Fourteen years ago, a bunch of college kids was inspired to try to remake the classic Half-Life experience, re-imagining what had become a hallmark of excellence in first-person shooters. 2006 saw the beginnings of Black Mesa, which would soon become a breath of fresh air for the original that stays true to the roots of Valve.
If you’ve never played the original Half-Life, it’s admittedly a bit of a sore to play through; everything is wildly dated, textures will rub your eyes raw, and the levels can be a bit drab in comparison to modern-day shooters. It originally debuted in 1998 and was named Game of the Year by over 50 publications (back when the title of Game of the Year actually meant something), and brought a wild amount of imagination and reflex that was unseen in games at that time.
Eight years after the release, Black Mesa was thought up, and the ragtag group of kids that ultimately turned into development studio Crowbar Collective went from having a free title in Early Access to Valve giving them the green light to sell their works for money.
Fourteen long years of development and Black Mesa is finally nearing its release date of March 5th, 2020. It’s currently being sold for $20 on the Steam platform and offers a new twist on Half-Life with fantastic visuals, in-depth combat, and (of course) grotesque monstrosities that are eager to tear your face off.
Fear Not The Long Roadhttps://t.co/8OwK4aVGZw pic.twitter.com/BTv2ULVOn7
— Black Mesa (@BlackMesaDevs) February 25, 2020
After all, Gordon works in a top-secret laboratory, it would be stranger if no such monstrosities were to exist in the first place.
With crowbar firmly in hand, you’ll need to traverse nineteen different levels of unfathomable experiments gone awry, and Gordon will find himself jumping across dimensions, navigating brutal desert environments, and of course top-secret labs.
The classic enemies that everyone knows and loves (or hates, dang crabs) have been brought back to life, and look decidedly fresh while showcasing impressive AI that can be surprisingly aggressive at just the wrong time for the player.
There’s more than single-player, however, as the Half-Life multiplayer that ended up spawning the world-renowned Counter-Strike will also be available in Black Mesa, featuring ten multiplayer maps to get your frag on with all of the experimental tech that players would expect.
The Crowbar Collective isn’t content to simply move on once it releases, however; Adam Engels from the Black Mesa team has announced that they’ll continue to plug away at the upcoming title, bringing polish and content well into the future.
With Half-Life: Alyx on the horizon and VR systems being sold out around the world, you might be one of many to find themselves with not new HL titles to play; Black Mesa could solve that problem for you.
