Black Mesa (the game) and some thoughts/complains about it (Beware the spoilers for it and its mod)

[WhiteFlame]

So I've just finished Black Mesa (and 4/5 chapters of Blue Shift mod based on it, as far as I understand Chapter 5 is not out yet). And... Even if the game(s) itself is generally fine, though weapon reload speed, enemies that see you through objects, weapon damage and too many enemies...but all of it was mostly fixed in the Blue Shift mod, so I am not going to complain about it. What I am going to complain about is how they made Xen. Both of them.

 

By the way, if you have not finished those, there are many spoilers below!

 

In Black Mesa Xen is...blown out of proportions, basically. Gonarch's Lair is turned into playing cat and mouse with Gonarch, I get very tired of not knowing if I can do damage to her or not, of running away, of her running away...and of the last fight with her that is basically her last phase from original game, but after too much exhausting running. And then they have a very long conveyor ride in the Interloper, with tons of repeated fights and puzzles, ending in the elevator ride with tons of repeated fights and puzzles. And then you finally fight Nihilant and it does not teleport you (which was fun in the original game), just summons objects and constantly attacks you with lights of different colours. I was really annoyed by it, so I just turned on God mode.

 

And there are spoilers for the Blue Shift mod, you have been warned!

 

In Blue Shift mod Xen is also blown out of proportions, but it has a lot less annoying stuff, I almost finished it without turning God mode again. Cause they have repetitive fights and puzzles...again. And near the end everything around attacks you with lights of different colours...again, but this time it blinds you. And if you miss a lot and do not conserve your ammo...you lose. Big time. I was out of almost everything near the end of Chapter 4 and was barely able (after several tries) to kill all of the annoying enemies (those be Controllers) to finally finish it in time. Yeah, you are attacked by annoying enemies with almost no ammo with a time limit at the end. God mode did not help me with that, but I decided not to cheat anyway (not to give myself more weapons).

 

I like both games, I like how they made Xen for the most part, but what they did to Xen also makes me hate both games.

 

Is it just me who get annoyed but how it was done? Anyone else had problems? I can not be alone at that, I am sure of it, but actually knowing it will make things...well, it will make me more at peace I guess. Still gonna recommend trying Blue Shift mod, everything before Chapter 4 is perfect, they basically turned Blue Shift into an actual Half-Life game, not just short addon.