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Black Mesa, the Valve approved Half-Life remake from Crowbar Collective leaves Early Access with a much more modern take on the classic first-person shooter.

Did Half-Life actually need such a re-imagining? Graphically it was dated but it held up quite well overall because it was ahead of its time in quite a few ways. However, I'm glad Black Mesa exists as it's absolutely incredible. Some of the artwork that went into this, especially the later Xen chapter, is truly mesmerising in its beauty.

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If you just wish to see iconic moment it all goes wrong in the updated visuals of Black Mesa, we have a video up on our YouTube.

The original Xen was a pretty controversial part of Half-Life too, a pain point for many but in Black Mesa it's just awesome. It's a completely different experience to the original and to the rest of the game which is exactly what it's supposed to be. It's prettier and most importantly—more exciting. Black Mesa as a whole is exactly what it set out to be and what I hoped it would be: a faithful update to an already good game but Crowbar managed to put in tons of improvements to pull in a fresh audience.

Even if you know Half-Life like the back of your hand, Black Mesa is still a crisp and different experience because some sections on Earth have been entirely re-done to flow better. Not only that, there's vast improvements to the enemy AI in all parts of the game that make the gameplay worth it.

It's not just the big graphical enhancements or the updated AI, it's the sum of all the little things included that just make it so lovely.

Personally, I only completed Half-Life and Half-Life 2 when they came to Linux so to me Black Mesa hasn't really felt as long as it might to others. That said—it has been fourteen years in the making! Crazy but a fair amount of that was simply done out of passion and not professionally like the actual job it became for the team at Crowbar Collective.

Technically, this is at least the second remake of the original Half-Life, since Valve themselves gave it the Source treatment with Half-Life: Source in 2004 which wasn't what a lot of fans had hoped for when it released. As a result, two teams began work on their own updated version which eventually merged into one team and one game with Black Mesa.

Feature Highlight:

  • Nineteen chapters of fighting through top-secret labs, running atop harsh desert landscapes, sneaking into abandoned railways, and leaping across dimensions
  • Mind-Blowing graphics and effects, never before seen on the Source Engine
  • Face off against an army of classic enemies, updated with new features and engaging AI
  • Wield an arsenal of military hardware, scientific prototypes, and the iconic crowbar through incredibly detailed environments
  • The all-new soundtrack and voice acting create a more immersive experience than ever before

There's also online multiplayer, Steam Workshop support and all the usual modern additions on Steam like trading cards and achievements.

With it now released, the 1.0 update went live and had plenty of massive improvements over the previously released Betas. Upgraded Earth artwork, big human AI improvements, the Vortigaunts got a juicy upgrade too making them more menacing, lots of optimizations and the list goes on. There's supposed to be a new UI to replace the traditional Source Engine boxes but the Linux version currently doesn't have it.

As they mentioned, this is not the end of the road. They said "it will never be a perfect game" but the "1.0 release is the best, most polished, and most fun version of the game yet". Sometime after release, they will be giving it a jokingly named free Definitive Edition update to polish up any rough spots and continued improvements to the Steam Workshop support.

Black Mesa is the ultimate way to relive the original Half-Life story, find it on Steam.

Our livestreamer, Sin, has never played through the series before so perhaps now might be a good time for her to jump in. Make sure you follow GamingOnLinux on Twitch to be notified whenever she's live. We don't have an exact date yet on when it will happen so stay tuned!

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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52 comments
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Kristian Mar 6, 2020
Quoting: sub
Quoting: Kristian
Quoting: 1xokI wonder if this is really the 20-year-old source engine.

Half-Life 2 came out in 2004, so that would be 16 years. Since then the Source Engine has received several updates, including to 2.0. Although I don't know if this uses 2.0.

Nope. There is no Source 2 SDK available and still won't for at least quite some time.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/357052/No_plans_for_a_full_Source_2_SDK_and_other_tidbits_from_Valves_HalfLife_Alyx_AMA.php

What I frequently hear is that Source is a total mess code-wise compared to the other big engines.
And this shows in the documentation. Maybe Valve cannot force themselves to bring it in good shape for a SDK release. Who knows.

AFAIK the Black Mesa devs have access to full Source Engine source code, so they are not limited to what is available in publically available SDKs. That doesn't mean they are using Source Engine 2(or that they are for that matter).
Quoting: Mountain ManMeanwhile, Valve is giving us some gimmicky VR bullshit...
Hopefully, modders will find the way to adapt HL:ALYX it for regular Keyboard & mouse users.
M@GOid Mar 7, 2020
Multicore Rendering is disabled on the video settings? What is this, 2004? My performance is crap for a game in such ancient engine. Other Valve games play way better than this.
Mountain Man Mar 7, 2020
Quoting: M@GOidMulticore Rendering is disabled on the video settings? What is this, 2004? My performance is crap for a game in such ancient engine. Other Valve games play way better than this.
Yeah, performance is a little janky in places even on a good computer, and it doesn't quite have the polish you'd see from a professional development team, but it's still very good and maintains the spirit of the original game.
14 Mar 7, 2020
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Did this come with the Orange Box many years ago? I was surprised to see that I already owned it.
kuhpunkt Mar 7, 2020
Quoting: 14Did this come with the Orange Box many years ago? I was surprised to see that I already owned it.

No. It was in a Humble Bundle a while ago, though. Maybe you got it there?
lejimster Mar 7, 2020
I bought a copy a few years back. Been waiting for them to finish the game before I did a play through tho. Did they ever add Vulkan support? If not I will be playing it through Proton as last time I checked it was way faster than Opengl.
M@GOid Mar 7, 2020
I would advise anyone on Linux to avoid buying it right now. not only it has disabled Multi-core Rendering (a big performance enhancer), but it crashes after you change options on the Video advance menu. These problems were there since early betas and none were corrected, so do not give your money to developers who treat us like this.
Mountain Man Mar 7, 2020
Quoting: M@GOidI would advise anyone on Linux to avoid buying it right now. not only it has disabled Multi-core Rendering (a big performance enhancer), but it crashes after you change options on the Video advance menu. These problems were there since early betas and none were corrected, so do not give your money to developers who treat us like this.
I changed settings on the advanced graphics menu without any problems, and overall performance is good with the occasional stutter.
Mountain Man Mar 7, 2020
Quoting: 14Did this come with the Orange Box many years ago? I was surprised to see that I already owned it.
This is not to be confused with Half-Life Source which is simply the original Half-Life ported to the Source engine and has been included by Valve in various bundles as well as being available standalone.
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