I'm brand new to the half-life scene. I just bought the whole collection over the steam sale.

I was wondering what you oldie gamers thought I should play? Black Mesa or the original Half Life 1?

I tend to be a purist when it comes to playing a creator's intended content, but if I'm going to be missing out on a lot with BM, then I'd hate to miss out on a lot.

Thanks!

The original in it's Source version holds up pretty well IMO, I would play that.

Given how you described your tastes, I would go with Half-Life. Black Mesa is a full fan remake of Half-Life in the Source Engine. Don't confuse it with Half-Life: Source - that just took Half-Life, put it into the Source Engine, and that's it.

Black Mesa isn't quite a 'full' fan remake yet, and it will likely be quite some time before they put out the last part.
So go with Half-Life for now, then play Black Mesa afterwards or wait for Xen to happen.

I'd go with Half-Life: Source first (the original version doesn't hold up quite as well), then Black Mesa. Black Mesa is missing a portion of the game right now, but you can always play that after they release it as an update or standalone.

Xen was by far the worst part of HL1 anyway; they should leave it out permanently :).

Thanks for the advice, guys. I'll play HL: Source for my first time through.

NEW WATER BRO!

Half Life Source is not a full Source remake, it just uses some Source textures. It's still the best way to play the original nowadays. All but ruined the story/immersion for me. It reminds me of the scifi BS in Assassins Creed, or how in Indigo Prophecy, you get to play chapters 1-10, then 19 and 20 of what would have been an amazing game otherwise.

If you bought the whole collection, you should really play the original first. That way, you don't ruin yourself by having to go backwards to play Opposing Force (IMO the best title in the series).

I wouldn't even go with half life source, grab up half life, blue shift and opposing force, install all three, including the model upgrades (that you don't get in source) and go from there.

Although it might present itself as a cosmetic update, Black Mesa actually changes a fair amount of stuff. You get weapons in a much different order, the weapons themselves have undergone balancing tweaks, dialogue has been added or rewritten, many level segments have undergone significant redesign... the thing I found most noticeable, though, was that a lot of the sandboxiness of the original game was gone. In Halflife, puzzles had multiple solutions and there were a slew of quirky little hidden ways of doing things. Black Mesa took most of that out.

I'd play Halflife first, then come back and play Black Mesa some time down the road.

EDIT: oh, guess you already made your decision :P
I actually really liked Blue Shift. It was really short and lacking in content compared with Halflife and Opposing Force... but I remember it as feeling a lot more focused, having more enjoyable encounters, and having the best incarnation of Xen. Plus the story seemed a lot more cohesive, rather than just being a wild run from location to location with no real recurring characters or sense of purpose.

I have really fond memories of Halflife and its expansions. I remember it being so easy to turn off all the lights and get immersed in them way back in...umm...2007, I guess?

Yeah, I've always been a little behind the times :P The platforming certainly sucked, but I thought Xen itself was rather awesome.

The flash light is also much, much better in HL:S

If you have waited this long, I would wait for Black Mesa to include Xen, just me though.

The only thing I liked about HL:S were the ladders. For the most part, the combination of the old low-poly models and lo-res textures with the new elements like the water from the Source engine, was annoying as hell. It made it very clear that this was old content ported straight into a new engine. But the ladders were nice. I cannot count the times I've fallen off a ladder in the original Half-Life, often to my death.