I’ll admit, I waited far too long to play Black Mesa. Subconsciously, I dismissed it as a glorified fan project, just another remake of Half-Life that didn’t do much more than replicate what’s already been done. But after finally giving it a try, I realized how wrong I was. Black Mesa absolutely deserves its praise. I loved every part of it.

While I don’t think Black Mesa will ever replace the iconic status that Half-Life still holds, I do think it has carved out its own identity. It feels fresh and unique in many ways, while still staying true to the spirit of the original. If you can, I’d recommend playing the original Half-Life before diving into Black Mesa. It may seem a bit dated in terms of visuals, sound, and gameplay, but it’s easy to forgive when you consider the historical context. Half-Life was made in a specific time, so it is definitely of its era, and learning the development of the game makes it all the more impressive with the innovations they were able to pull off. For me, Black Mesa was all the more rewarding because I had that foundational experience first. It let me appreciate the creative liberties taken in Black Mesa, from aesthetics to gameplay, and recognize the improvements made with modern technology and design.

Speaking of aesthetics, I was constantly blown away by the visuals. The technical accomplishments here rival what I remember feeling when playing Valve games in their prime. For the Source engine, this is probably the best graphics showcase you can find. The textures, lighting, effects, shaders, and animations are all top-notch, it up to the quality of games that felt eons ahead of what Half-Life 2 modestly feels like in the modern age. It’s funny, if you started your Half-Life journey with Black Mesa, the graphics might drop off pretty hard once you get to Half-Life 2 and its episodes, which were once celebrated for their graphical accomplishments. And even beyond the quality of the visuals, there are countless small details, like fluids sticking to your model and lingering for an extended period of time. Tons of little things like that go such a long way in keeping everything immersive and exciting.

Along with the visuals, many of the gameplay tweaks felt welcome and different. With modern technology, the puzzles and level design were more intuitive and less frustrating. For example, the use of lighting and color cues helped me understand the environment more clearly, reducing confusion compared to the original Half-Life. I’ll admit, Half-Life had a tendency to be a bit more brutal, even on normal difficulty. Black Mesa, on the other hand, made it easier to figure things out, which meant a smoother experience overall. Some might say I’m complaining about difficulty, but I don’t think that’s the case. I simply felt better equipped to deal with the challenges in Black Mesa, which made the game less frustrating while still respecting the core design of the original. And every time I recognized a room or a sequence from Half-Life, it was like coming home. That’s why I recommend playing the original first, it ups that welcoming feeling when you revisit familiar places in Black Mesa.

However, as much as I admire the remake, there are a few elements that didn’t hit the mark. Some sections of the game go on a bit too long, and while I understand that this may not have been intended to be completed in one sitting, it still feels like some parts could have been trimmed down. There’s also a bit too much fan service in certain details, which, though not a huge issue, occasionally distracted from the experience. I get that this is a fan project, and they want to include those small moments they love. But at times, it felt like the focus on minor details was a little overdone. If you’ve already played this game, or are familiar with some Half-Life in-jokes, you may know what I am talking about. But if Black Mesa is your only experience with Half-Life, I doubt you’ll notice. This is a minor gripe, though, and I do appreciate how some of these details bridge the continuity between Half-Life 1 and its sequels.

I also personally felt like some of the music just didn't fit the style of the game, though maybe I am just supplanting the style of the original game's music in my mind. For as big and grandiose they were able to go with the visuals, I feel like some music beats tried to hard to meet that same level and didn't accomplish much ambience or tone for the background. Instead some ethereal choral tracks come to the forefront and feels like you are watching someone's video edit, rather than having a solid music track be the wallpaper of the scene in the background to enhance it instead. They still pull off what I am saying very well at many points, particularly during action scenes. There are just many moments outside of the action scenes where it just felt like it didn't match for me, both in style and presentation. But, I will acquiesce that this is what helps give Black Mesa its own identity and not feeling like a lazier clone of Half-Life, so I give it points for being different and not always going back to the techno rock feel of the first game's score.

Overall, Black Mesa is such an amazing technical achievement with its own stylistic changes that helped give it its own identity, and I had an amazing time with it especially after playing the original Half-Life. If you're at all a fan of the first game and the rest of the series and have somehow never played this game before much like myself, you'll have such a deep appreciation and excitement for what you experience here. The fact that all of this is done purely by fans and not some big studio is mind boggling, and I infinitely praise their endeavors, I can't wait to see what else Crowbar Collective does. I highly recommend you give Black Mesa a try, it brings so many ideas up to modern standards in the best ways.

In case you haven't seen it and are at all interested in how this fan project was developed, I highly recommend the documentary "Black Mesa: The 16 Year Project to Remake Half-Life" by Noclip. It is a great watch to see how certain ideas came to be and how really talented people got involved in this project. I really enjoy any behind-the-scenes look at games, so this one is a big treat. Even if I don't fully agree with some things they tried, I always enjoy hearing where the ideas are coming from, and I applaud them for delivering on their vision.

I believe Black Mesa is intended to be played AFTER Half-Life 1 (or alternatively, if you like a side of pain, Half-Life: Source). For all intensive purposes, it is a re-imagining of the original Valve classic. It plays closer to Half-Life 2 in terms of controls, and maintains the same engine. Its a vastly different game to the first; but trust me. Its worth it. You also get mod support! There's a Blue Shift campaign in the works as I make this review.

Now I don't think Black Mesa is a *bad* game. I think it's alright. It is NOT a good remake of Half-Life. (in my opinion)

Black Mesa starts VERY strong, with an incredible remake of Unforeseen Consequences, and it stays very good for a solid few levels. But at a certain point around Forget About Freeman, the design begins to fall apart. Instead of fixing the weird ass level design from HL1, Crowbar Collective instead decided to replace the original terrible level design with brand new terrible level design. I don't know what the point of a remake is if you just take out the bad parts and replace them with new bad (occasionally even worse than the original) parts.

Another big problem I have is the weapon pool. Half-Life has an infamously bloated weapon list, with many redundancies and guns you'll probably use twice throughout the whole game. Black Mesa has decided to keep in every single weapon from Half-Life, basically exactly the same as they were. The Hive Hand still sucks, the Gluon Gun still barely has purpose, the Snarks are still a player suicide button, etc. I really don't understand the thought process of keeping all this trash in the game when one of the most commonly criticized things about Half-Life is the giant list of redundant guns.

As a less pertinent issue, I noticed that the game is optimized quite poorly. For some reason my (pretty strong) PC started to get upset with Xen and the HECU-heavy chapters, even though I was running everything on medium with potato lighting for most of the game. This is a Source game, an engine that devs have been learning how to mod and optimize for many years now, I'm not the most tech-savvy, but I don't see why a game running on an engine from 2004 with no particularly outstanding scenarios would make a modern setup chug.

The new story beats are quite good actually, and I think they draw more direct parallels to Half-Life 2 that make for a neat "he said the thing" moment for veterans of the series.

The visual redesigns are all very good, the atmosphere and music are all outstanding and fit the mood of the series perfectly. Xen in particular looks absolutely incredible now, completely blowing the old levels out of the water.

Despite the mad ♥♥♥♥-talk, I do recommend this game to Half-Life fans who are starving for new content like myself.
I do NOT think this is an adequate replacement for the experience of playing Half-Life though, go play the original first.