Black Mesa: Definitive Edition-CODEX

The remake’s final release in 2020 was similarly praised by reviewers. On review aggregate OpenCritic, Black Mesa had an average 86/100 review score with 100% approval rating based on 14 reviews.^[53] PC Gamer said the overall project felt like a professional work, and that while the original structure of Half-Life hampered some of Black Mesa, the redesigns that were done to the original levels for the Source engine were well done, particularly with the new Xen sections that helped Black Mesa Xen to feel more like a proper closure to the game than the original version.^[54] Eurogamer said that Black Mesa felt more like an evolution than a remake of Half-Life, with the designs of the Crowbar Collective to trim down certain levels while adding other features helped to enhance the overall product, making the overall title more of a survival horror than a first-person shooter.^[55] Dario Casali, a designer at Valve who has worked on all Half-Life games, remarked in an interview that during development on Half-Life: Alyx he attempted to play the entirety of the original Half-Life again for research, but after five hours decided to play Black Mesa instead, reasoning it was a much more enjoyable product.^[56]