8 Video Game Remakes That Were TOTALLY Justified

While every other remake on this list is undoubtedly worth playing, Crowbar Collective's Black Mesa stands head and shoulders about the rest for one reason: It began as a labour of love with no financial incentive.

Development of Black Mesa began all the way back in 2004 as a response to the disappointing release of Valve's own Half-Life: Source, an update of the original Half-Life ported to the then-revolutionary Source engine. Unlike HL:S, Black Mesa aimed to completely rebuild and update the world of Half-Life 1 in Source, rather than simply change the engine and call it a day.

It wasn't until 2012 that Black Mesa: Source was released as a free mod for Half-Life 2, covering the entire game up to the original's divisive Xen chapters. The result was an astounding recreation of the Black Mesa facility, with its architecture reworked to feel more believable and its atmosphere impressively overhauled. Valve themselves were so impressed that they suggested Crowbar Collective make Black Mesa a commercial release.

The finished game has been out since 2020, and is an absolutely remarkable achievement. Despite using an engine now approaching 20 years old, Black Mesa still feels polished and exceptionally modern. A work born of pure dedication, and a more-than-worthy evolution of one of the greatest shooters of all time, it deserves all its accolades.