Black Mesa or the original are officially the best ways to explore the classic realms of the research facility.
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The year is 2004. Half-Life 2 is due to appear soon. But another upcoming release is catching the attention of fans: Half Life: Source.
But nothing comes of the supposed fresh cell cure. Until a few days ago, almost 20 years later, the title was the black sheep of the series, which was actually supposed to bring the beloved shooter original into the present.
Now Valve has closed the chapter. We explain what’s behind it.
Never liked, probably soon forgotten
For the 25th anniversary of the series, Valve is celebrating the original with a big update, but is finally pushing a relative to the sidelines. Half-Life: Source ultimately loses its official status as the definitive version of the classic.
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We consider the Anniversary version of Half-Life to be the definitive version and will continue to support it in the future. We will encourage new players to play this version instead of Half-Life: Source from now on.
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What is Half-Life: Source?
Half Life: Source is a port of Half-Life to the Source engine. It is also a variant of the story shooter that has been changed in some places.
Among other things, it brought new water and ragdoll effects as well as modified levels and assets. But the New edition
disappointed from many perspectives – including bugs. In itself it wasn’t all bad and sometimes offered an improved version of Half-Life, but she failed because of expectations.
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These were aimed at a real remake that exploited all the features of the then groundbreaking Source engine, which also powered the long-standing genre leader Half-Life 2 in parallel. But with that she had Source
christened new version of the first part has nothing to do with opulence and technical brilliance.
Modders do the job: Only the Black Mesa mod took a decisive step in this direction. The following test video shows how close they came to their goal.
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Black Mesa – The Half-Life remake isn’t perfect, but it’s incredible
Has Half-Life: Source been deleted? No, you can still start the game as its assets are still used by mods to this day. But its visibility has been severely restricted and no one can buy the title anymore. But if you search using a search engine, you can still find the page itself. It’s just that it will have neither relevance nor functionality in the future.
Are you sad about saying goodbye to Half-Life: Source? Did you play it back then or even recently? Or maybe given the giant Black Mesa mod, you didn’t even know it existed? And does the recently updated original itself have much relevance as a standalone game? Feel free to write us your thoughts in the comments!