Black Mesa is the definitive remastering of one of the unarguable cornerstones of the FPS genre; a passionate, balanced homage which is which is neither constrained by nor uncoupled from the look and feel of the original Half Life. Rather than merely preserving the essence of the original game, the dev team have captured and amplified it: My experience of this game is that it feels more like Half Life than Half Life does.

BM delivers everything one might expect from a two-decades-later-remake: The models are sharper (whilst surprisingly faithful to the original) and the enemies are more flexible and formidable. What makes the game really shine, however, is that it goes boldly beyond re-skinning the original and advances into gently re-thinking it. Individual changes are generally subtle, but they add up to something immersive and coherent. Scientist, soldiers and security guards suddenly feel human. Puzzles make sense, and you're never made to feel lost on a complicated level. The story comes across clearly whilst retaining the franchise's signature 'hands-off' approach to world-building.

The original sound track is excellent. A memorable moment for me was traversing a corpse-ridden car park to the tune of some deep, unnerving, sombre synth. I found myself thinking, "God, everybody's dead. How long has it been since the cascade?" I've never sympathised with Gordon in that way before.

Xen, the game's infamously dissapointing conclusion, has be reworked here into something new, beautiful and terrifying. I will not venture to describe it; it must be experienced.

If you love the Half Life series, chances are you've already bought this game. If you're curious, buy this game. If you're looking for a story-rich shooter that harkens to a simpler time, but plays as well as anything else in 2020, buy this game. Buy this game.