Half-Life mod Black Mesa gets a chapter on Xen in Spring 2019

On the day that the original Half-Life turns twenty years old, the makers of the Black Mesa mod have released a new trailer. It covers the alien world Xen, which is not yet part of this Half-Life remake. The Xen chapter should be released in the second quarter of 2019.

The makers of the Black Mesa modification show images of the alien dimension Xen in the new trailer. The team behind the mod reports that the goal is to release the chapter on Xen sometime in the second quarter of 2019, although it is not yet clear when exactly the release will follow.

The developers report that this release period makes it possible to make everything stable, fluid and fun. They say they are pleased with the state of Xen’s design. Almost everything should already be working properly. The chapter on Xen will take about 6 hours in total.

The levels and designs for Xen are mostly new material and not just a simple graphical remaster of the world from Half-Life. They probably did, because the Xen part from Half-Life is generally considered to be the least part of the original. In December, the mod makers will reveal more of Xen, including more details about the graphics and changes to NPCs.

Now that Half-Life is twenty years old and Half-Life 2 is also already fourteen years old, playing the Black Mesa mod is one of the few ways to make the endless wait for Half-Life 3 more bearable. Released as a Steam Early Access title in 2015, the mod as it stands is about ten hours long and is in fact a much better looking remake of the original, based on the Source engine.