Fan projects to make games based on licensed IPs usually have all kinds of legal problems unless they get the original creator's permission. Even once they clear that hurdle, they must then make something just as good if not better to not make their work look like a cheap imitation. Black Mesa, the fan-made and Valve-approved remake of the original Half-Life generally succeeds on that level.

A bit of background though. The original Half-Life was released in 1998. Based on a heavily modified version of the first Quake engine, it pioneered a new chapter in the first-person shooter by having a fully realized world to go with its story and introduced the concept of the "everyman" protagonist who solves problems as much with brains as they do guns. In 2004, Half-Life: Source, a port of the original game to the new Source engine used in Half-Life 2 met a tepid reception due to numerous bugs and generally not coming off as that much of an improvement on the virtues of the original title. Ergo, fans decided (with the blessing of Valve) to make their own ground-up remake of the first Half-Life, utilizing the lessons learned since Half-Life 2 to bring the first title up to a similar level of immersion and polish. Originally released as a free mod, it is now sold as an even more refined commercial product.

The story of Black Mesa is identical to the original Half-Life. Gordon Freeman is you, a theoretical physicist who works at the Black Mesa research facility in New Mexico. While assisting with a routine scientific experiment, something goes horrifically wrong and the Black Mesa complex quickly becomes a deathtrap you need to escape. Worse, as you continue to try getting to the surface, it becomes clear whatever happened caused the government to want to make sure you and the rest of the facility stay quiet about the disaster by any means necessary. Meanwhile, the alien threat unleashed by the disaster is already tearing the place apart and making the situation worse. Utilizing whatever weapons you find and using whatever resources are on hand, you must try to escape, stop the threats of government forces and the aliens, and ultimately, survive.

Much like the original Half-Life, Black Mesa tells its story via scripted scenes and via NPCs who interact with Gordon. It's broken up into chapters (which serve as checkpoints the player can revisit on top of allowing them to make their own saves). In these parts of the story, there are various enemies to be fought or avoided and various puzzles (generally physics-based) to complete to progress past certain obstacles. However, Black Mesa, while not changing this formula, has made its own changes. The engine now defaults to the Half-Life 2 Source engine (as opposed to the GoldSrc engine used in the original title). While Valve generously provided their SDK (source development kit) and many of their assets for use, the creators of Black Mesa opted to recreate the original assets by hand for the modern era. Some of the original controls were modified to be more modern, and while the game maps and story follow the same pattern as the original, they have been greatly enhanced by far more set pieces and alterations for ease of play while preserving challenges.

It bears mentioning this only covers the original canonical Half-Life. The expansions are not included, though there are Steam Workshop mods to provide a modern recreation of the Hazard Course Tutorial level and most of the Blue Shift expansion at the time of this writing. Steam Workshop support for other mods is freely provided, but those are beyond the scope of this review aside from saying they require a legitimate copy of the Steam release to play.

Graphically, this mod uses some of the best 3D models, particle effects, and shaders that the Source engine can provide. Due to greatly improved and increased set pieces compared to the 1998 original, Black Mesa looks a lot more like the black site science research facility than the 1998 game. At times, however, while many areas follow the same layout and structure of the original, it's a bit more obtuse in design in places, especially when they had to redesign certain areas. However, this is not all bad. Certain tedious sections of the original like the horridly long "On A Rail" portion of the experience has been shortened and made less dull. Conversely, while Xen looks far more impressive, it is still one of the most boring parts of the campaign, an unfortunate holdover from the original experience due to its lack of interesting challenges and less interesting design than Black Mesa itself. All characters now have unique models (as the original had to recycle a lot of designs) which are well-animated as well.

Sounds and music follow closely from the original, albeit fan-remade and using much higher quality sound quality and samples. The mostly survival horror ambiance is occasionally broken up by fast-paced sections set to high-paced rock techno riffs for when action is getting intense. Weapons and enemy sounds have been redesigned from the ground up, though many familiar sounds like the gurgle of head crabs and the shrieks of the Houndeyes sound much the same. Voice acting has been redone from the ground up as well. Unlike the occasionally hilarious B-movie style dialogue from the original, I'd say the quality is a bit too professional, which is probably a minor nitpick, but the cheese factor of the original was kinda charming.

The game defaults to similar controls as Half-Life 2, using the same physics engine with some tweaks (as opposed to the poorly done port of the same for Half-Life: Source). While jumping is still occasionally difficult, it feels a lot less like Gordon's feet are landing on ice, making precise jumps way less annoying. Overall, I had little issue with the controls and found them quite accessible. There is some controller support, but I found this plays best on the keyboard and mouse like the original.

Stability is quite solid. It supports Windows and Linux natively and will run well as long as you can clear the minimum required settings. It is rated as Playable for the Steam Deck as well. Like the original, it has support for Online PvP and supports cross-platform play (for Windows and Linux). There is no co-op mode, due to design decisions by the developers.

Some final notes. This has been rebalanced for the version of Source this was designed for, so this will not play identically in many regards to the original despite following many of the same beats. I found head crabs a bit easier to kill, while the bull-squids are a bit harder than the original for example. Due to supporting mods, there are many existing ways to tweak certain changes or the player can freely download the Source SDK to do so themselves.

Morally, this is a mature game, much like the original, and has some mature themes.

Violence is going to be pretty graphic. On top of frequent displays of blood, you will see and/or inflict gory damage on various enemies. You and others will leave bodies, and thanks to this remake having much higher levels of detail, you will see detailed gore and entrails.

Language is mostly mild, though there is some occasional teen-level profanity (h*ll, d*mn, s***). This is a pretty serious game, so there is hardly any sexual content save for some special ops troopers who are female who wear very skin-tight outfits.

This remains firmly in the realm of science fiction. While some of the enemies have some degree of H.P. Lovecraft-style inspiration, this takes place generally in a grounded setting depicting an alien invasion and science gone wrong. Morally, you play simply as a man trying to survive against various threats. You can, if you choose, lethally harm friendly NPCs, but this is not advised and often will make progress impossible since they are generally needed to progress in certain areas.

As a modern fan remake of a classic, I can generally recommend it. It hits many of the same high notes as the original Half-Life and is worth its purchase price (though often sells for cheap during sales). Technically, it's pretty sound and has a thriving mod support and multiplayer community. Morally, it's a mature game meant only for adults given the intense violence. I must admit I still love the original Valve title, despite all its flaws, but Black Mesa is definitely a worthy modern-day fan remake all the same.