Black Mesa: Source teaser trailer; it looks incredible
As some may be aware, a complete remake of Half-Life 1 for the Source engine has been in development for a couple of years. Although it initially looked really shoddy and I honestly thought the project would collapse like so many others, it looks like they have actually managed to stick through the hard times and the results are splendid, evidenced by a brand new teaser trailer that reeks of quality.
While there’s no real indication of how complete the game actually is, and judging from the lack of gameplay footage there might be some significant way to go, what’s been done so far truly looks amazing. The level production standards are clearly up there with the professionals (Including the trailer itself!), and they’ve seemingly tried hard to retain that Half-Life 1 tone, based in an isolated, prosperous secret facility overrun by invading creatures and soldiers sent in to wipe out everybody, including yourself and the other scientists working there (coolness squared, in other words).
Check out the Flash video, which can be found by scrolling down a little on the linked page and waiting for the short advertisement to play – ideal if you’re in a rush. You can also grab a high-resolution copy from FilePlanet if you feel like logging in and have a bit more time (Comment with a better mirror if you can!).
So yes, Black Mesa: Source has jumped fairly high up my anticipation list. Hopefully the game itself will meet the standards exampled in the trailer, effectively bringing us the Twin Snakes of Half-Life 1 (Twin Snakes being the GameCube remake of Metal Gear Solid 1, with up-to-date Metal Gear Solid 2 standard graphics and cutscenes). And you never know, perhaps the development team will incorporate the improvements in gameplay flow and presentation that Valve demonstrated in Half-Life 2; while I wouldn’t want massive sweeping changes applied to a winning formula, a team who knows what they’re doing could really spice things up by surprising you with things coming from the opposite direction you’re expecting (assuming you played Half-life 1) and such.
I thought you were on about the official Valve release of Half-Life Source at first. I nearly went off on a massive rant.
You’re right, though. This trailer does look very special! I notice it only really covers a few key levels though - the dam is the same bit as the outdoorsy part with the rocks and the steam coming out of the Black Mesa complex - so hopefully that’s not all there is!
Still, very impressive for a fan project to be better than Valve’s official offering, not that it takes much. ¬¬