Outstanding remake of Half-Life
Mentioned in ~1 in 2 positive reviews
“This remake takes the original masterpiece and, against all odds, improves upon it.”
Steam review · 20.5 h played ↗
Black Mesa
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 95%Very Positive · 95%Crowbar Collective2020FPS · Shooter · Action
The verdict
A lovingly rebuilt Half-Life with gorgeous visuals and a strong first two-thirds, but the very long Xen chapters divide players. Skip it if you want a tight HL1 or hate puzzle-platforming.
Great for
Half-Life fans and newcomers wanting a modern-looking, old-school shooter full of detail
Main risk
Xen chapters (especially Interloper) are very long and puzzle-heavy and can sour the whole game
What players love
Stunning visuals and atmosphere
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“beautiful graphics, the story is unchanged, worth its money”
Steam review · translated · 7.5 h played ↗
Reworked Xen praised as beautiful and expanded
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“Xen turned out gorgeous, like they made another game.”
Steam review · translated · 15 h played ↗
Great soundtrack and sound
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 positive reviews
“The music is absolutely incredible, the remastered tracks are excellent.”
Steam review · 47.2 h played ↗
Great entry point and value for newcomers
Mentioned in ~1 in 13 positive reviews
“I always recommend this to people looking to get into HL for the first time”
Steam review · 182.9 h played ↗
What players complain about
Xen is far too long and tedious
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“what was once a bland but brief 1-1.5 hour segment has been stretched into a tedious 4-5 hour slog”
Steam review · 11.8 h played ↗
Worse gunplay, enemy AI and janky movement than HL1
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“Pistol is much slower, shotgun shoots a full second after you pull the trigger”
Steam review · 44.9 h played ↗
Crashes and instability, esp. on Steam Deck/Linux
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“I must have crashed at least 50 times.”
Steam review · 18.4 h played ↗
Poor optimization and low fps
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“it needs to drop it to "Potato" quality (the lowest settings) to get over 30 FPS”
Steam review · 51.1 h played ↗
Confusing navigation and unintuitive level design
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 negative reviews
“Unclear what to do, where to go, what's next”
Steam review · 13.2 h played ↗
Hat and pizza achievements are buggy and tedious
Mentioned in ~1 in 17 negative reviews
“constantly having to make sure the hat hadn't phased out of existence the second it left Gordon's view”
Steam review · 18 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Playable20 GB
Minimum
OSWindows® 10 or Newer
Processor2.6 Dual Core Processor or Greater
Memory6 GB RAM
Graphics2 GB Dedicated Video Card or Greater
Storage20 GB available space
Recommended
OSWindows® 10 or Newer
Processor3.2 Quad Core Processor or Greater
Memory8 GB RAM
Graphics4 GB Dedicated Video Card or Greater
Storage20 GB available space
OSWindows® 10 or Newer
Processor2.6 Dual Core Processor or Greater
Memory6 GB RAM
Graphics2 GB Dedicated Video Card or Greater
Storage20 GB available space
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