The mod went through development hell for years before the Crowbar Collective, the result of a merger of two indie teams, collaborated to rebuild their favorite game in Valve's superior Source engine after Valve's own re-release, Half-Life: Source, fell far short of what fans expected.Ĭrowbar succeeded, but not without paying a toll.
Labyrinthine, yet with verisimilitude that made it feel like a real, lived-in place.īlack Mesa recreates Half-Life's infamous science facility and alien planets, and then some.
There's no place like home, though, and for me, Half-Life's Black Mesa facility was home. Don't get me wrong: Gordon Freeman's second go-round was excellent, full of better characters, fun weapons, and Ravenholm, one chunk of a larger world, left me more shaken than most full-length horror games. I may be in the minority, but I've always preferred Half-Life to Half-Life 2.