Half-Life remake has officially outshone its original on Steam.
Half-Life remake is now officially more popular on Steam than its original edition.
Hard to believe it has been over two decades since Half-Life first hit PC back in 1998! Since that momentous event, its legacy as one of the greatest first-person shooters of all time with an astonishing Metacritic score of 96 has only grown stronger over time.
In 2004, Half-Life 2 received an excellent sequel. Although its improvements far outpaced those found in its predecessor, both received similar Metacritic scores. If asked on different days by different gamers about which Half-Life game is their favorite – each person would likely provide you with their opinion; I wouldn’t argue against either result here!
Half-Life 2 would receive two expansion packs titled Episode One and Two respectively, though an anticipated third episode, Half-Life 3, never materialised. Before my anger flares further, let me just stop before venting my fury about its nonexistence.
Half-Life: Alyx was released to great acclaim in 2020, and by all accounts is an outstanding title. Unfortunately, in order to play it you’d need an extremely powerful PC with access to Steam VR as well as VR glasses compatible with Steam. Because of this many Half-Life fans simply could not experience what all the buzz surrounding Half-Life Alyx was all about; another trigger now has my attention; let me back off track now.
Black Mesa, the fanmade remake, started life as a mod for the 1998 original and was eventually released for PC use in 2012. Later with Valve’s blessing and early access launch in May 2015 prior to full release in March 2020.
As reported by PCGamesN, two years after its initial launch of Black Mesa is now more popular than its original game Half-Life. At present, according to SteamDB’s statistics for Half-Life there has been 12,280 concurrent players at one time playing concurrently while there is currently an all-time peak 24-hour peak peak count of 702 with 449 individuals exploring Black Mesa Research Facility.
While Black Mesa still hasn’t reached its all-time concurrent player peak of 7,158 like its inspiration did (SteamDB shows this), more players have taken an interest in its remake at present. SteamDB indicates a 24-hour peak of 1,030 with 600 currently playing it now – it may only take time before Black Mesa overtakes its source material!
Black Mesa can currently only be played on PC via Steam; no indications have surfaced regarding any possible console releases in the near future.
