We analyzed the fan-built Half-Life movie Dark Mesa at March 2020 and found it”a high quality remake that broadens the range of the original and vastly enhances its last chapters,” worthy of an 84% score. It was not declared fully and entirely done, however, until the launch of the Definitive Edition update in November, the”closing large update” to the match.
Currently a new group calling itself HECU Collective has started work on a similar overhaul for the Gearbox-developed Half-Life growth Blue Shift. Called Black Mesa: Blue Shift, it is going to make use of Black Mesa tools and be manufactured in precisely the exact same style, and such as Black Mesa is going to be released in chapters. It is not clear how far along development is now, but the team shared some displays and said that it hopes to announce a demo soon. And it does have some expertise in the area, having previously released the Black Mesa mods Black Ops and Azure Sheep.
The original Half-Life: Blue Change came out in 2001 and followed the experiences of Black Mesa Research Facility security guard Barney Calhoun since he made his way out of the doomed centre. It was not a big hit, facing criticism for being too short and predictable, but it did manage to turn into an anonymous safety flunkie NPC into a significant and memorable supporting personality, which I have always thought was a pretty nifty trick.
This is not the first-time someone’s taken a run at Black Mesa Barney: That honour, so far as I know, goes into Black Mesa: Insecurity, which was announced all the way back in 2013. But that project was stopped (the final upgrade on ModDB was published in 2015), which HECU Collective stated is what prompted it to embark on its own version.
(And for those wondering why the team opted to remake Blue Shift rather than the well-regarded Opposing Force expansion, somebody is currently on this occupation: Operation Black Mesa, that was also declared in 2013, is still in development.)
There’s no time frame for a release, and that could most likely be a fantastic time to remind everybody that it took 16 years to finish Dark Mesa, so patience is most likely well advised. For now, you can follow together with the action on Discord and, even if you speak the language, the Russian social network VK. It is also possible to take a listen to the first track in the Black Mesa: Blue Life soundtrack, by composer Aslan Akhmetov, below.
