Offers a totally different gaming experience, but it's equally entertaining as the real thing, I'd say I played this as much as Half-Life. And I managed to bring a hat with me to the borderworld (or Xen). Crowbar Collective expanded on the gameplay experience by adding their own ideas which they've implemented very well, but also at the cost of other stuff, deprecated levels, but also a total expansion and new ways of play which truly show that they went as far as they could in fully using the engine.

Half Life Black Mesa should serve as the absolute model for all 1990's game remakes, it doesn't change whole areas or fundamentally redesign content to make it almost a different story like some games do, it takes what works and just simply makes it beautiful.

I recommend Black Mesa for people who have caught on to the series since the original game, which I never initially made it too far in. Everything from the physics, silly NPC's, horrific enemies, and bizarre world return with fantastic graphics and updated engine. This is the supreme way to start your journey with Half Life.

Take notes, Hunt Down the Freeman and Fromsoftware: THIS is how you make a fucking fan game, and this is how you make a fucking remake.

As somebody who hasn't played the original Half-Life: holy fucking shit. What a fantastic game. Bravo, Crowbar Collective. Bravo.

Before I lavish this project with praise, some negatives: enemy AI is aggressive but not that smart. I was so lost on Residue Processing that I could've sworn I beat it by accident. Interloper drags in the middle and you can get stuck in geometry the Nihilanth summons during his fight.

Other than that this game is a joyride from start to finish. It's always moving you into another action setpiece and another location, each level plays with a new concept or introduces a new weapon. they mask the regressive AI by making them aggressive, having soldiers shoot while walking, throw grenades a your location, and at the very least have them move around. The level design for the most part is engaging and enemies are always placed well, it can be easy to get lost as to where you need to go but you'll figure out a visual language with the level design and notice patterns in the platforming puzzles. There are a ton of ways to approach shootouts as well, especially by Surface Tension. The environmental storytelling is great, having the game show you a story instead of telling you one. There is so much atmosphere and rich detail found just by looking around. On the surface it's a game where you shoot aliens and soldiers, but beneath the surface there are secrets to uncover about questionable ethics, an overwhelming threat, and a looming, unseen presence that even overshadows the final climactic fight. The visials are stunning and while some textures certainly are dated the lighting and art direction more than make sup for it. The soundtrack is filled with adrenaline-pumping guitar riffs and mystery and even some melancholy. All of this would make for a fine game on it's own.

And then Xen happens.

I already said that Interloper gets repetitive, but HOLY FUCKING SHIT. I had legitimate chills when I first looked out upon the Nihilanth tower from that distance, seeing the manta rays fly by as those beautiful vocals kicked in. I legitimately had to stop and stare at how God damn gorgeous and colorful it was. As someone who hasn't played the original Half-Life, I was breathless. I cannot IMAGINE what half-life veterans felt when they finally got to witness this. It transitions from otherworldly floating islands to damp caves t research outposts to a lush forest to an Alien nest (I will be telling my grandkids about that fucking Gonarch fight) to a Vortigaunt village to a factory to finally a gigantic floating Sauron's tower. Crowbar initiative has breathed so much realism into these levels and it makes it overall feel like a lived-in and something everyone should experience.

Black Mesa is a rare fan project and remake that was not only able to meet Valve-level quality with the game but were able to exceed them in some areas. This game is first and foremost a fan project, fueled by love and passion for one of the most iconic games of all time. There are tons of homages and references to the original game. Quitting out will have unique text prompts quoting certain lines. The voice acting was lovingly recreated to expand and improve upon the original goofy dialogue while also maintaining it's silly roots. The G-man in particular was handled with so much respect by the voice actor, to the point that they even use the same VA for the Barneys for the G-man, same as Shapiro did in the original game. In the credits, they thank their friends, family, and loyal fans who have stuck with them as well as paying tribute to those who were lost along the way. I cannot congratulate the devs enough over at Crowbar, HUGE props for even releasing this shit.

Buy this game, Xen alone makes it worth every Fucking dollar. Support fan projects like this that were meticulously crafted from the ground up. Let Valve know we want more Half-Life games.

It's Half-Life 1 but modernized - as someone who couldn't really vibe with HL1 (most likely since I played HL2 first and so it was a downgrade) I found this to be an amazing experience.
The fact that they completely revamped Xen also shows - it's the most beautiful area in the game, and while it does feel a bit slower due to a higher focus on puzzles than combat (with the last part of it featuring annoying enemy encounters too), the puzzles added in to it are kinda fun to figure out and do.
Anyone who hasn't played HL1 should take a look at this game if they want to experience a classic.

Even though this game simply oozes with love, it still looks and plays like a good amateur-ish mod, not a full release worth of its money. The gameplay is somewhat worse than the original, general production values are approximately on a level of a mid-to-low-budget game from 2007, and overall jankiness is so persistent it can't be ignored. Total neglect for stuff from Blue Shift and Opposing Force is also noteworthy, not to mention the screwed-up visual design, like Xen being turned into your average alien jungle, or modern-day marines in what's supposed to be an alternative 1990s setting.
Black Mesa isn't worth its price and most of the good things it has are remnants from the original game.
In conclusion, it's a nice try, but still a lot worse than the OG Half-Life, which aged like a fine wine and didn't need a remake in the first place.

I have two major complaints with this game:
1) The game is way too dark in a LOT of different areas. Turning the in-game brightness all the way up did not help at all.
2) The chapter Interloper sucks so bad. I hated it.

Other than that, this game is really good! It does well at both staying faithful to the original and enhancing it, especially with (most) of Xen.

Never been blown away by a game's spectacle as I was with Black Mesa. The long-ass monorail intro shows how difficult it is to enter Black Mesa. Imagine how hard it'd be to get out without the monorail!

Then everything goes to shit, and you have to do exactly that.

Really feels like a survival situation, as the stakes steadily raise. Can really give off horror vibes.

The Xen portion is completely different from HL1, and heavily improved - both gameplay-wise and visually. The visual style vaguely reminds me of the Ori games. Some of its vistas are the most beautiful I've ever seen in games, my jaw dropped. Play Black Mesa the best single-player FPS.

Obviously insanely impressive from a purely contextual perspective, the fact this game even got made at all and came out this good is astounding. I've never played the original Half-Life so I can't really comment on all the changes Crowbar Collective made, but it is staggering how much of this feels like a full Valve release. It's beautifully designed throughout, the level design is pretty much flawless, every set piece tops the last, and the new Xen is indistinguishable in quality from the rest of the experience. In terms of design, it's basically perfect.

With that said, I can't say that I love to play it. As a piece of gaming history, Half-Life is one of the most important out there, but it also took me a month of on and off play sessions to finish it. I had a similar thing happen to me with Half Life 2 (although I ended up never finishing it). I have a huge amount of respect for both the original and the remake, but I'm not exactly clamouring to replay them anytime soon.