@@BboyCorrosive There's only one Black Mesa, it's the one on Steam. I highly recommend it, combatagainst soldiers can feel really unfair but otherwise it's great.
@@KP-48-007 The mod released originally in 2012, without Xen. It released again as a standalone in 2015 with various updates. And in late 2019 we got Xen, the final chapters of the game. Ever since 2012 and 2015, the game has improved visually, gameplay-wise and performance-wise. Today the game releases in its final 1.0 state, with the majority of bugfixes across the entire 20 hour game.
@Old Liquid Oh man it seemed dreadful in the original game and they stretched it out even more in this Mod. But as a whole, the modders did something remarkable.
@Old Liquid Interloper is again painful to complete, but not in a negative way. It especially feels macabre and unhygienic with a unique biomechanical industrial esthetic to it complete with vortigaunt workcamps. The levels feel alive, and truly feel as if you shouldn't be there. The new Interloper level still has its platforming hell, but with added puzzles to complete them and the ending part becomes a pretty wild shooting gallery where ridiculous numbers of enemies flood at you while you're given essentially infinite energy and ammo for your gluon cannon. I still don't like Interloper, but its a humongous upgrade to the original build.
When I first stepped out of the cave you teleport into from the Lambda Complex and saw that stunning vista with the soundtrack pumping, I literally stopped for like 5 minutes just drinking it all in with tears in my eyes. That experience alone was worth the wait and is only like the third time a video game has made me nearly cry; rescuing Cortana in Halo 3, the end of Angela's story arc in Silent Hill 2 and the opening of Black Mesa: Xen.
The Xen jungles would look right at home in a Metroid Prime game. It's gone from being a bunch of lifeless rocks floating in an empty void to a living, breathing world that feels authentic. It even gets the small details right such as showing the alien creature's camo in their natural environment.
@@archetype6351 Yes, it's a little difficult to get into the original once you've played Black Mesa. Nevertheless the original has a certain charm to it once you've played a couple of times
Yeah i its close to the orginal but added a few things Resident evil 2 remake wasn't what made the original special for me i never beated re 2 remake its a boring third person shooter
@@chargeddreamer7737 resident evil 2 remake is not good its a genetic third person shooter resident evil 1 remake shows what a remake is Its okay to like resident evil 2 remake its your opinion i respect that but so you know what OG resident evil fans wanted but we did not get it
@@playerunkown8699 RE2 remake is more of a Reimagining (step above remake) than a remake. But Remaster and Remake are more well known words for marketing to sell ur product.
The soundtracks are available to buy on Bandcamp. Just search for Joel Nielson or Black Mesa. The "earthbound" soundtrack is $8USD and the Xen soundtrack is $12USD and both are worthy additions to any collection of OSTs or even just ambient music.
^this! i hope they can make a "Blue Shift" and "Opposing Force" remake too! would hate it for them to not get some love like the time they got out! ;( yes, all the HL geeks played those too, but i doubt that they got as much attention as the main game! especially now! :(
Thats been in the making same time bm has been. Followed it just as long. Its on moddb Edit; the teams who were making them each joined forces to compliment one another :)
ok, thx for the info! but it seems like we have to wait like two more years to get it :( but its ok, because thats NOTHING compared to the waiting time for HL2: Episode 3/HL3! ;X
@@hkoizumi3134 No, they aren't. Gearbox was hired to do the expansions, but nothing more. Valve now own the Half-life franchise and all its entries (back then Sierra owned them).
We are living in a crazy timeline that we have this amazing half life remake, Halo CE Anniversary, destroy all humans, and spongebob battle for bikini bottom all coming to steam this year. These are amazing remakes.
I was playing both Black Mesa and Halo CE yesterday, very happy :) I played HL1 of course when it came out on PC - I built my first PC for it actually haha - but I never got to play Halo until yesterday as I never owned a console. Played Reach for the first time a few weeks ago too! It's been a great last few weeks :D
I'm sure I'm not the only person that has been waiting for this to finish before diving in. Thanks for the video. Looks like I have something else to dive in to this weekend.
@@nathanventer7334 It's good. But man, you just need to imagine every time that Black Mesa was made over 15 years by fans of the original game. Just modders. Only few people on the team had previous game development experience.
Oh wow. This has come a long way since when it was a mod. And looks like it runs just aswell as it did when it was a mod. I remember playing this (well getting it running) on a Mobility Radeon X300 and Pentium M Laptop, and even then it did surprisingly well (with very low settings and tweaks) Will definitely be picking this up. Cheers for the great coverage of it.
Other than a few stuttering sections when there were a lot of laser lighting effects late in Xen, it ran beautifully on my old dinosaur of a computer. Granted, I did have to upgrade the graphics card and RAM a few years ago to run Doom2016, which probably has a lot to do with Black Mesa's performance, but at the same time even then I couldn't afford the best components so my rig is still quite underpowered.
@@ebridgewater Yep. Afaik, the team consists of people from 10 different countries, all across the globe. Despite it being standalone on Steam with a price tag, the people still worked in their free time on it, since they had actual non-gaming related jobs.
@@dotalegendery3998 Half Life Source was never meant as a remake. It was Valve's example how easy it is to import Goldsource elements into the Source engine. Journalists back then picked up the "Source" name and called it being a remake. Valve never announced it as that.
@@DeosPraetorian Source 2 isn't coming out. Valve is only partially releasing the Source 2 SDK for level creation. But a full SDK like Source 1 isn't coming right now. Also the Source 2 release is focused on VR.
I remember following this mod when I was in high school. I'm 26 now lol. I can't wait to play the final version! Congratulations to the Black Mesa dev team -- to all those passionate fans that worked together to create something beautiful.
"Ok, I think we all know the drill by now. Blah blah blah, dark secrets, the keypad, Stanley pushes some buttons, oh hey, look, it's a new passageway! Quelle surpriese!"
would've been good to see performance comparisons in Xen, considering that's the most technically-impressive & most demanding part of the game. i strongly doubt that that 2007-era build you showed would run Xen well at all.
Yeah my laptop has an 870 and an i7 and once I got into Xen framerates mostly didn't stay at 60fps anymore. But there was a part I walked through a door into this beautiful open area and the framerate tanked even below 30fps and I figured since I just recently order a new laptop with a 2070 I'll just wait to play it until it gets here.
How do you get the Reshade with raytrace and ambient occlusion? I had the latest version and it doesn't have that. I know there was a paid version with SSR as well but I never found where to get it.
You missed out, Victor. Gameplay in Half Life-games is amazing. I began with Half Life 2, and to me it's _the_ game that made me a gamer, and *Half Life 2* as the best game of all time.
This sums it up perfectly imo, and it's truly a once in a lifetime experience. I only played HL after HL2, so while it was fun, I missed the feel of HL2, it just felt empty. Black Mesa perfectly delivered what I've always wanted HL to be, and then some. It's amazing that this game was completed, and it's so good it's unreal
Not to mention it's affordable at only $20USD for something like 16 hours of content, and that's without 100 percenting the Achievements. The closest this game has to any form of DLC is the soundtrack being available for purchase on Bandcamp.
It's a remake not a remaster. So it's different and not the same. And thank god for that. If you take off your rose-tinted glasses you'll find that the original aged as good as beer in the sun.
Great choice of footage to illustrate what you're talking about. I loved the part where you show the game running on a 2007 PC. Might be nice to have a similar section in more videos, just to see what reasonable min specs are possible and what they look like. Thanks Alex!
Half life is the first video game I ever played. My oldest sister and I would wake up really early and play together. I would control the mouse while she used the keyboard. I was probably 6 or 7. She was 8 or 9. We actually beat the game that way. Really awesome memories doing that. Cant wait to try this out. I almost want to play it the same way we did when we were kids hahaha
Hey, I remember playing the early version of this back in the day when it was a free mod for HL2 and still pretty early in development. It ran pretty well on my Core 2 Duo E4300/Radeon HD3650 with 4GB of RAM.
This is absolutely incredible to play. They reworked sections of the game that made a replay of the original not likely, and added amazing depth and subtlety. I tried to play Half Life:Source back in the day, and some of the older level designs just made that too tedious (looking at you On a Rail). Not so here. This rework is truly a joy for someone who cut their teeth on the original.
I watched this video on March 9th and subsequently went ahead and played the game. As of the date of this comment it is now April 4th and I just finished the game, thank you so much for putting it in my radar. As always this was a very well done and though out video. And of course, thank you to the Crowbar Collective for such a wonderful project, I enjoyed every minute of it.
GummyBear 2 Depends. If they add normal raytracing like we see in modern titles the game should run just fine provides you have a good gaming rig. But if they add eattracing like the one you see in Quake 2 the PC will explode waay before that. I doubt you’d make it past the opening credits
Production quality of these longer DF videos is amazing as is this black Mesa remake project. Thanks everyone involved including valve not claiming trademarks or what have you. Essentially all done by
Imagine HL1 was released in 1998 and Black Mesa manages to captures the game's essence in glorious detail; just comes to show how far ahead the original game was.
Half Life legitimately changed FPS gaming. I hate making statements like that because it's so cliche, but it did. And then Half Life 2 came in and did it again. Not only were their engines used for other games, but they became models for competitors to uss physics as a mandatory feature. Really also introduced story telling into FPS. Before Half Life, most FPS had no more story than Goldeneye. Just loosely associated missions. Half Life turned FPS into thriller/action/horror without ever once depending on cinematic cut scenes.
@@blakedelise2104 Agree entirely. I enjoyed the release of both as a young adult and they blew our minds. Also HL2 multiplayer is an oft overlooked triumph, that was insane at LAN parties.
half life 1 influenced every game since its launch so much that if you were to experience the og half life now for the first time you could be forgiven for thinking "hey, i dont see why hl1 is so good." since every game has in some way taken from half life to the point where its hard to for new players to see what made hl1 great.
Blake Delise HL1 doesn’t even have physics, and HL2 was very far from the only game in 2004 to place huge emphasis on physics. Thief the Dark Project, another first-person game released on 1998, also makes Half-Life’s story-telling look like a joke. Not to mention it actually, you know, INNOVATED on GAMEPLAY. Half-Life’s an overrated piece of shit. I don’t like using that word but it’s true because people constantly praise it as being innovative when that’s simply not true. I think the game sucks anyway. Always have. Its combat was far below the competition, and that’s what matters, not “er mah gerd mah attentio to detaillll so ahead of its tymeee” stuff that no one notices until some UA-cam makes a compilation pointing it out.
@@TheJayson8899 btw half life came before theif the dark project, and no it doesnt, theif invoted on stealth but story telling wise half life is better.
I had some pretty nasty drops to 40 FPS at times despite having a powerful enough PC for 1080p 120 FPS, but that didn't even detract all that much from how much of an amazing experience this was to play.
It was good, but the AI glitches, design choice of mid Xen, and a plethora of other problems really hampered the experience. Hopefully things get cleaned up a bit more over time!
They're waiting for you, Gordon. In the Test Chamber. I'm afraid we'll be deviating a bit from standard analysis procedures today, Gordon. Yes, but with good reason. This is a rare opportunity for us. This is the purest sample we've seen yet. And potentially the most unstable! Now, now, if you follow standard insertion procedures, everything will be fine. I don't know how you can say that. Although I will admit that the possibility of a resonance cascade scenario is extremely unlikely, I remain uncomfortable with the... Gordon doesn't need to hear all this. He's a highly trained professional. We have assured the Administrator that nothing will go wrong. Ah yes, you're right. Gordon, we have complete confidence in you. Well, go ahead. Let's let him in now Testing...testing... Everything seems to be in order. All right, Gordon, your suit should keep you comfortable through all this. The specimen will be delivered to you in a few moments. If you would be so good as to climb up and start the rotors, we can bring the Anti-Mass Spectrometer to eighty percent and hold it there until the carrier arrives. Very good. We'll take it from here. Power to stage one emitters in three...two...one... I'm seeing predictable phase arrays. Stage two emitters activating...now. Gordon, we cannot predict how long the system can operate at this level, nor how long the reading will take. Please work as quickly as you can. Overhead capacitors to one oh five percent. Uh...it's probably not a problem...probably...but I'm showing a small discrepancy in...well, no, it's well within acceptable bounds again. Sustaining sequence. I have just been informed that the sample is ready, Gordon. It should be coming up to you any moment now. Look to the delivery system for your specimen. Gordon! Get away from the beams! Shutting down. Attempting shut down. It's not...it's-it's not...it's not shutting down...it's not... * Scientist screams *
I've been watching this games development for so long, it's fantastic to finally see it out! I'm also glad to see how much performance had improved from the original free release. Back then, on an overclocked Phenom II X4 965 BE and GTX 570, some sections were sub 15fps at 1080p. As it currently stands, all should be well with my R5 1600 and RX 580 8gb!
Just make sure you have your 1600 overclocked to ~3.8ghz as this game is single thread heavy. Stock XFR will never boost to 4ghz on first gen. It will just do baseclock +100mhz at best
The introduction to the shot gun in the originally was better design I’d say. Part of what makes half life great and also accessible to new gamers is the manner they introduced tools and mechanics. Valve implemented this kind of “invisible tutorial” in Alyx I hear as well!
Thanks for the video, DF team. Do you have any comments on the Xen part of the game? I've seen many people pleasantly surprised that the Source engine could manage all that stuff that happens in Xen.
Would love this to come to console aswell. The Orange Box is one of my favourite collection of games. I haven't played the first Half Life in years though.
@@Sheen334 Half Life Alyx is coming as VR exclusive. Has been in development since 2016 and the biggest amount of Valve employees that has ever worked on a single game at Valve is working on it. 80 people compared to Portal 2's 60 people.
@@Br0ccolini I don't think so either, but it would be cooler with it. Like Quake II. What if it were made in Cry Engine with Crytek's new raytracing tech?
@@TheVillainOfTheYear That would require rebuilding the project almost from the ground up again to completely change the engine. Especially one like Cryengine which pretty much any dev that knows how to use it is either partof Crytek or Cloud Imperium Games.
@@PepicWalrus Yes. I wasn't saying I thought this would happen, I was saying it would be nice. If I say it would be nice if I had a Lamborghini, you don't have to say, "but you can't afford that."
Amazing overview as usual. I've been looking at this for years as a huge Half Life 2 fan wondering about purchasing it. Lots of problems in the day. Nice to see its came along and is worth the buy now!
Instant sub due to you giving away the outcome of your opinion in the title instead of making some shitty clickbait title like "Is it really that good of a remake?!?!?" Then you get an A++ on quality and effort for being good at what you do.
@@rvgr420 My PC can run GTA V on the highest settings, and keeps atleast 60 fps at all times, maybe a few small stutters when playing online, but I got 30 fps in specific places in interloper and surface tension.
I've been following this dev team since 2012 when I was like 14. Now that I'm 22, I'm so excited that this is finally getting its first official release!
i am so happy you showing this game . the dev did great job . also xen look gorgeous and keep in mind Valve rushed xen . so the Crowbar Collective made new Xen that is so good. there work quality at the same level of Valve in this remake .
It's crazy to still be hearing about Black Mesa - I tried it out almost 10 years ago! Congrats to the entire BM team on taking the time necessary to create a beautiful game that will surely be enjoyed for another decade!
Enjoyed the look at Black Mesa, it's been in development forever! Please watch the soundtrack and effect levels in the video though as they drowned out your commentary with headphones on.
This looks fantastic. I can’t wait to dig into this. I hope Crowbar Collective seriously considers remaking the Blue Shift and Opposing Force expansions as well.
I remember them starting this mod because Half Life Source was just a minor upgrade in stuff like lighting effects, and expected a bit more. :) I've played through the various releases, and 16 years later this amazing love letter is done. Incredible.
If Bluepoint made a Half-Life 1 remake, it wouldn't have been as good as what Crowbar Collective accomplished. I can't overstate just what a masterpiece the entire Xen segment is, especially compared to what it originally was.
Hey, BM Dev here - The UC softlock should be fixed now and updated in the 1.0 version.
Great!
Fixed the crossbow?
Thanks Chris :)
Is there a more simplistic way to make shadow rendering rate always align with framerate in the final game?
Best,
Alex
Hey, is the version on Steam the one for the upcoming 1.0? Just that it's labeled Black Mesa Xen, dont wanna get the wrong thing
@@BboyCorrosive There's only one Black Mesa, it's the one on Steam. I highly recommend it, combatagainst soldiers can feel really unfair but otherwise it's great.
2 Half-Life games being released in the same month. What a time to be alive.
Black mesa released many years ago
@@KP-48-007 Black Mesa 1.0 releases today, out of early access. Meaning it's a full game, unlike what it was back then.
@@KP-48-007 The mod released originally in 2012, without Xen. It released again as a standalone in 2015 with various updates. And in late 2019 we got Xen, the final chapters of the game. Ever since 2012 and 2015, the game has improved visually, gameplay-wise and performance-wise. Today the game releases in its final 1.0 state, with the majority of bugfixes across the entire 20 hour game.
We also got Halo Anniversary a few days ago and Doom Eternal coming up in just a few weeks...it really doesn't get better than this!
How about less remakes and more new games?
I played the Xen part.
They certainly outdid themselves. It felt completely different.
@Old Liquid Oh man it seemed dreadful in the original game and they stretched it out even more in this Mod. But as a whole, the modders did something remarkable.
@Old Liquid Interloper is again painful to complete, but not in a negative way. It especially feels macabre and unhygienic with a unique biomechanical industrial esthetic to it complete with vortigaunt workcamps. The levels feel alive, and truly feel as if you shouldn't be there. The new Interloper level still has its platforming hell, but with added puzzles to complete them and the ending part becomes a pretty wild shooting gallery where ridiculous numbers of enemies flood at you while you're given essentially infinite energy and ammo for your gluon cannon. I still don't like Interloper, but its a humongous upgrade to the original build.
Naturally. ETs have better graphics hardware.
When I first stepped out of the cave you teleport into from the Lambda Complex and saw that stunning vista with the soundtrack pumping, I literally stopped for like 5 minutes just drinking it all in with tears in my eyes. That experience alone was worth the wait and is only like the third time a video game has made me nearly cry; rescuing Cortana in Halo 3, the end of Angela's story arc in Silent Hill 2 and the opening of Black Mesa: Xen.
The Xen jungles would look right at home in a Metroid Prime game. It's gone from being a bunch of lifeless rocks floating in an empty void to a living, breathing world that feels authentic. It even gets the small details right such as showing the alien creature's camo in their natural environment.
This game will be a great entryway into the Half-Life franchise for new gamers.
@rjdim I hope you play the original Goldsource Half-life one day. It's not as vibrant as Black Mesa, but it's a lot of fun
I found it a little hard to get into the original one. I bought the Orange Box but the games are collecting dust. I'm looking forward to playing this.
@@archetype6351 Yes, it's a little difficult to get into the original once you've played Black Mesa. Nevertheless the original has a certain charm to it once you've played a couple of times
@rjdim Haha, that's awesome.
@@archetype6351 I played HL2 back in 2007 but only finished HL1 last year and it wasn't hard to get into at all.
A remake is an overhaul of the whole thing a rmaster is just a fresh coat of paint and black mesa is the best remake i have played
Yeah i its close to the orginal but added a few things
Resident evil 2 remake wasn't what made the original special for me i never beated re 2 remake its a boring third person shooter
@@chargeddreamer7737 Spyro Reignited is totally a remaster, nothing to do in that list.
@@mikel66661 no it's a remake has new cringe references and a character flossing to prove it
@@chargeddreamer7737 resident evil 2 remake is not good its a genetic third person shooter resident evil 1 remake shows what a remake is
Its okay to like resident evil 2 remake its your opinion i respect that but so you know what OG resident evil fans wanted but we did not get it
@@playerunkown8699 RE2 remake is more of a Reimagining (step above remake) than a remake. But Remaster and Remake are more well known words for marketing to sell ur product.
Everyone give the OST a listen, its AMAZING, especially XEN
Man I looooooooved the OST, so powerful !!
True HL fans already know that. :)
The soundtracks are available to buy on Bandcamp. Just search for Joel Nielson or Black Mesa. The "earthbound" soundtrack is $8USD and the Xen soundtrack is $12USD and both are worthy additions to any collection of OSTs or even just ambient music.
What's the song playing in this video?
Can you tell me the name of the intro music? Is it from the OST?
Black Mesa's soundtrack is just amazing, they did such a good job.
Better than the original.
Joel Nielsen is a soundtrack deity.
yes. only at certain points i felt that with the game situation it could've been better
^this! i hope they can make a "Blue Shift" and "Opposing Force" remake too!
would hate it for them to not get some love like the time they got out! ;(
yes, all the HL geeks played those too, but i doubt that they got as much attention as the main game! especially now! :(
Thats been in the making same time bm has been. Followed it just as long.
Its on moddb
Edit; the teams who were making them each joined forces to compliment one another :)
Its being made by a different team.... tripmine studios
ok, thx for the info!
but it seems like we have to wait like two more years to get it :(
but its ok, because thats NOTHING compared to the waiting time for HL2: Episode 3/HL3! ;X
Aren't they owned by gearbox? I doubt they'll get the "blessing" like Valve did.
@@hkoizumi3134 No, they aren't. Gearbox was hired to do the expansions, but nothing more. Valve now own the Half-life franchise and all its entries (back then Sierra owned them).
We are living in a crazy timeline that we have this amazing half life remake, Halo CE Anniversary, destroy all humans, and spongebob battle for bikini bottom all coming to steam this year. These are amazing remakes.
Yeah can't wait for halo 3 on pc, waiting for this for almost 10 years.
I was playing both Black Mesa and Halo CE yesterday, very happy :)
I played HL1 of course when it came out on PC - I built my first PC for it actually haha - but I never got to play Halo until yesterday as I never owned a console. Played Reach for the first time a few weeks ago too! It's been a great last few weeks :D
@@damiandelafuente3020 if you cant wait for halo 3 on pc you should try out SPV3 if you havent already. It's a mod for combat evolved.
Don't forget Doom 64!
Spongebob....Really?
I'm sure I'm not the only person that has been waiting for this to finish before diving in. Thanks for the video. Looks like I have something else to dive in to this weekend.
Nope, I also bought the game a while back but have been waiting for the full release before playing it. I'm really happy that time has now come!
I think I bought it 2012. But logged less than 1 hour before waiting. The wait is over.
I remember when they first announced this, ive been following it ever since. Its probably one of the best remakes ive ever seen
Shadow of the colossus
@@nathanventer7334 It's good. But man, you just need to imagine every time that Black Mesa was made over 15 years by fans of the original game. Just modders. Only few people on the team had previous game development experience.
Skywind.
RE2 :(
@@MedIevalCyrax - Is that even out yet?
If someone tried to do this to a Nintendo game, Nintendo would be all over their asses, let alone letting the modders sell the product online
So true. Nintendo is extremely protective of their IP's and they sue more than anyone.
AM2R :(
Same for Bethesda. Rip Fo4:NV :(
@@ToTheGAMES the hell are you talking about?f4nv is doing fine, no one has canceled it..
@@johnsmith-ck4qt They were denied of using assets like audio, voices. Don't know what the current state is.
Oh wow. This has come a long way since when it was a mod. And looks like it runs just aswell as it did when it was a mod.
I remember playing this (well getting it running) on a Mobility Radeon X300 and Pentium M Laptop, and even then it did surprisingly well (with very low settings and tweaks)
Will definitely be picking this up. Cheers for the great coverage of it.
Other than a few stuttering sections when there were a lot of laser lighting effects late in Xen, it ran beautifully on my old dinosaur of a computer. Granted, I did have to upgrade the graphics card and RAM a few years ago to run Doom2016, which probably has a lot to do with Black Mesa's performance, but at the same time even then I couldn't afford the best components so my rig is still quite underpowered.
It definitely does not run as well as the mod. Low-end systems can run the mod but not the steam version.
One of the best remakes of all time. The game took 15 years this shows how much the devs cared about Half life
They didn't work on it full time (37 hours per week) for 15 years.
@@ebridgewater Yep. Afaik, the team consists of people from 10 different countries, all across the globe. Despite it being standalone on Steam with a price tag, the people still worked in their free time on it, since they had actual non-gaming related jobs.
@@ebridgewater true but still they could have just put something mediocre together like half life source and be done with it.
@@dotalegendery3998 Half Life Source was never meant as a remake. It was Valve's example how easy it is to import Goldsource elements into the Source engine. Journalists back then picked up the "Source" name and called it being a remake. Valve never announced it as that.
luke cage they almost did in 2008.
Considering how old the Source engine is now (albeit with evolution), it still looks phenomenal.
It took them this long to get Xen out in big part because of how far they were pushing the engine.
Well I suppose it's a good thing that source2 is about to come out
@@DeosPraetorian Source 2 isn't coming out. Valve is only partially releasing the Source 2 SDK for level creation. But a full SDK like Source 1 isn't coming right now.
Also the Source 2 release is focused on VR.
kn *”We will see.. about tHat.”*
I remember following this mod when I was in high school. I'm 26 now lol. I can't wait to play the final version! Congratulations to the Black Mesa dev team -- to all those passionate fans that worked together to create something beautiful.
Now, let's just hope that Project Borealis will be released some day, and my life will be half-complete.
Finally someone pointed out the framerate of dynamic shadows.
8:47 "Stanley entered the door to his boss' office."
"Ok, I think we all know the drill by now. Blah blah blah, dark secrets, the keypad, Stanley pushes some buttons, oh hey, look, it's a new passageway! Quelle surpriese!"
When Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left.
Is this an Office reference
@@TheJayson8899 The Stanley Parable.
Well worth a playthrough. Or ten.
Awesome remake, one of my favorite games
would've been good to see performance comparisons in Xen, considering that's the most technically-impressive & most demanding part of the game. i strongly doubt that that 2007-era build you showed would run Xen well at all.
@@Empika A GTX 780 is a 2013 GPU. If it's not running Xen well, then a 2007-era build definitely wouldn't.
Yeah my laptop has an 870 and an i7 and once I got into Xen framerates mostly didn't stay at 60fps anymore. But there was a part I walked through a door into this beautiful open area and the framerate tanked even below 30fps and I figured since I just recently order a new laptop with a 2070 I'll just wait to play it until it gets here.
No one's gonna mention the amazing editing of the intro, which has scenes from the game perfectly synchronised with the music?! xP
Album: Black Mesa: Xen Soundtrack
Song: Internal Conflict - Joel Nielsen
Hope was useful.
@@chayze3009 No problem :)
Thanks!
It's available for purchase on Bandcamp.
Thank you
This is the best game for Reshade, it looks so great with raytraced ambient occlusion
How do you get the Reshade with raytrace and ambient occlusion? I had the latest version and it doesn't have that. I know there was a paid version with SSR as well but I never found where to get it.
Share your settings?
Should have showcased Xen Levels.,, Because that is Black Mesa's art.
They did an amazing job on Xen, it is so powerful and ... perfect!
Yeah but I'd rather play that part for myself.
It's been years since I've been postponing my entrance into the HL universe, just waiting for this game to be released. Now I can finally join in :)
Rise and shine, Dr. Freeman.
and
Shine
For sure you won't be disappointed
Prepare to join us in our pain after you finish Episode Two as well.
You missed out, Victor. Gameplay in Half Life-games is amazing. I began with Half Life 2, and to me it's _the_ game that made me a gamer, and *Half Life 2* as the best game of all time.
@@GoldSrc_ True.
So you're saying this hits the gold standard of a remake in that it recreates how i remember the original, rather than how the original truly is?
This sums it up perfectly imo, and it's truly a once in a lifetime experience. I only played HL after HL2, so while it was fun, I missed the feel of HL2, it just felt empty. Black Mesa perfectly delivered what I've always wanted HL to be, and then some. It's amazing that this game was completed, and it's so good it's unreal
Dangerous for the gaming industry. Do they really want young people to find out games were actually fun and good, back in the day ?
No DLC or microtransactions, basically illegal
Not to mention it's affordable at only $20USD for something like 16 hours of content, and that's without 100 percenting the Achievements.
The closest this game has to any form of DLC is the soundtrack being available for purchase on Bandcamp.
Wait, video games weren't always shameless cash grabs and reskins!? What kind of madness is this!?
It's a remake not a remaster. So it's different and not the same.
And thank god for that. If you take off your rose-tinted glasses you'll find that the original aged as good as beer in the sun.
Ok boomer.
6:22 So they decided to reverse the change they did and put the Shotgun and the Revolver in the original game's order, huh?
Where its meant to be
*o h y e s*
It was a good change. 2 Pistols at the start of the game didn't make sense. Gordon isn't a fuckin' Gunslinger.
@@lukkkasz323 Yeah this isn't Black Mesa Redemption 2
Great choice of footage to illustrate what you're talking about. I loved the part where you show the game running on a 2007 PC. Might be nice to have a similar section in more videos, just to see what reasonable min specs are possible and what they look like. Thanks Alex!
Running on a 2007 PC? bruh
I actually think it looks great on old hardware. Looks like when I played HL2, super nostalgic!
I've been waiting for this for such a long time. Haven't touched it since the initial mod release and it's finally time for the complete experience!
So good to see this project getting more attention. It's been a long time coming, but the end result is really something special.
wow that does look good and sounds amazing
I played Half Life when i was a kid - funny enough - in my memories it's always looked like Black Mesa.
Half life is the first video game I ever played. My oldest sister and I would wake up really early and play together. I would control the mouse while she used the keyboard. I was probably 6 or 7. She was 8 or 9. We actually beat the game that way. Really awesome memories doing that. Cant wait to try this out. I almost want to play it the same way we did when we were kids hahaha
Hey, I remember playing the early version of this back in the day when it was a free mod for HL2 and still pretty early in development. It ran pretty well on my Core 2 Duo E4300/Radeon HD3650 with 4GB of RAM.
I remember those specs. Lol.
the first 25 seconds of this video made me get the game in a flash. An awesome editing/music blend my friend.
started playing this a week ago to get ready for Alyx. What a good looking game. And it's very fun. Authentically Half Life.
This is absolutely incredible to play. They reworked sections of the game that made a replay of the original not likely, and added amazing depth and subtlety. I tried to play Half Life:Source back in the day, and some of the older level designs just made that too tedious (looking at you On a Rail). Not so here.
This rework is truly a joy for someone who cut their teeth on the original.
Well said. Nobody ever talks about how they managed to make On A Rail fun. Because it was actually fun this time.
I'm sold. definitely getting this.
Also great choice for background music! Black Mesa OST rocks, it deserves to be buyable on Steam.
Half life purists will say no to playing this, but we all know this game is the definitive way to play HL1 now. Especially with the inclusion of Xen.
I can definitely see why somebody would not recommend this over original. It definitely looks better, but they IMHO messed up gunplay.
I watched this video on March 9th and subsequently went ahead and played the game.
As of the date of this comment it is now April 4th and I just finished the game, thank you so much for putting it in my radar. As always this was a very well done and though out video.
And of course, thank you to the Crowbar Collective for such a wonderful project, I enjoyed every minute of it.
Now we need Nvidia to add Raytracing to this :D
The PC would explode once you reach Xen.
Yeh, that would be awesome.
GummyBear 2 I highly doubt that, what evidence do you have for that
GummyBear 2 Depends. If they add normal raytracing like we see in modern titles the game should run just fine provides you have a good gaming rig. But if they add eattracing like the one you see in Quake 2 the PC will explode waay before that. I doubt you’d make it past the opening credits
@@juliet4093 It's called a joke.
Saw these guys at Pax East. They are very passionate about the project. Looks awesome, will definitely purchase day one.
So hyped to finally see final version.
God damn that opening 15 seconds of incredible audio!!! :O
Then the next 12 minutes, pure listening pleasure listening to Alex's dreamy voice ^_^
Finished the game about a month ago. Pretty challenging, especially for someone who just started using mouse and keyboard.
If your more comfortable with a controller, that's always an option as well.
Another quality video from Alex!
Ah, the good ol' 8800 GT. A favorite of mine. What a damn good GPU.
got it for crysis in 07 lol
Production quality of these longer DF videos is amazing as is this black Mesa remake project. Thanks everyone involved including valve not claiming trademarks or what have you. Essentially all done by
Imagine HL1 was released in 1998 and Black Mesa manages to captures the game's essence in glorious detail; just comes to show how far ahead the original game was.
Half Life legitimately changed FPS gaming. I hate making statements like that because it's so cliche, but it did. And then Half Life 2 came in and did it again. Not only were their engines used for other games, but they became models for competitors to uss physics as a mandatory feature. Really also introduced story telling into FPS. Before Half Life, most FPS had no more story than Goldeneye. Just loosely associated missions. Half Life turned FPS into thriller/action/horror without ever once depending on cinematic cut scenes.
@@blakedelise2104 Agree entirely. I enjoyed the release of both as a young adult and they blew our minds.
Also HL2 multiplayer is an oft overlooked triumph, that was insane at LAN parties.
half life 1 influenced every game since its launch so much that if you were to experience the og half life now for the first time you could be forgiven for thinking "hey, i dont see why hl1 is so good." since every game has in some way taken from half life to the point where its hard to for new players to see what made hl1 great.
Blake Delise HL1 doesn’t even have physics, and HL2 was very far from the only game in 2004 to place huge emphasis on physics.
Thief the Dark Project, another first-person game released on 1998, also makes Half-Life’s story-telling look like a joke. Not to mention it actually, you know, INNOVATED on GAMEPLAY. Half-Life’s an overrated piece of shit. I don’t like using that word but it’s true because people constantly praise it as being innovative when that’s simply not true. I think the game sucks anyway. Always have. Its combat was far below the competition, and that’s what matters, not “er mah gerd mah attentio to detaillll so ahead of its tymeee” stuff that no one notices until some UA-cam makes a compilation pointing it out.
@@TheJayson8899 btw half life came before theif the dark project, and no it doesnt, theif invoted on stealth but story telling wise half life is better.
I had some pretty nasty drops to 40 FPS at times despite having a powerful enough PC for 1080p 120 FPS, but that didn't even detract all that much from how much of an amazing experience this was to play.
It was good, but the AI glitches, design choice of mid Xen, and a plethora of other problems really hampered the experience. Hopefully things get cleaned up a bit more over time!
@@AdriansCorner their definitive edition surely didn't do a great job.
1:16 - wearing headphones when i heard this and almost crapped my pants
PTHLD.
Why can't I find a single Black Mesa review to mention how absolutely KILLER the soundtrack is?!
They're waiting for you, Gordon. In the Test Chamber.
I'm afraid we'll be deviating a bit from standard analysis procedures today, Gordon.
Yes, but with good reason. This is a rare opportunity for us. This is the purest sample we've seen yet.
And potentially the most unstable!
Now, now, if you follow standard insertion procedures, everything will be fine.
I don't know how you can say that. Although I will admit that the possibility of a resonance cascade scenario is extremely unlikely, I remain uncomfortable with the...
Gordon doesn't need to hear all this. He's a highly trained professional. We have assured the Administrator that nothing will go wrong.
Ah yes, you're right. Gordon, we have complete confidence in you.
Well, go ahead. Let's let him in now
Testing...testing... Everything seems to be in order.
All right, Gordon, your suit should keep you comfortable through all this. The specimen will be delivered to you in a few moments. If you would be so good as to climb up and start the rotors, we can bring the Anti-Mass Spectrometer to eighty percent and hold it there until the carrier arrives.
Very good. We'll take it from here.
Power to stage one emitters in three...two...one...
I'm seeing predictable phase arrays.
Stage two emitters activating...now.
Gordon, we cannot predict how long the system can operate at this level, nor how long the reading will take. Please work as quickly as you can.
Overhead capacitors to one oh five percent.
Uh...it's probably not a problem...probably...but I'm showing a small discrepancy in...well, no, it's well within acceptable bounds again. Sustaining sequence.
I have just been informed that the sample is ready, Gordon. It should be coming up to you any moment now. Look to the delivery system for your specimen.
Gordon! Get away from the beams!
Shutting down. Attempting shut down. It's not...it's-it's not...it's not shutting down...it's not...
* Scientist screams *
Fantastic remake, just reached the CrabSack thing the other day and just wow, what an experience fighting that thing again
I've been watching this games development for so long, it's fantastic to finally see it out! I'm also glad to see how much performance had improved from the original free release. Back then, on an overclocked Phenom II X4 965 BE and GTX 570, some sections were sub 15fps at 1080p. As it currently stands, all should be well with my R5 1600 and RX 580 8gb!
Just make sure you have your 1600 overclocked to ~3.8ghz as this game is single thread heavy. Stock XFR will never boost to 4ghz on first gen. It will just do baseclock +100mhz at best
Source is just so great and ages so well because the lightmap bakes look sooo good.
Too little Xen in this video. Though just enough of the music from Xen.
Yea, I am very disappointed. Alex only analyzed the parts of the game that were there since the beginning.
maybe no spoilers?
I thought a little too much was shown in this video. I just started playing the game.
"They're waiting for you Gordon, in the test chamberrrrr"
They kept it!
Damn this looks really good
Been playing it non-stop since I saw this video. Outside of some minor frame dips I'm loving every second of it!
It was a simple life, go home, play half life and mods.
I remember the same thing growing up, that were the days.
Profile pic matches comment perfectly.
software mode and bagel bites.
Day of Defeat was the shit back in the day.
BM is in the top 3 of my favorite games of all time. Amazing work.
3:46 Akira Elevator :)
@Frax the room is exactly the same as the one in the manga
The introduction to the shot gun in the originally was better design I’d say. Part of what makes half life great and also accessible to new gamers is the manner they introduced tools and mechanics. Valve implemented this kind of “invisible tutorial” in Alyx I hear as well!
Thanks for the video, DF team. Do you have any comments on the Xen part of the game? I've seen many people pleasantly surprised that the Source engine could manage all that stuff that happens in Xen.
Wow this brings back such great memories. I used to build CS and HL missions using hammer. This remake is amazing !
8:40 - Put a gun to my head or whatever, but I don't see any difference.
Benjámin Kurilla, the only thing I notice is that the shading on the corpse of the marine is more believable in the image on the right
it's such a tiny difference that I wouldn't spend even a minute to get it working. Maybe it just wasn't a great example
Really good video editing, DF.
I hope we could play this on consoles one day
yeah in 20 years maybe. it took them 15 years just to remake it on PC. good luck waiting :)
Honestly , try get into the pc eco system man, only positives will follow.
Dreamcast and Ps2
Valve's decision. I don't think they're interested in porting their games to consoles anymore.
The source games always felt like PC games to me.
Good to know that the creative liberties they took are actually meaningful & fit everything. It was my main concern.
Would love this to come to console aswell. The Orange Box is one of my favourite collection of games. I haven't played the first Half Life in years though.
Wish they would just make a new AAA half life. Sucks :(
That's why it's called PCMR!
@@Sheen334 half life alyx
The pc version took 15 years so I'd say wait.
@@Sheen334 Half Life Alyx is coming as VR exclusive. Has been in development since 2016 and the biggest amount of Valve employees that has ever worked on a single game at Valve is working on it. 80 people compared to Portal 2's 60 people.
God, this intro with gameplay moments and the song just gave me chills, loved it, should be in an official trailer
this would be dope on switch
I remember checking the progress of this mod weekly on moddb. I cant believe that was 15 years ago...
This needs ray traced shadows.
i don't think that's possible in source :(
@@Br0ccolini I don't think so either, but it would be cooler with it. Like Quake II. What if it were made in Cry Engine with Crytek's new raytracing tech?
@@TheVillainOfTheYear That would require rebuilding the project almost from the ground up again to completely change the engine. Especially one like Cryengine which pretty much any dev that knows how to use it is either partof Crytek or Cloud Imperium Games.
@@PepicWalrus Yes. I wasn't saying I thought this would happen, I was saying it would be nice. If I say it would be nice if I had a Lamborghini, you don't have to say, "but you can't afford that."
Amazing overview as usual. I've been looking at this for years as a huge Half Life 2 fan wondering about purchasing it. Lots of problems in the day. Nice to see its came along and is worth the buy now!
anyone else kinda wish this was in VR now? :P
Instant sub due to you giving away the outcome of your opinion in the title instead of making some shitty clickbait title like "Is it really that good of a remake?!?!?" Then you get an A++ on quality and effort for being good at what you do.
This game is so good but runs so poorly. Those old computers you're talking about won't hold up in surface tension or Xen chapters.
and yet they don't give a fuck. (sigh) people with high end computers won't be able to go through that kind of pain.
@@rvgr420 My PC can run GTA V on the highest settings, and keeps atleast 60 fps at all times, maybe a few small stutters when playing online, but I got 30 fps in specific places in interloper and surface tension.
@@Mateumt you're proving my point.
Edit: my fps in Interloper drops to 7 fps during the final map with the big ass portal.
I've been following this dev team since 2012 when I was like 14. Now that I'm 22, I'm so excited that this is finally getting its first official release!
Hunt down the Freeman is definitely on another level compared to this
On how not too do a source engine game related too the Half-Life franchise in a certain capacity ?
Looking forward to playing this. At the time HL was amazing, so long ago, in better times, for me anyway.
I myself, prefer Hunt Down The Freeman.
i am so happy you showing this game . the dev did great job . also xen look gorgeous and keep in mind Valve rushed xen . so the
Crowbar Collective made new Xen that is so good. there work quality at the same level of Valve in this remake .
It's crazy to still be hearing about Black Mesa - I tried it out almost 10 years ago! Congrats to the entire BM team on taking the time necessary to create a beautiful game that will surely be enjoyed for another decade!
Nice tip on injecting ambient occlusion. Every little helps!
Alex killing it with these back to back PC episodes!
Great work, it was a perfect treat for Thursday :)
Enjoyed the look at Black Mesa, it's been in development forever! Please watch the soundtrack and effect levels in the video though as they drowned out your commentary with headphones on.
This looks fantastic. I can’t wait to dig into this. I hope Crowbar Collective seriously considers remaking the Blue Shift and Opposing Force expansions as well.
The lighting is gorgeous
I remember them starting this mod because Half Life Source was just a minor upgrade in stuff like lighting effects, and expected a bit more. :)
I've played through the various releases, and 16 years later this amazing love letter is done. Incredible.
This was really well done. congratulations to the devs, i hope they get tons of accolades.
The lighting is amazing now.
This is really amazing. Congrats to the Collective. If only EA would allow modders to recreate the original Mass Effect Trilogy.
why would anyone want ME remake? the graphics still good for today's standard
@TechnicalTortuga something more akin to the Resident Evil 2 Remake, and for us "console peasants", mate.
If Bluepoint made a Half-Life 1 remake, it wouldn't have been as good as what Crowbar Collective accomplished. I can't overstate just what a masterpiece the entire Xen segment is, especially compared to what it originally was.