After throwing what they had into the hands of gamers three years ago, Crowbar Collective knew Black Mesa, their rework of sci-fi shooter Half-Life, was something the gaming community very much wanted. Now, the project has reached another milestone, with its Early Access launch on digital distribution platform Steam.
Black Mesa is now available in Early Access on Steam for $20, although Crowbar Collective says there's a chance the price could go up when the game is officially released.
For the newly interested and the revelers alike, Black Mesa offers a complete rework and update of one of the landmark shooters of all time. Because the game is being developed in the highly scalable Source engine, the system requirements are relatively modest.
Black Mesa already includes most of its single player campaign; multiplayer; Steam achievements; Steam trading cards; Steam Workshop support; cloud save; level editor; and partial controller support.
So far, the response for Black Mesa has been positive on social media and forums:
You should buy the paid version of Black Mesa on Steam. The game is amazing and these people should be encouraged https://t.co/eDBtU05sEA
— Ben Cousins (@BenjaminCousins) May 5, 2015
I wanna be clear I'm not throwing shade on Black Mesa's devs at all. Come on though Valve, this is ridiculous — - ̗̀new ̖́- DB XL (@plsburydoughboy) May 5, 2015
With the launch on the oft-criticized Early Access program, Crowbar Collective is keeping the community involved in the development process.
"We intend to work closely with our community as we complete the final portions of Black Mesa," said Crowbar Collective. "We started out as a modding team aiming to do true justice to a Half-Life: Source port, and we won't forget our roots."
There's still about 15 percent of the game left before Black Mesa is complete, although Crowbar Collective indicated that the indie studio is looking at modernizing more Half-Life chapters.
"For the last 15 percent we want to not only recreate it, but improve upon it to make it an enjoyable and memorable experience," said Crowbar Collective. "We feel it will take us considerable time to get the last 15 percent up to our standards, and putting a time estimate on it would be a total guess."
For those not ready to drop $20 on the game, the free version of Black Mesa is still available and Crowbar Collective's tip jar is likely still open.
