Black Mesa

In 1998, Valve and Gearbox came out with 'Half-Life'.  A FPS with plenty of movement traps.  A massive secret science installation in the New Mexico Desert.  You play as an employee in one of the many labs.  There is an accident in your group which causes a "Resonance cascade" (Basically hostile aliens port into the base all over).  The Army is called in to "Clean up" the situation (which also involves 'silencing' any potential witnesses).   You spend most of the game in the installation trying to make your way to some colleagues who have figured a way of stabilizing the problem. 

Black Mesa is a remake of the original game that takes place around the Black Mesa facility.  It does NOT include Xen (The alien world you get teleported to in order to help stabilize the problem).  It's too bad that I didn't know this when I started playing it.  I was really looking forward to how they recreated THAT place.  I remember going to Xen back when I played the original.  That place -  Completely alien...technologically...physically.  I remember feeling both amazed and disturbed;  It was more than an FPS at that point...it was interactive art...and it made you feel.

Lets face it though; Valve is amazing.   Progression puzzles aren't my thing anymore.  I honestly find them annoying now...especially when the graphics are so good that the 'Interactables'  become hard to spot.  It's like what I have been saying; sometimes better graphics needs accounting for in regards to gameplay.

For me, Half-Life 2 was my favorite game from them.  ID Games were coming out with Doom3 crowding down grey dark interiors facing mostly predictable enemies with a SMG that seems to fire spit balls for all the damage it does.  HL2 had an open world feel with Killer Helicopter chases ... scary head crab zombie towns and epic Super-Sized battles with HUGE alien walkers!!!  It was YEARS ahead of its time and still would be a contender if it was released today...10 YEARS LATER!!! 

HL1 does have a following of devoted fans.  The problem with being a fan is that you tend to be a little biased.  Great for them...but HL1 is just not complete without Xen.  It is like eating a cake before the icing gets put on...or having the icing after you eat the cake.