The long-in-the-making fan tribute to the original Half Life game, Black Mesa Source, has finally been released.
The game is a complete, from the ground remake of the first game using the Source engine, unlike Valve's own Half Life Source. The project, in development for eight years, was considered all but dead until a recent resurgence not too long ago, confirming the project was alive and close to completion.
The original game, Half Life, was released in 1998. Its considered one of the most innovative and pioneering games of its time, as well as a major influence in the FPS genre. It follows Dr. Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist, as an experiment gone wrong threatens all of Earth with an invasion of aliens of unknown origin.
The game, while almost completed, lacks the "Xen" portion of the game, which is not simply being a level to level conversion. The original set of Xen levels was considered heavily disappointing by fans in the original game, and thus is getting a complete overhaul in the mod. A deathmatch mode, titled Black Mesa Deathmatch, is also planned.
The game is slated for a Steam Greenlight release, but for now the game is playable up until Xen. All you need is the Source SDK 2007, which comes with ownership of any Source game.
Source (Contains Game and Soundtrack Downloads)