Black Mesa

Like a buncha others, I followed the development of it way back in like.... 2010-2014
The outcome? Well worth the wait.
It's FANTASTIC, *and* you should play all the half-life games for their fun as games.

It’s Half Life but better ig, i recommend playing this over the original if you aren’t familiar with 90s FPS games.

I didn't really appreciate the original because of the ugly graphics. Now I release what a masterclass this game really is. 10/10. Go headcrabs!

I cannot recommend this game enough. It is a very worthy, faithful remake of the original Half-Life, with some wonderfully beautiful new additions (particularly Xen). It's a feast for the eyes as well as the ears with plenty of puzzles to keep the mind busy. I would expect nothing less from Valve and Crowbar. This is what studios and publishers should strive for today.

Xen is fucking trash, nice looking, but absolutley chore to play.

When you teleport there, you may as well call it quit and uninstall.

It never was a story about saving the world. It’s a story about how the world ended.

half life 1 + actually good modification = black mesa + a not painful game

The game really captures Half Life 1 in all it's glory with an upscale in graphics. However, I don't think I can recommend this game. There are too many bugs in this game. From lighting issues, textures not displaying properly, and the game straight up crashing. Only get this when it's on sale and you really want to play Half Life 1 with better graphics.

Here we are !
I remember the first time I played Black Mesa, it was a free standalone amateur game. And it's been cooking for a long time now. Last I heard about the project, Xen was in the making, so the game was realistically "incomplete". So I waited, and eventually forgot about it.
Being a big fan of the original HL, and of the Sven Co-op f2p (I encourage you guys to try it !), I couldn't give Black Mesa a pass on sales recently.

You can tell Crowbar Collective was passionned about HL. Not only did they give their best to enrich the original with reimagined puzzles, facilitate some tedious sequences, rebalance a whole lot of things, add some QoL, and improved the scenery; they also preserved the very soul of HL : education and narration through leveldesign.
Devs decided to avoid any cutscene, tutorial prompt or document to pick up and read as it's often the case in modern games. Yet it's all still so organic and authentic ! As a player you are very proud and satisfied to achieve anything in this game (without any form of "reward" other than just progressing). That is a feeling I can't say I felt lately in recent productions.

Playing Black Mesa reminded me of the purest single player experience of old, without rng, xp point, skill trees, unlockables levels, etc. It felt good, is polished, and respectful of the original formula of Valve.

Still, you could argue that the Source Engine, while a nice enhancement, is dated already. And yes it shows (especially the NPCs faces). But you'll forget about this aspect in the end.

My only real complain about Black Mesa is the Xen chapters. While it was a surprising and impressive fleshed out overhaul, I felt it was too much complicated. Granted it's toward the end of the game, I still found it quite unbalanced compared to the earth chapters. I had a very hard time managing my ammo, and was very confused as to where to go and what to do. It was a mess of a levedesign maze. And that is where I saw Crowbar Collective limits : Valve would have handled this part of the game differently, hopefully in a smoother manner.

Nonetheless, I recommend Black Mesa for old timer that experienced such games back in the days, and know the drill.
For newcomers though, it may be challenging and frustrating without a compass and a journal. But if you want to see how a late 90s game respected players intelligence, give it a go, and think about the state of the industry nowadays.

Half Life 1? Good game. This game is literally HL1. But instead of some poopy goldsource graphics, it uses the source engine. Looks better than HL2. V. Nice.

Not a perfect experience (though that could be partially on me)
Saves - sometimes the autosaves don't work / just bring me to the main menu. Manual saves and Quicksaves always worked
Shadows - I had to follow some guides to get the lightmap to work (the flashlight did not cast shadows). I have an intel arc a750.
Some z issues (pool of water in xen rendering on top of a floating blob being / fog would often render on top of level geometry through walls) -- possibly related to the workaround for shadows (Thanks intel!)
I would have liked it if blue shift just installed without needing me to move/delete/replace folders.

Otherwise, amazing experience. Breathes new life into HL1.

Apart of the many great classic titles still love really getting lost and immersed in it.

94/100

This game is tight. One of the few remakes where I have a hard time going back to the original.

Black Mesa does have some optimisation issues though. Going through and fiddling with settings for shadows or whatever can sometimes make the game crash. Shadows, dynamic stuff and mumbo jumbo along those lines aren't implemented too well.

(Also, turn off vsync - go into your nvidia control panel and turn on Fast vsync for this game. Kept the frames stable for me but everyone has a different setup.)

Fantastic game otherwise, I love the escalation and one man army feeling.

An absolutely spectacular reimagining that stays true to the source material while introducing meaningful quality-of-life improvements and expanded lore, making it feel like a brand-new experience. The graphics hold up impressively well even by today’s standards, and they’ve even managed to make Xen not just enjoyable, but one of the most fascinating parts of the game—it might just be my favorite section. Truly stellar work, and I can't wait to see what this team does next.

The work-in-progress Blue Shift remake is also shaping up beautifully—and it's completely free at this stage. Here’s hoping they tackle Opposing Force as well.

On the downside, there are some graphical bugs on Steam Deck and Linux in general, though oddly enough, the Half-Life 2 version doesn’t seem to have the same issues.

Once you get to Xen this game becomes a job. ENDLESS, boring, repetitive puzzles. You climb forever with a wonky jump mechanic that either flings you off your platform and can't scale a tiny step. Constantly scouring the ground for some little hole to climb in. It was a relief to go to work, because it felt like less of a job than finishing this game. Just play Half Life. Where this game copied half life, it mostly succeeded. When it tried to go out on its own, it flopped big time. 18 hours into this game feels like 200. I just want it to end so badly, but the last level NEVER DOES.

a great remake, but still a game not as good as the original one due to inferior gunplay, technical imperfections and this one is more of a personal preference but I really love the OG's Quake-seque movement.

I haven't played the original Half-Life, so I can't make a direct comparison, but having played the sequel, Black Mesa feels like a proper Half-Life game. The game maintains a retro charm while visually sporting a fresh coat of paint. The earlier chapters appear to stay fairly faithful to the original, whereas the later chapters have been heavily reworked and expanded. Based on what I've seen, I'm happy with these changes.

A first playthrough takes around 16–18 hours. For achievement hunters, you can select individual chapters, which makes collecting most achievements very manageable, though some still require their own playthroughs.

The story is great, and the core gameplay consists mainly of gunplay and platforming, with some physics puzzles sprinkled in — though puzzles aren't a major selling point. The level design is good, and you rarely get lost. However, a few platforming sections are poorly communicated, making it feel like you're exploiting the map rather than following an intended path. This can be both frustrating and immersive.

Autosaves have on a few occasions screwed me over by saving in the middle of combat, causing repeated deaths upon reloading. Thankfully, the game saves frequently, so reverting to an earlier save isn’t a huge setback.

My biggest issue is the audio balance. Gunfire is incredibly loud, while dialogue is barely audible unless you're standing right next to the character. Worse yet, both are tied to the same volume slider, making it impossible to adjust them separately. I've tried some console commands, but that didn't seem to do anything. I’m not sure if this is a flaw in the game itself or a limitation of the Source engine. Playing with subtitles is highly recommended. Great soundtrack though.

Black Mesa is.. interesting, to say the least. I got this game after finishing Half-Life 2, as I wanted to see what all the hype was about.

I have never played the original Half-Life, but apparently people said that this is remake is accurate to the original, so I assumed i'd try it. Lets just say that I was surprised. I would say that gameplay is certainly similar to Half-Life 2, as is the style (because both games are made on the same "Source" engine", I presume) but in general, i would say that the gameplay is good on its own. The graphics are great, and I enjoyed the story, as it seemed accurate to the original Half-Life.

However, there is one major issue with this game. The bugs. I ran into multiple bugs in my playthrough, whether it something game-breaking like the game crashing after dying or something small like the enemies not moving. Nonetheless, these bugs really brought down the games value for me. I still recommend it, but only if its on sale. I personally got it for 5 bucks, and I would say it was worth it.

I havent tried multiplayer yet, but im expecting it to be solid.

One of the best remakes ever made. Characters and the environments feel alive and I adore the soundtrack. And with this remake Xen got a lot more going for it. Just the opening for Xen felt amazing.

Go play it even if you haven't played the original game.

The graphics are amazing and being able to use the original models in the workshop can make your gameplay even better.

Great remake and animations and graphics are a huge improvement, but I haven't played the original

Fun and nostalgic game. Would recommend to anyone who played Half life and enjoys a good old fashioned first person shooter.

Super fun way to experience Half-Life with modern graphics

A solid remake of a great game that still stands out today thanks to its brilliant design. That said, I wish the remake had a bit more polish - mainly in platforming physics, controls, and that unnecessarily long level before the finale. But even with these flaws, it’s still fantastic. The density of events, masterful storytelling, and immersive world with inventive level-design make it hard to believe the original came out in 1998. A must-play.

Buyer beware: This game has some glaring graphical glitches on Steam Deck. It hurts me to give this game a bad review, because it is clearly made with lots of passion and love for the original Half-Life. Normally I would be willing to overlook some minor graphical issues, but in this case those glitches negatively impact gameplay. Your flashlight straight-up won't turn on in certain areas (or rather, it turns on, but the light is not rendering). Sometimes the flashlight works when you're facing a certain direction and then turns off when you turn the camera. This is a huge problem because the game is purposefully designed with dark areas where using the flashlight is intended. Trying to crawl through a pitch-black network of vents without a flashlight is a total nightmare that nearly makes the game unplayable.

There are other glitches as well such as environmental lights and fogs being visible through walls and following the player's field of vision rather than staying at their point of origin. Stuff like this isn't game breaking, but it does ruin the immersion.

It's a shame that such an otherwise well-made remake is marred by technical problems on certain hardware. I know that this game is already 5 years old, but I would appreciate it if the devs addressed these issues.

After playing through all the games in the Half-Life series (excluding Half-Life Alyx), Black Mesa really impressed me so much. Being a fanmade remake of Half-Life 1 (built from the ground up in the Source Engine), it's presentation and execution of being as faithful to the original but also expanding upon it as well. The gameplay was engaging, from the large assortment of weapons to interacting with the environment and items.
The story is somewhat the same as the original, but with a lot more characters, new dialogue, new additions etc, you can't really say it a shot-for-shot.

This game is a love-letter to the Half-Life series as well Half-Life fans, I highly recommend you play the other games in the series before you play this, as you'd be able to appreciate this remake a lot more.

Here's a list for anyone whose new to the Half-Life series and wondering where to start.
1. Half-Life
2. Half-Life: Opposing Force
3. Half-Life: Blue Shift
4. Half-Life 2
5. Half-Life 2: Episode 1
6: Half-Life 2: Episode 2
7. Black Mesa
8. Half-Life Alyx (will need a VR Headset to play this one)

as much as i love the original half life, this is way better.

the music just adds so much to the game, when you get the suit, you just feel like the main character.

definitely worth buying, even if you've played the original already.

Fantastic remake of a beloved game. I recommend everyone who hasn’t played Half Life 1 yet to play this version. I would go as far to say that this is now the definitive entry point to Valve’s genre defining series.

The Xen/Interloper/Nihilanth updates and rework are fantastic, and offer enough variation to provide value to even long lasting fans of Half Life 1.

I always tried to finish the original half life and i could not actually, but this is a really good remake 17 hours of gameplay, highly recommend it.

I suggest playing the original, but this is a great modern interpretation. It's not too far off from what I'd imagine Half-Life would be like if it was released today, minus some minor hiccups that are drowned out by the rest of the game.

Buy this game. Xen 'remaster' alone is worth it. Almost a separate game. Wild what they did. Highly recommend.

This game truly pulls you in and lingers. Getting progressively harder as you move along. Very few games have a replay ability aspect as this one has as to almost say hey I can do that level better.

This game isn't bad for the first few chapters but the performance takes a nose dive randomly and doesn't recover. For a game to playable on the steamdeck it should be playable all the way through not just on select parts

Half Life 1 Remastered. I mean FUCK

With newer graphics, newer features and the same masterpiece Half Life story my childhood has been reborn. Seriously this game was ahead of it's time and truly perfected. Developers hats down 10/10.

I'm my opinion it can still compete with today's new released games. When I say today's new released games I mean actual good games not some absolute abomination of a game like War Thunder, Apex Legends, Fortnite, Marvel Warriors or whatever else horsecock you gremlins play these days.

Anyway yo go cop it quick ting and play bro this game is amazing.

a fun game to play, but it does get repetitive so play through it in chunks

A great remake of the original Half-Life with a modern take on level design. Xen has been reworked so it's actually fun to play and not a chore, although it does overstay it's welcome for a bit too long. Can't wait to see the Blue Shift mod finished. That mod alone is worth paying for.

Loved the original Half Life so this is a must play specially with the updated graphics such and awesome game!

Seems like the best option to play HL1 aside from maybe the HL1 VR mod. But even then seeing all the slight changes & improvements the Crowbar team did with this remake really enhances the experience and makes a 25+ year old game feel modern. Probably the best remake on the market which is just so absurdly impressive from a team that started as a ragtag group of amateur modders.

Black Mesa was incredible. One of the best games released in recent memory. The team's true dedication and respect for the Half-Life universe shines though brilliantly in the finished product.

This is NOT a replacement for Half-Life. You should play that first. This is a version of Half-Life that is somehow more linear because a lot of the optional encounters were made to be required. I think the only upside this has to the original is the workshop support, otherwise it's just not nearly as good.

Now this is how u remake a game, its a perfect sidegrade that changes alot but keeps the original games vibe (except xen, xen is no longer poopoo)

This is my first experience with Half-Life and I gotta say, i really liked it. Because I hadn't played the original, I can't comment on the changes they've made here, especially Xen, but for what I experienced I thought it was very good. Despite it being a pretty long game for me (I'm not that good), the time I had with this game is worthwhile.

One of the best games I've ever played, and I've gamed a lot

This whole game is a cinematic FPS masterpiece

Get the Blue Shift and Opposing Force mods once done <3

This is an excellent remake I wouldn't recommend you play this instead of the original half life but definitely afterwards to get an appreciation on just how well they've done.

valve really let people put a FAN made remake of half-life on there store, that shows how goated valve is, some game studios wouldn't do that if there lives depended on it. w valve, w crowbar collective. go play this if your a fan of half-life but still play the original if your new to the series.

I remember years ago the anticipation for this game, and it blew my expectations away. I'm just now revisiting the game to replay it, and I just had to write a review. Highly recommend this game for Half Life fans, it's one of the best remakes ever made. 👍👍
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Finished all the HL series games starting with this one first. This game is not a direct remaster but an excellent remake that even portrays the story better than the original IMO. Breathes a lot of new life into the 20+ year old source engine which is super impressive too. Quite a cinematic experience.

If only valve would pick the series back up and release HL3/ HL2 EP3!!!!

The Overall Game design easy to get into and archaic in a good a way. The lack of objectives often led me to a confusion to what I am doing while travelling. This same confusion was missing when I was working on any puzzles which were very good and intuitive. Combat was relatively good, some weapons like shotgun, revolver and energy gun were really good both in how they felt to use and how useful they were. At the same time a lot of weapons felt has they were either redundant or some thing I would rarely use.

Levels like the Office Space & Surface Tension were great and I really enjoyed them. The only reason I marked it as 9 point as Interloper felt as unnecessarily long navigating through the factory other than that the game is a perfect 10 . Overall the game was a great and the best way to experience Half Life 1.

While writing this I have come to a realization I don't know how to write how I feel and probably don't know how to express my self. While I want this list to be objective but at the same time these were supposed to my thoughts and how felt about the games that I played but I feel empty. That is an introspection, I was not expecting when start this project this year.

Of course Half Life is a fantastic game and it looks amazing with the rework and it really is the ideal way to experience Half Life, so long as you are on Windows. On Linux the experience is extremely frustrating and riddled with problems. Most prominently there is a terrible memory leak that will crash the game at least once every 30-45 minutes if not more often. With 64gb of DDR4 RAM there is no reason I should be running out of memory on a refresh of a 25+ year old game. Besides that, the lighting is nonexistent if you try to run this game in native Linux. Can't see anything at all unless you run the game in Proton, and even then you still have to turn the brightness in the game all the way up, and apply a modifier to the launch settings to force a max brightness override for the flashlight, and even then the darker areas of the game will still be extremely difficult to see. Loading in to a new area comes with a 50-50 chance of crashing the game immediately. Dying comes with roughly 60% chance of crashing the game immediately. It makes it very difficult to enjoy playing the game when you have to spend an hour or two figuring out what Proton config is needed to run properly (for a game that's supposed to run native on Linux) and then try to power through the game having to restart the game and replay lost progress twice an hour. And you can barely see anything half the game. Searching for other people having similar issues shows lots of results going back years, along with multiple instances of other players and the devs reporting they have supposedly 'fixed' these issues, but evidently not because it's still barely playable in the year 2025 on Linux.

One of the best FPS games you can play today. Absolutely masterful remaster. And don't even get me started on last part - Xen. Whomever designed it deserves a medal!

Black Mesa is a faithful remake of the original Half-Life. Super well crafted. Obviously a lot of passion went into this. Personally I think this is a perfectly valid way of playing the first game. This game is like several games in one. Some of the mods are FANTASTIC. The Blue shift mod, though slightly more involved in installation, was expertly crafted, and could very well be sold as its own game. Most of the campaign mods are an absolute joy. I love seeing so much passion result in such a masterpiece.