Footage of Black Mesa (previously called Black Mesa Source), the Half-Life 1 to Source Engine modification that has been in development for over seven years, was leaked by an anonymous reader on the ValveTime.net forums. The original video has since been removed on YouTube due to a copyright claim by the developers, but was re-uploaded and mirrored by a YouTube user named HL2EpThree.
The three minute clip shows the ending portions of the “On A Rail” chapter, where Gordon Freeman is fighting US military soldiers on a monorail system. The video stops right before Gordon is about to launch a satellite into space.
Glimpses of the remodelled HL1 weapons, such as the MP5 (and its secondary-fire grenade launcher), Frag Grenades, and Satchel Charges can be seen in the clip. The Magnum in particular, features a new iron-sights zoom mode — in the original HL1 this zoom was only available in multiplayer.
The developers of Black Mesa have responded to the video leak by posting a FAQ on their forums, claiming that the leak was unintentional (and not part of their originally planned social media campaign).
They also said that the video represents a build that is four-to-five weeks old, and that “the art assets, level design, lighting, sound effects and music, voice acting, weapons, gameplay mechanics, et cetera, are all basically final. You won’t be seeing many changes between what’s in the video and what’s in the final product.”
Could this be a sign that the troubled modification is finally nearing its completion? No release date has been given for Black Mesa, so I wouldn’t start celebrating yet.
In the meantime, be sure to check out Rock Paper Shotgun’s interviews with the Black Mesa developers here and here — they give great insight into why its release has been delayed for so long.
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