Recent reviews by Oracle

My opinions on Black Mesa after completion: fantastic game but i still remain adamant that it is not a direct upgrade and there are many merits to still playing the original. My main issues stem from it’s presentation with visuals and sound, many of the sounds are, in my opinion, downgrades, notably the G-Man, Nihilanth, Eli Vance, houndeyes and the zombies who don’t sound quite right, these can be rectified with mods besides Eli however the voice actor does his best and Eli is barely present in the game but still important to mention. The zombies sound generic and lack the otherworldly-ness of Half Life 1 and the disturbing horror of Half Life 2, feeling cheap by comparison to either, same issue applies with the Nihilanth it feels too generic and less mysterious. The voices of the HECU are up to preference I myself am unsure of which I prefer, the real issue lies in their visual presentation which is a bit too different and modern when comparing to the original, the biggest of these flaws can be seen in the assassins which, for some reason, have Aperture Science long fall boots, which heavily affects and contradicts lore and makes 0 sense. Another issue with visuals are key with the Nihilanth and Alien Grunts, the grunts models are fine but lack colour and look extremely muddy and are hard to define against backgrounds sometimes, the Nihilanth design is missing a key feature being that it’s third arm is grafted onto it’s body in the original game whereas in Black Mesa I guess they didn’t notice, didn’t care or forgot? minor grievance but still the remake straying away for the worse. The lighting affects and lens flares are a bit much when in the outside chapters but can be turned down in the settings to preference. Onto Xen, absolutely looks gorgeous, genuinely one of if not the most beautiful experiences in an FPS I’ve ever had with fantastic music to accent every highlight however I have to mention the 'Interloper' chapter. It just drags on and on with repeating puzzles that are confusing and reusing ideas constantly, plug this in here and find another plug, now do that about 8 more times, now shoot this thing and find the next thing to shoot, all along with reusing the same room 3 separate times with an attempt at a mini-boss with an alien controller? I get it’s supposed to familiarise the player with the destroying healing crystals to prepare for the Nihilanth but did we have to do it 3 times in a row? I got the picture. That actual Nihilanth boss fight however is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing, a stand out part of the game and easily where Black Mesa improves the most just all around fantastic. Weirdly enough the damage numbers and enemy health changes make the game feel easier? and the Assassin AI feels worse to fight as they feel more dumb compared to the original but overall phenominal product and a must play for any half life fan, many of my issues can be fixed with the built in workshop support which is fantastic for any game to have, if you have the money do yourself a favour and buy this game.

It's pretty good.