Black Mesa: Half-Life Remake Tested - A Spectacular Revival of a PC Classic! 

Hey, BM Dev here - The UC softlock should be fixed now and updated in the 1.0 version.

2 Half-Life games being released in the same month. What a time to be alive.

I played the Xen part. They certainly outdid themselves. It felt completely different.

This game will be a great entryway into the Half-Life franchise for new gamers.

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

Everyone give the OST a listen, its AMAZING, especially XEN

^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! :(

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.

Black Mesa's soundtrack is just amazing, they did such a good job.

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.

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.

I remember when they first announced this, ive been following it ever since. Its probably one of the best remakes ive ever seen

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

One of the best remakes of all time. The game took 15 years this shows how much the devs cared about Half life

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.

Considering how old the Source engine is now (albeit with evolution), it still looks phenomenal.

8:47 "Stanley entered the door to his boss' office."

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.

Finally someone pointed out the framerate of dynamic shadows.

No one's gonna mention the amazing editing of the intro, which has scenes from the game perfectly synchronised with the music?! xP

Awesome remake, one of my favorite games

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?

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 :)

Album: Black Mesa: Xen Soundtrack Song: Internal Conflict - Joel Nielsen Hope was useful.

Dangerous for the gaming industry. Do they really want young people to find out games were actually fun and good, back in the day ?

This is the best game for Reshade, it looks so great with raytraced ambient occlusion

Should have showcased Xen Levels.,, Because that is Black Mesa's art.

I actually think it looks great on old hardware. Looks like when I played HL2, super nostalgic!

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!

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?

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!

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.

God damn that opening 15 seconds of incredible audio!!! :O Then the next 12 minutes, pure listening pleasure listening to Alex's dreamy voice ^_^

I played Half Life when i was a kid - funny enough - in my memories it's always looked like Black Mesa.

So good to see this project getting more attention. It's been a long time coming, but the end result is really something special.

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.

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.

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

wow that does look good and sounds amazing

Also great choice for background music! Black Mesa OST rocks, it deserves to be buyable on Steam.

Now we need Nvidia to add Raytracing to this :D

Why can't I find a single Black Mesa review to mention how absolutely KILLER the soundtrack is?!

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.

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.

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.

Saw these guys at Pax East. They are very passionate about the project. Looks awesome, will definitely purchase day one.

I'm sold. definitely getting this.

God, this intro with gameplay moments and the song just gave me chills, loved it, should be in an official trailer

So hyped to finally see final version.

Another quality video from Alex!

Ah, the good ol' 8800 GT. A favorite of mine. What a damn good GPU.

Been playing it non-stop since I saw this video. Outside of some minor frame dips I'm loving every second of it!

Finished the game about a month ago. Pretty challenging, especially for someone who just started using mouse and keyboard.

the first 25 seconds of this video made me get the game in a flash. An awesome editing/music blend my friend.

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!

Fantastic remake, just reached the CrabSack thing the other day and just wow, what an experience fighting that thing again

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 *

"They're waiting for you Gordon, in the test chamberrrrr" They kept it!

Too little Xen in this video. Though just enough of the music from Xen.

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

1:16 - wearing headphones when i heard this and almost crapped my pants

Source is just so great and ages so well because the lightmap bakes look sooo good.

3:46 Akira Elevator :)

Wow this brings back such great memories. I used to build CS and HL missions using hammer. This remake is amazing !

Damn this looks really good

The lighting is gorgeous

8:40 - Put a gun to my head or whatever, but I don't see any difference.

The lighting is amazing now.

I hope we could play this on consoles one day

BM is in the top 3 of my favorite games of all time. Amazing work.

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.

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!

this would be dope on switch

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!

It was a simple life, go home, play half life and mods.

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 .

This needs ray traced shadows.

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!

anyone else kinda wish this was in VR now? :P

Alex killing it with these back to back PC episodes!

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.

I remember checking the progress of this mod weekly on moddb. I cant believe that was 15 years ago...

Hunt down the Freeman is definitely on another level compared to this

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.

I myself, prefer Hunt Down The Freeman.

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.

I just started this yesterday and got about two hours in and I'm absolutely loving it, so far.

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.

Really good video editing, DF.

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.

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!

Black Mesa 1.0 is everything i ever wanted this mod to become! It is literally perfect! I made a long comparison video of Black Mesa MOD 2012 vs Black Mesa 1.0 - 2020 in case anyone wants to see how they compare

Nice tip on injecting ambient occlusion. Every little helps!

Good to know that the creative liberties they took are actually meaningful & fit everything. It was my main concern.

You guys really should consider having gmanlives or Civvie 11 on the show to talk about FPS games. Neat video.

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.

so the information regarding dr kliener, he is Gordon's professor and the man who recommended Gordon to Black Mesa from the PC manual of Half-Life 1, this is also referenced in Half-Life Decay.

Outstanding review guys!