Glenn the Great
09-16-2012, 03:39 AM
http://release.blackmesasource.com/
So, I just finished it. Have to say I was impressed, it felt like a AAA production rather than a mod.
Here are my initial thoughts coming away from it:
It would be an understatement to say that the production values blew me away. The level of detail and special effects are on par with and occasionally surpass what we saw in Portal 2. A few physics puzzles from Half-Life 2 were added which I felt added nicely to the experience without feeling tacked on. The new enemy models looked professionally done, it was a real joy to encounter each of them. Gotta give the team serious props with regard to the Bullsquid with it's acid spray and the Houndeyes with their sonic lensing effect. I literally laughed my ass off the first time I picked up a handful of Snark grenades which have always held a soft-spot in my heart :)
The second half of the game, with the exception of the bio-lab, was unfortunately a lot weaker than the first half. The creative liberties taken with the level design here were pretty hit-or-miss, mostly miss. These levels quickly became unnecessarily convoluted with too many dead-ends, extraneous ladders, and painted-on doors. Also, the difficulty was too much in places. Unless you don't mind dying every minute, I'd recommend playing the marine-heavy chapters like "Surface Tension" on Easy unless you happen to be some kind of god at first person shooters. I don't want to hold this against the team too much because the same difficulty spikes were present in the original game and I imagine playtesting was rather limited.
My only other serious issue was with the jumping physics. The standard jump is next to useless: almost every jumping situation requires some combination of sprinting and crouching which made the platforming segments even more frustrating than they were in the original. I probably saved and reloaded close to a hundred times during the segment with the laser trip-mines that destroy the building if you touch even one of them.
The mod was also surprisingly thin on bugs. I had a handful of crashes when reloading saves and I think I managed to fall into a place or two that I couldn't get out of. I imagine we'll see some tweaks and added polish when the game is released on Steam because then the team will be able to release patches to their hearts' content without inconveniencing players.
It'll be interesting to hear what Valve has to say regarding this game in the coming weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the team members are approached by Valve with job offers (I believe some already have been, as a matter of fact.)
So, I just finished it. Have to say I was impressed, it felt like a AAA production rather than a mod.
Here are my initial thoughts coming away from it:
It would be an understatement to say that the production values blew me away. The level of detail and special effects are on par with and occasionally surpass what we saw in Portal 2. A few physics puzzles from Half-Life 2 were added which I felt added nicely to the experience without feeling tacked on. The new enemy models looked professionally done, it was a real joy to encounter each of them. Gotta give the team serious props with regard to the Bullsquid with it's acid spray and the Houndeyes with their sonic lensing effect. I literally laughed my ass off the first time I picked up a handful of Snark grenades which have always held a soft-spot in my heart :)
The second half of the game, with the exception of the bio-lab, was unfortunately a lot weaker than the first half. The creative liberties taken with the level design here were pretty hit-or-miss, mostly miss. These levels quickly became unnecessarily convoluted with too many dead-ends, extraneous ladders, and painted-on doors. Also, the difficulty was too much in places. Unless you don't mind dying every minute, I'd recommend playing the marine-heavy chapters like "Surface Tension" on Easy unless you happen to be some kind of god at first person shooters. I don't want to hold this against the team too much because the same difficulty spikes were present in the original game and I imagine playtesting was rather limited.
My only other serious issue was with the jumping physics. The standard jump is next to useless: almost every jumping situation requires some combination of sprinting and crouching which made the platforming segments even more frustrating than they were in the original. I probably saved and reloaded close to a hundred times during the segment with the laser trip-mines that destroy the building if you touch even one of them.
The mod was also surprisingly thin on bugs. I had a handful of crashes when reloading saves and I think I managed to fall into a place or two that I couldn't get out of. I imagine we'll see some tweaks and added polish when the game is released on Steam because then the team will be able to release patches to their hearts' content without inconveniencing players.
It'll be interesting to hear what Valve has to say regarding this game in the coming weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the team members are approached by Valve with job offers (I believe some already have been, as a matter of fact.)