Black Mesa (video game)
| Black Mesa | |
|---|---|
Caption of Black Mesa
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| Developer(s) | Crowbar Collective |
| Publisher(s) | Crowbar Collective |
| Distributor(s) | Steam |
| Writer(s) | Marc Laidlaw |
| Composer(s) | Joel Nielsen |
| Series | Half-Life |
| Engine | Source |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Linux |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| 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 |
Black Mesa (originally Black Mesa: Source and stylized as BLλCK MESA) is a third-party remake of Half-Life developed and published by Crowbar Collective.
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.
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.
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.
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Wikipedia