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Black Mesa |OT| They're Waiting for You Gordon...
- Thread starter Dancrane212
- Start date
Magnum headshots kill in one hit. Very helpful at times.
I found the shotgun useful for much of the game too. Remember that the alt-fire is a double-barrell shot.
The interesting part of the HL story isn't Gordon Freeman, it's the interdimensional war.
How the Vortigaunts were fleeing the Combine until they were backed into a corner on the border world of Xen. Then the G-Man, working for an unnamed interdimensional resistance group opposed to the Combine, orchestrated the resonance cascade, which gave the desperate Vortigaunts an escape route to Earth and they took it.
As was part of the G-Man's plan, the resonance cascade also drew the attention of the Combine, who shortly thereafter invaded Earth and defeated Earth's combined militaries in the 7 Hour War. Dr. Breen from Black Mesa negotiated humanity's surrender and was installed as the head of Earth's puppet government. Then the Combine teleported the Citadels into the hearts of over a dozen major cities, introduced drugs into the water supply that made people forgetful and passive, activated a field that prevented humans from reproducing, began to terraform the planet, and like they'd done on countless worlds before, started assimilating and modifying the dominant life form on Earth, humans, into transhuman Combine soldiers.
The Combine were particularly interested in acquiring human teleportation technology, which, by using Xen as a "slingshot", was far more precise and allowed for point to point teleportation on two different locations on the same world as opposed the Combine's brute force method that only allowed them to punch a hole between two different dimensions. The former Black Mesa scientists who helped found the human Resistance were able to prevent the Combine from acquiring that technology.
The Combine's goal of assimilating alternate methods of teleportation is also why they became interested in Aperture Science's teleportation technology, specifically Aperture's Borealis experiment that resulted in an entire ship being teleported out of its drydock, with it reappearing somewhere in the Arctic.
After confronting Breen (who dies before he is able to escape to the Combine Overworld where he'd need to be placed inside of a different, non-human host body in order to survive), Gordon Freeman overloads the Citadel's dark energy reactor which will destroy all of City 17. The G-Man wants this to happen because when the Citadel's reactor explodes it will send a final data transmission with the coordinates of the Combine Overworld and it will draw additional Combine forces to Earth, but Gordon and the Resistance want to evacuate the city to save as many people as possible.
The Vortigaunts intervene and prevent the G-Man from interfering so that the Resistance are able to delay the explosion. Just prior to the explosion Combine Advisors flee the Citadel.
The explosion takes down the entire Combine network on Earth, triggering a communications blackout, powering down all the other Citadels, and disabling all of the Combine's teleporters on Earth. It leaves a massive Superportal forming over what is left of City 17, with the Combine intending to open it from the other side using the information contained in the data packet sent as the Citadel exploded to bring in reinforcements from off-world.
On their way to the Resistance base Alyx is injured which distracts the Vortigaunts while they heal her, allowing the G-Man to speak with Gordon, revealing that Alyx has a role to play, that it was the G-Man who saved her at Black Mesa, and that Eli Vance is also aware of the G-Man (this will probably be a come up again in Half-Life: Alyx) and partially responsible for the resonance cascade.
The Resistance are able to close the Superportal preventing Combine reinforcements from arriving. Combine Advisors then retaliate and kill Eli Vance.
So yeah, there are a lot of plot threads that still need to be resolved, and a lot of stuff Half-Life: Alyx can dig into with regards to her past and future.
Finally finished it and wow - Surface Tension and the Xen chapters are so well done.
An absolute blast from start to finish. Definitely gonna replay it soon.
An absolute blast from start to finish. Definitely gonna replay it soon.
Thanks for this. Always loved HL's lore. There's something about it - something very tangible that each game world delivers, and keeps cohesive throughout their shared universe.
I started this yesterday, and I'm already at Xen. Unless the quality drops significantly from that point onward, I think I can say this is one of the best games I've ever played.
I've been glued to my PC, and that rarely happens for me with any game these days.
I've been glued to my PC, and that rarely happens for me with any game these days.
The Xen Interloper chapter is a bit of a slog in some parts, but overall, their take on Xen is incredible. It really shows the disparity between Pre-Xen Black Mesa and Post-Xen. They really upped their game to a whole new level when they made Xen. Which is an incredible feat, because the Pre-Xen game is already one of my favorite games of all time. Black Mesa is probably the greatest "remake" of any game I've ever played. It's just absolutely incredibly well-crafted and detailed. I can't imagine a more perfect recreation of the original game. It's done perfectly.
Also, if we're posting Xen music. This is by faaar my favorite! Gives me Cosmos vibes. That view when you come out of the cave overlooking the floating island, magnificent!
Yeah, the music is incredible.
And I know the graphics are technically dated, but they had some killer artists working on this thing. Really helps it punch above its weight. Also, the visuals really make it a great companion piece for HL2, as it feels like the two stories actually take place in the same world now.
I love that the science team sends supplies to you in Xen, such a great touch. The capsules come with notes of encouragement.
played the game all weekend, which i did not expect to do. pretty amazing though in terms of level design the game kind of creaks an uglier side of its head occasionally. had to consult a walkthrough a few times to keep things moving along
so so glad i waited for it to be finished, and glad it actually was finished obvs (which i honestly thought would never happen)
so so glad i waited for it to be finished, and glad it actually was finished obvs (which i honestly thought would never happen)
You're probably 40 to 45% into the game (based on the original game's estimation).
A fair bit into Surface Tension now, and this game's grade-A AWESOME. I played the original Half-Life close to its original release date (which makes it ~22 years ago!) so I barely remember it outside of the major brush strokes such as the tentacles, the cliffs etc. Either way, this remake is fantastic so far and itches an FPS scratch I haven't been able to scratch in a long time.
Though it's really hard for me to say how much of a 1:1 remake it is so far, compared to a reimagining. If this is indeed extremely similar to the original game, it's a testament to how forward-looking the original game was; this is some damn fine level design and FPS gameplay in general.
Though it's really hard for me to say how much of a 1:1 remake it is so far, compared to a reimagining. If this is indeed extremely similar to the original game, it's a testament to how forward-looking the original game was; this is some damn fine level design and FPS gameplay in general.
I'm very glad I decided to save your post for later, because I'm midway through Interloper and I'm getting my mind blown. I just noticed the Vortigaunts are working in what looks like a patchwork fleshy structure, with stitching on the floor and everything. And I'm thinking "This is some good art direction, Crowbar Collective did some fine wo-... wait a fucking minute. Am I standing in what I think I'm standing in?" Even the textures on the fences the computer terminals are Giger-esque. This is top notch.
Absolutely. I haven't even played 3 and I got Echoes vibes. It is beautiful. I can't commend this team enough. They've more than proven themselves. I was just thinking that if Valve decides to commission them, give them a proper budget and have then work on HL3, I wouldn't bat an eyelash.
you have to remember that this is still a community-made, decentralized development team spread out all over the globe and doing this mostly on the side. not a studio. there's a reason this ended up taking fifteen years to be fully complete. what valve has done in the past is put some job offers on the table, though.
lol, died so hard the game crashed.
Really been enjoying my time with this. Haven't played Half Life 1 before though, and I don't remember much from 2.
Really been enjoying my time with this. Haven't played Half Life 1 before though, and I don't remember much from 2.
I'm up to right before Xen and figured ah, I have about an hour left, but I just read they expanded Xen from 1 hour to 4 hours. Holy crap.
So I just finished, and I was completely fucking off about the superportal structure. I don't know why it looked so fleshy.
Also, none of what you mentioned was even referenced in the main story. It sounds awesome, but no one mentions the Combine by name, or makes any distinction between the different alien races Gordon encounters, nothing...
Where can all this lore be found?
Edit: What's the word on HL2 Update? What's the best way to play HL2 nowadays, in terms of visuals?
Update is basically HL2 Remastered. I think it's the best way to play HL2 these days since regular HL2 still has some broken bits after the Source engine update.
It started to really play great right before on a rail for me.
I really do wonder if it is because they made the levels in order and just got better at design the more they made.
Really glad this seems to be working out. Hopefully Valve will somehow get a console port done.
Holy shit...the entire Gonarch's Lair chapter, I was in no way expecting it to be that good.
It is legit the best FPS boss sequence I have played in years. The music is wonderful, the whole thing was incredible.
Everything I have played so far makes me think this is really the case, all aspects of the game from the overall design to the music to the environment feels like it is improving as you play. Xen in particular feels like they just went crazy on an area of the game that isn't as 'sacred' to fans and they knocked it out the park.
It is legit the best FPS boss sequence I have played in years. The music is wonderful, the whole thing was incredible.
Everything I have played so far makes me think this is really the case, all aspects of the game from the overall design to the music to the environment feels like it is improving as you play. Xen in particular feels like they just went crazy on an area of the game that isn't as 'sacred' to fans and they knocked it out the park.
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A lot of the story is told through the environment, from newspaper clippings in Dr. Kleiner's lab in HL2, the fact that the sea level has dropped by like 30 feet in the canal section of HL2, through Breen and Kleiner's broadcasts in HL2 and the Episodes, offhand comments by NPCs and scientists and in conversations about the portal technologies, and a lot of it is from the sometimes hard to decipher speech of the Vortigaunts in HL2.
I haven't actually finished Black Mesa, so I'm not sure what they might have added, but in the original HL there is way less story. The Combine aren't mentioned in HL because they were a later retcon (Laidlaw, the professional science fiction writer for the entire series up until Alyx, probably had a rough idea that the Vortigaunts were fleeing something, but the Combine weren't developed until the sequel). Originally the story to HL was closer to its inspiration, the Stephen King short story The Mist, where a military experiment accidentally opens a portal to another dimension and hostile aliens come pouring through.
There are hints, though. All of the Vortigaunts in HL1 are wearing shackles and collars; they are enslaved, by Nihilanth the final boss. The Grunts in HL1 are genetically engineered super soldiers derived from the dominant life form (Vortigaunts), presumably developed to counter the Combine's own super soldiers based on its conquered worlds' dominant life forms (the Striders, Dropships, Gunships, and Hunters from HL2 are all examples of native life forms from other worlds being added to the Combine Universal Union forces). All of the Vortigaunt forces in HL1 are genetically related; they all possess a third arm in their chest (Vortigaunts, Grunts, and Nihilanth), and none of them are native to Xen. They fled their homeworld when the Combine invaded and ended up on Xen. In fact, nothing is native to Xen, everything that is there has washed up on its cosmic shores from elsewhere.
Another, less canon source of the broader story is Laidlaw himself. Years ago, frustrated by the lack of progress on new Half-Life games, he established a Twitter account ( https://twitter.com/breengrub?lang=en ) which is from the perspective of a personality backup of Dr. Breen who has been decanted into a Combine Advisor body. He slowly becomes aware and learns how to communicate, and, in an effort to provide information that might be useful in defeating the Combine, he begins to describe some of the history of the Combine, how they operate, and how the "grub" Combine Advisor bodies, the Shu'ulathoi, aren't even their original form but something they appropriated from another, advanced, utopian philosopher species, etc. until the "broadcast" (Twitter account) is jammed by the Combine.
Then of course there's Laidlaw's unofficial "Epistle 3", that broadly describes what his plans for the Half-Life 2: Episode 3/Half-Life 3 story would have been, while also serving as a goodbye to the series and his co-workers at Valve.
The update mod is truest to vanilla and is recommended for first-timers. I'd say also check out MMod as its a great way to replay if you've played vanilla before.
I read that. I was pretty gutted. That's crazy, though; the amount of lore you can parse from the game world. I never managed to interpret that much, even though I've always held HL2 as the bar for world building and atmosphere.
I kept waiting for a glimpse of this "administrator" character they kept mentioning in the intro, expecting to see Breen, but never showed up, maybe I missed him. I did feel bad killing the Vortigaunts whenever they spawned, but had no idea they were part of the same race as the big Ubersoldat dudes. Btw, I laughed my ass off at the animation when you pick up one of their Hiveguns. I won't spoil it, since I'm sure that was a new addition to Black Mesa.
I also liked the pathos of the Vortigaunts. As you progress deeper into Xen you realize they're not interested in fighting you since they're not being prodded and they're slave workers living in shantytowns, bullied by the grunts. I was under the impression the Combine were more directly behind the invasion, that I was basically playing ground zero for the 7 hour war and that the whole thing was futile, etc... But it sounds like that happens after Gordon accepts G-man's offer. I kept thinking the Vortigaunts were just cannon fodder for the combine invasion, but it they were just running, or forced to fight on behalf of Nihilanth to flee Xen...? So, Nihilanth is actually Combine, of Vortigaunt origin...? Because if it's not then Gordon is straight up murdering desperate refugees. Lol
See, I didn't even know that they appropriate and reenginer species for their own purposes, like the Covenant. Even the headcrabs, they seem related to the Gonarch, stranded in Xen, but in HL2 they're just straight up shoving them in missiles and shelling neighborhoods with them.
Anyway, I can't wait to dive back into HL2.
Yeah, the Administrator was actually originally intended to be the G-Man in the original audio script, but they later retconned it so that it was Dr. Breen.
One of the earlier fan theories was that the Vortigaunts had already been assimilated by the Combine and were part of the Combine invasion, but that has been debunked by Laidlaw/Valve.
Nihilanth is apparently the last of his species, but he is genetically related to the Vortigaunts, distinct, but perhaps part of the same genus like the Grunts. He functions as his own faction, separate from and in opposition to the Combine who have been pursuing the Nihilanth/Vortigaunt forces across dimensions. The Vortigaunt species has been enslaved for generations.
And yeah, all of the Vortigaunts you fight in HL1 are unwilling/refugees. The G-Man sorta alludes to this in Episode Two when he talks about how their first experience of humanity was a crowbar coming at them. Once they are freed they become non-hostile/allies of the Resistance. They can tap into the "Vortessence" which is a sort of field that links them and allows them to manipulate energies, hence all their new agey dialogue, particularly the All-Knowing Vortigaunt (a specific Vortigaunt in HL2 who has a lot of expository dialogue), which if you decode it directly references/explains quite a bit of backstory.
And yeah, the 7 Hour War happens after Gordon is put in stasis. The resonance cascade ended up causing portal storms across the entire planet, which were similar in appearance to the superportal in Episode Two. Humanity began to congregate inside larger urban centers that could be more easily defended from the alien wildlife (headcrabs, antlions, etc.) that were teleported in by the portal storms and had begun taking over the countryside. Then while humanity were off balance the Combine launched a surprise attack.
When I first started reading about the lore I was surprised by how much I'd missed, mainly in HL2.
Also, the Gearbox stuff while extremely fun and cool, is mostly considered non-canon, except for Barney and the nuclear bomb that destroyed Black Mesa. The Race-X aliens in particular are non-canon.
Quick quesh: where was Barney? Lol?
Is he like a joke character since all Security dudes sound the same and somwhow all know Gordon ?
"It's me, Barney, from Black Mesa!"
"Uhh, yeah, wassup"
He's actually a named, main character of Half-Life: Blue Shift, but the only part of that game that's referenced in HL2 is his name.
Both Blue Shift and Opposing Force are still worth playing if you don't mind original HL graphics. Blue Shift plays pretty much the same as HL1 (it was originally intended as a bonus campaign for the cancelled Dreamcast version of HL1), while Opposing Force adds a bunch of new weapons and a bunch more new enemy types and is a full length game.
Don't mind at all. More half life is good life. Lol
I need to get some goddamn sleep.
The alt fire lets you guide the rocket with the laser like in HL2. Dunno if that'd help there, though.I hate the rocket launcher so damn much.
This has gotta hit that tank, right?
Fucking nope
Heh, definitely did the same thing a few times between that and another 'half-lowered' garage entrance a bit later. The rocket's got a knockup on firing that isn't super noticeable until you have the above happen to you.
In less fortunate news, Xen seems to ctd whenever I try to enter the portal to Gonarch's lair, and trying to go right to the lair also leads to a Ctd. Gonna have to try re-re-verifying local game files and hope I missed grabbing something from the various Xen updates.
The Operation Black Mesa people are working on that (not affiliated with the Black Mesa people).
i'm playing opposing force now after finishing black mesa and i really want them to go and do it. i'm sure it'd take
like thirty years or however long black mesa took but i wanna see it