izigame.me

Black Mesa: a fan game that has grown into an absolute beast of a single player experience. It's so good that you'd think Valve made it, and dare I say, think it might even be better than Half-Life 2. That's how good this mod is. Take the finesse and polish of the Source engine that makes all of Valve's games look and play so good, then apply that to their original masterpiece Half-Life. Crowbar Collective took a simple little project, 'making a REAL Half-Life: Source' and it blossomed into a lifetime-long passion, for good reasons and bad. The Half-Life community were first teased this brilliant idea all the way back in 2005, and even then there would still be a long wait until we first saw a proper release in 2012. This version of the game featured everything except the controversial Xen segment of the game, which includes the final boss. It also had no Hazard Course chapter for tutorials, but this won't ever be in the game, as the team have deemed it unnecessary. For years, Black Mesa ended on a cliffhanger as you, the player, are teleported to the borderworld at the end of the Lambda Core chapter. Finally, after an extremely long wait and countless irritating delays, Half-Life's proper Source remake, Black Mesa, was completed at the very end of 2019. The chapters Xen, Gonarch's Lair, Interloper, Nihilanth and Endgame were finally added to the mod, and they are all nothing short of breathtaking. Amidst constant criticism of their delays and shortcomings over the years, Crowbar Collective held their heads high and gave us the greatest remake of Half-Life we could ever hope for. I don't care if I'm a Half-Life fanboy, this is quite simply the greatest video game mod of all time. It is bursting at the seams with detail, the voice-acting is superb, it retains the campy aesthetic of its inspiration, the game-play is Half-Life at its BEST... and the fact that (pretty much) every chapter is a longer and grander experience makes the entire story last for hours. You'll start slow during the introduction, you'll grab a weapon and start killing aliens, you'll begin fighting smarter enemies like the military, the odds will surmount against you more and more, and before you know it you are humanity's greatest hero battling people and monsters, fighting for Earth's survival in another dimension going head-to-head with whatever terrors await. I cannot name many games where the fun just keeps snowballing and snowballing without ever slowing down, becoming a more amazing experience as you go until the end leaves you wishing for more. Of course, a lot of this can be credited to the original game, but Black Mesa's ability to keep the game-play evolving as you head deeper and deeper into the deadly facility just makes it undeniably some of the best video game entertainment you can ever hope to witness.
This was actually my first experience with any kind of Half-Life content, and even way back then when it was still unfinished it was enough to have me hooked for life. If only Crowbar Collective would bring us Source remakes of the Half-Life expansions, too... but let's not be greedy!
The modding community for this game is great too, and there are countless ways fans have added to the developers' vision, in both interesting and just flat-out ridiculous ways. That being said I still can't stress how much this feels/plays/sounds like a real triple-A game and yet it's only a fan-made mod. And not just that, but it's received Valve's seal of approval, too, and that's why we can buy this great mod on Steam. That's a true accomplishment!
The cherry on top of this amazing product is the in-game music. At times it's quite reminiscent of the original Half-Life, and yet at others it goes off and does its own thing, with blazing guitar sounds, piano notes, everything. And even then that music is nothing compared to the utterly incredible music that plays in the Xen chapters. I believe the score conductor's wife provided her angelic vocal range to the soundtrack, and it's almost indescribable how awe-inspiring it is when you take your first few steps in Xen and hear that otherworldly music. You'll just have to take those steps for yourself and see what I mean. Crowbar Collective deserve a serious pat on the back for turning Xen (once a tiny chapter with one simple platforming puzzle) into a sparse ecosystem filled with maze-like jungles, water-filled caves, and living, breathing environments decorated with pretty, alien flora. It's really quite the upgrade. The other borderworld chapters have also been given the same treatment, all containing enjoyable exploration-encouraging puzzles and fierce battles.
The only thing I haven't touched on is the multiplayer component, and while it's still cool to run around and turn people into piles of gibbed meat, it's got about as much soul and innovation as the original Half-Life multiplayer had. So, not much.
All I can say is, if you're a fan of single player games that take you on a journey you'll never forget, get on down to the Black Mesa central transit hub and take the next tram to Sector C Test Labs & Control Facilities. Don't forget your crowbar!