Black Mesa
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Chromebook ready: Unknown / TBD
Steam Deck status: Playable - More info on ProtonDB
Also available from the following other storefronts or websites:
2012 Mod version (FREE)
Black Mesa (formerly known as Black Mesa: Source. BM or BMS for short) is the Half-Life 2 total conversion that attempts to remake the original Half-Life game. Utilizing the Source engine to completely update and enhance the experience, Black Mesa throws you into the world that started the Half-Life continuum and introduced Dr. Gordon Freeman to the world as a gun-toting, bullet-dodging PhD. in theoretical physics.
Black Mesa was built and founded on the principle that Half-Life: Source did not do the original title enough credit, regardless of the true intentions laid out with the release of Half-Life: Source. Subsequently in November 2004, Black Mesa was founded and set out to reconstruct the original title, giving it the new environments, models, and abilities it deserved on the Source engine.
There are two distinct releases of this game:
- Black Mesa Beta
- Also commonly referred as Black Mesa 2012 or the mod version of Black Mesa. This version of the game is available for free on ModDB, GameFront and many other websites, aswell through BitTorrent protocol via its official website Download Manager. It only contains the unpolished Earthbound levels with old graphics, sounds, music and textures, and lots more bugs. This version runs off of the Source 2007 engine branch, and requires the Source SDK Base 2007 installed to run, which is only supported on Windows. As of today, the official website no longer host the original Download Manager containing those mirror links, but some of the mirror links (such as ModDB), remains active to this day.
- Black Mesa: Definitive Edition
- This is the current version available for purchase on Steam, released in 2015 as Early Access and completed in 2020. It contains both the Earthbound and Xen levels, as well as Multiplayer mode, Surface Tension Uncut and Steam Workshop support. This is a standalone product that runs on its own version of the Source 2013 Multiplayer engine branch, using Team Fortress 2 as a base[citation needed], dubbed ' Xengine'. Officially supported on Windows and Linux + SteamOS.
The Black Mesa Team
Black Mesa has brought together some very talented, professional, and dedicated developers. The skillset is very noticeable, from level design to modeling to conceptual art to programming. With more than 30 members, the team behind Black Mesa is representative of a new age in third-party development. For a full-date team roster, personal portfolios, and job assignments, stop by the official Black Mesa website.
Features
The game features a branch of Source known as Xengine. It is a custom hybrid of several current branches of Source and includes many features from each. The BM branch authoring tools have been released and are available directly from the game's bin
folder.
- Redesign and overhaul all chapters of the original Half-Life, including the Xen portion.
- Models now take advantage of increased polycount limits and normal mapping technology making deadly opponents and friendly coworkers appear more real.
- An all-new face creation system that allows each character to have a unique, artist-created face.
- A completely original soundtrack and music library bringing Half-Life's themes and feelings to life in the new sounds engine built into the Source Engine.
- AI that will hunt you by sight and sound.
- Normal, bump, and specular maps built into textures giving flat surfaces a new, more dynamic look.
- A multiplayer mode allowing for deathmatch and team deathmatch experience with the complete Half-Life 1/Black Mesa arsenal at your disposal.
- Steam Workshop implementation and full support for modders.
- Powerful Dynamic Lighting System.
Chapters
Like the original Half-Life, Black Mesa contains the same exact chapters, the difference is that most levels are completely rebuilt, such as majority of On a Rail chapters were cut and all Xen chapters looking different, plays out differently and much longer than the original. Originally, Black Mesa was released in 2012, as a mod without the Xen chapter included, the same still applies to the Steam version released in 2015, lasted until 2019 when a beta version on Steam containing these chapters are now available, and fully released alongside the 1.0 Update in 2020, leaving Early Access. Some part of Surface Tension was also cut until 2016, these part was added back under the name "Surface Tension Uncut".
Black Mesa Chapters | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Black Mesa Inboundbm_c0a0a |
Anomalous Materialsbm_c1a0a |
Unforeseen Consequencesbm_c1a1a |
Office Complexbm_c1a2a |
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"We've Got Hostiles!"bm_c1a3a |
Blast Pitbm_c1a4a |
Power Upbm_c2a1a |
On a Railbm_c2a2a |
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Apprehensionbm_c2a3a |
Residue Processingbm_c2a4a |
Questionable Ethicsbm_c2a4e |
Surface Tensionbm_c2a5a |
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"Forget About Freeman!"bm_c3a1a |
Lambda Corebm_c3a2a |
Xenbm_c4a1a |
Gonarch's Lairbm_c4a2a |
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Interloperbm_c4a3a |
Nihilanthbm_c4a4a |
Endgamebm_c5a1a |
Releases and updates
mat_antialias
command[confirm].VGUI remains available as of today, which can be reactivated by launching the game with
-oldgameui
, in-case if the Qt interface isn't working properly or having performance issues/bugs, but please note that some new features are missing with the old VGUI interface.Media
External links
- Official Website
- Store page
- Community page
- Official Steam Discussion
- Official Forum Community (No longer available) Archived
- Official Discord
- Black Mesa on Gamebanana
- Black Mesa on ModDB
References
- Xen Technical Beta and Screenshot by [TC]Ciaиєz ITA:
Known Issues - Haloing Around Props/Object
MSAA is causing outlines around certain objects. MSSA is a performance killer and we hope to have a better solution for anti-aliasing with the Xen release. To remove the haloing/outline, simply turn off MSAA.
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