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BMS Classic - "Forget About Freeman!" (v1.04b)

BMS Classic started out as a simple mod aiming to undo some of the changes brought to Black Mesa in 1.0 and 1.5, such as unnecessary railroading, insultingly excessive handholding, questionable balance decisions, and watered-down combat. Since then, it's evolved into an attempt to bring together the best parts of Black Mesa and Half-Life and expand upon them.

Bringing back HL1 setpieces that didn't make the cut for one reason or another, adding incentive for the player to explore and investigate off the beaten trail, trusting players to be able to think and reason their way through puzzles without force-feeding them the answer, expanding upon areas of the facility to make it feel more alive, and making the player have to think about how they fight to survive - that's what BMS Classic aims to do.

Many maps have also received an additional detail pass, making them more atmospheric and immersive by way of enhanced/reworked lighting and improved water visuals. Attempts have also been made to improve performance on some particularly troublesome maps, but given Source's limitations, there's only so much that can be done.


It depends. Other chapter mods, such as the Chapter Overhaul mods or VOX Restoration mods, aren't compatible. BMSC extensively edits many of the game's maps, so any other mods that edit maps are going to run into conflicts. Compatibility with some of these mods (namely the VOX Restoration mods and Black Mesa Character Expansion) is something I'd like to investigate further down the line.


BMSC is primarily a joint effort, between Vassago Rain and myself. Some chapters also have additional support or resources from other modders, as listed in the Contributors section.

It's important to note that BMSC is fundamentally a two-man effort. There's only so much we have the time, resources, and ability to do. As such, we've had to make decisions about what does or doesn't get added/changed. We're just two people with a love for Half-Life doing what we can here, to try and realize Black Mesa's full potential. If you have specific questions about why certain changes were made, or why things were added/removed/etc., feel free to ask.


This download is the BMSC edition of Forget About Freeman. What was once a pair of dull, short filler maps has been heavily reworked, making them into a proper send-off for the Earthbound portion of the game - more atmospheric, more intense, and more difficult. Combat has been significantly overhauled, and the first map's flow has been reworked to make better use of the space.

A more detailed changelog can be found in the Workshop download folder - for this addon, that'll be somewhere like Steam/steamapps/workshop/content/362980/2586672474. The contents of the changelog can also be found in the pinned discussions.

Because of how heavily the geometry for the first map of FAF had to be reworked, this download also includes the .vmf files for BMSC FAF. They can also be found in the Workshop download folder, in the /mapsrc/ directory, alongside all the instances needed for the chapter.

If you want to use BMSC FAF as a foundation for another mod, you are welcome to do so - so long as you provide credit to myself and Vassago Rain and link back to this page. I'd also appreciate it if you told me about your mod - I'd certainly like to see what other people can do with these maps.