That Black Mesa countdown, I’m sure you all figured out, was a countdown to the Half-Life remake’s arrival on Steam. And now that it has arrived, you can snatch it up for yourself if you drop £14.99/$19.99.
It’s in Early Access at the moment, and is an updated version of 2012’s free mod that includes mod support and multiplayer.
Here’s everything that this version has over its 2012 predecessor:
- Heavily updated single player experience: The Black Mesa single player experience has greatly improved from the mod release; new visuals, new voice over, updated gameplay encounters, stability changes and more. Xen is not part of the Steam release of Black Mesa, but will included as a free update when it is ready.
- Black Mesa Multiplayer: Fight with or against your friends, in two game modes across six iconic maps from the Half-Life Deathmatch universe: Bounce, Gasworks, Lambdabunker, Stalkyard, Subtransit and Undertow.
- Custom Modding Tools: Use the same tools the developers used to create your own mods, modes and maps for Black Mesa and Black Mesa Multiplayer …
- Fully integrated Workshop: … and then share your work on the fully integrated workshop!
- Complete Steam Integration: Collect trading cards, backgrounds, emoticons, achievements, and everything else you would expect out of a Steam integrated game.
Crowbar Collective’s finished 85 percent of the single-player campaign, but is still working on the Xen chapters and other improvements that they hope will “ improve upon it [the campaign] to make it an enjoyable and memorable experience.”
At the moment, there’s 10 hours of the campaign and six re-imagined Half-Life maps for deathmatch and team deathmatch shenanigans. When it’s finished, it will also include the Xen chapters, extra polish, more multiplayer maps and more multiplayer modes.
