(Image courtesy of @Wheatums )

Today the re-envisioning of Half Life 1, Black Mesa has entered Early Access on Steam. If you never played Half-Life back in the 90’s you are missing out on a huge milestone in PC Gaming! Black Mesa is a total remake of the game featuring updated skins, complex environments and more realistic gameplay.

Being at first a total volunteer project, Black Mesa has been in development for over eight years. Completely disappearing off the map from time to time due to lack of updates or releasing small bites of progress to the community, some have given up on the ambitious undertaking. A few days ago a countdown appeared on the website leading into today: Early Access release on Steam.

What is included in the early access:

85% of the Half Life Singleplayer Campaign re-made

Multiplayer deathmatch and team deathmatch on 6 completely re-mastered Half Life 1 Multiplayer maps with all the iconic weapons included.

What is to come:

Conclusion to the single player with improved additions to the ending

More multiplayer maps and game modes

Steam workshop support

Now, no final completion date has been given, they are being very vague. Who knows when the final product will be officially released. Another thing to note is that they are still leaving the free downloads of their past 8 years of progress up, so you can still play through some of the game without any cost to decide if it’s worth your 20 dollars.

People are already starting to stream it, and what I’ve watched so far looks like a good trip down memory lane for those who look at Half Life fondly.

I’m not sure if I’ll be getting it, but I’d like to hear peoples thoughts on this step in the right(?) direction.