Let's Talk Black Mesa - Part 1: Obsolete Gameplay or Is This How It Should Be?
In this new series, I make a rambling critique of the highly praised Black Mesa mod for the infinitely praised FPS, Half-Life. The questions I want to ask are: is it worth updating a 17-year-old game's graphics and audio but NOT the gameplay? Is the gameplay to Half-Life, a first-person shooter that routinely scores at or near the top of any Top Ten FPS list, obsolete? Does this make the Black Mesa mod, in essence, an outdated game with simply a modern finish? Why did the mod's creators change some aspects (magazine count, jump height, auto-saving) but not others (enemy reaction time and instantaneous awareness of the player's position)? And ultimately: does retaining the old gameplay style do the original game justice, or would it better serve the game by updating the gameplay?
No one disputes Half-Life's relevance in video game history; how well it holds up today is another story. I find Black Mesa a great mod because it makes inevitable these questions of modern versus old games. Obviously some aspects like aiming down iron sights, obtaining perks, quick-scoping, customizing weapons, etc. don't belong in a Half-Life mod. On the other hand, Half-Life is old enough to have some aspects of its gameplay considered outdated. This mod's creators interestingly decided to update the game to look and sound modern but feel old. It's this feature that I want to talk about.
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At this time, Olde has 3,343 views for Black Mesa spread across 9 videos. About 2 hours worth of Black Mesa videos were uploaded to his channel, or 1.62% of the total watchable video on Olde's YouTube channel.