re: Half Life 2

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There are a lot of things in games that feel gimmicky and out of place.

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It's been a couple of years since I've last played it but the only portion of Half-Life 2 that felt like it didn't belong were these physics based puzzles. Picturing Gordon moving around bricks so a giant seesaw will tip to one side just didn't feel like it fit with the story.

Other games have boss battles, and they are an established video game trope that can be at odds with the story or gameplay (see Deus Ex: Human Revolution), but Half-Life 2 doesn't have them. (You could argue the helicopter is a boss, I guess, but it doesn't feel like one in the traditional sense.)

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It's to break up the gameplay and offer a change of pace. Boss fights comes to mind as something that takes you out of the routine and makes you have to think a bit.

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You are completely right here. That's why those physics puzzles are in the game. I agree, but there is a better way to accomplish the same thing and have it fit in with the story and HL2 does it! They do it with the turret puzzles, the boat and dune buggy sections, and even Ravenholm. All of that is done to give the player something new to do or force them to approach the game in a different way than they have before. But those all fit with the thematic elements, imo. Pushing around crates doesn't.

And I think the fact these types of puzzles are heavily reduced in Episode 1 & 2 is evidence that Valve realized this.

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So I just learned about black mesa source this weekend.

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Is it finished?

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Unfortunately, no. I just finished playing through it. The section you can play is, but the Xen levels still aren't done. There was also a section of Surface Tension that was cut out, but someone else modded it in. LINK

what is this black mesa source? how do i download? ive never played the first half life

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what is this black mesa source? how do i download? ive never played the first half life

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It's essentially half-life (minus a part from the end) on the source engine. It plays very similarly to half-life 2.

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what is this black mesa source? how do i download? ive never played the first half life

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As has been stated, it's a remake of Half-Life 1 with more modern graphics and some gameplay adjustments. You can watch the trailer here.

And here are some comparison shots:

Original Half-Life


Black Mesa Source


Original Half-Life


Black Mesa Source

Holy shite. I'm getting it

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I dont mean to sound racist but ive ran into the same black guy in 5 different rooms.

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I think that's more a reflection of the original game. In vanilla Half-Life, I think there were 3 scientist skins / models, 2 white guys and a black guy and those were duplicated all throughout the entire game.

In Black Mesa Source, they try to make a few of them unique for (HL2) story reasons, but you'll see several of them duplicated multiple times. It would've been nice if they had created more variety. But hey, at least they added some female scientists.