Half-Life fan remake Black Mesa is now bigger on Valve's own storefront Steam than the original release from 1998. The Half-Life remake as well.
It goes without saying that Black Mesa's higher number of reviews and positive critical reception simply wouldn't exist if Valve didn't make the original Half-Life. However, it's still amazing to see that developer Crowbar Collective's love and care for the series has been recognized since Black Mesa was released on Steam in 2020.
The Black Mesa team has taken to Twitter to thank everyone for the reviews, saying, "Big day today! A huge thanks to all of you! We've reached an incredible milestone with 90,000 Overwhelmingly Positive Reviews on Steam."
As of publication, Black Mesa has 90,118 reviews, with 95% of these being positive. By comparison Valve's 1998 classic has 71,940 reviews, with 96% of these being positive. Considering Half-Life is thought by many to be a landmark achievement in shooters and videogames as a whole, seeing the developers of Black Mesa get approval from Valve, and the Half-Life community as a whole, would make anyone a little teary-eyed.
In contrast, the much-maligned Half-Life Source only has 11,201 reviews that sit at "mostly positive," as, while the Valve-enhanced version of Half-Life did make some graphical and physics improvements, it's filled with a lot more glitches than the original game, and than Black Mesa for that matter.
Still, Black Mesa has earned its reputation and deserves to sit alongside the original Half-Life on Steam, despite not actually being made by Valve. It won't be alone soon enough either, as Half-Life Mmod was released earlier this year, making the aging FPS feel more like a modern shooter with minimal changes.
If talk of Black Mesa and Half-Life has you wanting to revisit some videogame classics, check out some of the best single-player games instead, where we're absolutely sure you'll find something to your tastes.
Image credits: Crowbar Collective and Half-Life wiki.