Playing Black Mesa every time they do a major update is fascinating. The game is absolutely imploding under its own weight and the combat somehow feels worse than ever. Don't tell me this combat loop was their "vision" when it's clearly holding on to issues HL2 has had forever.

You could not ask a programmer or designer why they let marines run and shoot when they don't in HL1 because it wasn't a conscious decision. The Combine do it, they just went with that.

Are bullsquids doing nothing an intentional design choice when you can see them failing an attempted "establish los" schedule if you look at them in dev mode? Despite all these big reworks I'm guessing all these schedules are just decided in super messy if else behavior trees.

I'm real sad about the legacy of HL1 sometimes. It feels like no one actually appreciates what it did right gameplay wise at all. Like we're just never getting a modern take on what's interesting about it and I don't mean just in remakes/fan projects.