Yesterday was the original Half-Life’s 20th anniversary, so happy birthday Gordan Freeman! You don’t look a day over 47! To celebrate the occasion, the Black Mesa team reveal a new Xen trailer for its Half-Life remake, showcasing the bizarre alien worlds that formed the back chunk of Valve’s seminal shooter.

There aren’t many people that would disagree with Xen being the worst part of the original Half-Life. It was a little bit, umm, haphazard and incongruous compared to the earlier stages of Half-Life. The Black Mesa devs are doing a pretty massive rework, in fact being largely original work compared to the earlier portions of the game. The content and design of Xen are now locked in and it’s just a case of polishing the game and tarting up the art between now and the expected launch in Q2 2019.

I have to say though, what’s already there looks absolutely stunning. The Black Mesa team have truly made Xen look like an alien world, and there’s the potential here to make one of the greatest games of all time even better.

Black Mesa: Xen will have a playtime of around six hours, so it’s going to much, much longer than the original it’s based on. It’s also obviously going to be folded into Black Mesa, which is currently available through Steam Early Access.

Has anyone else been holding out until the full game’s done until diving in? What do you think the Xen rework? Share your thoughts below!