Remake

Black Mesa

2020 · Linux · PC (Microsoft Windows) · Shooter · Platform · Adventure

88IGDB player score
560 ratings

Previously Take

An 88 average from 560 ratings: not perfect, but the kind of game people keep recommending anyway. Adventure in the classic sense: science fiction, warfare, forward momentum, and places worth seeing. A full single-player game with a multiplayer side that refuses to die.

About this game

Black Mesa is a re-envisioning of Valve Software's classic science fiction first person shooter, Half-Life. Powered by Source Engine, You will re-visit the inaugural role of Gordon Freeman and his memorable journey through the Black Mesa Research Facility. Expect detailed environments to explore, a huge cast of characters and experimental weaponry. All-new music, voice acting, choreography and added dialogue give way to a more expansive and immersive experience than ever before.

The plot of Black Mesa is almost identical to Half-Life's storyline, playable through the "Lambda Core" chapter. As in the original game, the player controls Gordon Freeman, a scientist working at the Black Mesa Research Facility. He is tasked to place a sample of a strange material into an electromagnetic instrument, using the Hazardous Environment Suit Mark IV to do so safely. However, the sample material causes a "resonance cascade", devastating the facility and creating an interdimensional rift to an alien dimension called Xen, bringing its alien creatures to Earth. Freeman survives, finds other survivors, and makes his way to the surface with the protection of his hazard suit to get help. Upon reaching the surface, however, he finds that the facility is being cleansed of any living thing - human or alien - by armed forces. From other scientists, Freeman finds the only way to stop the alien invasion is to cross over to Xen and destroy the entity holding the portal open.