It feels like only yesterday that Half-Life remake Black Mesa was a joke. The highest-profile vaporware of the Source modding community. That thing had been milling around since 2005. Nobody thought it would ever actually come out. I remember feeling properly shook when eventually did in 2012, seven years later.
Except, it wasn’t exactly done. Crowbar Collective have been trying to figure out Xen, Half-Life’s notorious last chapter, for almost as long as the Earth bits were in development. With today’s Gonarch chapter entering public beta, it got a little bit closer to completion.
Black Mesa's ambitious expansion to Half-Life has reached the last stretch. After a technical beta in June, which tested a few maps, Black Mesa: Xen's first two chapters are now available in the public beta branch. Xen and Gonarch's Layer contain nine maps, so it's triple the size.
The other chapters will be added to the branch later, letting you test all 18 of the expansion's maps. Before you dive in, you can check out the known issues here. Developer Crowbar Collective says things will get quieter on the update front, but only because the team the expansion ready for launch.
Xen has grown over the years from a rework of the disappointing Half-Life level to a full campaign with lots of different environments and improvements. It was originally slated for a 2017 launch, but it's changed quite a bit from the original plans.
Valve might have shelved Gordon Freeman and his sci-fi misadventures, but Black Mesa developer Crowbar Collective still has one more job for the mute physicist. The studio's Half-Life remake was released in 2015, but since then it's been working on an additional and original campaign that greatly expands Gordon's trip off-world, and you'll be able to play it soon.
In the original Half-Life, we don't get to see much of the alien world of Xen, but Crowbar Collective has been changing that. The Xen campaign doesn't just make the Xen level full-length—it's closer to a full game, or at least a meaty expansion. Check out the trailer from last year:
You'll have five chapters to work through, and the first two will be entering public beta on August 1. Soon after the beta release of Xen and Gonarch's Lair, Crowbar Collective will launch the rest of the chapters, Interloper, Nihilanth and Endgame. There are no dates for them, but expect them weeks, not months, after the first two.
That's the last step before launch. Once all the bugs have been squashed, Black Mesa: Xen will leave beta. You'll get access if you have Black Mesa, which is currently on sale, and the betas will be available through the Steam Beta tab in the Properties menu.
I'm increasingly less frustrated at the prospect of never being able to finish Half-Life officially. With developers working on fan projects to expand the original game and even bring Marc Laidlaw's vision for Half-Life 2: Episode 3 to life, there's still plenty of Half-Life left to play.