullets are not going to knock the turret over.

[@Giadanadragon_Gaming]

little does he know the original half-life is VERY different at times so he'll have to play that too at some point

[@xfel5913]

Everyone is Jeff huh? I’ll remember that for later when you meet the one true Jeff.

[@HiddenWindshield]

9:52 This is actually an improvement over the original Half-Life. It used the same mechanism, but if you didn't confirm your selection fast enough, it would auto-cancel the weapon switch. This meant that the left mouse button would go back to being the fire button. Quite a bit of ammo was wasted while trying to switch weapons. 28:03 "Oh I hate it! Kill it with fire!" (twenty seconds later) "Did I just kill it? Um.... my bad." 44:58 You don't have to worry, that's not what's going on. We didn't harm them first, they invaded entirely on their own for reasons that will be expanded on in HL2. 49:15 The collars the "scrawny aliens" are wearing are remotes for the "brain boys".

[@Clazzette]

You know, I'd usually recommend people to play BM if they wanna try the series, but the amount of confusion you are having makes me suggest that you need to play HL1. I don't blame you for the confusion, it's understandable and you found a fair flaw in the game. Judging by this video, I am convinced that I should let people try HL even for a bit, even just the tutorial, before playing BM. On the side note, you've been enjoying this game much, especially the rocket part. I like how ecstatic you are about it. xD

[@DanaOtken]

The turrets were brought by the soldiers, which explains why they're shooting at you. They're not actually all that great: infinite ammo but those tripods are pretty easy to knock over (at least, if you reserve grenades) and they're useless once they're on the ground. (In the distant future you may have access to them. Your absolute best tactic - when possible - is to hold one up in front of you as a shield so it's nearly impossible to knock it over.) Also in the future you may get to play as one of the soldiers. This makes it much clearer that a second group was sent to kill the first group. While at the time Half-Life came out a major part of the long ride at the beginning was the simple fact that with game engines of the time that ride was awesome (it was also a major part of the playable demos), and it does provide some exposition, a good deal of the charm is the second playthrough when you know what you're looking at and have the attention to do things like spot the very first appearance of the G-Man (this also primes you to further spot him as he continually appears throughout the game). My own favorite case of "strangely superfluous stealth" is Clive Barker's Undying. The game has a complete stealth system for tracking how visible and audible you are (right down to a debugging cheat code letting you see the values on your HUD), never mentions this, and has no part of its gameplay especially suited to stealth (although it could save you a bit of ammo at times if you're patient enough). It's like the developers simply wanted that much polish on their product - and it is a good game.

[@darkflameofphonix4709]

31:45 "I need something to shoot." 5 seconds later "A woman!"

[@setaindustries]

Black Mesa is interesting in the way it assumes you know how Half-Life games work, I honestly never thought about how breakable glass is not introduced because I played all HL games and I "just knew that". This is the same with the weapon selector which is an archaic system from 1998.

[@Bottle_O_Glue]

I don't blame you for getting confused. The game assumes you have a good bit of knowledge about Half-Life. This is why I cautioned against playing Black Mesa before Half-Life 1 under one of the vods. Black Mesa is also not an old game; it released in 2020, and it changed a lot of stuff from the original Half-Life design wise. So a lot of the times you forgive the game for being old were undeserved, especially when the original Half-Life explained many of those things better in 1998. I think Xen was beautified a bit too much in comparison with the original. Xen is supposed to be dark and oppressing, not the idealized version of alien life we humans hope is out there. I do still think Xen was generally done better in Black Mesa. A lot of your confusion can be explained by the clutter Black Mesa puts everywhere and the design changes that don't really need to be there; like the vent section into the closed off room before the weird slope elevator. Black Mesa also loses the attachment you build towards the character models in HL1, which affects your ability to quickly recognize them in Half-Life 2. Even with all of that, though, Black Mesa is still very, very good.

[@imasimplerug]

Honestly not starting with the original half life 1 feels wrong. It’s best to play black mesa as the last game in the series as a final send off

[@LyricalViking]

Valve likes it when indie studios try to do something else with their IP's so long as those studios reach out to Valve's business email, aka GabeNewell. Black Mesa was originally a mod for Half Life 2 that ported Half Life 1 to Source using HL2's assets. Instead of what Valve did with HL1 being ported to Source but using the same assets. They also wanted to take the cut content of HL1 and touch it up and re-release it in their mod. However they eventually got into contact with Valve and made it it's own game entirely and sold it on Steam.

[@MegaChickenfish]

12:40 Maybe it's just me and having started _with_ half-life but my first thought in any game when I obtain a melee weapon is "I will hit *everything* with this, including friendlies, just to see what happens." 17:30 and I'd argue that even if you didn't get the crouch thing (only explained in the tutorial level which was sadly cut in this version, the mod version someone made is really fun though) the game is still very clearly establishing "this thing works on noise. Here is an absurd amount of very noisy weapons. Here is a security guard who tries shooting it. Watch how that goes. Try something else." I mean my first thought would be "throw noisy weapons into room in vague direction of monster, notice that the monster either temporarily retreats when you hit it or starts banging somewhere else in the room where the explosion went off." I actually really like that they introduce satchel charges earlier here where they immediately show their usefulness. In Half Life 1 I remember getting them chapters later and thinking "what the hell is this for? A weapon that requires thinking ahead? _But me have gun!"_ and I proceeded to never use them the whole playthrough.

[@grani6893]

16:33 the fucking gasp LOL

[@aliasisudonomo]

I'm impressed to find someone who actually really likes the Xen sequence, even if the Black Mesa remaster definitely did a lot to make it less sucky.

[@cristiancabrera6564]

Has this guy ever played a game before? Seems like its his first one

[@nimjabeb3910]

The original game had its 25th anniversary back in October

[@Draconicfish2679]

18:25 Chat was trying to get you to kill an unkillable (through conventional means) enemy. 45:36 the humans weren’t really “invading” Xen, they were just sending survey teams to research stuff (though I suppose there *were* a few aliens that were captured in Questionable Ethics…). However, the human’s exploration into Xen did not influence the resonance cascade at all, other than the crystal sample shoved into the laser beam that caused it being from Xen. 47:33 It’s called the Gonarch. 48:00 yes, you were actually fighting it, your rockets were doing damage, the Gonarch just has a *lot* of health. 54:34 It’s never actually explained anywhere (at least that I know of) who his employers are, or how he has these powers.