Black Mesa Space Basement - GrandmasterJ
With a name like Black Mesa Space Basement this map had better be a wacky adventure! It certainly has a lot of wacky custom models and a crazy map layout!
Author: Forastero
Date of final release: 2010
Maps in package: 1
Map review of Black Mesa Space Basement
(originally posted on SCMapDB)
Black Mesa Space Basement sounds like wacky hijinks, and it kind of is. The level itself is nothing special, some standard Black Mesa hallways, computer rooms, and textures, with tons of props and furniture cluttering everything up. The main feature of the map is the heavy use of new models for the various enemies players must fight. Some models where red skeletons, some were Half-Life 2 antlions, there was a couple of xenomorphs, and even the yellow robot lifter seen once in the opening scene of Half-Life.
Players start out in a room filled with weapons and ammo. This is a pretty good room with plenty of supplies for my teammate and I. We open the extra thick door to reveal four red skeletons with about 3000 health each. This is one of those maps where players have huge arsenals and all the enemies have ridiculously high health. We fling them around with explosives, they are normal zombies so there is nothing to fear.
This escalates, we ran into some trouble with the antlion and a gonome, but we persisted until we find a scientist in a spinning thing. I think it was supposed to be a holographic projection, but my teammate ran right into the whirling things and began beating Dr. Frederick to death (he's the main antagonist). He died but the map continued so we jumped into one of three teleporters and appeared in a floating platform in space with some kick-ass boss fight music and a red Apache with like 80000 health. The spawn point resets to here so as we slowly whittled it down with rockets dying didn't hinder us too much. The Apaches goes down and the map ends.
Pretty much the moment the server shut down my teammate showed me screenshots of a big open area with the previously mentioned big yellow robot loader thing from the intro scene of Half-Life 1. We didn't see that. So I restarted the server and noclipped around. We don't get there in Dr. Frederick's lab, all three teleporters lead to floating Red Apache land. There is another place that dead ends into a gonome and long jump module with some teleporters. This is where players end up fighting the big loader. But alas, it has a lot of health too and I didn't feel like killing it so I just quit. Maybe that thing also ends the map?
This map uses the rather overdone and tired Black Mesa aesthetic and contrasts it with wacky enemies, a cartoon villain, and sudden boss fight(s) with great action music. It is definitely a map made with more people in mind, just two people whittling down the enemy's health was kind of a slog. The map doesn't take too long so there is no reason not to give it a try.
Pros:
- fun model replacements
- great spawn room and overall map supplies
- updating spawn point
- I really like the music
Cons:
- the map didn't look all that great
- an entire boss fight was skippable. Is that intentional? I nearly missed out on a third of the map
- At what point do enemies have too much health?
Score: 6 / 10
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