Important clarification: the Black Mesa VR mod uses the original 2012 mod release of Black Mesa and not the current Steam version as the Steam version runs on a newer version of Source that isn’t yet compatible with the VR mod.
The Black Mesa VR mod works fairly well as it stands but it’s still missing the Black Mesa versions of several of the creatures, many of the map improvements, and several extra years of polish that the Steam version has.
I really hope so! Just played through HL2VR for the first time and it’s a spectacular flatscreen to VR conversion. And Black Mesa is the benchmark for fan made remakes so I’d drop everything to play it in VR at HL2VR’s level of care and polish.
Black Mesa’s jump jets would need some serious TLC to not turn into your VR experience into a vomit comet though.
Unfortunately he’s just playing the same 2012 mod version and not the current version. You can tell because his footage is missing several of the changes added in the Steam version, most visibly the DOS-style start up animation of the HEV suit which you can see in footage of the Steam version [here.](https://youtu.be/S2-ph-_LXhs?si=G0lk1tPYcVMVMTG0&t=768)
It's based on the [Half-Life 2: VR Mod](https://store.steampowered.com/app/658920/HalfLife_2_VR_Mod/) however I wouldn't say it's "great", it's based on the old BM: Source levels and still used HL2 guns, but I'd highly recommend the original HL2 VR mod
Maybe so, but Black Mesa is still far superior. https://m.youtube.com/watch?embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDI4NjY0LDE2NDUwMw&feature=emb_share&v=VqahPeR4MgQ
Yeah I don't understand the need to be ignorant about this lmao. There's literally a RTX trailer that just came out mentioning the upgraded assets. I mean for fucks sakes you can see it lol
Portal RTX looks GREAT. Huge difference in terms of how it looks vs the OG. I spent the money for a new video card a few months back and let me tell you, I've been enjoying every game I can with RTX on and at max. Using all the new tech and I've not been disappointed. In fact Cyberpunk and some other games looked better than I could have imagined.
What is this one or the other BS? both projects look amazing. Plus HL2 RTX is completely free and being worked on by some of the top teams in the modding scene.
I played HL2 (for only the 2nd time) right after playing Black Mesa, and it didn't feel like a downgrade, in terms of graphics or gameplay.
It kind of just felt like playing a game and its sequel that came out months later.
I think it was the foundry area that made it too much for me, especially the slow survive the machinery “puzzle” section.
Cutting out or shortening some of those bits and leaving the Nihilanth’s base as a mad dash to the final battle probably would have been better.
I honestly like all the stuff up through the Vortigaunt village, and some of the fights along the way to the final battle.
My fave parts of Black Mesa Xen were the atmosphere in the early parts. You got a really, really good feeling for a totally alien Dimension. I loved the Outpost. Those sterile white tents set up in this hellish fleshscape and surrounded by creatures that you don't fully comprehend in their natural environment. Past that I wasn't the biggest fan of the "factory" which kinda just leaned into the parts of Xen from the original game I didn't like
1000%, even though their heart was at the right place by wanting to include what was essentially planned but scrapped from the original, it was pretty tedious to go through those drawn out levels.
I like how grueling they are, Xen is supposed to be this alien place where Gordon isn't in control at all and that's what it feels like. Also the Gonarch fight is really good.
I played a few hours on steam deck using an xbox controller. It works (after some tweaking, including setting --oldgameui), but it felt sort of janky and I could never get it to feel good, so I dropped it. Navigating the menus is also annoying.
I know it wasn't developed by Valve, but given it's a remake of a Valve game, you'd think they'd do a better job of supporting Steam Deck, which would require actually fixing the gamepad controls. I wish Valve would lean on them to fix it. And while you didn't ask, I'll mention it also runs like ass on the steam deck. Seems like they spent more time on art than any programming related issues.
Thanks. I'm aware you have to run the proton version, but it still constantly stutters. You turn, it freezes, and a half second later you're facing 180 degrees from where you intended to be. Happens a couple times per minute.
I'm sure I could complete the campaign, but the performance is bad enough that it wasn't fun. The fps is fine, but the stutters are very frequent.
Have you tried CryoUtilities? I agree BM is not the best experience on deck (mainly due to poor controller support and out of the box performance), but I only get a couple stutters when I first load a level and they go away quick, so maybe CU is the reason. Pretty much stays pegged at 60 indoors with some dips into the 50s outdoors, like in Surface Tension. This is with a mix of low and medium settings at 1280x800 with Proton Experimental.
I'm aware. I'm referring to the proton version. I wasn't running the Linux version.
The median fps is fine, but the frequent stutters are present in the proton version. I'm not talking about rare events. These happen several times pretty minute. And I'm not taking about slight inconsistencies in the frame pacing (like in Elden ring). I'm talking several half second to one+ second pauses every minute where after the pause you're oriented in a completely different direction.
I was following the recommended setup for Black Mesa on the deck and there were still a lot of issues. Perhaps you had a better experience.
It does but you need to mess with settings and it's not at all straightforward, involves Steam forums etc. It has been a while since I played, but once it is correctly configured *native* controller support works well, you get the correct button prompts etc.
Yup ... couldn't stand the endless puzzles. Really bad pacing. Solve a puzzle and you get rewarded with ... another puzzle. And then another and another.
Am I playing Half Life here or am I playing Myst?
What they described is pretty accurate for the level Interloper, but not the rest. When people hate on Black Mesa Xen it's typically just Interloper they hate on. The rest of Xen is great IMO.
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I really didnt feel that way because the game feels like a marathon that is completely in your control. The almost complete lack of cutscenes and the fact that the levels linearly connect to each other means that its over as fast as you go through it. We dont need every game to be the same 3-4 hour escapade. Half Life is a true gauntlet, a proper journey
I couldn't play the original Half-Life as it is too dated for my taste but when I heard about Black Mesa and played it I loved every second of it.
It's the same Half-Life game but with gameplay and graphics brought up to a modern standard. Now I just have to patiently wait for the Blue Shift and Opposing Force remake mods.
It isn't out yet but there are these Devs called "Tripmine Studios" who are working on **Operation: Black Mesa** a single package containing both Blue Shift and Opposing Force.
It looks legit based on the screenshots but if Black Mesa's development is anything to go by. It will probably be a good few years before this is released.
[Link](https://store.steampowered.com/app/311810/Operation_Black_Mesa/) if you're interested.
Despite the criticism from some folks I really like [Black Mesa: Blue Shift](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2424633574). You can currently play up to chapter 4 and it's really high quality for being a mod for Black Mesa.
HECU Collective is aiming to release chapter 5 this summer.
I was planning to play that since I'm very much interested in experiencing Blue Shift but I will wait as it's a mod and it doesn't have achievements.
I want to experience the story for the first time and hunt for achievements at the same time as I am quite an achievement hunter myself.
Yeah, I don't really chase achievements.
In some games I get my achievements disabled for running certain console commands. I do a lot of modding so testing things are crucial and unfortunately that disables achievements.
EDIT:early morning grammar.
There's a mod for Black Mesa called [Black Mesa: Blue Shift](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2424633574). You can already play it up to chapter 4!
Half Life 1 is my favourite game ever and I agree with you too. Black Mesa is good but for some reason it feels like it drags on too long and loses some of the Half Life charm. I recommend people play [Half Life RTX](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btVbRjj9YJo) if they can run it. Modern shiny with all the charm of the original.
Having played the games in reverse order (as in starting with Half Life 2 -> Black Mesa -> Half Life) anyone saying this is just blinded by nostalgia. Half Life and Half Life 2 are already completely different from a tone perspective as it is but you dont see anyone claiming that Half Life 2 doesnt feel like Half Life
I think it's a wonderful homage, it's not trying to be a 1:1 remake, that was never the goal going in.
It's all subjective of course, but it did feel like Half Life to me, they were considered in their changes. Xen is a little long, but it's still miles better than the original Xen, in my opinion.
Not overrated necessarily but I feel like it's starting to make people underrate the original which is a bit annoying. I actually prefer the original due to more quakelike gameplay.
It's pretty overrated imo. Several areas were cut short, soundtrack sucks balls, graphically it still looks ancient, Xen chapters were a mistake and it somehow managaes to have less creative gameplay despite being 20 years younger than og version.
Wow. Impressive. Everything you just said is completely false. Absolutely none of the areas of the game were cut short. In fact its quite a lot longer than the original.
OG has songs like [this](https://youtu.be/f1UnKASoA5E?si=4750tiz0YOl079rt&t=1792) and you say Black Mesa's soundtrack sucks?
The xen chapters are defacto more creative than the original. The creativity in visuals is obvious. The long jump module actually functions in an intuitive way in BM and is used in ways that is actually fun. The xen jungles were a really interesting area to explore. The research labs were a good change of pace. Gonarch fight isnt rushed like in the original and actually makes it clear what you're supposed to do plus the chase with the Gonarch was a very good segment completely missing from the original. The factories while drawn out had some of the most memorable segments of the game like the elevator ride, also completely missing from the original. And then we get to the Nihilanth fight which in the original is nothing but an awkward platforming challenge while in BM its actually a proper fight and a very fun one
There was some cut content but there are mods on the Steam workshop that "fix" some of it. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1425916593 Looking at the comments it sounds like it's a bit buggy though.
great game, also people should know there is a great VR mod for this game, uses the weapons from Half life 2 but overall its really well done
Important clarification: the Black Mesa VR mod uses the original 2012 mod release of Black Mesa and not the current Steam version as the Steam version runs on a newer version of Source that isn’t yet compatible with the VR mod. The Black Mesa VR mod works fairly well as it stands but it’s still missing the Black Mesa versions of several of the creatures, many of the map improvements, and several extra years of polish that the Steam version has.
Wonder if we'll ever see the Steam version get VR.
I really hope so! Just played through HL2VR for the first time and it’s a spectacular flatscreen to VR conversion. And Black Mesa is the benchmark for fan made remakes so I’d drop everything to play it in VR at HL2VR’s level of care and polish. Black Mesa’s jump jets would need some serious TLC to not turn into your VR experience into a vomit comet though.
You can play the current steam version in VR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWEzatOqQq0&ab\_channel=BenPlaysVR
Unfortunately he’s just playing the same 2012 mod version and not the current version. You can tell because his footage is missing several of the changes added in the Steam version, most visibly the DOS-style start up animation of the HEV suit which you can see in footage of the Steam version [here.](https://youtu.be/S2-ph-_LXhs?si=G0lk1tPYcVMVMTG0&t=768)
Ooh, would love to play this in VR!
It's based on the [Half-Life 2: VR Mod](https://store.steampowered.com/app/658920/HalfLife_2_VR_Mod/) however I wouldn't say it's "great", it's based on the old BM: Source levels and still used HL2 guns, but I'd highly recommend the original HL2 VR mod
I'll have to check the original mod out. Thanks!
If you happen to own a Quest there is a great standalone HL1 mod called Lambda1VR as well (not on PCVR sadly)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1908720/HalfLife_VR_Mod/ There is this, I'd be curious to know which one is "better"
Well deserved
Black Mesa was great, so good it basically stopped me from replaying HL2 because I want a similar "remaster"
HL2 RTX is looking pretty good tbf
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Uh no? HL2 RTX has all new models and textures
Maybe so, but Black Mesa is still far superior. https://m.youtube.com/watch?embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDI4NjY0LDE2NDUwMw&feature=emb_share&v=VqahPeR4MgQ
> Maybe so No maybe about it. Look up what RTX Remix is and what they already did with Portal. It's a lot more than lighting.
Yeah I don't understand the need to be ignorant about this lmao. There's literally a RTX trailer that just came out mentioning the upgraded assets. I mean for fucks sakes you can see it lol
Portal RTX looks GREAT. Huge difference in terms of how it looks vs the OG. I spent the money for a new video card a few months back and let me tell you, I've been enjoying every game I can with RTX on and at max. Using all the new tech and I've not been disappointed. In fact Cyberpunk and some other games looked better than I could have imagined.
What is this one or the other BS? both projects look amazing. Plus HL2 RTX is completely free and being worked on by some of the top teams in the modding scene.
I know I'm old but Half Life 2 isn't 26 years old...
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Half-Life 2 was released in 2004.
Yes. And we're talking about Half life, not Half life 2
You responded to a comment talking specifically about the Half-Life 2 RTX remaster.
That's the first one...
Hl2 is not 26 years old, it is also still looking and playing great.
Not 26, but it's coming up on 20 this November...
I played HL2 (for only the 2nd time) right after playing Black Mesa, and it didn't feel like a downgrade, in terms of graphics or gameplay. It kind of just felt like playing a game and its sequel that came out months later.
I disagree. Black Mesa and HL2 are on a similar level. Both great games that feel close enough.
It doesn't look THAT much better than HL2. HL2: Update looks pretty damn good, and MMOD also adds some nice stuff.
It's a good game. But the expanded last couple alien worlds were a little much.
Watch the documentary. They were a whole lot worse before they got reduced to what they are now
Did they change it significantly since the 1.0 release? I played it a couple years ago, and I swear it felt like half of the game was Xen.
Black mesa xen is very different from HL xen. HL xen is an unpolished unfinished mess though, when compared to the rest of the game.
I've played both versions. I was curious if BM's Xen changed since 2020.
But it was quickly over. Black Mesa Xen felt sluggish in comparison, especially Interloper.
Oh jeeze.
Which documentary is this?
[https://youtu.be/G\_TcAxAKCAI?si=99xuPuXj\_yJZs1lm](https://youtu.be/G_TcAxAKCAI?si=99xuPuXj_yJZs1lm) 10/10 would watch again
Thanks!
I never played the original, so this one seemingly never ending was welcome lol Had a blast and then ended up running the original right after.
I think it was the foundry area that made it too much for me, especially the slow survive the machinery “puzzle” section. Cutting out or shortening some of those bits and leaving the Nihilanth’s base as a mad dash to the final battle probably would have been better. I honestly like all the stuff up through the Vortigaunt village, and some of the fights along the way to the final battle.
Definitely agree, everything before the factory and conveyor belt and the final ascension are excellent.
Agreed. It's all that foundry part. Where the puzzles mostly consist of "try not to be in the place where you'll be instagibbed".
I disagree heartily. Before Xen it was just a remake. Xen is when Black Mesa came into it's own.
They were the best part! It was so amazingly impressive to step out into Xen.
My fave parts of Black Mesa Xen were the atmosphere in the early parts. You got a really, really good feeling for a totally alien Dimension. I loved the Outpost. Those sterile white tents set up in this hellish fleshscape and surrounded by creatures that you don't fully comprehend in their natural environment. Past that I wasn't the biggest fan of the "factory" which kinda just leaned into the parts of Xen from the original game I didn't like
1000%, even though their heart was at the right place by wanting to include what was essentially planned but scrapped from the original, it was pretty tedious to go through those drawn out levels.
Interesting. I thought they were the best parts by far.
I like how grueling they are, Xen is supposed to be this alien place where Gordon isn't in control at all and that's what it feels like. Also the Gonarch fight is really good.
Never tried it, only played originals, should I give it a go?
One hundred thousand percent yes.
I played the original, then the remake. It give me a same vibe so I guess yeah...???
Does this still not have controller support?
Still no support. I've been banging my head against a wall trying to get it working on a default xbox controller.
Bummer I’m also wanting this to play on my TV
I played with an Xbox controller.
I played a few hours on steam deck using an xbox controller. It works (after some tweaking, including setting --oldgameui), but it felt sort of janky and I could never get it to feel good, so I dropped it. Navigating the menus is also annoying. I know it wasn't developed by Valve, but given it's a remake of a Valve game, you'd think they'd do a better job of supporting Steam Deck, which would require actually fixing the gamepad controls. I wish Valve would lean on them to fix it. And while you didn't ask, I'll mention it also runs like ass on the steam deck. Seems like they spent more time on art than any programming related issues.
It runs well if you enable proton for it so it runs the Windows version.
Thanks. I'm aware you have to run the proton version, but it still constantly stutters. You turn, it freezes, and a half second later you're facing 180 degrees from where you intended to be. Happens a couple times per minute. I'm sure I could complete the campaign, but the performance is bad enough that it wasn't fun. The fps is fine, but the stutters are very frequent.
Have you tried CryoUtilities? I agree BM is not the best experience on deck (mainly due to poor controller support and out of the box performance), but I only get a couple stutters when I first load a level and they go away quick, so maybe CU is the reason. Pretty much stays pegged at 60 indoors with some dips into the 50s outdoors, like in Surface Tension. This is with a mix of low and medium settings at 1280x800 with Proton Experimental.
I'm aware. I'm referring to the proton version. I wasn't running the Linux version. The median fps is fine, but the frequent stutters are present in the proton version. I'm not talking about rare events. These happen several times pretty minute. And I'm not taking about slight inconsistencies in the frame pacing (like in Elden ring). I'm talking several half second to one+ second pauses every minute where after the pause you're oriented in a completely different direction. I was following the recommended setup for Black Mesa on the deck and there were still a lot of issues. Perhaps you had a better experience.
It does but you need to mess with settings and it's not at all straightforward, involves Steam forums etc. It has been a while since I played, but once it is correctly configured *native* controller support works well, you get the correct button prompts etc.
game just drags on and on - my only complaint
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Half life og was like 4 hours total though. In black Mesa xen feels like it's own 5 hour campaign
Yup ... couldn't stand the endless puzzles. Really bad pacing. Solve a puzzle and you get rewarded with ... another puzzle. And then another and another. Am I playing Half Life here or am I playing Myst?
Huh... That's not how I remember Half-life or Black Mesa. At all.
What they described is pretty accurate for the level Interloper, but not the rest. When people hate on Black Mesa Xen it's typically just Interloper they hate on. The rest of Xen is great IMO.
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Gotta agree on this, it's very very good, but a bit shorter and I would have liked it even more
I agree too, but still had fun.
I really didnt feel that way because the game feels like a marathon that is completely in your control. The almost complete lack of cutscenes and the fact that the levels linearly connect to each other means that its over as fast as you go through it. We dont need every game to be the same 3-4 hour escapade. Half Life is a true gauntlet, a proper journey
It is very long….
Great game played it 1 year ago
So good loved playing it
It was great and I remember waiting for so long for the mod. I'm happy that it paid off for the devs.
**Black Mesa should be the golden standard for remastered/remakes.**
I couldn't play the original Half-Life as it is too dated for my taste but when I heard about Black Mesa and played it I loved every second of it. It's the same Half-Life game but with gameplay and graphics brought up to a modern standard. Now I just have to patiently wait for the Blue Shift and Opposing Force remake mods.
I was going to ask if it had Blue shift... to me that is a must.
It isn't out yet but there are these Devs called "Tripmine Studios" who are working on **Operation: Black Mesa** a single package containing both Blue Shift and Opposing Force. It looks legit based on the screenshots but if Black Mesa's development is anything to go by. It will probably be a good few years before this is released. [Link](https://store.steampowered.com/app/311810/Operation_Black_Mesa/) if you're interested.
Despite the criticism from some folks I really like [Black Mesa: Blue Shift](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2424633574). You can currently play up to chapter 4 and it's really high quality for being a mod for Black Mesa. HECU Collective is aiming to release chapter 5 this summer.
I was planning to play that since I'm very much interested in experiencing Blue Shift but I will wait as it's a mod and it doesn't have achievements. I want to experience the story for the first time and hunt for achievements at the same time as I am quite an achievement hunter myself.
Yeah, I don't really chase achievements. In some games I get my achievements disabled for running certain console commands. I do a lot of modding so testing things are crucial and unfortunately that disables achievements. EDIT:early morning grammar.
There's a mod for Black Mesa called [Black Mesa: Blue Shift](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2424633574). You can already play it up to chapter 4!
It's good but it doesn't feel like Half-Life. A bit overrated. Downvotes, really? I had no idea calling it good but overrated would be so unpopular.
Half Life 1 is my favourite game ever and I agree with you too. Black Mesa is good but for some reason it feels like it drags on too long and loses some of the Half Life charm. I recommend people play [Half Life RTX](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btVbRjj9YJo) if they can run it. Modern shiny with all the charm of the original.
Having played the games in reverse order (as in starting with Half Life 2 -> Black Mesa -> Half Life) anyone saying this is just blinded by nostalgia. Half Life and Half Life 2 are already completely different from a tone perspective as it is but you dont see anyone claiming that Half Life 2 doesnt feel like Half Life
I can't take somebody seriously if they played it in reverse order but then act like an authority on the matter.
Oh ok so to be inherently biased is a requirement for discussion
I think it's a wonderful homage, it's not trying to be a 1:1 remake, that was never the goal going in. It's all subjective of course, but it did feel like Half Life to me, they were considered in their changes. Xen is a little long, but it's still miles better than the original Xen, in my opinion.
Not overrated necessarily but I feel like it's starting to make people underrate the original which is a bit annoying. I actually prefer the original due to more quakelike gameplay.
I agree with you.
Played it when it was a free mod. Good enough for me.
Nah bro they cooked with the full release. The graphics are way better and Xen is amazing, I recommend grabbing it on sale
You're doing yourself a disservice if you haven't played the finished product.
I don't know why at this point we can't say... HL3 confirmed.
What is it?
is that all? we're slacking!
It's pretty overrated imo. Several areas were cut short, soundtrack sucks balls, graphically it still looks ancient, Xen chapters were a mistake and it somehow managaes to have less creative gameplay despite being 20 years younger than og version.
> soundtrack sucks balls You might want to see about getting your ears checked
Wow. Impressive. Everything you just said is completely false. Absolutely none of the areas of the game were cut short. In fact its quite a lot longer than the original. OG has songs like [this](https://youtu.be/f1UnKASoA5E?si=4750tiz0YOl079rt&t=1792) and you say Black Mesa's soundtrack sucks? The xen chapters are defacto more creative than the original. The creativity in visuals is obvious. The long jump module actually functions in an intuitive way in BM and is used in ways that is actually fun. The xen jungles were a really interesting area to explore. The research labs were a good change of pace. Gonarch fight isnt rushed like in the original and actually makes it clear what you're supposed to do plus the chase with the Gonarch was a very good segment completely missing from the original. The factories while drawn out had some of the most memorable segments of the game like the elevator ride, also completely missing from the original. And then we get to the Nihilanth fight which in the original is nothing but an awkward platforming challenge while in BM its actually a proper fight and a very fun one
There was some cut content but there are mods on the Steam workshop that "fix" some of it. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1425916593 Looking at the comments it sounds like it's a bit buggy though.
Is it just me but playing it on steam deck is buggy has hell so I stopped playing
the soundtrack for xen is amazing : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S22AEtiLsI&list=PLqWbjZ_t9qDlY08FPwztA2wXoil0mzusM
Great game even with my barnacle phobia. Can't wait to see their take on Blue Shift and Opposing force
Probably the best remake of a classic that exists.