Black Mesa is mostly lauded for its reimagining of Xen, but I prefer Crowbar Collective's take on the opening Anomalous Materials section. The reception area with the chunky, CRT security monitors. The changing room with the HEV suit. That iconic little cafeteria area, where you blow up Magnusson's casserole. The original Half-Life has a distinctive, generational aesthetic – the sights and sounds of Valve's shooter are etched into the collective memory of an entire epoch of PC players. But Black Mesa adds a new layer of detail. Once a fan-driven modding project, it's now ten years since Black Mesa first arrived on Steam, and to celebrate, it's gotten a worthwhile update and a severe price cut.
Bigger and longer than the original Half-Life, FPS didn't land on Steam until three years later. After that, Crowbar Collective went to work on building its own, vastly revised version of Xen – vast, colorful, and filled with puzzles and combat set pieces, the new Xen has become the biggest part of Black Mesa's legacy. The final version of the shooter was released in 2020. Now, Crowbar Collective has launched a surprise update.
The new Black Mesa update targets some of the last remaining performance and stability issues. Crashes have been minimized, stability has been improved, and problems with launching the game have been mitigated. Steam Deck functionality has also been enhanced, as part of an update that Crowbar Collective aptly calls 'Resonance Decade.'
And if you haven't played Black Mesa before, to mark its tenth Steam anniversary, Crowbar Collective has Gluon gunned the price down to a historic low. From now until Monday May 19, you can get Black Mesa for $1.99 / £1.67. Just go here.
Otherwise, relive the glory days of the original Half-Life with some of the best survival games on PC.
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