It gives you more time to notice the extra details they've added into the introduction. Extending it is a deliberate move on Crowbar Collective's part. It's odd to think such an iconic moment in FPS history was one of the less-liked aspects of Half-Life on launch. The introductory train ride is now longer, with many additional details.īlack Mesa starts with a ballsy opening gambit, an introductory tram ride that's longer than the one in the original Half-Life. But it's worth going over the work the studio did converting the Black Mesa facility itself into the Source engine, not least because they've made some further tweaks since 2012. Why bother?Ĭrowbar Collective has their own answer to that, which I'll get to in due course. Besides, who cares about Xen? It was always rubbish. Many such enthusiast projects never see the light of day, so to get even a partly complete remake of Half-Life felt like a minor miracle. For a lot of Half-Life fans, this was enough. The Black Mesa bit of Black Mesa has been available to play since 2012, while the whole game made its transition from amateur mod project to paid-for Steam Early Access title back in 2015.

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