Black Mesa

 PC
User Score
8.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1219 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,071 out of 1219
  2. Mixed: 101 out of 1219
  3. Negative: 47 out of 1219

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. snowman27
    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. ChesterField
    May 1, 2020
    8
    Incredible what they have done with this kind of half life remake. Required.
  3. hileger
    Oct 15, 2022
    8
    Круто обновили графон , оценка по сути вальвам но для современных игроков душно
  4. Awanka
    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. bar0yka
    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. BenzoSt
    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. kimi1775
    Nov 9, 2020
    8
    ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎
  8. Gorbunov2004
    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. sas_warrior
    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. Gameguin
    Jan 7, 2021
    8
    I love this game but its wanting very bizzare system requirements thats why Developer didn't change this situation
  11. ILostMySanity
    May 23, 2021
    8
    The original Half-Life is better than this game. Change my mind. Anyway, this is a good remake.
  12. Zeneko90
    Jun 2, 2022
    8
    Nettes. Spiel es hat echt viel Spaß gemacht. Mehr davon! Nicht zu lang, nicht zu kurz. Genau richtig.
  13. MrVali
    Apr 12, 2022
    8
    Half life 1 is already one of the best video games in history. A good remastered version.
  14. christyguy
    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. Jdankens
    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. BulgarianCritic
    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. tom_harding
    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. Chubac
    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. Nekellor_Met
    Aug 1, 2020
    7
    В сравнении с оригиналом этом просто чудо. Исправили почти все огрехи, за которые я почти ненавижу 1 халву.
  20. giangbabeo
    Feb 21, 2021
    7
    Sometime this game is crash but ok. Black mesa made me remember Half life 1
  21. dmitriy_savenok
    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    … Expand
  22. Ordish
    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. Bestpony
    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. Ogurechka
    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. evansgc55
    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. Vanco
    Jun 4, 2019
    6
    Great remake of Half Life. Also, the earlier versions are free. What are you waiting for?
  27. JC_123
    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. Menaga
    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. Dartza
    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. CoolDadTx
    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
Page:

Awards & Rankings

27
#27 Best PC Game of 2012
30
#30 Most Discussed PC Game of 2012
25
#25 Most Shared PC Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 26
  3. Negative: 0 out of 26
  1. GameGrin
    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.
    Read full review
  2. Washington Post
    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.
    Read full review
  3. GameStar
    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.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »