PROJECT LAMBDA: Half-Life is remade in Unreal Engine 4, and you can play the first chapter FOR FREE!

 In 2012, Half-Life, cult FPS developed by Valve, was being remade with the source engine under the name of "Black Mesa", and it's still being developed as I write! The game is already playable and completable(is that a word?), but the final Xen levels are still missing.(In the case you haven't noticed, we actually use a screenshot of Black Mesa in our banner, since we consider it's the best FPS game ever made.😉)
 
Well, anyway, this didn't stop some hardcore fans to undertake the colossal task of completely redoing the game, AGAIN, this time with the impressive Unreal Engine 4.
Welcome to PROJECT LAMBDA.

For now, only the first chapter(Black Mesa Inbound) is available!

BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE CROWBAR!😎

 In the case you lived under a radioactive rock for the past 20 years, here's what happens during the first chapter(YES, SPOILERS):

During this introduction, scientist/crowbar specialist Gordon Freeman discovers the entrails of the Black Mesa laboratory, located in New Mexico.

NOTE!

As expected, required specs are pretty high. The game performs badly even on a GTX 980 and i7 3770k cpu. The best thing you can do is lower the resolution scale.

At this precise moment, the player, who plays Gordon, does not suspect that the scene will be the scene of a massive and bloody extraterrestrial invasion. In any case, he did not know it in 1998...(Damn I'm old.)

Over the years, Half-Life has been "remastered" a few times, with more or less success. They were always "amateur" projects, since Valve studio never really sought to officially revive his cult game, for some mysterious occult reason. (I think aliens actually threatened them to not unveil more about their existence on earth. Or something.)

Train announcer: "...unfortunately we've got no toilets, no air conditioning, no first class, and a trolly service of drinks and light refreshments will not be provided".

The developers answered a few questions on their youtube channel:

I will answer a few more frequent questions: 
1) Why do we do this project? - We do this because firstly we can do it, in the second we want to do it. 
2) Why the Half Life / Blackmesa? Why not Oposing Force, etc.? - Because it is in the first chapter of the Halflife, minimum programming and maximum graphics. If you want to do any other remake, then do it, please do not specify what to do to me. 
3) Why 100k likes? - The project takes a lot of time. And in order to continue I need to know that you need it. Otherwise this project does not make sense to continue. 
4) Why not collect money, and make a full-fledged remake? - All rights to the franchise belong to Valve, this fan project, and we do not set a goal to make money on it.

And then later, they added this:

Hey. There was a lot of criticism about the number of likes. Therefore, we completely abandon a certain number of likes or similar. And most likely after a while we will begin work on the second chapter.

Half-Life is the ONLY FPS in the world in which I love the long-ass intro. (8 minutes on the rails, I think? I remember eating my 5pm cookies while enjoying the intro, after coming back from school.)

 As previously stated, for now, only the first chapter is available for free, but it is clear that the result is already very promising. 

Every time, I shout "still pretending to work, guys?" and get some fingers.

The changes from Source engine to UE4 are massive, but you quickly feel at home once again, thanks to the great work the developers did on preserving the original design. (the geometry doesn't seem too different.)

On the other hand, judge the screenshots and tell me: don't you think that it looks more bland/generic, strangely?

 Obviously, the first chapter is very short, and now we sincerely hope that the developers will decide to work on chapter 2! (Keeping in mind that Black Mesa took 10 years to make and isn't finished yet...)

3D models are MUCH better in Project lambda, but it kinda looks blurry and with less contrast in general. The toxic goo looks less delicious as well.

Testing gigantic syringes for Rosie O'donnell's ass. What a game.

 Very nice work anyway, and it is always a pleasure to rediscover this PERFECT game(yes, I said it) with a different artistic perspective.

Black Mesa was an incredible rebirth on Source engine, but it's very tempting to play this adventure once again in Unreal Engine 4!

And personally, I would like to add that this "mod" is a good symbol of why we've decided to create a website about PC gaming. #PCMasterRace

WILLY'S OPINION
"AGAIN???"

  Yep, that was my first reaction. And yet, funnily enough, I'll be the first to buy all potential remakes and spinoffs of Half-Life, since I'm such a huge fan of this whole franchise that I named my son "headcrab". He has difficulties at school, I wonder why.

Anyway, it does look great, but I feel like graphics have reached a certain point in games, which doesn't automatically make me say "wow, this is better!" anymore. Now, it's more like "nice, this is different, but not better"... Anyway, different lighting, different level layout, but not necessarily better art direction and overall immersion feeling.

And also... Wouldn't it be better to get a remake of Half-life addons like "blue shift" or "opposing force"? Or even Half-Life 2, which has been butchered by that horrible Cinematic mod...

I'm not completely sure this remake(not sure exactly how far the developers will go) was necessary, really. And yes, I completely support it.😅👍