Quite an impressive milestone for an incredible game overall! The Half-Life remake Black Mesa has managed to cross over 100,000 user reviews on Steam. It's rated Overwhelmingly Positive thanks to everyone leaving their thoughts. And going by the Steam Top 250 list it's currently number 155 of the most highly rated games on Steam ever.
Not exactly surprising though, given how loved Half-Life is and Black Mesa is a pretty incredible remake all-around with some fantastic attention to detail.
Black Mesa is rated Steam Deck Playable, and it has a Native Linux version - but you're better off using Proton as it's been left with numerous bugs.
Would you say people first starting off in Half-Life should jump into Black Mesa? Or are you a die-hard for the actual original which recently had its own big 25th Anniversary Update? I'm still amazed Valve actually allowed Crowbar Collective to do a remake like this.
Find Black Mesa on Steam.
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12 comments
legluondunet Feb 7
a deserved success
5 Likes, Who?
I have mixed feelings about Black Mesa. Visually it's fantastic, and it's great to replay Half-Life with a more modern look. But as the game goes on, they diverged more and more from the original. Zen is huge in Black Mesa, and while it *looks* great, it's so formulaic (combat, platform, puzzle, repeat) that it feels more like a drag. Half-way through Zen, I felt like I'm just pushing forward just to say I finished the game.
There was something about Half-Life that made it a great game, the new Zen doesn't have that something.
Last edited by ShabbyX on 7 February 2024 at 10:22 pm UTC
There was something about Half-Life that made it a great game, the new Zen doesn't have that something.
Last edited by ShabbyX on 7 February 2024 at 10:22 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Anyone here playing/having played it on the Deck? How do you configure controls? I installed it about a year ago and couldn't find a way to configure controls that feels comfortable to me.
0 Likes
TimeFreeze Feb 7
Personally i dislike Black Mesa. Its just not for me, i'll stay with the Original.
Last edited by TimeFreeze on 7 February 2024 at 3:12 pm UTC
Last edited by TimeFreeze on 7 February 2024 at 3:12 pm UTC
0 Likes
Played through Black Mesa about two years ago. Yes, the Linux build for those that are convinced that it doesn't work. It's not super stable. Some crashes related to the physics system while jumping into the portal to Xen that apparently happens on Windows as well.
As for the game itself, I'm mixed on it as well. Some of the changes are good, but others not so much. I'm especially mixed about Xen. It looks amazing and it's nice that it made more of an effort than the original did. However, it is tedious and making an enemy invulnerable based on where it is is just not a half-life way of doing things. The game would have been better if the whole chase stuff wasn't there and if the rest of Xen was a bit shorter.
As for the game itself, I'm mixed on it as well. Some of the changes are good, but others not so much. I'm especially mixed about Xen. It looks amazing and it's nice that it made more of an effort than the original did. However, it is tedious and making an enemy invulnerable based on where it is is just not a half-life way of doing things. The game would have been better if the whole chase stuff wasn't there and if the rest of Xen was a bit shorter.
2 Likes, Who?
The game still has some bugs that should be fixed, and Steam Deck support would be appreciated from them.
0 Likes
Always appreciated what Black Mesa did. I mean I never got to play Half Life 1 when it was in its prime, I had an N64 and a barely usable prebuilt HP running Windows ME when it came out. By the time Half Life was on my radar it was a hard game to get into. I prefer the original nowadays, but without Black Mesa to show me the design and artistic intent behind those dated graphics and mildly jank mechanics... I'm not sure if I'd ever have beaten HL1 and be quite as big of a Half Life fan as I am now.
Actually, nevermind, Fallout 1 & 2 never got remakes and I managed to power through their jank and become a toxic Fallout fan, and those games are intensely more dated. If Black Mesa got delayed even longer I probably would a got tired of waiting and just powered through HL1 and be just as much of a fan as I am now. In any case, Black Mesa was cool and Mark Laidlaw is a good writer and aside from his work on Half-Life I really liked his book Dad's Nuke.
Actually, nevermind, Fallout 1 & 2 never got remakes and I managed to power through their jank and become a toxic Fallout fan, and those games are intensely more dated. If Black Mesa got delayed even longer I probably would a got tired of waiting and just powered through HL1 and be just as much of a fan as I am now. In any case, Black Mesa was cool and Mark Laidlaw is a good writer and aside from his work on Half-Life I really liked his book Dad's Nuke.
0 Likes
Recently did the umpteenth replay when the 25th anniversary
release hit Steam - but with filtering off.
Definite version for me.
release hit Steam - but with filtering off.
Definite version for me.
1 Likes, Who?
I never was a huge Half-Life fan .. and I played through both and have to say - I didn't really enjoy either. Guess it's just not a game for me.
0 Likes
I tried to play Black Mesa couple of years ago and it just kept on crashing. I posted a negative review because of that (to help others on Linux to decide) and people just kept on saying that I should uninstall Linux and use Windows instead. After that I just lost interest to the game.
I still have conflicted feelings if I should try it again. Maybe when it's ready?
I still have conflicted feelings if I should try it again. Maybe when it's ready?
0 Likes
I'm happy for them. Personally, I didn't like it. Maybe because I'm coming from a Quake background, but the hitscans on this mod are insane. Even worse than the original.
0 Likes
I tried to play Black Mesa couple of years ago and it just kept on crashing. I posted a negative review because of that (to help others on Linux to decide) and people just kept on saying that I should uninstall Linux and use Windows instead. After that I just lost interest to the game.
I still have conflicted feelings if I should try it again. Maybe when it's ready?
I bet it crashed equally as much on windows too, but losers will be losers, don't feel too bad.
When I played it a year or two ago, I had a game-breaking crash too. I had to load a save file from a few levels before so it wouldn't crash on that spot.
0 Likes
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