Black Mesa, a Valve-Approved Fan-Made Re-imagining of Half-Life, Is Now Available on Steam

[Tsing]

Image: Crowbar Collective



After 15 long years, Crowbar Interactive has finally released the commercial version of Black Mesa, its fan-made re-imagining of Valve’s timeless shooter, Half-Life. This is the same game that everyone remembers – but with modern textures, combat improvements, redesigned puzzles, and other major enhancements.



Black Mesa originally began as a volunteer project back in September 2004 by two independent teams, whose members ultimately joined forces to establish Crowbar Collective. The original version of the remake was released as a mod for Half-Life 2, but it became something much greater after Valve took notice and approved a commercial release.



The remake reportedly addresses one of Half-Life’s biggest alleged shortcomings – its...

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[Grimlakin]

This sounds interesting.

 

[Brian_B]

This is probably all that Valve meant when they said Alyx wasn’t all they had in store for the franchise.

RIP HL3

 

[Grimlakin]

This is probably all that Valve meant when they said Alyx wasn’t all they had in store for the franchise.

RIP HL3

I was going to just like your post... but I can't. I would like a HL3 I think... but really after a decade I don't even know.

 

[DrezKill]

I don't usually mess with Early Access stuff, but a friend bought me Black Mesa some years ago, and I played through most of it back in 2016. Already impressed with what I saw and played there. Now that Xen is done and the rest of the game has received all kinds of updates and polish, it might be time for me to go through the whole game again and finally finish it. Probably will be a while before I get around to it though.

 

[magoo]

I bought this way back when it was in beta.
The game is very true to the original Half-Life, has a few subtle changes.
The graphic is improved, sound is improved.
Plus it's really cool to play a game that just seems to go on forever, not like the 8 hour campaign games that are made now.
I very much recommend this for the Half-Life fans, that and HL2 Update.

 

[Zarathustra]

I'm confused.

I recall downloading it from Steam and playing it, maybe 8 years ago?

 

[DrezKill]

I'm confused.

I recall downloading it from Steam and playing it, maybe 8 years ago?

Yeah it's been in development for like 15 ****ing years. I think it was around 2013 when they got official backing from Valve. In 2015 is when it moved to Steam's Early Access I believe. I played it after that, in 2016.

I very much recommend this for the Half-Life fans, that and HL2 Update.

Yyeeaahh HL2 Update was also very good.

In the 4 years since I last played Black Mesa, it seems they did a lot more than just finish the Xen levels: https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/1717499322286666465
Which is probably why I will start over from the beginning rather than finish my current run. I heard save files from old versions won't work anyways.

 

[Zarathustra]

Yeah it's been in development for like 15 ****ing years. I think it was around 2013 when they got official backing from Valve. In 2015 is when it moved to Steam's Early Access I believe. I played it after that, in 2016.


Yyeeaahh HL2 Update was also very good.

In the 4 years since I last played Black Mesa, it seems they did a lot more than just finish the Xen levels: https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/1717499322286666465
Which is probably why I will start over from the beginning rather than finish my current run. I heard save files from old versions won't work anyways.

I had forgotten that it was likely a Beta I played years ago. That makes sense though, as I rememeber getting to a level and needing to kill a bunch of soldiers to proceed, and the level never ending after killing them all, making it impossible to proceed