The unofficial (but Valve-endorsed) Half-Life remake, Black Mesa, has finally come into the world and fans are in love with it.
Black Mesa (the officially unofficial Half-Life remake that everyone asked for 16 years ago) slipped under the wire and into the world last year. We get it, you were busy, which is why we’re happily reminding you of its existence and telling you that it’s pretty excellent.
So excellent, in fact, that Valve have given it their de facto blessing by listing it on Steam as well as nominating Black Mesa for the Steam Award for Outstanding Visual Style.
With 2021 looking like something out of your standard sci-fi already, with quantum teleportation, artificial suns, and the possible confirmation of alternate universes, I’ve been making plans to leap away from reality and into some excellent games.
Black Mesa feels like it might be what I’m looking for. In much the same way that the music world has used nostalgia to rip open the feels, I have a feeling that games may soon be walking in that same direction. If they did a 3D remake of Super Mario World, I know I’d play it.
The best part of this has been Valve’s openness to the process. Outside of a request to take Half-Life out of the name, they’ve offered nothing but support. This offers a bright future for the possible intersection of AAA and indie game devs to bring us more of the good stuff.
Don’t believe us? Talk to Dario Casali – one of the original devs for Half-Life, who had this to say to PC Gamer:
“So, I played probably five hours of the original Half-Life and then I said, to myself – what are you doing? Just go play Black Mesa. Because they’ve just redone this in Source. Then I just restarted Black Mesa from from the start.”
Check out Black Mesa on Steam.
