I was absolutely blown away from this game.

All the way from the gameplay, to the soundtrack, the visuals, and the story. All were extremely well done! This is more than exactly what I was looking for in a remake of the original Half-life. The earthbound section of the game was really exciting because of what was added to enhance the Half-life experience. One small example would be when you have to sneak past some human grunts with another scientist fellow to get him to unlock a door for you. That was just one example of what made this remake amazing, but there are definitely much more. But when I got to Xen... I couldn't hold back my tears for how amazing it was. It took the original bland and irritating version of Xen from the original game and got rid of it. My favorite part of Xen, and probably the entire game, was when Gordon was heading up an alien elevator and the soundtrack, Ascension, from the great musical composer Joel Nielsen started. The feeling of just trying to run and survive that you felt at the start of the game was completely transformed into a deep feeling that your mission was to save the entire world from the terrors of what would come next if you failed. You were no longer reacting to the environment around you... you were the main thing causing it. Xen was made very emotional and exciting in Black Mesa compared to the original Half-life, and I really enjoyed it! I'm definitely happy that it turned out that way, and don't even mind that it took that long to make Xen. Being patient was difficult, but I must admit... it was worth it. Thank you for this remake of my all time favorite game. And also for porting Black Mesa to Linux! I can't wait to see what's next from Crowbar Collective!

Now performance wise, on Linux. This game didn't run all too well in beta version for me. But after this new Definitive update, it runs a little smoother and my GPU runs a little cooler during the earthbound sections. In Xen, it's definitely playable, but a little on the slow side, sometimes dipping to 30-40 FPS in some intense sections. I can't wait to see what performance enhancements they make for Linux next!

I was absolutely blown away from this game. All the way from the gameplay, to the soundtrack, the visuals, and the story. All were extremely well done! This is more than exactly what I was looking for in a remake of the original Half-life. The earthbound section of the game was really exciting because of what was added to enhance the Half-life experience. One small example would be when you have to sneak past some human grunts with another scientist fellow to get him to unlock a door for you. That was just one example of what made this remake amazing, but there are definitely much more. But when I got to Xen... I couldn't hold back my tears for how amazing it was. It took the original bland and irritating version of Xen from the original game and got rid of it. My favorite part of Xen, and probably the entire game, was when Gordon was heading up an alien elevator and the soundtrack, Ascension, from the great musical composer Joel Nielsen started. The feeling of just trying to run and survive that you felt at the start of the game was completely transformed into a deep feeling that your mission was to save the entire world from the terrors of what would come next if you failed. You were no longer reacting to the environment around you... you were the main thing causing it. Xen was made very emotional and exciting in Black Mesa compared to the original Half-life, and I really enjoyed it! I'm definitely happy that it turned out that way, and don't even mind that it took that long to make Xen. Being patient was difficult, but I must admit... it was worth it. Thank you for this remake of my all time favorite game. And also for porting Black Mesa to Linux! I can't wait to see what's next from Crowbar Collective! Now performance wise, on Linux. This game didn't run all too well in beta version for me. But after this new Definitive update, it runs a little smoother and my GPU runs a little cooler during the earthbound sections. In Xen, it's definitely playable, but a little on the slow side, sometimes dipping to 30-40 FPS in some intense sections. I can't wait to see what performance enhancements they make for Linux next!