This was a fantastic remake, and if Valve ever gets around to Ep3/Hе…ѓ, they better fucking hire Joel for the soundtrack.Your current IP address has been blocked due to bad behavior, which generally means one of the following: Like I said, Nielsen was on some other shit writing these Xen tracks. Same with the first scene in Xen when you're greeted with the panorama and Transcendent plays. I wish I could embed more, Ascension as you go up the elevator in Interloper was incredible as well, super cinematic feeling. Gonarch in a cage match fight to the death. I think one of my top gaming moments this year was entering the final fight of Gonarch's Lair and Internal Conflict kicks in:Д®ven thinking about it now is giving me goosebumps again, it was just a perfectly orchestrated moment after building up the entire level to that fight. There are so many good moments, but he really kicks it up a notch with Xen. His work on the Black Mesa portion of the game is great, and some of the tracks are perfect for fucking shit up in levels like Surface Tension: I think the level would have been far more successful if 90% of the factory was cut, and you basically passed through it quickly between the Garguantas and the elevator.ДЄ post about Black Mesa would be incomplete without some gushing over Joel Nielsen's fucking killer soundtrack. Thankfully, the ending elevator fight was suitably epic. It was never challenging, just annoyingly long and repetitive. The start was cool, with the Gargantua run, but the factory segment was a massive, massive slog. Was that in the original? I can't remember, but it was great here. I liked a lot of the small touches they added, like a lot of evidence of the science team's activities and their abandoned biolab. Xen and Gonarch's Lair are amazing, and Nihalinth and Gonarch are some of my favorite FPS bosses ever now. Of course Black Mesa's biggest claim to fame is the complete reimagining of Xen. That was by far the lowest point of the Black Mesa chapters though, and I blazed through the rest. On a Rail to Apprehension to Residue Processing is a claustrophobic gauntlet of jumping puzzles that I was glad to have behind me. There were still some slogs, though part of that is the original game. The Black Mesa remake thoroughly reinforces how groundbreaking Half-Life was, and still is. No codex or supplemental novel necessary. When you walk into the lab in Questionable Ethics, the scope of the Black Mesa project immediately expands, and darkens, right before your eyes. When the scientist runs towards the military praising that they're saved, only to be gunned down, you know the stakes have changed. So much exposition is laid out in the actions and environment around you, without cutscenes or emails and audiologs. It also reinforced how great Half-Life was at environmental storytelling. The last time I played through Half-Life 1 was probably in preparation for Half-Life 2, so a lot of my memory of the original was foggy, but so many times I found myself in awe of how good the new take on an old area was. There is a massive reverence for the source material, and for the most part, any changes seem organic. I'm so glad I waited, because holy shit this was a fantastic remake from start to finish (with some bumps along the way).ДЇirst off, you can tell this was developed by fans first and foremost. Just finished my first time through Black Mesa a few days ago, which was sitting in my library for over year while I impatiently awaited 1.0.

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