If there’s one thing I wish I could do with Half-Life, it’s wipe my memory and experience it for the first time again. Black Mesa doesn’t quite grant that wish, but it comes damn close.
Half-Life, Updated
Black Mesa started out as a mod for the original Half-Life, with the goal of improving the original game’s graphics and core gameplay. Eventually, with the go ahead from Valve, the mod teams formed Crowbar Collective, and created a full remake of the original game, released in 2020.
Built from the ground up using Valve’s Source Engine, Black Mesa modernises the original Half-Life while preserving its essence. It brings many improvements to the original game, including new gameplay features, graphical improvements, and completely revamped Xen levels.
Spoiler Warning
I will talk about some of the later levels and the final boss in this review. TLDR: This is a fantastic remake. You should play it.
Modernised Classic Gameplay
Black Mesa successfully recreates the gunplay from the original Half-Life. Most weapons feel like they did back in the day, and the same enemies return to try and prevent Gordon Freeman’s survival. The movement feels smooth, and it’s easy enough to get back to that 90s-style movement and shooting that was common in early FPS games.
One new feature that has been added are the flares. You can pick these up and touch enemies to set them on fire. You can also throw them if you’d rather not be close to an angry, burning headcrab zombie you just set on fire. This was apparently a planned feature in the original that got cut during development.
The levels have been redesigned to improve the pacing of the game. As I played through it, I recognised many of the set pieces from the original, but I did notice some differences here and there. The pacing felt smooth as I moved from one story beat to another, and I was happy to see many of my favourite scenes and boss fights play out in slightly different ways.
Black Mesa feels like what Half-Life would have been if it was released in the 21st century. It maintains the gameplay elements of the original, but with the polish you would expect from a modern game. It lacks a lot of modern features, such as cover systems, or being able to aim with every weapon, but this helps to maintain that simpler gameplay of the 90s without making it feel dated.
New Details
Everything in the game has extra detail. Character models for scientists and security guards aren’t reused (or at least I didn’t spot any reused models), making them feel more like individuals. With new conversations and reactions, you get to know more of the people who work at Black Mesa before things go awry. It immerses you into the world much more than the original.
There are more details on every surface, including schedules, posters, and whiteboards full of equations. The improved textures and models also show off the gore a lot more. Headcrab zombies truly are horrific to behold, and with alarms blaring, fires and explosions going off everywhere, and people screaming in panic, the earlier parts of the game are genuine horror.
The best graphical improvement is in the lighting. With modern technology the game can now support dynamic lighting and shadows, which is used to great effect in creating the atmosphere of the game. The flashlight now casts shadows, making it feel like part of the world like everything else. With more dynamic lighting, you will find yourself in darkness a lot, meaning the flashlight can prove useful right up until the end of the game.
Another major improvement is the soundtrack. At several critical points in the game, music will start playing to set the tone for an action sequence, or a moment of discovery, or to enhance the horror. I can’t emphasise how much the music improves the feeling of entering a challenging gunfight.
Sound effects have been iterated upon as well. Every gun has been given a more realistic set of sounds, once again making you feel like you are using actual guns, as opposed to the low-poly guns that where more stylised in the original. The alien weapons also have an improved sound design, even if they are more science-fiction based. Combined with improved animations that show off the highly detailed models, they help make the gunplay feel so much more satisfying.
Xen
All these improvements; the enhanced detail, the more immersive world, and the refined gameplay; help make Black Mesa feel like a real, lived-in place. But what happens when you leave Black Mesa behind? In the original game, Xen felt like a jarring shift, an empty and awkward conclusion. Barren, bland levels with awkward and frustrating platforming. Here, however, Crowbar Collective has completely reimagined Xen into something breathtaking.
When you are first transported to Xen it genuinely feels like visiting a beautiful alien planet(?) for the first time. They keep the idea of rocks floating in space, but they are extremely detailed, with lush flora and fauna covering every part of your screen. You’ll be wandering around in awe and almost get killed by houndeyes because you are too distracted by the beauty of it.
This part of the game really improves the storytelling aspect of the game. You’ll explore human outposts that reveal the extent of Black Mesa’s expeditions. You will encounter peaceful Vortigaunts and learn how they are enslaved and controlled by Nihilanth. You will see their society, how they live, and the giant factories they have built.
Later you will see how Nihilanth builds its armies as you move through the factory. In the final moments before you face Nihilanth you will uncover a lab full of specimens – desktop computers, magazines, living humans. They are studying us as much as we are studying them…
You spend a lot of time in Xen, getting used to the world, how things work, and how they defend themselves. All of this prepares you for the battle with Nihilanth, and by the time you get to the battle, you know everything you need to know to defeat it. It’s a straight up battle with Nihilanth hurling psychic energy, teleporting in cars and rocks and throwing them at you, while you blast away at its defenses until it is finally destroyed. When you win, it feels earned. It’s a huge improvement on the original version, and a satisfying conclusion to a great game.
Not Perfect
While I love how they redesigned Xen, there is a sequence where you are climbing a large factory that it really starts to drag.
You climb a level and find a force field blocking you. You follow one of the many red cables to a room where you have to fight one or more alien controllers. Then you shoot a red pulsing “heart”. Then you go back and repeat for the other cable. Then, with the force field disabled, you go up a level and find another force field blocking you. Now do it all again. By the fifth or sixth time, I was just going through the motions.
It’s a low point in an otherwise excellent game, quickly getting repetitive, and frustratingly boring. Thankfully, once it is over you are led into a fun, challenging boss fight that makes it all worth it. It’s also still no where near as bad as the original Xen levels were.
I’ve constantly said in this review how the game is “modernised”. While this is true to an extent, it’s more accurate to say it is a “more modern” version of Half-Life. Despite the many graphical and gameplay improvements, there are games out there that look a lot better. Personally I don’t think that’s a negative, but if you’re a stickler for extremely good looking modern day graphics then this game might miss the mark.
Honestly, I struggled to find much to criticize. Black Mesa is such a well-crafted remake that most of my issues are minor nitpicks rather than major flaws. If my biggest complaint is a single drawn-out section in Xen, that speaks volumes about how good the rest of the game is.
Conclusion
Black Mesa isn’t just a fresh coat of paint on Half-Life – it’s a thoughtful, modern reimagining that refines the gameplay, enhances the storytelling, and fixes the weakest parts of the original. While it doesn’t fully match today’s cutting-edge visuals, it more than makes up for it with atmosphere, immersion, and a fantastic rework of Xen.
When I picked up this game, I couldn’t put it down. I felt like I was re-experiencing all those old memories of playing Half-Life again. When I finished the game I was grinning from ear-to-ear. I knew I had just played something special.
Whether you’re returning to Black Mesa or visiting for the first time, this remake captures what made Half-Life special while improving on it in almost every way. It may not erase your memories, but it’s the closest thing to experiencing Half-Life anew.
