10 Video Game Remakes With ONE Major Flaw

Black Mesa started out life as an unofficial, free fan-remake of Half-Life, only for it to be given unexpected approval by Valve for a commercial release, owing to both its popularity and its uncommon level of technical polish.

After an early access launch, Black Mesa finally had its full release in March of this year, where it was widely lauded for its graphical upgrade of the 1998 original, and for creatively reworking certain levels, especially the much-maligned alien world of Xen.

But there's one clear area where developers Crowbar Collective clearly overstepped, and that's with the game's infuriatingly aggressive HECU soldiers, who were given a major buff in terms of both their shooting accuracy and the damage they deal.

Furthermore, their AI routines are significantly more complex than in the original Half-Life, deploying real-life tactics such as flanking and suppressive fire, ensuring you'll die to these grunts a hell of a lot more than you did 20-odd years ago.

As impressive as Black Mesa is - enough that even Valve employees who worked on the original prefer it to their own creation - the beefed-up HECU soldiers feel like one "corrective" step too far.