User Score
8.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1219 Ratings

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  1. Mar 15, 2020
    8
    Black Mesa has a wonderful story, great gameplay, tons of puzzles, and a nice mix of enemies. This team did a great job bringing this remake to life. The graphics are a bit dated, but it was still incredible to play this game with the attention to detail that the development team put into it. Well done!
  2. May 1, 2020
    8
    Incredible what they have done with this kind of half life remake. Required.
  3. Oct 15, 2022
    8
    Круто обновили графон , оценка по сути вальвам но для современных игроков душно
  4. Jan 1, 2022
    8
    Very good FPS with light puzzle and platformer elements that is worthy of the Half-Life name. The FPS mechanics and game engine are a bit antiquated by today's standards, but the excellent level design makes up for it. The alien world of Xen in particular in spectacular.

    A lot of levels in Black Mesa go on a little too long. That could be a good thing depending on your point of view though.
  5. Mar 21, 2023
    8
    hs sorunu var oyunda baya bi hs atıyom ama ölmüyorlar sonra da mermi sve can sıkıntısı çekiyorum onun dışında güzell
  6. Jul 12, 2022
    8
    A remake of the famous game Half-Life game from 1998. Black Mesa has excellent style, good level design, and great music, especially in the late stages of the game when you travel to the alien world of Xen. The new Definitive Edition update is a sure improvement. My biggest complaint is the checkpoint system, which often respawns me in an extremely precarious position with scarcely anyA remake of the famous game Half-Life game from 1998. Black Mesa has excellent style, good level design, and great music, especially in the late stages of the game when you travel to the alien world of Xen. The new Definitive Edition update is a sure improvement. My biggest complaint is the checkpoint system, which often respawns me in an extremely precarious position with scarcely any resources or even in the middle of combat. I hope the developers and Steam Workshop mod makers will further improve this game in the future. My nomination for Steam's 2020 Labor of Love award. Expand
  7. Nov 9, 2020
    8
    ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎
  8. Mar 25, 2021
    8
    Black Mesa это улучшенная версия 1 Half Life как по мне обычная стрелялка с загадками и она очень сильно затянута под конец игры просто надоело. Хотя драка с боссом прикольная также понравилась концовка.
  9. Jan 14, 2021
    8
    A game about Physics Theorist and it's great! I felt myself a Schvardnegaard Physicist! I really liked the monsters and AI enemies!
  10. Jan 7, 2021
    8
    I love this game but its wanting very bizzare system requirements thats why Developer didn't change this situation
  11. May 23, 2021
    8
    The original Half-Life is better than this game. Change my mind. Anyway, this is a good remake.
  12. Jun 2, 2022
    8
    Nettes. Spiel es hat echt viel Spaß gemacht. Mehr davon! Nicht zu lang, nicht zu kurz. Genau richtig.
  13. Apr 12, 2022
    8
    Half life 1 is already one of the best video games in history. A good remastered version.
  14. Aug 10, 2022
    8
    Amazing remake, super fun gunplay. The world stays true to the original Half-Life but adds more details where needed and makes the overall experience feel less claustrophobic. Plus xen is fun this time and looks gorgeous!
  15. Nov 29, 2017
    7
    Great game but kind of the butt-end of jokes when it comes to "it's finished when it's finished"

    It was fine when the game was free but now with some incoming cash-flow they have some responsibility to their customers to release the full product sometime within the next century.
  16. Apr 12, 2020
    7
    This was a pretty decent remake that added new dialogue which I enjoyed but it also had a lot of buggy parts.Overall pretty great if you want to play the original half-life with better graphics
  17. Mar 1, 2021
    7
    A word of warning - the minimum system requirements are simply not adequate to play this game. I've got a 2.7GHz i5, 16GB RAM & 2GB of dedicated graphics but in the lowest graphics settings I still faced single digit frame rates in the later sections of Xen (and a couple of other places).

    Ignoring performance issues the game is very good. It maintains the feel and pacing of the original
    A word of warning - the minimum system requirements are simply not adequate to play this game. I've got a 2.7GHz i5, 16GB RAM & 2GB of dedicated graphics but in the lowest graphics settings I still faced single digit frame rates in the later sections of Xen (and a couple of other places).

    Ignoring performance issues the game is very good. It maintains the feel and pacing of the original while modernising the more dated elements. It's not perfect but I still had great fun. A huge well done and thank you the Crowbar Collective.
    Expand
  18. May 13, 2020
    7
    I'm kinda dissapointed with this remake. Don't get me wrong, it's still one of the better remakes out there but I expected a more balanced and polished game.
  19. Aug 1, 2020
    7
    В сравнении с оригиналом этом просто чудо. Исправили почти все огрехи, за которые я почти ненавижу 1 халву.
  20. Feb 21, 2021
    7
    Sometime this game is crash but ok. Black mesa made me remember Half life 1
  21. Jul 31, 2023
    7
    Хорошо сделанный и не совсем равномерный ремейк.
    Порой игра радует своей обновлённой графикой, но умудряется ужаснуть своей странной коллизией персонажей и объектов. Нельзя стрелять между некоторыми объектами на карте, просто пули врезаются в невидимую стенку, хотя там пустое пространство. Даже как в скайримчике, нельзя одеть мусорное ведро наголову какому-то nps.
    Мир Зен тоже изначально
    Хорошо сделанный и не совсем равномерный ремейк.
    Порой игра радует своей обновлённой графикой, но умудряется ужаснуть своей странной коллизией персонажей и объектов. Нельзя стрелять между некоторыми объектами на карте, просто пули врезаются в невидимую стенку, хотя там пустое пространство. Даже как в скайримчике, нельзя одеть мусорное ведро наголову какому-то nps.
    Мир Зен тоже изначально невероятно красив, но на протяжении всей главы, планку удерживать не удаётся. Даже не хочется упоминать цех, где производили солдат. Явно не хватало бюджета на доработку.
    Хорошая игра, но ремейк должны делать сами Valve и с достаточным бюджетом, что бы первая часть смогла удивить, как и в прежние времена.
    7/10
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  22. Nov 5, 2012
    6
    It is the same game that it was when it was released a hundred years ago, but this time with shiny new graphics and better audio. It was a fun game in the original and while my memories of the original were very fond, it is like watching a movie you originally watched on VHS, on BlueRay. Looks better but feels the same. Good work on the mod, but it is essentially the same as it always was.
  23. Jun 3, 2013
    6
    I have the same problem with Black Mesa that I did with the original Half-Life. The first few chapters are an amazing horror experience where you make your way through a destroyed facility, just trying to get out alive, and if you play it on Hard, it's a challenging and rewarding experience. However, once the soldiers enter the mix, all the atmosphere disappears (it does come back later)I have the same problem with Black Mesa that I did with the original Half-Life. The first few chapters are an amazing horror experience where you make your way through a destroyed facility, just trying to get out alive, and if you play it on Hard, it's a challenging and rewarding experience. However, once the soldiers enter the mix, all the atmosphere disappears (it does come back later) and the game becomes a fairly boring shooter with frustratingly precise enemies. I'm not a shooter fan so the whole "shoot some guys, take some damage, find some health, repeat" thing wasn't all that interesting. Still, it's free, it's a classic, and you really owe it to yourself to check it out. Expand
  24. May 29, 2023
    6
    Nice graphical improvement of the original game. But, unfortunately, this is still the same first Half-Life, with all its outdated mechanics
  25. Jan 2, 2018
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Not the same game. It is a more arcade-like, smaller, shorter game with better graphics and much better accuracy systems. Overall, very disappointing. Unrealistic military movements and attacks, aliens were much easier and giant aliens were overpowered with weapons, this game had better smaller details but the original was much more realistic and interesting. STILL UNFINISHED (15+% Unfinished). Expand
  26. Jun 4, 2019
    6
    Great remake of Half Life. Also, the earlier versions are free. What are you waiting for?
  27. Jun 28, 2021
    6
    This is not the definitive Half Life experience it could have been I'm afraid. The original levels were just better. That was a very, very important part of the experience that they messed with a bit too much.
    The game could use a little balancing too. On the easier difficulty, the game is far too easy. On the harder one, some enemies become omniscient and aimbot onto you. (and make no
    This is not the definitive Half Life experience it could have been I'm afraid. The original levels were just better. That was a very, very important part of the experience that they messed with a bit too much.
    The game could use a little balancing too. On the easier difficulty, the game is far too easy. On the harder one, some enemies become omniscient and aimbot onto you. (and make no mistake, I am a seasoned FPS player. CS Faceit level 8, Platinum in old R6 ranks, DOOM Eternal Nightmare enjoyer).

    Try to find it on sale, but don't sleep on the REAL Half Life 1. It's still better even though the visuals are dated. I was disapointed to come to this conclusion.
    Expand
  28. Aug 8, 2022
    6
    Recommended
    16.0 hrs at review time
    Hard difficulty
    Gameplay 6/10
    Music and sound 6/10
    Screenplay 6/10
    Technical 7/10
  29. Aug 1, 2023
    6
    As someone who never played the original Half-Life, but did Play Half-Life 2, Black Mesa felt like a mix between old school game design with a modern coat of paint. It certainly feels like an older title, but a good one.
  30. Dec 22, 2021
    5
    It has been decades since I played the original HL so it is hard to remember how much of Black Mesa is true to the original and how much is extra. It is also limited by the Source engine it is using so some issues may be tied to either of these but overall I think I'd rather play the original with updated HD graphics. I do admire and give credit for the team building this game out. It isIt has been decades since I played the original HL so it is hard to remember how much of Black Mesa is true to the original and how much is extra. It is also limited by the Source engine it is using so some issues may be tied to either of these but overall I think I'd rather play the original with updated HD graphics. I do admire and give credit for the team building this game out. It is truly impressive but if this were a generic, non-HL game my complaints would be the same.

    The biggest complaint i have is that the chapters are really, really long. I don't remember them being anywhere near this long in the original and honestly almost every level overstays its welcome about halfway through. Whole sections are devoid of anything so it really just seems like a slog to get through.

    The second issue I have is the updated Xen and later areas. They are just so different than any of the previous levels and honestly just don't seem to fit the HL flow to me. They are really, really long as well and the jumping sections are just bad. The original Xen level was bad too but I don't think this version is an upgrade. I really couldn't wait for it to end and then...the next set of levels are the same.

    Another issue I had was the finicky jumping. If you happen to jump while near something then you tended to bounce off in a random direction. Could be a bug or could be by design. I personally disliked the jumping sections altogether. The original had jumping too so I expected some of this but this just seems off.

    I also don't understand why bringing up the menu provides a quick link to save which you can click that then takes you to the save screen where you have to click save again and then confirm that you want to overwrite the save that you just clicked to save twice already.

    Overall I think this was a well done port but as for gameplay and mechanics I think it is mediocre. Again, I cannot remember all the parts of the original HL to know what was added and what wasn't but it just seemed overly extended rather than short and sweet.
    Expand
  31. Sep 30, 2012
    5
    This game leaves me with mixed feelings. On the one hand its quite polished and is well defined and faithful to Half-life. It free and easy to install so that is nice. The voice acting is really great and gives NPCs far more to say and feels more human.

    However it has too many annoying quirks. Such as the annoying "jump-crouch" being the solution to everything and the assumption that
    This game leaves me with mixed feelings. On the one hand its quite polished and is well defined and faithful to Half-life. It free and easy to install so that is nice. The voice acting is really great and gives NPCs far more to say and feels more human.

    However it has too many annoying quirks. Such as the annoying "jump-crouch" being the solution to everything and the assumption that the player has played the original and remembers all the old solutions to events.

    If you haven't played the original game you will find this a frustrating affair. Movement is another issue as it feels blocky and old fashioned.
    Expand
  32. BFM
    Mar 28, 2020
    5
    This should have been an easy job - the the good work of someone else who was able to make something creative and clever, give it a new coat of paint, and re-sell it.

    But this developer seemed to have bitten of more than they could chew. They were so occupied with having every room look as different to Half Life as possible on comparison screenshots, they messed up the important
    This should have been an easy job - the the good work of someone else who was able to make something creative and clever, give it a new coat of paint, and re-sell it.

    But this developer seemed to have bitten of more than they could chew.

    They were so occupied with having every room look as different to Half Life as possible on comparison screenshots, they messed up the important stuff.

    This re-make, while looking good at first glance, is inferior to the old original Half Life in almost every aspect:

    - clear visuals have been replaces with very blurry rendering, that uses FXAA while offering no MSAA (an incompetent decision to PC game design that almost everyone else got rid of 6-10 years ago)

    - crucial architecture has been altered in it's core layout, changing the timing, feeling and gameplay of the levels as Valve has intended it

    - iconic and perfectly fitting voice and music recordings have been replaced with sub-par amateur creations

    - enemy AI has been altered, not to be better, but just to be differentiate fore the sake to be different, and the result are less fun and less fair fire fights

    - the final chapter XEN was always the weakest part of the original Half Life. This developer delayed the completion of the product that they had already taken money fore (!) by half a decade, to "fix" XEN. Well, they didn't.
    It is still as boring and poorly designed as before. But now it somehow takes twice as long to play through!
    It looks much better, but that will only distract from the chapter being bad for the first five minutes.
    But then it's two hours later, and you are still playing the worst part of the game, that should have been just a 40 minute visit - while nothing really new was added.
    It is baffling.

    Let's hope they stay away from other classics,
    because while they know how to bait and bribe players with eye candy,
    they do not understand how games are designed or what makes them great.

    Oh, and please: Have some MSAA, not FXAA. It's a PC game in 2020.
    Not a bad console port in 2009. Deferred Rendering ads nothing of value and just makes you a lazy developer.
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  33. May 16, 2021
    5
    This game does look better than the original but still is a far cry than games in 2020. Even though Xen is beautifully made the graphics lack detail that you'd find in an indy game from like 11 years ago. (think Amnesia TDD the fungi in the sewer level. Compare it to Xen's fungi which look similar. big difference.)

    Also the level design has been altered from the originally but not for
    This game does look better than the original but still is a far cry than games in 2020. Even though Xen is beautifully made the graphics lack detail that you'd find in an indy game from like 11 years ago. (think Amnesia TDD the fungi in the sewer level. Compare it to Xen's fungi which look similar. big difference.)

    Also the level design has been altered from the originally but not for the better. My case in point, there is a lot of junk littered throughout the game, fake doors, stairs that lead to nothing but say another fake door.

    The shooting feels like its not on par with the original in terms of accuracy and hit detection. And
    as Forrest Gump says "that's all I got to say about that"
    Expand
  34. Jul 16, 2022
    5
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
  35. Jun 11, 2022
    5
    Графику значительно улучшили. Оптимизация отличная. Физика улучшена. Добавлен спринт. Разработчики проделали огромную работу, но даже после этого первый халф лайф устаревший.
  36. Apr 22, 2023
    5
    As a person who never played hl1 i think this one is more playable for sure just by the look of it i can tell... but the enemy Ai just feels unfair they can see you through a pin hole and shoot their reaction time is unmatched they don't miss too like what are we sposed to do... took me 19 hours to finish on normal difficulty.
  37. Apr 16, 2014
    3
    Oh dear. It looks so much better than the original, but the gameplay has gone horribly wrong. I always play FPS on hard, but on this, it's not fun. Enemies can't miss you. So you have to save before a gunfight. Have a look and get killed, but memorise the positions of the baddies, then load up your save, get the crosshairs into position, strafe, fire and hope. On medium, it's a cake walk.Oh dear. It looks so much better than the original, but the gameplay has gone horribly wrong. I always play FPS on hard, but on this, it's not fun. Enemies can't miss you. So you have to save before a gunfight. Have a look and get killed, but memorise the positions of the baddies, then load up your save, get the crosshairs into position, strafe, fire and hope. On medium, it's a cake walk. Such a shame because I love the original. Expand
  38. Feb 14, 2023
    3
    I've never been a fan of the Half-Life series, it's probably one of the most overrated game series in the world. The reason I don't like Black Mesa is the horrible level design. The game doesn't guide the player in any way and acts as if you've played the game before. I lost what little interest I had in the story within the first few hours with these terrible gameplay mechanics. II've never been a fan of the Half-Life series, it's probably one of the most overrated game series in the world. The reason I don't like Black Mesa is the horrible level design. The game doesn't guide the player in any way and acts as if you've played the game before. I lost what little interest I had in the story within the first few hours with these terrible gameplay mechanics. I definitely do not recommend it to anyone who is not a fan of this series. If you are curious about the story, watch a video on Youtube. Expand
  39. May 12, 2021
    2
    The first 2 hours are amazing! It really felt like a true Half-Life remake... but after that the magic is waaay gone! It's dead. The guns feel awful to use, game added ridiculous amounts of stupid pointless puzzles at the game that weren't even in the original. And then there is Xen... HOLY **** HOW DID THEY **** THIS UP SO BAD!?!?!?!?!!?!? Xen in Black Mesa is the most awful things I haveThe first 2 hours are amazing! It really felt like a true Half-Life remake... but after that the magic is waaay gone! It's dead. The guns feel awful to use, game added ridiculous amounts of stupid pointless puzzles at the game that weren't even in the original. And then there is Xen... HOLY **** HOW DID THEY **** THIS UP SO BAD!?!?!?!?!!?!? Xen in Black Mesa is the most awful things I have experienced in video games ever! The OST is horrible because there is some annoying bi*ch singing in the background. **** this game. Don't buy it. Expand
  40. Jan 7, 2023
    2
    Half-Life: Ruined.
    Suck the developers cock or DIE. repeatedly.

    Unlike the original REAL Half-Life you have no choice but be lead by the neck by dumbass devs.
    Only one who actually did their job was the art guy. Everyone else from the movement to the level design is a complete idiot unfortunately.
  41. Apr 26, 2022
    2
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  42. Mar 5, 2014
    1
    Sorry, but this game has bugs that makes this game unplayable. Somehow in the middle of the game all of my weapons disappeared except crowbar and my pistol. After dying everything was gone. If you figure to get a weapon however; while shooting the game will close itself.
  43. Jan 25, 2021
    0
    It was supposed to be free. Then we were told they had to pay Valve a fee and that they would charge a "small amount". Eventually, this became a $20 game.
    Liars.
  44. May 13, 2016
    0
    They really molested the original with this one.

    Half Life was a sci-fi puzzle thriller and they somehow managed to strip out all of those elements to turn it into Call of Duty LXXXVIII: Alien Ops. Way too much attention was paid to the graphics and shooter aspect and not enough to the design and gameplay. ABSOLUTELY NO CREATIVITY. There are stretches of the game that are just laughably
    They really molested the original with this one.

    Half Life was a sci-fi puzzle thriller and they somehow managed to strip out all of those elements to turn it into Call of Duty LXXXVIII: Alien Ops. Way too much attention was paid to the graphics and shooter aspect and not enough to the design and gameplay. ABSOLUTELY NO CREATIVITY. There are stretches of the game that are just laughably easy or where nothing happens at all. The character has to walk for an extended period of time, I assume looking around and gasping at the graphical mastery. On that note, the graphics are not even that great. There are obvious glitches, such as the scientist's ties that flop around everywhere before disappearing. Then, when you finally get to SOMETHING that happens, it's multiple obstacles all at once: 20 soldiers to kill, 10 headcrabs, and an annoying jumping trap. So you end up doing nothing, with not much of the background to interact with and no items to collect, and then dying 50 times in order to get to the next part where nothing happens.

    In terms of the FPS gameplay, it is sadly lacking as well. For some reason, they couldn't figure out how to evenly distribute the health and ammo throughout the levels, so there are times when you're desperate for bullets and run into two clusterf*cks in a row and other times where there's items everywhere but you don't need them and can't take them with you. The logic behind the damage makes no sense either. You can shoot soldiers in the face with a laser gun, A LASER GUN, and it takes three hits to kill them. Yet, somehow their stray bullets from miles away end up directly in your head. And the soundtrack if abysmal, as the music comes in at completely random times with wailing guitar solos designed to make high schoolers spray slim jim particles and mountain dew from their mouths in awe, all over their Metallica t-shirts.

    The original Half Life was a clever, nuanced game that was as much about exploring as it was about click and shoot. It's a tragedy for that type of gameplay to be steamrolled and replaced with boring, trite, overdone, mindless shooting to pander to gamer drones. Thank god the legacy is actually left to Valve with people employed that can come up more creative things like Portal.
    Expand
  45. Apr 13, 2020
    0
    Very buggy. I'm giving it a 0 because after getting to chpt 17, I can no longer load my saves without it crashing. No polished at all, lots of other bugs and issues throughout.
  46. Dec 17, 2020
    0
    They ruined HL. I understand that, maybe, the idea of this game was to make it look better, but to change the game completly, nah, man.....
  47. Dec 18, 2021
    0
    Fantastic. Tried playing the first few hours of Half Life and it definitely showed its age, fun, but definitely not a modern experience. Black Mesa brought a modern touch to that Half Life experience while still keeping the genuine experience of the original game. The only game, whereupon reading reviews, was I encouraged by fans of the original release to play Black Mesa instead, becauseFantastic. Tried playing the first few hours of Half Life and it definitely showed its age, fun, but definitely not a modern experience. Black Mesa brought a modern touch to that Half Life experience while still keeping the genuine experience of the original game. The only game, whereupon reading reviews, was I encouraged by fans of the original release to play Black Mesa instead, because it is so faithful and well done. I was honestly blown away, and would encourage others to enter the world of Half Life from this vector. It makes a game from 1998 play like a game from 2008, and that is selling it far short of the actual experience. Expand
Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 26
  2. Negative: 0 out of 26
  1. Feb 8, 2021
    70
    Black Mesa remains true to the original Half-Life with updated graphics, improved sounds and redesigned levels. However, the graphics still look old for a “modern” game and loading screens are still a pain as it freezes the game for a few seconds.
  2. Mar 31, 2020
    80
    Those with a taste for retro-gaming or lighthearted sci-fi shooters, take note: few games with a foot in the nineties hold up this well.
  3. Mar 23, 2020
    87
    Reasonable innovations and a completely new Xen complement the authentic Half-Life atmosphere: This is what a remake should look like.