Oh, Beyond Black Mesa. You hyped us up so badly. But then you came out, and you weren’t quite what we expected from a Half-Life fanfilm. You messed with the canon and your story made little sense. But, at the end of the day, you delivered some great action scenes, and you had the courage to go beyond the boundaries of the established Half-Life continuum, proving that not every single Half-Life fanfilm had to be about a bunch of lowlife rebels during the Uprising.
And then we found out you might be getting a sequel. And we were hyped up, all over again. And then we- Wait, what? It’s out already?
Apparently… yes:
Alright! I can’t wait for the nex- Wait, what? That’s it? It’s not just a trailer? It’s not just the first part in a series? Oh. Ohhhh, boy.
I mean, don’t get me wrong. It was a fantastic video. Even if the CGI layouts were just a bit off (I realized that’s the look they were trying to do, but it just didn’t look right, and it could have used a bit more work), and the whole HEV thing was a bit too over-the-top, I thought it was awesome. But a two-minute fanfilm? Is that even a fanfilm, at this point? I mean… what’s the point? I was hoping for something sort of like a documentary – what with the whole newspaper clipping in the first teaser image. I thought that would have been great: it would have worked as a perfect antithesis to “Aperture: A Triumph of Science”. But hey, that would have just been my ideal scenario. Even continuing past the 2-minute video itself, going into a shorter, more succint re-telling of the events of Half-Life would have worked. Anything, just to give it a more substantial length. Not just barely two minutes.
However, for what it’s worth, this is a pretty cool little video. And the post-credits scene? Hilarious. Good job, Infectious Designer.
4 Responses to ““Half-Life: Origins” – From The Creators of Beyond Black Mesa”
I liked it. I think the black levels really suffered due to what Vic is calling the “CGI layouts” which makes it a little duller in the color department and less clear in general but I otherwise found it quite entertaining as a teaser style film.
Afaic I’ll take any kind of Half-Life universe fan production. Short is better than nothing!
Dint get hyped for this one so i wasent let down, they did a good job imo. Ending was great! :L
‘Twas in my bed poking about on Facebook for the iPod when I stumbled upon a link Valve put up that said Half-Life. I foolishly though they had an “actual” announcement on HL3 so I click it in eager anticipation only to be shot down by a live action film. I said “ok, it looks really cool nonetheless”, then I get a 2 minute recollection of scenes. It was well done, but it didn’t feel like Half-Life at all. However I do like the man playing freeman, a great choice indeed. However I’m rather disappointed in this, perhaps it was just my over-anticipation for something substantial related to Half life. Oh well.
I hope that more comes out of these guys, cuz they actually made something I wanted to watch this time.