Yeah it was in the og. I thought it was kinda cool, the lift starts going down and you see headcrabs busting out of vents and go "oh crap!" Pro-tip: hug the railing and when crabs start dropping in sidestep so they jump over. Warning: you have to deal with them down the bottom still. Another tip: when the lift is almost down you can jump to a platform on the left. Get some ammo and health and also "snipe" any crabs still remaining. Yet another tip: "baseball bat" crabs with the crowbar when they leap towards you. It's a one hit kill always and not too hard to do. Saves ammo.
Got through most of Surface Tension now. It's been fun so far, they've really changed the visuals from the last time I've played. Had a crash when I reloaded the Apache fight for the umpteenth time, but the game has been stable otherwise. Only slowdowns seem to happen when a lot of AI scripts get going, so mostly with Xen vs. HECU fights. They look good though. I can't wait to see Xen this evening!
this is one loyal game. iv finished it before the latest patches, might replay it in a few months. now.. if only Opposing Force will get such a remake.. damn.
Haven't got it yet, wishlisted. Good DF video showing the differences from the original game -- amazing to see how far we've come. And yes there's lots of new content that didn't even exist in the original game.
Haha yeah I was letting them just jump to their doom... until I reached the bottom and tons of them were still alive!
Yep, what goes around comes around and so forth. Regarding Black Mesa it's just brilliant and having the option to always run shifts the game towards old-school shooters. Always thought Half-Life was kind of a middleground between old run and gun and newer more "tactical" shooters. Combine always run with now projectile based weapons, no hitscanning soldiers anymore (I think?), and playability is much better. Having said that there's still some things left from original that could have been improved on a remake: - soldiers are still bulletsponges, move erratically so are hard(ish) to hit consistently and seem to always know exactly where you are and can hit you from a mile away (hence not sure if still hitscanning). They also spam grenades which is always fun. Although that opens them up for a "finisher". I understand they're meant to be a threat but 5 ... 6 headshots from SMG is too much (Black Mesa / Normal difficulty). - the shotgun, while great, is still strangely inconsistent with its damage output. You really need to be close and aim precisely for max. effect. - nitpicking but some environment textures could be of higher res. / have more detail. There are some that are clearly "remade" and others that look almost like they're from 1998. This creates inconsistency as eg. weapon models have very crisp textures on them. To finish on a positive note: new weapon handling and reload animations are great.
Noticed the erratic movement too, I thought it was just me being rusty with my aim at first, HL was my first M+KB game back in the day so I'm not sure how this reflects vs Black Mesa and I barely remember the original aside from a few key scenes. The turrets are most definitely hitscan or just lock on ridiculously quick, and the way you take damage from those is very similar to the soldiers so my money is on hitscan, but with much lower hit %. Shotgun I killed a Vortigaunt from about 20ft away with a single shot, next one I blasted in the face with a single shot who then took another to finally go down...
Yea that's it about the shotgun. It's almost like you want to be close for max. damage, but not too close (point blank) or the hit detection may partially fail or something. Also may depend on what animation the enemy is on at the time. Example: the only (almost) sure way to 1-shot kill a headcrab zombie is to wait until the head is at the leftmost point on the walking animation (it kind of goes slightly from right to left when they walk) before firing and let the zombie get almost within striking distance. Sure these are Half-Life features 1 : 1, I remember them still, so not the fault of Black Mesa in any way. Guess I hoped that when everything else is superb these quirks would be ironed out as well. Not a biggie in any way though and certainly helps BM feel truly authentic. EDIT: still about the shotgun it's not all doom and gloom: run up to that monster that spits acid at you, double-shot = instagib the sob! Glorious
Surprised at the level of enthusiasm this game has generated. Just reached the surface and now dealing with the marines. Yes, too early to judge, but so far the experience has been lackluster for me. Loved HL when first played some 20 years ago, but that was because it was in tune with the time period it was released. Today, BM still feels so damn old and generic, and wondering if finishing it is worth my time.
Some of the surface stuff was a bit overly long for me but still reasonably entertaining. Surface tension chapter itself has been greatly expanded compared to the original. Waste processing chapter was also a bit dull at times. Xen is fantastic, they did a really good job with it. The bosses before which gave me headaches and the confusing level design is all gone, bosses are extended experiences rather than just shoot big monster and its went from like a 45-60 min part of the game to like 6 hours long. It's worth sticking it out to see this part of the game, which will be new to pretty much everyone as its only mildly similar. Overall it's a really good remake.
well the game-play itself suppose to be as similar\loyal as possible to the original HL. it's very much showed in the small yet important things like the various movement functions. gun-play is another factor.. it does feels old, clumsy.. yet very loyal. i believe a lot of older players, like myself, see it as an advantage. but i also get why some players will find it old\generic as you posted. i recommend at least trying to reach Xen because that was the best part in my eyes.
And that video highlights my main issue against RTX. Not every surface that exists is so reflective that it looks wet. I mean, 3 seconds in there's a ladder against a concrete wall... and then switches to RTX on... and now the wall looks like it's made of chrome. And far too many other scenes, the floors look wet. Like there's a layer of water on them... Not everything is that reflective. And personally... it looks bad when they make it look that way in games.
Well the devs said if they did some work on the textures they could make it work, so it would look much better if they properly implemented it. Here's hoping!
Meh. Personally RTX is not worth the price of admission. I'm not spending that much on a new GPU right now, specially not for what it does. Other then ruining the atmosphere of Quake 2... Metro: Exodus looks great as is. Control... looks great as is. I personally have seen nothing that makes RTX a "must have" thing to me. I mean, if I really want to blow that much money and cut performance in my games... there are easier ways to do it.
