Playing through the original Half Life...

[Ichinisan]

I get the feeling I'm not experiencing it the right way. I'm playing Half Life: Source on Win8 with all settings maxed.

Play control is simply unbearable. No matter how simple the platforming task, I always expect to fail repeatedly due to poor control and bizarre glitches. Interacting with ladders is an exercise in frustration, but I have a vague recollection the original had that problem too.

NPCs seem to have bizarre issues. For example, they seem to say the wrong lines frequently. Also, if an NPC gets hit by an enemy, he never stops making noises like is still being attacked and hit continuously, long after the threat was neutralized. Doesn't matter if it's one little bump from a head crab.

Sitting NPCs have appeared sunk into the floor beneath the chair; and also hovering above it.

I never played through the original because of bizarre glitches (like getting stuck when I touched a wall or railing). I just don't know if I should continue playing it this way because it seems even more glitchy.

To those that played through the original and enjoyed it: Should I play the unofficial remake instead?

[edit]
Also, the difficulty defaulted to "Easy" and I changed it to "Normal" before starting the game. It seems like splash damage hurts me at ridiculous distances and a single head crab bite takes a lot of health. Is this right?

 

[Ichinisan]

...also, what's the best way to get the Blue Shift high-res texture pack in Half Life Source? The steam download was over 4GB, but it doesn't seem to have the texture pack. There's an option to "Load HD content if available" and I've enabled it. I wouldn't call the high Rez textures "HD," but I think that's what it refers to. The setting seems to have no effect. Do I have to install Blue Shift? Is there a "Blue Shift: Source?"

 

[darkewaffle]

I' ve only played Black Mesa and HL2, but the platforming was a bother in BM as well. Though, imo, that's pretty common to FPS with any platforming simply because it's difficult for the game to represent your spatial relationship to anything around you when you can't see your body/feet/third person.

And ladders suck in pretty much all Source games too.

 

[Whitestar127]

I think I would have played the original original first.
Not the Source version.

And then continue with Black Mesa. But just skip the Half-Life: Source version altogether. Didn't like it one bit. Ladders are a bit of a hassle yes, but should be better with a little training.

 

[SpacemanSpiff46]

Yeah, I wouldn't touch the Source version. Some of those bugs I have never even heard of and I have played through the original probably close to 40 times.

Black Mesa Source is the way to go, although it has its share of bugs that are still being ironed out. I would go through the original, it should not have a majority of those glitches you have found in the source version. As far as ladders, try to jump on and off them, or try the use button "e" to attach and detach from them.

 

[gorcorps]

I got stuck in all sorts of stuff in the original, and had a lot of issues with jumping/platforming. It definitely wasn't perfect and shows how polished things have gotten over time (and now we take for granted).

 

[finglobes]

Ah source..I played HL2 and then EP1/EP2. I went back to play Source, and a few hours in I got stuck in some jumping puzzle that just would not resolve (including going back to earlier saves). Then I got Black Mesa mod and tried playing that way but by then I had played Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas etc and the old Half Life just looked more and more like an antique. I just couldn't get into it. No more jumping puzzles and box stacking for me. Now I tend to stay away from all the old games no matter how glowing the nostalgic review from the old hands who thought games from the 90s were so great when they played them at 12 yrs old. I even tried Morrowind once and my eyes almost fell out.

 

[werepossum]

Ah source..I played HL2 and then EP1/EP2. I went back to play Source, and a few hours in I got stuck in some jumping puzzle that just would not resolve (including going back to earlier saves). Then I got Black Mesa mod and tried playing that way but by then I had played Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas etc and the old Half Life just looked more and more like an antique. I just couldn't get into it. No more jumping puzzles and box stacking for me. Now I tend to stay away from all the old games no matter how glowing the nostalgic review from the old hands who thought games from the 90s were so great when they played them at 12 yrs old. I even tried Morrowind once and my eyes almost fell out.

Ought to be a law punishable by immediate traumatic loss of gonads for any programmer introducing jumping puzzles to any game where the player's character does not have feet.

Although personally I'd just truncate that law after "puzzles" . . .

 

[SPBHM]

I never tried half life source, but I played Hl1 from steam last year and had a ton of fun, the same with black mesa... it was very refreshing,


hl1 had no problems running on my PC and windows 8.
one problem with the steam version is the reduced soundtrack quality (64kbps mp3) compared to the CD version.

 

[BFG10K]

I lot of these are recent new bugs. You can thank Valve's Linux strategy for breaking the game and essentially relegating paying Windows customers to beta testers.

 

[you2]

I've been thinking of replaying this; which version - is black-mesa finsihed ? or source? I'm not sure which version I have - i have the old disks fromt he 1990's and that was translted to some sort of steam code so I have a steam copy but not sure if it is a source version

 

[gorcorps]

Ought to be a law punishable by immediate traumatic loss of gonads for any programmer introducing jumping puzzles to any game where the player's character does not have feet.

Although personally I'd just truncate that law after "puzzles" . . .

You'd like to live in a world without platforming games? In that case, you can kindly go jump off a cliff

 

[darkewaffle]

Black Mesa originally released in late 2012 iirc, but it was not complete at the time. It's still a great game but 'only' goes up until the

Spoiler

portal to Xen or Zin or whatever it is opens.

I think they had intended to release the rest at a later date but as far as I know the success of the original release got Valve's blessing to release the complete game commercially through Steam whenever it's done, so I'm not sure if the second half will ever get a 'free' release.

 

[EDUSAN]

The source version of hl1 is kinda crappy. Its the same game but with improved models and lightning effects. But its kinda weird cause the level design and textures remained the same so its a weird mix of stuff that doesnt look too good

Black Mesa is great, but its NOT the same game. Some parts were skipped and some parts were changed so... for the real experience, go play the old version of hl1, if not... black mesa is still ok
And the part that is not done in black mesa is actually the end section of the game, which is not that fun but its still the end. Black Mesa finishes in the "best" part which sucks