Black Mesa, the fan developed remake of the original Half-Life, is currently only $2 on Steam. This is the cheapest the fantastic reimagining of Valve’s first game has ever been on the store, the big sale in honor of Black Mesa being on Steam for 10 years.
Of course, Black Mesa has been around for longer than 10 years. Development on the project started around 2005, with the goal of recreating 1998’s Half-Life using the (then new) Source engine Valve created for Half-Life 2. (Half-Life itself was built in a heavily modified Quake Engine!) The first free version of the game was released as a standalone Source mod in 2012. This version was missing the Xen levels seen at the end of Half-Life, and wasn’t as advanced visually or technically as the much-improved 2015 version released on Steam. And still, that version was missing the Xen levels, which weren’t added to the Valve-approved remake until its full release in March 2020.
And now, five years after that, and 10 years after it first arrived on Steam, and nearly 20 years after it started development, Black Mesa is only $2.
On May 12, Black Mesa developers Crowbar Collective announced a massive 90 percent off sale. This not only celebrates a decade on Steam, but it also comes alongside a new update. Don’t get too excited however, this isn’t adding a ton of fresh content or more Xen levels—instead its just cleaning up some lingering bugs and technical problems. Still, it’s nice to see the devs going back and improving Black Mesa years later. Even better, the game should work better on Steam Deck now, so that’s a nice bonus!
As for Crowbar Collective, the team is currently working on a new FPS called Rogue Point, which is a tactical co-op shooter with roguelite elements. A very different thing compared to remaking Half-Life, but I’m happy the team got a chance to do something new. Meanwhile, rumors keep swirling about the long-rumored Half-Life 3 finally happening soonish. The last time Valve made a Half-Life game was in 2020 with VR-only title Alyx.
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