A Half-Life remake is now officially more popular than the original game on Steam.
t’s quite hard to believe that the original Half-Life was released on PC nearly 25 years ago all the way back in 1998. Since that moment, the series evolved into legendary status as one of the most influential and best first-person shooters of all time with a Metacritic score of 96.
Then in 2004, it spawned a sequel that improved on its predecessor in almost every way, though it did also garner the same Metacritic score. I suppose you could ask a different gamer on a different day, and each would give you a different answer as to which Half-Life game is best. Either way, I wouldn't argue the case.
Half-Life 2 would receive two expansions in the form of Episode One and Episode Two. There was supposed to be a third episode which would lead us into the now infamously non-existent, Half-Life 3. Ok, I can feel a trigger coming on, so I’ll step away before I rant about the third-numbered entry that never came to be.
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We did get the prequel Half-Life: Alyx in 2020 and by all accounts, it’s an amazing game. Sadly, in order to play this sequel, you’d need a beast of a PC as well as a Steam-compatible VR headset. This meant that much of the Half-Life fanbase are unable to see what all the Half-Life: Alyx fuss is about. I’m sensing another trigger, so I’ll get back on topic.
The remake in question is fanmade and goes by the name Black Mesa. This remake originally began life as a mod for the original game of 1998 and was released in 2012 on PC. However, with the blessing of Valve, Black Mesa evolved into a full remake launching as early access in May 2015 before getting its full release in March 2020.
Two years after its initial launch, as reported by PCGamesN, Black Mesa is now more popular than the original game. At the time of writing, according to SteamDB, Half-Life has an all-time concurrent player count of 12,280. As of right now, Half-Life has a 24-hour peak of 702 with 449 players exploring the Black Mesa Research Facility.
While Black Mesa still hasn't toppled its inspiration with its all-time concurrent player peak of 7,158, there are more players indulging in the remake at the time of writing. SteamDB confirms that Black Mesa has a 24-hour peak of 1,030 with 600 playing the game now. Just by taking a look at the recent numbers, it’s probably only a matter of time until the remake surpasses the OG.
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Black Mesa is available on PC via Steam. There are no signs that it will ever release on consoles, unfortunately.
Featured Image Credit: Valve/Crowbar Collective