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Over the course of its nearly decade long development cycle, the game has been overhauled several times, including redesigns of several components and effects, as well as an added multiplayer mode. The project was initially announced in 2005, shortly after the release of the Source engine port of the original game, and entered development in 2008. The initial release excludes the "Xen" chapters from the original game, but was announced for release in Q2 2019. The main differences include an entirely reskinned collection of textures, models, and NPCs, a noticeably longer runtime, and additional dialogue and story elements. The gameplay of Black Mesa is reminiscent to that of the original game: the player controls Gordon Freeman, a scientist at the titular research facility in New Mexico, as he navigates through the complex after a botched experiment, with nearly uninterrupted control of the character. It received a standalone commercial release through Steam Early Access on May 5, 2015, with a full release slated for Q2 2019. It is a third-party remake of Half-Life (1998), and was originally released as a free modification (then titled Black Mesa: Source) for Half-Life 2 September 14, 2012. Black Mesa (stylized as BLλCK MESA) is a first-person shooter video game, developed and published by Crowbar Collective.
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