My wife and I played Wild Horse and Black Mesa on consecutive days earlier this month. I think comparing the two is a fair apples-to-apples exercise, especially since we had 30-plus MPH winds both days.
Wild Horse is not as scenic, of course (though more aromatic; the neighborhood cows seemed to be incontinent), but I think we both found Wild Horse a bit more fun to play because of its extraordinary width and ground game possibilities. In those winds, I was faced again and again with low-iron punch shots into the wind, and attempts to land wedges short of downwind greens in an effort to keep the ball from rolling through the green. I was rewarded several times when I was able to pull those shots off, and punished several times when I was not successful.
For me, the biggest difficulty at Wild Horse was the lightning fast greens. Downhill and especially downwind/downhill putts and chips simply would not stop anywhere near the hole. The contours of the greens at Wild Horse were not as severe as they are at Black Mesa, fortunately, or I'd have had several instances of perpetual putting.
I don't think the ground game is as much of an option at Black Mesa, despite the high winds we faced, because of the elevation changes and more prevalent hazards. Your ball is going to have to spend more time in the air at Black Mesa, but the good news is that once it lands, especially downwind, that sucker's going to run. I actually appreciated the slower green speeds at Black Mesa, especially with some of the wild green contours, because the wind would have made faster greens infinitely more difficult.
I agree with Lou Duran that Black Mesa #1 is not a good opening hole. The ridge one must clear to reach the fairway forces you to put the ball up in the air to clear it, so you're immediately at the mercy of the winds. After that, however, I found the holes to be imaginative and often breathtaking, with consistently entertaining greens. I had the same experience Matt Ward did on #8, hitting a full driver from the elevated tee to the par 3 green below, and barely finishing pin high.
We walked the front nine, and it wasn't bad except for the climbs to the 2nd and 8th tees. The elevation was something of a factor for this 56-year-old Minnesotan, and with dark weather to the west (hell, it could have been in California, given how far you can see from those peaks), we opted for a cart on the back nine. Fortunately, the rain stayed away.
Favorite BM par 4: #7. Great short par 4 with many choices off the tee, and a green that demands you hit the proper tier.
Favorite par 3: #15. I had more fun here than on any other hole. The wind dictated a shot left of the green (away from the water) that bounced hard to the right, kicked onto the steeply banked green and rolled up to within 10 feet of the hole.
Favorite par 5: While the steeply uphill #16 is spectacular, and its tiered green an architectural wonder, I thought it was terribly narrow with poor layup options. I preferred #6, a downhill hole where the ground game can be used to go for the green in two shots if the wind is in your favor.
Where would I rank Black Mesa among publics I've played? Somewhere below Pebble Beach, Pasatiempo and Wild Horse. I liked it as much as Spyglass, better than World Woods Pine Barrens, The Harvester and Talking Stick North.
I know Matt will disagree with this, but I solidly prefer Sutton Bay to Black Mesa. There are aesthetic similarities, but I think Sutton Bay gives you more options in the wind.