Fifteen years. Five UK Prime Ministers. Both my complete High School and University runs mixed. Through all of it, Black Mesa has been there, churning away, promising that someday it’d be executed. After eight years, it was. Sort of. Released a Xen-less mod, it might take one other eight years for the builders behind the infamous Half-Life remake, Crowbar Collective, to lastly be executed with it. Posting on Steam earlier right now, the staff introduced {that a} full, remaining model of Black Mesa is imminent – with a 1.Zero preview due for public testing any day now.
Of course, there’s nonetheless a bit of methods to go but. In their announcement, the devs ran down a few of the adjustments arriving in Black Mesa’s incoming launch candidate.
According to the staff, 1.0’s largest change is a “complete overhaul” of enemy soldier behaviour. I keep in mind to recall Half-Life’s unique grunts seeming fairly artful, however in hindsight it’d’ve simply been due to how loud and aggressive they have been, dashing you down with radio-static screams. Black Mesa’s new HECU troopers have apparently wisened up in 1.0 – laying down suppression, flanking, speaking higher and working into their very own grenades much less typically.
But Crowbar Collective have additionally returned to a few of the game’s earlier areas to convey them as much as snuff. Nothing too main, and nothing that might require fully redesigning complete maps. Just a couple of passes via to wash up awkward encounters or areas the place gamers discovered themselves caught. “The team watched a number of playthroughs and identified sections in the game where the pace came to a grinding halt. We redesigned or fixed these sections so that players can keep up their momentum.”
And whereas a lot of the artwork has been left unchanged, they did knobble up some rocks. It’s exhausting to inform if the brand new textures enhance a lot, thoughts. Certainly extra, however higher? It’s debatable, positive. Naturally, 1.Zero isn’t even the top of the highway. Crowbar Collective finish their put up suggesting they’re able to work on a 1.5 “Definitive Edition”, going via your entire factor start-to-finish, clear up some tough patches, and provides the artwork some spit-shine polish.
After that? Crowbar are excited to take it simple, work on smaller updates, and possibly – simply possibly – by no means take a look at a hazmat swimsuit once more.
“We are really proud to have been able to finish this game, and it would not have been possible without our patient and helpful community. I don’t think it has fully set in that we are almost “done” with Black Mesa. We REALLY look ahead to some low-pressure enjoyable updates for this game, in addition to beginning in on new tasks.”
1.Zero will likely be launched by way of public beta for Black Mesa house owners on Steam “as soon as it is ready”, with a full launch someday after that. In the meantime, you can at all times play through every other Half-Life game without spending a penny.
