14 years is a long wait, but Crowbar Collective are finally set to bring their remake of the original Half-Life in Black Mesa out of Steam Early Access. Studio head Adam Engles revealed in a Steam Community post that game will officially launch on March 5.
“As I write this, I am realizing that we plan to FINISH Black Mesa exactly 14 years to the month from when I first joined the team,” explains Engles. “14 years working on a single project, with a dedicated team, that had a vision, and saw it through.”
Engles did say, however, that development is far from over. Despite hitting that magic 1.0, Black Mesa will no doubt have bugs to fix, and he wants to manage expectations. “We are super excited to have Black Mesa be ‘complete,’ but acknowledge it is not perfect and won’t ever be perfect.”
In spite of that, Engles is proud of what the team has accomplished. “We think this upcoming 1.0 release is the best, most polished, and most fun version of the game yet. The anticipation and excitement around our project is beyond flattering.”
Meanwhile, Valve is prepping the long-awaited next entry in the Half-Life series with Half-Life: Alyx, which launches March 23rd on Steam VR.