Black Mesa Classic Is a Demake Of The Original Half-Life 1 Remake

Black Mesa, the Half-Life 1 remake that brought the game to the updated Source engine and added new content, is now being remade again... in the original Half-Life 1 engine.

As reported by PC Gamer, a group of modders are currently working on a demake of the remake called Black Mesa Classic, which will include Half-Life 1, in the original GoldSrc engine, but with the extra content and improved features added in Black Mesa.

The mod has actually been in development since 2019 but a playable demo was released earlier this week on the game's ModDB page. It was quickly removed due to "a last minute issue" but the team has promised it will be back up soon.

"This is a GoldSrc project aimed to remake Black Mesa: Source with Half-Life assets on PC, with a classic visual style and features that push the limits of what's possible within the GoldSrc engine, including detailed textures and a more realistic environment," the page said.

"Our main vision for this is to give a new look to the original Half-Life in the original engine, adding more realism and immersion, making Half-Life more enjoyable, and giving long life to GoldSrc."

The team also said it wants the project to be accessible and playable to anyone, on any kind of PC regardless of hardware specifications. It plans on using optimisation tricks to ensure the game runs smoothly.

The long dormant Half-Life series was brought back in 2020 with Half-Life: Alyx, a virtual reality game set between the events of the first two entries. In our 10/10 review, IGN said: "Half-Life: Alyx has set a new bar for VR in interactivity, detail, and level design, showing what can happen when a world-class developer goes all-in on the new frontier of technology."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer whose coverage of day-to-day news means he writes about everything from Thanos's butt to political movements within the industry, but mostly about video games. Ryan has six years of journalism experience and before IGN wrote mostly for national newspapers in the UK including The Times, i, and The Scotsman. Find him on Twitter @thelastdinsdale.