Black Mesa - The fan-remake of Half Life
The shooter classic Half Life, which revolutionized the genre of first person shooters in 1998, sold over 9 million times. Black Mesa is a tribute to Half Life, a modernized fan-remake, which makes the game classic accessible to a new audience with improved graphics. Like the famous original, Black Mesa uses the Source Engine. Black Mesa is available for Windows and Linux PCs via the Steam platform.
In Black Mesa you take on the role of Gordon Freeman, a physicist at the Black Mesa Research Facility, as in Half-Life. The failure of an experiment opens the door to a foreign world, which triggers an invasion of dangerous creatures. Armed with a crowbar and firearms of the player's choice, Freeman faces the invasion. Fans of the 1998 Valve game classic will rediscover many familiar game elements in Black Mesa. The title of the Crowbar Collective largely adheres to the events and narrative of the original.
Story goes back to 2004
The story of the fan-made Black Mesa goes back to 2004 when the developers of the two fan-made remakes Leakfree and Half-Life: Source Overhaul Project realized their shared goals and started the new project Black Mesa: Source - with the blessing of Valve - together. They gave themselves the name The Crowbar Collective, under which the version 1.0 of Black Mesa was developed. In 2007, a first teaser of the project was made available to the public. In 2012, the developers finally participated in Steam's Indie Platform Greenlight, and from 2015 Black Mesa was available as an Early Access title on Steam. It wasn't until 2020 that Black Mesa was released in version 1.0.
Modern Graphics with Classic Charm
The highlight of the fan remake is the modernized graphical design, which, however, catapults the charm of the classic Half-Life into the present thanks to the Source engine. For example, the border world Xen appears in a new guise, based on a new and larger world architecture. Although the game is sometimes based on original sounds, new voice-overs with additional dialogue passages have been played in. The puzzles of Black Mesa have also been adapted to the gaming habits of the present. In addition, the fan remake returns with a multiplayer that has map classics from the Half-Life universe.
Black Mesa is not only aimed at fans of the groundbreaking first-person shooter Half-Life, but also at a new generation of players who want to experience Half-Life in a modernized version. Black Mesa draws on the iconic game design and story of the original, but includes enough new elements with the necessary finesse to excite old fans anew.
After a long period of silence about the Half-Life franchise, fans of the Half-Life universe will not only be spoiled with the faithful fan remake Black Mesa in 2020, but also with the re-release of Half-Life: Alyx. Alyx is a virtual reality shooter from Valve that is set between Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Alyx is compatible with the HTC Vive and Oculus: Rift headsets.
Are you interested in Black Mesa or Half-Life: Alyx? You can find information and price comparisons for titles from the Half-Life universe on Keyfuchs.
