In 1998 Gordon Freeman climbed into the gondola on the way to Black Mesa Station for the first time in the world-famous Half-Life intro. 22 years later his remake celebrates Black Mesa finally the final steam release on March 5th.
But if you believe the word remake that Black Mesa would only offer an HD version of the original after 15 years of development, you should tear your head crab from your forehead: There is a lot more to it than that. We look at what the half-life descendant is changing and where he dares to go his own way.
What is the technology behind Black Mesa?
At that time, Half-Life was still developed with the company's own GoldSrc engine, which had strong technical limitati ons. For example, the levels in the engine had to be carved out of one piece, which led to strange proportions and hardly any details. Only Half-Life 2 then ran via the source engine developed by Valve. The first part was officially repeated in the new source enginereleased, but without noticeable improvements. And this is where the Black Mesa fan project came into play. Black Mesa offers new textures, effects, animations and physics effects made possible by Source Engine and has built each model from Half-Life separately.
Point 1: the graphics
Sure, first of all, of course, the graphic general overhaul catches the eye. For this purpose, all levels and characters of the original Half-Life were recreated by hand and provided with new textures and effects.
The scenes have been restored with a lot of love for the original, but also reinterpreted. Because the level material from Half-Life was partly very empty and naked due to its technical limitations. The gaps were sensibly filled in black mesa and given completely new details.
The placement of some objects sometimes differs from the original. For example, the crowbar, our first weapon, is no longer just lying on the floor, instead it is stuck in the wall. And we have to free them from that first. Such trifles lead to a total a much stronger environmental storytelling.
Point 2: atmosphere and dialogues
The developers also have Black Mesa completely new soundtrack. There is a new soundtrack that is a modern version of the original, and new dialogues. These play a bigger role in the remake anyway. One speaks much more often with NPCs, who get a deeper background story.
An example: In the original Half-Life we come across a rather taciturn guard behind a grate. We find our shotgun in front of it, a zombie appears and we shoot it through the grid. Black Mesa has rewrote the script here in favor of the atmosphere.
We find the same guard behind the grate. This time, however, he tells us how his colleague was attacked by a headcrab and asks us for help. Then his colleague appears behind him and attacks him. We shoot him through the grate with our pistol. As a thank you, the guard tells us about weapons in the back room that we can use. Here we find the shotgun with which we send three pre-gigunts across the Jordan behind the next corner.
Even more differences?
The colleagues from Digital Foundry shed light on some other differences and technical details in their video on Black Mesa:
If you are interested in the strengths of the remake: In our official GameStar test on Black Mesa, you will find out whether it might even steal the show in some respects. And in our Black Mesa video there is more information about the history of the mod and whether the 15 years of work were worth it.
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Black Mesa – The Half-Life Remake isn't perfect, but it's incredible