Black Mesa
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About
Black Mesa is a 2020 first-person shooter video game that is a third-party remake of 1998 video game Half-Life. Originally developed as an independent mod based on the Source engine, the project was approved by Valve for commercial distribution and released on Steam in March 2020.
History
In September and October 2004, following the release of Counter Strike: Source and the Source engine, Leakfree and Half-Life: Source Overhaul Project, two volunteer developer teams, launched projects to recreate 1998 critically acclaimed first-person shooter game Half-Life using the recently released Source engine.[1] After realizing that they had a common goal, the teams joined efforts, forming a 13-person team under the name Black Mesa: Source,[2] with the name later changed to Black Mesa. The team later rebranded itself as the Crowbar Collective.
On September 14th, 2012, the first standalone version of Black Mesa, based on the 2007 version of the Source engine, was made available as a free download.[3] The version contained remakes of all Half-Life's chapters for the exception of the last chapter, set in the world of Xen. At the same time, in September 2012, the project became one of the first ten games to be approved by Steam Greenlight.[4]
On November 19th, 2013, the Crowbar Collective[5] announced that the game was approved by Valve to become a commercial product on Steam. On May 5th, 2015, the commercial build of the game, based on the 2013 version of the Source engine, entered early access on Steam.[6]
On March 6th, 2020, the game was officially released for Microsoft Windows.[7]
Reception
Black Mesa received very positive reviews. On Steam,[8] the game had a 95 percent approval rating with over 26,300 reviews as of March 10th, 2020. On Metacritic,[9] the game maintained an 86 score with 14 critic reviews and 8.9 user score with over 720 ratings.
Fandom
On March 9th, 2020, Crowbar Collective, the developers of the game, held an AMA session in /r/pcgaming subreddit,[10] with the thread gaining over 4,200 upvotes and 730 comments.
Search Interest
External References
[1] PC Gamer – The story of Black Mesa, the Half-Life remake over a decade in the making
[2] Computer Gaming World – Black Mesa: Source
[3] Kotaku – You Can Play Black Mesa Right Now
[4] Eurogamer – Half-Life project Black Mesa gets Greenlight from Valve
[5] Eurogamer – Valve gives Black Mesa permission to be a commercial product
[6] Polygon – Half-Life remake Black Mesa comes to Steam Early Access today
[7] Steam – Black Mesa
[8] Steam – Black Mesa
[9] Metacritic – Black Mesa
[10] Reddit – We are Crowbar Collective, makers of Black Mesa. Ask us anything!
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Top Comments
Mistress Fortune
Mar 10, 2020 at 01:28PM EDT
Lake: Shadow Legends Moderator
Mar 11, 2020 at 02:52PM EDT