

The carriage's welcome message now sounds like it's emanating from a speaker, while a whole new soundtrack plays its opening notes out as a 27-year-old MIT graduate begins his worst day at work. It isn't merely visual stuff that's changed either. It gives you more time to notice the extra details they've added into the introduction.īlack Mesa is more populous than in Valve's original vision, with scientists loitering around the newly introduced railway station, and guards manning security checkpoints that didn't exist in the original. Extending it is a deliberate move on Crowbar Collective's part.

It's odd to think such an iconic moment in FPS history was one of the less-liked aspects of Half-Life on launch. The introductory train ride is now longer, with many additional details.īlack Mesa starts with a ballsy opening gambit, an introductory tram ride that's longer than the one in the original Half-Life. But it's worth going over the work the studio did converting the Black Mesa facility itself into the Source engine, not least because they've made some further tweaks since 2012. Why bother?Ĭrowbar Collective has their own answer to that, which I'll get to in due course. Besides, who cares about Xen? It was always rubbish. Many such enthusiast projects never see the light of day, so to get even a partly complete remake of Half-Life felt like a minor miracle. For a lot of Half-Life fans, this was enough.
Black mesa half life mod#
The Black Mesa bit of Black Mesa has been available to play since 2012, while the whole game made its transition from amateur mod project to paid-for Steam Early Access title back in 2015. Black Mesa doesn't just make Half-Life better-looking. As remakes go, it's about as good as you could hope for. "Is Black Mesa really a Half-Life game? Can a remake by a bunch of online enthusiasts that's taken fourteen years to finish possibly live up to one of the most influential games ever made?" Well let me tell you, Black Mesa is one Half-Life-ass game. Black Mesa, the long-in development remake of Half-Life, is done. Yet while everyone's eagerly setting up their VR headsets in preparation, another little chapter of gaming history has just written its final page.

Typical, isn't it? You wait half your life for a new Half-Life game, then two come along at once.Īll eyes may be swivelled in the direction of Half-Life: Alyx landing like a gravity-propelled toilet later this month. Finally complete after fourteen years, Crowbar Collective's remake is more than faithful to Valve's masterpiece.
