I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S SOURCE

This is what I said to myself during the back half of the game. Black Mesa is a remake of the first Half-Life game from Crowbar Collective. Starting out as a mod for the original game's sequel before becoming its own game with the blessing of Valve, it has been more than a decade in the making. By coincidence, it also happened to release in the same year as a new HL game.

Going On a Rail with Black Mesa Inbound is still one of the best introductions to a game's world, and this game only improves on the original with updated graphics as it goes on. Going through a Hazard Course filled with Anomalous Materials in an Office Complex as a result of Unforeseen Consequences from Questionable Ethics is still great fun and is improved not just in looks, but gameplay as well with punchier weapons that both feel and sound more impactful as players Power Up gradually throughout the game with more weapons at their disposal. The soundtrack is also a delight and well worth listening to both in-game and on its own, enhancing the experience significantly.

The game recently (as of time of posting) got a Definitive Edition update which fixed a lot of bugs and managed to make this game look even better, all the way from smacking headcrabs in a Blast Pit up to the Endgame fighting the Nihilanth as an Interloper within the stunning ground-up reimagining of Xen. It pushes the ol' Source Engine to its limits and manages to prove that great games can still be made in it to this day.

This is a remake that both old-timers and newbies to the HL franchise should really play through all the way to the end and is worth getting with or without a sale, leaving players unable to Forget About Freeman for a long time to come.