Black Mesa: Half Life Becomes Beautiful (Free Game)

I've heard some people say that Black Mesa doesn't really look that great.
Seriously, have you seen this game?

Black Mesa

PC, Free-to-Play 

On September 14, 2012, at, and I quote, "exactly... 8:47 AM MDT" Black Mesa's single player game was released to the public. For those who are unaware Black Mesa is a complete overhaul of Half-Life done in the Source Engine (the engine that powers Half-Life 2 and other fine titles). Half-Life, if you're unfamiliar, is a First Person Shooter/Adventure game first released for PC in November, 1998, and would later be ported to the PS2 (released November, 2001), and Dreamcast (finished, but unreleased). 

Having sold over 9.3 million copies, Half-Life is one of the best selling PC games of all time, and one of the most well regarded first person adventures of all time. The story follows the adventures of Dr. Gordon Freeman, a man working at the Black Mesa Research Facility, located somewhere in the desert of New Mexico. Late for work Freeman (as he's often referred to) assists in an experiment, when suddenly everything goes wrong and he finds himself thrust into a nightmarish situation filled with monsters from another dimension. I won't give any "spoilers" away here, but know it's a great game, and has an intriguing storyline worth playing through. 

Hater's are gonna hate, but this looks good, regardless of what it's compared to.

While Black Mesa isn't running on the newest build of the Source Engine, it still looks amazing. The differences between the original and the new Source Engine based graphics are dramatic to say the least. While it's not going to compete with Crysis or Far Cry in the graphics department, this game still looks and sounds simply beautiful. Speaking of which, the soundtrack is a free download as well, if you're feeling generous however you can leave a donation to the artist, Joel Nielsen, for all his hard work. Some of you may be thinking, "Wait-a-minute, I thought this was a remake! What hard work could he have put in?" That's a good question, and one I'm happy to answer: the soundtrack is new. For those who loved the original soundtrack (as I did), this may come as a bit of a shock, but it fits the game perfectly, and doesn't feel out of place one bit. Joel Nielsen did a fantastic job composing this soundtrack, and considering it was the first soundtrack he ever composed, I'm more than impressed. I gladly "paid" for my copy of the soundtrack, and I hope that the money he gets from this project will lead him to compose for other games as well. 

The difference between the original Half LIfe (top) and Black Mesa's incredible
overhaul (bottom) are as welcome as they are remarkable. 

My only (small) complaints are that the game isn't entirely complete yet, but considering you get a major chunk of the game, and that this has all been done for free, that's not a real issue, that's an inconvenience at worst. Also multiplayer has not yet been implemented, and the second section of the single player game hasn't been released yet either. However, both will be coming soon(ish). The team behind this project plan on releasing this when they feel it's ready, and not a moment before. As I've stated before, I think that's a really, really good thing. Releasing a game without a ton of bugs or problems is something I wish more companies would do, and is really admirable; especially considering this project was done by a small team of unpaid hobbyist developers. Last some of the voice acting could be improved upon, but again, it's a free release, and came from a small team, so it's hard to criticize them much on this aspect.

To play Black Mesa you will need a Steam account in order to download the Source Engine, aka "Source Sdk Base 2007". Steam accounts are free to sign up for, if you don't have one, and you don't need the original game either, just the engine itself, which is a free download via Steam. Not a bad deal at all. Also be aware that Black Mesa is a fairly decent sized download, coming in at about 3 GB's, once uncompressed the game will take up about 8 GB's of room. Not huge, but not tiny either. 

IT BURNS!! AHHH!!

All in all I highly recommend you all download and try out Black Mesa. While it may be a bit of a retread, and I'm sure there are probably a few bugs here and there I've yet to encounter, Half-Life is a great game, and with a great new soundtrack, and awesome new graphics, it's not just good all over again, but a great new experience. I give Black Mesa 4.25 out of a possible 5 stars, citing its incomplete state as the only major detractor. To download Black Mesa go to the Black Mesa Source website, or if you want more information before trying it out, check their official wiki.

Also, if you're having trouble finding the download for Source Sdk Base 2007 in Steam, go here, and click on the first link (this only works once you have Steam installed on your PC).

Until next time, Keep on Gaming.