For the gentle reader who has been in Greenland studying Viking ruins for the last decade, Black Mesa is a complete re-working of HalfLife using the Source 2.0 engine, from models to levels to voice acting (though they try to get things as close to the original as possible).

It's been available for free from the Black Mesa website for some time - so if one doesn't want to shell out 20 USD for it on Steam it's still an option.

I'm not a big fan of DLC or pay mods (heck, I don't like mods for a host of reasons), but in this case I plunked down my cash, as it's something different.

In using the newer engine they cleaned up a lot of levels, actually making them better, IMHO. Yes, the infamous "box room" is still there; as much as it was a horrible, nonsensical level design decision, it's part and parcel to the original and would be oddly missed. Some levels are actually longer.

The scientists are more varied, and owing to HalfLife 2, Kleiner and Vance are unique and in their HL2 skins. So one won't run into endless Kleiner clones!

The game isn't finished - it ends right when one goes to Xen - but that's fine with me. The game kinda went downhill from there, IMHO.

I kicked in the cash as a thank you and reward for the previous unpaid work the team that did this put into the project.

I played their free release and very much enjoyed going through Half-Life again but with the newer visuals. I'd pay the cash once the full version is available.

I saw some of this my brother was playing last year, looked very nice.

I am interested to see what they do with Xen. I remember the original battles with Gonarch and Nihilanth were quite intense.

I heartily endorse Dart's recommendation, a trip down memory lane with better graphics; many of the levels seem more challenging too; e.g Blast Pit.

I don't recall that pit being all that easy, but I've not played HL1 in years now.



The Jedi Master

I always liked that top side level with Apache trying to kill you and dam off to the side with a water alien in it and you have to shut off some pump or something.

Yes Coot; seem to be a bloody lot harder too! Perhaps it is just because I am further in to my dotage than when I played it with my son on release 18 years ago!