Black Mesa (video game)

Black Mesa
File:Black-mesa-logo.png Caption of Black Mesa
Developer(s)	Crowbar Collective
Publisher(s)	Crowbar Collective
Writer(s)	Marc Laidlaw
Composer(s)	Joel Nielsen
Series	Half-Life
Engine	Source
Platforms	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	Steam Early Access
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Black Mesa (originally Black Mesa: Source and stylized as BLλCK MESA) is a third-party remake of Half-Life.

During its eight-year development period, Black Mesa has been featured in several video game publications and received direct attention from Valve Corporation. Due to its long development time, the modification became notable for its delays, and dwindling updates on the status of its completion. The delays led to Wired awarding Black Mesa high spots on their "Vaporware Of The Year" lists in 2009 and 2010.

The first part of Black Mesa, which included remakes of chapters "Black Mesa Inbound" to "Lambda Core", was released as a standalone download on September 14, 2012. Valve Corporation, through public voting on the Steam Greenlight program, approved Black Mesa for distribution on Steam, where it was released as early access on May 5, 2015.

Gameplay

See also: Gameplay of Half-Life

Black Mesa is a first-person shooter that requires the player to perform combat tasks and puzzle solving to advance through the game. The core gameplay remains unchanged from the original Half-Life; the player can carry a number of weapons that they find through the course of the game, though they must also locate ammunition for most weapons. The player's character is protected by a hazard suit that monitors the player's health and can be charged as a shield, absorbing a limited amount of damage. Health and battery packs can be found scattered through the game, as well as stations that can recharge both.

Plot

See also: Story of Half-Life (video game)

The plot of Black Mesa is almost identical to Half-Life's storyline, playable through the "Lambda Core" chapter. As in the original game, the player controls Gordon Freeman, a scientist working at the Black Mesa Research Facility. He is tasked to place a sample of a strange material into an electromagnetic instrument, using the Hazardous Environment Suit Mark IV to do so safely. However, the sample material causes a "resonance cascade", devastating the facility and creating an interdimensional rift to an alien dimension called Xen, bringing its alien creatures to Earth. Freeman survives, finds other survivors, and makes his way to the surface with the protection of his hazard suit to get help. Upon reaching the surface, however, he finds that the facility is being cleansed of any living thing - human or alien - by armed forces. From other scientists, Freeman finds the only way to stop the alien invasion is to cross over to Xen and destroy the entity holding the portal open.

Development

The "Surface Tension" chapter as it appears in Half-Life

The same scene, as seen in a development version of Black Mesa

With the release of Half-Life 2 in 2004, Valve Corporation re-released several of its previous titles, ported to their new Source game engine, including the critically acclaimed 1998 game Half-Life named Half-Life: Source. The Source engine is graphically more advanced than the GoldSrc engine used for the original versions. Half-Life: Source features the Havok physics engine and improved effects for water and lighting. The level architecture, textures, and models of the game however, remained unchanged.

Half-Life: Source was met with mixed reviews. IGN liked the new user interface and other technical features but noted that it did not receive as many improvements as Valve Corporation's other Source engine ports. GameSpy said that while it was a "fun little bonus", it was "certainly not the major graphical upgrade some people thought it might be". Valve Corporation's managing director Gabe Newell is quoted as saying that a complete remake of Half-Life by fans of the game using Source was "not only possible…but inevitable".

Black Mesa began as the combination of two independent volunteer projects, each aiming to do just that: completely recreate Half-Life using Source. The Leakfree modification was announced in September 2004. Half-Life: Source Overhaul Project was announced one month later. After realizing their similar goals, project leaders for both teams decided to combine efforts; they formed a new 13-person team titled Black Mesa: Source. The "Source" in the project's title was later dropped when Valve Corporation asked the team to remove it in order to "stem confusion over whether or not [it was] an endorsed or official product", which it at the time was not.

The team now consists of 40 volunteer level designers, programmers, modelers, texture artists, animators, sound engineers, voice actors, and support staff. They have stated they want Black Mesa to be similar to Half-Life in gameplay and story, but changes will be made to take advantage of Source's more advanced features. Changes to the story will not divert from, or alter, the overall storyline of the Half-Life series. Level designers have shortened or modified some areas of the game that "didn't make any sense", or were "tedious" in the original. Maps will also be of a larger scale, for instance the hydro-electric dam, which is now "twenty or thirty times" larger.

Originally based on the version of Source released with Counter-Strike: Source in 2004, the project switched to a more recent version released with Valve Corporations's The Orange Box in 2007. This new version included more advanced particle effects, hardware-accelerated facial animation, and support for multi-core processor rendering among other improvements. The team recently stated that they have moved Black Mesa to Valve Corporation's new 2013 version of Source, with faster load times and Mac OS X and Linux support.

In addition to the modification itself, the game's thematic score, produced by sound designer Joel Nielsen, was independently released as a soundtrack in 2012.

Marketing and Release

The developers released a teaser trailer in 2005, and a full-length preview trailer in 2008. They also released images, videos, and concept art during the project's development. Black Mesa was given an official release date of "late 2009" in the spring of 2009, but this date was changed to "when it's done" after the development team was unable to fulfill this date.

On June 10, 2012, the Black Mesa development team announced that new "media" would be released once their Facebook page reached 20,000 likes. This goal was reached on June 11, 2012 when 8 new screenshots were released, along with an announcement of the start of a "social-media campaign" towards their first release.

On September 2, 2012, project leader Carlos "cman2k" Montero announced that the first Black Mesa release would take place on September 14, 2012.

The first section of Black Mesa was released on September 14, 2012, distributed as a free download. It has been confirmed that Black Mesa will also be distributed via Steam; the remake was among the first ten titles whose release on the platform was approved using Valve Corporation's crowdvoting service Steam Greenlight. The initial release consists of remakes of all Half-Life's chapters except those set on the alien world "Xen", which the team intends to expand for inclusion in a future release. The development team estimates that the initial release of Black Mesa gives players eight to ten hours of content to complete. In November 2013, the team confirmed they have been given the go-ahead from Valve Corporation to release a commercial version of the Black Mesa product via Steam. The team plans to use the additional funds to improve the game's implementation in Source and to include additional features; the free version will continue to be offered.

On May 5, 2015, another trailer was released on the Steam website. The game was also released as a stand-alone game on Steam's Early Access.

Updates

On June 16, 2015, the first content update (version 0.1.0) for Black Mesa was released It featured a new deathmatch map (dm_stack) and added a number of player models for the game's multiplayer component. It also fixed many bugs in both singleplayer and multiplayer.

On December 22, 2015, version 0.2.0 was released, dubbed "The Crossfire Update." The update added a new multiplayer map (Crossfire), new weapon models, graphical improvements (god rays), localization improvements, steam controller support, and map balance updates across singleplayer and multiplayer.

On May 15, 2016, version 0.3.0 was released, dubbed "The Surface Tension Update". The update integrates a popular mod, Surface Tension Uncut, into the game (the mod's developer, TextFAMGUY1, had previously been added to the development team). The new content adds about an hour of gameplay to the game. The update also adds high definition shadows (using Cascaded Shadow Maps), faster map load times, and translation support for 5 additional languages. As with previous updates, 0.3.0 additionally contains game balance and level design changes across singleplayer and multiplayer, as well as programming bug fixes. Notably the game's Artificial Intelligence was modified in singleplayer.

Modifications

In Surface Tension Uncut, an unofficial mod for Black Mesa, the "Surface Tension" chapter was expanded to include certain areas of the chapter from the original game that weren't released with the remake as a result of the developer working on that part leaving before his work was finished. The developer, Chon Kemp, known on the Black Mesa: Community Forums by the pseudonym TextFAMGUY1, is currently working on modifying the "On a Rail" chapter, which is in Beta stage.

Reception

Prior to release

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 86/100 (9 reviews) Review scores Publication Score CVG 8.5 Destructoid 8/10 Eurogamer 9/10 GamesTM 9/10

During its development, Black Mesa has received attention from several video game publications. It has been featured in articles from Computer Gaming World, PC PowerPlay, and PC Gamer UK magazines. Valve Corporation published a news update about the modification on their Steam digital distribution platform in 2007 saying that "We're as eager to play [Black Mesa] here as everyone else."

The project was awarded Top Unreleased Mod by video game modification website Mod DB in 2005 and 2006. Mod DB gave the project an honorable mention in their choice of Top Unreleased Mod in 2007.

After receiving a development version of Black Mesa in December 2009, PC PowerPlay magazine said that the game's setting "looks, sounds, [and] plays better than ever before". The "subtle" changes from the original Half-Life were said to have a "substantial" overall impact. They also noted the project's "frustrating" then-five-year development time, and current lack of release date, but added that the developers were making progress.

Initial release

After the mod was released, early impressions of the game were very positive, receiving a score of 86/100 on Metacritic, based on nine reviews. The game was praised for its high polish, with many critics comparing its quality to that of an official Valve Corporation title. Destructoid praised the game for the improvements it made over the original Half-Life, saying it was "something that felt very familiar, [but also] very fresh."

Black Mesa won ModDB's Mod of the Year Award for 2012.

See also

• List of video games derived from modifications

External links

• Official website