>>82996357Black Mesa Xen is amazing. I still think Half-Life 1 is better, but BM's Xen blows the original's out of the water. Personally I think you should play HL1 before playing Black Mesa. Playing Black Mesa first (or only) is like playing only Twin Snakes and never MGS1. There's just too much that's actually different for me to consider it a straight "replacement" for the original.
Also Black Mesa scientists are nowhere near as funny as HL1 scientists and I think Mint would enjoy how goofy they are.
