Absolutely fantastic game. Incredible alone and even better with friends or even just randoms.

Many players of Black Mesa will have of course played Half-Life and I am no exception. Black Mesa does a very good job of sticking to the source material in many places, although I feel that Xen stretched it very close to being just a brand new alien world. But given the circumstances of the original Half-Life's Xen, a reimagining was in order (As well as Xen still being in beta at the time of this review.)

The soundtrack by Joel Nielsen is absolutely incredible. It shines no matter what track it is, from Surface Tension to Questionable Ethics, all the way to Transcendent (The first track in Xen).

The weapons feel really close to their Half-Life counterparts minus some balancing changes. One issue I have is that later on in Xen, the unlimited supply of ammo for the tau cannon and gluon gun makes every other weapon pointless, although this is changed by the final boss.

The voice acting goes from just above average to incredible, some of the actors really fill their role perfectly, while others seem to be giving it a pretty good go. I understand that this is merely a fan project, but some lines could certainly be redone.

The final boss does stray quite a bit from the source material as well, although it feels like a more challenging and more fun and fair fight versus the original.

All in all, I personally recommend anyone who hasn't already to play the original Half-Life before trying Black Mesa out. While it is an incredible piece of work, understanding the source material helps a lot as well.

I had serious considerations about writing this review, mainly because I didn't think I could do it justice. Hell, I still don't think I can, but it's worth a try.

Making use of the Creation engine, Enderal is a masterpiece. This could easily pass for a triple A game, no problems. Visuals are beautiful, even beyond what you see in Skyrim with a few graphical mods. The contrast between areas such as an underground ruin to a beautiful lush forest at sunset, vibrant city to a gloomy woodland. All of it just astounds me that a team of modders made it.

The characters feel believable, lifelike, the voice acting really helping convey it. They don't seem to make huge jumps in behaviour, keeping it concise. What works with one may not work with another. All the main characters have their own set of morals, goals, dreams. You can pry further to learn more at times.

The world itself feels alive, not as in that things will change as you do things, but real. The slums of the main city really do feel like a slum compared to Riften of Skyrim where it felt like some poor people thrown with the better off in a heap. The deserts have their oases, the magical forests have the air of the mysterious, the ruins feel like you're the first to touch in years.

Combat is punishing in a good way. At harder difficulties, it may feel Dark Souls-esque to some. Healing spells and potions come with a cost. Abilities and talents reward your playstyle. The different trees really let you play how you wish, especially at higher levels where you can combine two trees to benefit from a 'cross talent' that works with both of the trees for an even more powerful passive buff. The one I ran into revived enemies to fight for me if they died after I used a certain ability.

Now the story, something I've struggled with. Not in a bad way, the story itself is brilliant, giving off twists and turns rather often, always leaving you guessing. What you know for sure turns out to be wrong, your hunches may be entirely invalid, or completely true. The story is what keeps me from coming back. Not because it's bad, but because I know how it ends and I don't want to live through that again. It made me genuinely feel for the characters, for the world. It's not a world I want to return to, at least not alone.

With it being free to anyone owning original Skyrim? You've got no reason not to play it. The only thing that can make it better would be if it worked with Skyrim Together (If and when it comes out.)

Not that big of a fan. Although I think part of it was a friend was hyping it up as the best thing ever, only for me to be let down. Sure, it has upsides. But it feels like they're trying to give you freedom but not too much. Like a sandbox but with gates, walls, someone staring down your shoulder trying to tell you HOW to enjoy yourself. Combat feels extremely repetitive to me. Use the same abilities over and over, quite a few of which have overly fancy and complex animations for something so basic. Charging at someone needs lightning effects for some reason and such.

Graphics are nice, I'll give it that much, but it can all start feeling the same, much like the combat. The story itself didn't grab me, just a bland sort of experience. The voice ranged from alright to almost hurting me inside. Parts of it also seem redundant, like you can grab food, smash it into better items or whatever. And all of that gives you nothing since you can fully heal out of combat at any time with no penalty for a very short cooldown.

Stealing stuff felt very bland. You have to sneak, stay out of sight and grab the item and then evade the owner of the item for some amount of time, otherwise they will instantly talk to you and force you to give the item back or something. I never bothered really, it just seemed like a waste of time.

What is there to say? It's Half-Life except you can play it with friends. There's other crazy maps bundled in with it too. Opposing Force and Blue Shift can be hooked in as well with a bit of know-how. Other mods and maps can probably be tossed in to, but I've yet to try.

Seriously, if you've wanted a reason to replay Half-Life, this is it.

Beautiful, just beautiful. While obviously at the start, Cave Johnson isn't actually the same voice, they got close. Starts with quite the Fallout theme with a Half-Life 1 style intro. Beyond that? I won't say. Any fans of Portal 1 and 2 MUST give this mod a try. How it ties in with the existing story is brilliant, it stays out of Chell's adventures but makes enough hints towards them that you feel like you're on a similar path at times.

Spoiler for the ending ahead.
And the ending, I'll admit I forgot it was tracking two non-organic threats. I thought it was two organic threats and one non-organic, so I assumed Chell was the second threat. But when it showed that GLaDOS was the other threat, I felt like I had to change it, somehow. Give me a chance to just drown the facility and take GLaDOS with it, but obviously that can't happen.

And of course, the final part, AEGIS doing the final shutdown procedures, I knew as soon as I saw the C that it would be Chell, but even then, the 'Good morning, you have been in suspension for 9999999...' still gave me chills, knowing that Mel had actually saved them both without even knowing it.

I'll say it again: Truly beautiful. The enviroments were brilliant, a few parts felt a little too overcrowded but it felt like it fit in that situation. The tests with the plant-life just took my breath away. I didn't want to continue at times, I just wanted to sit there and stare at it, walk through the leaves and just enjoy it. Yes it's a computer screen, but it didn't feel like it at the time. Old Aperture was on-point in so many ways, just how it made an effort to seem like Cave Johnson was putting everything into it, which he completely did. I feel like Portal 2 should have given us this sort of view. New Aperture felt like it fit. Sure the area had fallen into disrepair somewhat due to GLaDOS going down at the end of Portal 1, but it kept itself together through the time. The final 'fight' felt amazing enviroment wise as well, a mixture of old and new in all the right ways.

The overall feel of it was brilliant, even when I knew there was no sense of urgency, it felt like there was. I was rushing through parts, doing my best to speed through since the threat was coming. Masterful use of autosaves helped reinforce this despite the fact that it didn't mean too much anyway.

The puzzles themselves had me stumped and feeling like an idiot at times, and I thought I was masterful at it since I felt like I could complete most challenges that people could throw at me on the Workshop in Portal 2, but this was something else at times.

I did notice a few minor glitches, but they weren't gamebreaking at all, more just slightly confusing and perhaps annoying. I've yet to try the hard mode and I don't think I will, simply because I won't be able to do it.

The cinematics were masterful as well, they looked brilliant, really drew me into the whole feel of it. And the ending one. (Spoilers ahead)
Seeing the sheer scale of Aperture's complex, and that's just above ground, building on top of what was built there before but surrounded by vegetation, yet not completely taken over, almost as if the plants knew this was dangerous ground and one root too far and it would be all over for them.

As I said: It's a must for anyone who's even a bit of a fan of Portal 1 or 2.

I had no interest in Shadowrun to begin with, picked up Returns on Humble for free and never touched it. A friend of mine got me into the tabletops though, so I decided 'why not, let's try Returns' and I was rather impressed. It wasn't the best, sure, but it was good. I was so impressed I grabbed Dragonfall, and that just blew me out of the water. The story itself had changed quite a bit, the pacing was very different, but the core gameplay was the same, and that's what I loved about Returns. It was almost an instant buy for me to pick up Hong Kong. Now, I was expecting something good, even great, but the opening itself just messed me up. In a good way. I've said it to a few friends before "No game has the right to make me feel about a character, but damn this game is an exception." I won't go into spoilers here, but I almost cried over the ending. Harebrained really outdid themselves with Shadowrun: Hong Kong. I highly reccomend it for anyone who enjoys tactical combat and deep story, regardless of if you're a fan of the tabletops or have never even heard of Shadowrun before, it's a must pick for me.

So I got this game because I saw a YouTuber play it. Can't remember which one, but I was already in love. That was quite a while ago, but I still love this game. Yes the content is slow to release, but it's fantastic when it does. Nothing is half-done. There's weekly updates on how progress is going. I took a long break for a while due to getting hooked on other games, and when I came back, I was astounded with how much had changed. Completely converted perks system and such. But I got used to it rather easily. It was amazing how much of it had evolved after such a time. It was still the same game as core of course, but many new occupations and such. Even if I play it on an easier setting, I still try to act as if it's the hardest and I'll die at every turn.

I must admit, it's a strange game. Sparkle 2 Evo is quite relaxing but challenging at the same time, evolving your way, with different paths to choose from, or make your own, how your creature evolves is up to you. I will admit, I got this game quite cheaply from a Steam Badge Discount, but I digress. If you have money to spare or have a coupon and want a relaxing game, this might be for you, with the controller support it ought to please a bigger crowd.

Eh, that's all there really is to it, the voice acting is okay at best, seems like someone is trying to do Wheatley but can't do it that well, this just felt like a poorly made add-on for Portal 2. Sorry if I seem a bit blunt but I regret paying $5 for this mod, I don't mind the free soundtrack that came with it, which is amazing with the Steam Music Player, but I digress. If this was free, I wouldn't mind it, but paying for this with only mediocre voice acting and a tease for a gel gun, it's not quite what I expected, but if you REALLY love Portal 2 gel and want to play around with it some more with a gun that shoots gel and not portals, and a custom map isn't good enough, then you might like this.