'Half-Life' remake 'Black Mesa' arrives on Steam Early Access

Shawn Knight

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Half-Life fans are no doubt familiar with Black Mesa, the total remake of the original Half-Life that started as a mod for Half-Life: Source roughly a decade ago. A version of the project was released in 2012 and eventually recognized by Valve although it was far from finished.

Fast-forward to present time where the Black Mesa development team has released the re-envisioned game on Steam Early Access. As an Early Access title, it’s still not complete but it’s far more than was included in the free mod.

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The single-player campaign for Black Mesa is now 85 percent complete which translates to over 10 hours of gameplay. On its Early Access page, the team said the remaining 15 percent will take a considerable amount of time to complete to their standards. As such, putting a time estimate on it would be a total guess.

With it come new visuals, new voiceovers, updated gameplay encounters, stability changes and more. The Early Access version also includes multiplayer deathmatch and team deathmatch modes with six completely re-imagined Half-Life 1 maps: Bounce, Gasworks, Lambdabunker, Stalkyard, Subtransit and Undertow.

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Interested parties can pick up Black Mesa for $19.99. The price may go up slightly once the title exits Early Access status but again, that’s not likely to happen for quite some time.

Do you have any interest in trying out the new Black Mesa variant? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Not really. I've bought a couple of these "updated, enhanced" old games and it's a novelty for about 20 minutes until you realize you've played the game before and even with the enhanced graphics it's still dated. I'd rather put that $20 towards a new game I've never played before.
 
Not really. I've bought a couple of these "updated, enhanced" old games and it's a novelty for about 20 minutes until you realize you've played the game before and even with the enhanced graphics it's still dated. I'd rather put that $20 towards a new game I've never played before.
"A couple of these"? You clearly have no idea what you're talking about... I've yet to come across any mod or remake that in extensiveness or the sheer effort required to realize it even comes close to Black Mesa. I have A LOT of respect for these people who started a "modding" project to basically remake one of the greatest games ever made from scratch and then actually succeeded in realizing it at the same standards that a modern, professional developing team would. They remade everything and yet nothing was lost of what made the original game so groundbreaking to begin with.
 
I am actually crazy excited for this. The second this is done I will buy it and burn through it. HL2 blew me away just a few years ago. Some shooters age very well contrary to what SOME people think...
 
Not really. I've bought a couple of these "updated, enhanced" old games and it's a novelty for about 20 minutes until you realize you've played the game before and even with the enhanced graphics it's still dated. I'd rather put that $20 towards a new game I've never played before.
"A couple of these"? You clearly have no idea what you're talking about... I've yet to come across any mod or remake that in extensiveness or the sheer effort required to realize it even comes close to Black Mesa. I have A LOT of respect for these people who started a "modding" project to basically remake one of the greatest games ever made from scratch and then actually succeeded in realizing it at the same standards that a modern, professional developing team would. They remade everything and yet nothing was lost of what made the original game so groundbreaking to begin with.

Fanboi? :p
 
Not really. I've bought a couple of these "updated, enhanced" old games and it's a novelty for about 20 minutes until you realize you've played the game before and even with the enhanced graphics it's still dated. I'd rather put that $20 towards a new game I've never played before.

Agreed. When I played this mod when it first came out I got maybe 2 hours in before I got bored because I had every level and sequence memorized. New graphics could never hide that it's the same game that I've played too much.
 
I played all the HL games and loved them. I will definitely buy this, have been waiting for it for years...
 
Not really. I've bought a couple of these "updated, enhanced" old games and it's a novelty for about 20 minutes until you realize you've played the game before and even with the enhanced graphics it's still dated. I'd rather put that $20 towards a new game I've never played before.
"A couple of these"? You clearly have no idea what you're talking about... I've yet to come across any mod or remake that in extensiveness or the sheer effort required to realize it even comes close to Black Mesa. I have A LOT of respect for these people who started a "modding" project to basically remake one of the greatest games ever made from scratch and then actually succeeded in realizing it at the same standards that a modern, professional developing team would. They remade everything and yet nothing was lost of what made the original game so groundbreaking to begin with.

Fanboi? :p
Of the Half-Life series, absolutely. But that also means I wouldn't sing praise for the developers of this mod if they had done a poor job of remaking a game such as this.
 
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