Today has been a long time coming. Black Mesa, the fan-made HD remake of the original Half-Life, has finally been made available in full 1.0 form, marking the completion of a project 15 years in the making.
Of course, just because version 1.0 is now available doesn’t mean this is the first time the game has been playable. After initially targeting a release window of 2009, Black Mesa eventually debuted in 2012 as a mod for Half-Life 2, where it was met with highly positive reviews praising how it breathed new life into the 1998 classic. Since then, the project evolved into a standalone remake that has been available in an incomplete early access form since 2015, when Valve allowed developer Crowbar Collective to sell Black Mesa on Steam.
It can be easy to forget, now that Half-Life: Alyx is only a few weeks away from launching, that for a long time it seemed like fans would never get a new Half-Life game, hence why volunteer developers would go on to form Crowbar and fill the void with a project of their own, one that would address the shortcomings many found with Valve’s own Half-Life remake, 2005's Half-Life: Source.
Given how long it’s taken for the developer to fulfill its vision, there have been more than a few bumps in the road. The last few years, in particular, have seen some serious delays for Black Mesa while Crowbar worked on redesigning the Xen levels, which have long been considered the weakest part of the original Half-Life. It’s clear that Black Mesa has been a labor of love for Crowbar, considering it has stuck with it since the mid-2000s.
“Through luck, hard work, and maybe a bit of ignorance we didn’t shy away from our goal of bringing this game to completion,” project lead Adam Engels wrote in a Steam update prior to today’s launch. “We are proud of what we built. We think this upcoming 1.0 release is the best, most polished, and most fun version of the game yet. The anticipation and excitement around our project is beyond flattering.”
That being said, Crowbar isn’t quite done with Black Mesa just yet. In an earlier Steam post, the developer revealed plans for a post-launch “Definitive Edition” update that will include additional gameplay improvements and polish, as well as community events to help share what they know about developing with Valve’s Source engine with other fan developers.
Black Mesa is available on PC via Steam.
Source: Steam