In the website of "Half-Life's" Black Mesa Research Facility, a strange countdown timer suddenly appeared, which many presumed to signify that something big was about to happen. The timer ended on Tuesday, May 5, which is a date that has a big significance in the "Half-Life" universe, since lead character Gordon Freeman was hired officially at the Black Mesa on the same date.

Today, the remake of "Half-Life 1" debuted on Steam Early Access. According to IGN, it includes events up to the Lambda Core, just like the original game. It includes a new multiplayer deathmatch and team deathmatch, and it has six "completely re-imagined Half-Life 1 maps." It has around 10 hours of single player campaign.

The game's developer Crowbar Collective said, "Making a game with the scope and scale of Black Mesa is a massive undertaking. Back in 2012 we made the decision to release what we had completed up to that point, and were blown away by the community's response, feedback, and improvements to our work. We want to keep that relationship alive and well by using Early Access as a tool for allowing our community to participate in the final phase of Black Mesa's development." 

The single player campaign for "Black Mesa," which is said to be around 85 percent complete, costs $19.99 on Steam Early Access.  Once the game is complete, the price might have a slight increase. 

There is no timeline on when the remaining 15 percent will be completed, but the developer said, "For the last 15% we want to not only recreate it, but improve upon it to make it an enjoyable and memorable experience. We feel it will take us considerable time to get the last 15% up to our standards, and putting a time estimate on it would be a total guess."