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Black Mesa >  Workshop > HECU Collective's Workshop > Black Mesa: Blue Shift > Discussions
Black Mesa: Blue Shift
Description Discussions138 Comments4109 Change Notes
Yohan47 18 May @ 2:07am
Focal point is not enjoyable
Iam just gonna say it how it is. I dont understand how you could release this. The whole chapter is just stuff put on stuff put on more stuff. I was stuck 10 minutes on 1 place not knowing how to proceed just to realize I was never ment to go there. But your 10/10 level design just leads me into that place. I didnt even complete it. My game keeps crashing. My most recent savepoint is in air when my game crashed so everytime I try to reload I fall to death just to crash after few tries.

Enemy spawns feel terrible. I dont feel in living envyroment. I feel like game devs just spawning enemies at me just for me to shoot something. This is not problem of Focal point. Last 2 chapters were just terrible to play. Only enjoyable stuff for me were NPC interactions. Heres a train, go there, while you go there lets spawn 3 soldiers for you to shoot something. Then continue, there is switch you have to activate and then back into train. dont forget to jump out and activate another switch to continue. Oh well now you need to reversve that train all the way back, but dont worry we will spawn another 3 soldiers so you can shoot something again. AND DONT FORGET TO JUMP OUT OF THAT TRAIN AND PRESS THE SWITCH AGAAAAIIINNNN. Feels like lazy game dev design. You introduce new mechanic and you just spam it 3-5 times in a row and it takes away from immersion. Same as the door you have to destroy with rocket launcher.

I heard that devs are working on some kind of patch. I will gladly give this another chance. But in current state I dont want to go nowhere near it.

PS: Sorry for my english but its not my first language. Peace I am out.
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Showing 1-11 of 11 comments
Gairsh 19 May @ 4:40pm 
Hard agree on this. I genuinely don't understand what went wrong. The mod was on the edge of perfection from the start, and then they dropped the ball hard on Focal Point, which has to be the most polished, good-looking jank I've played in the last decade.

Whenever I revisit this mod in the future, that'll be the one chapter I'll make sure to skip every single time. Sometimes, more isn't necessarily better. The creative liberties they took with Focal Point are simply not it imo
#1
Canoespotzewulfe 20 May @ 2:04pm 
Too much ambition, and too little despair.

Barney Calhoun is just a security guard, a power scale to his foes shows that he is reaching the bare minimum to survive, it being a hard experience for Barney doesn't mean his foes have a blood thirst radar and are actively hunting for his guts. Neither should his path be filled with obstacles more than it originally had.

I appreciate the effort they put into the mod, the work and all. But that doesn't mean it is good.
#2
Doc Tear Popper 10 Jun @ 6:07pm 
Yeah, I gotta say Focal Point in the original Blue Shift was much more enjoyable. Gearbox had somehow managed to create the best version of Xen. Great environments, good game play. There wasn't too much platforming like in Xen from the original HL.

I feel like the developers of this mod made the same mistake as CC; and that was adding too much to the original. Don't get me wrong, I liked the BM version of Xen but Interloper was just a slog to get through. Focal Point in this mod feels like BM Interloper in that they added way too much stuff just for the sake of making the game longer.
#3
ilker 11 Jun @ 5:38am 
The part I don't understand is; how did bm survey team moved it the large structure parts to xen in 80's?
#4
Pyornkrachzark 11 Jun @ 1:28pm 
Originally posted by Doc Tear Popper:
I feel like the developers of this mod made the same mistake as CC (Crowbar Collective); and that was adding too much to the original. Don't get me wrong, I liked the BM (Black Mesa) version of Xen but Interloper was just a slog to get through. Focal Point in this mod feels like BM Interloper in that they added way too much stuff just for the sake of making the game longer.

I was thinking *exactly* the same while playing :-)
That said ... Black Mesa Blue Shift is great !!!
Last edited by Pyornkrachzark; 12 Jun @ 2:59am
#5
XOF 19 Jun @ 6:39pm 
Originally posted by Doc Tear Popper:
Yeah, I gotta say Focal Point in the original Blue Shift was much more enjoyable. Gearbox had somehow managed to create the best version of Xen. Great environments, good game play. There wasn't too much platforming like in Xen from the original HL.

I feel like the developers of this mod made the same mistake as CC; and that was adding too much to the original. Don't get me wrong, I liked the BM version of Xen but Interloper was just a slog to get through. Focal Point in this mod feels like BM Interloper in that they added way too much stuff just for the sake of making the game longer.
THIS
#6
Montey 20 Jun @ 11:26am 
I completely agree. I just finished it and it was a total pain.
Focal point is probably the worst level design I've seen in years.
#7
spice_ 5 Jul @ 1:52pm 
It's plain terrible and overstays its welcome by a solid few hours that can be cut without loss of content.
#8
•wenix• 7 Jul @ 9:15am 
besides couple small areas you have to think, i feel like only the ending where you have to go through the portal was hard, legit spent 15 minutes trying to kill alien controllers, had to turn on noclip
#9
Chebz 1 Aug @ 11:42pm 
I think the biggest problem with Focal Point is it's extremely repetitive. There's just too much of the same. Add a boss. Add a cool weapon. Add some new monsters. Personally don't care if it breaks the lore if gameplay isn't fun. I got exhausted solving the puzzles and combat isn't enjoyable.
#10
Boomerix 18 Aug @ 1:30pm 
The abandoned Black Mesa facilities were really cool, I liked that and I also find riding the ray neat. After the Manta ride was the point it started to get tedious for me, but at that point I could push through knowing it's soon over.

The final fight to get back to the portal though, damn that was annoying. I don't mind "hard" arena battles, I like to play Doom Eternal. This battle is just plain frustrating and annoying. You are under time pressure, you are not allowed to jump into the portal before killing all controllers which are annoying to deal with enemies under normal circumstances and you get constantly stuck on terrain. I quick saved my way through that battle until I finally managed to get through it.

This was definitely not like a Doom challenge fight were you pat yourself on the shoulder afterwards to finally won. All I felt after that fight was I never want to have to go though that fight again.
#11
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