I played the first few hours of Black Mesa with frankly low expectations. Valve, owner of the Steam PC game storefront and creator of the Half-Life games, gave the creators of Black Mesa its official blessing to release a commercial version of Black Mesa, and that version 1.0 release hit the Steam store this week. The project has been around in one early form or another since 2012. The other key difference is, while Alyx is an official Valve-produced entry in the Half-Life canon, Black Mesa is a fan-made remake of the original 1998 Half-Life game. Unlike the $60 Half-Life: Alyx, it's a more reasonable $20. Black Mesa, on the other hand, is a standard PC game, available via Steam. It's easily the most-anticipated virtual reality game of the modern VR era. Half-Life: Alyx is a VR-only game, so you'll need a VR headset and good amount of open living room space. Neither are the mythical Half-Life 3, but both Half-Life: Alyx and Black Mesa are a chance to get acquainted (or reacquainted) with this long-running sci-fi game series. It's rarer still to get two in a single month.
It's a rare thing to get a new Half-Life game.
