The Half-Lifevideo game series features many locations set in a dystopian future stemming from the events of the first game, Half-Life. These locations are used and referred to throughout the series. The locations, for the most part, are designed and modeled from real-world equivalent locations in Eastern Europe, but also include science fiction settings including the Black Mesa Research Facility, a labyrinthine subterranean research complex, and Xen, an alien dimension.
Locations
Half-Life and expansions
Black Mesa Research Facility
The Black Mesa Research Facility is the primary setting for Half-Life and its three expansions: Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay. The base is a decommissioned ICBM launch complex at an undisclosed New Mexico desert location, which has been converted into a scientific research facility and bears a number of similarities to Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory and Area 51. Black Mesa is a distinctive landmark visible from NM502 a few miles outside Los Alamos. This facility is depicted as a vast series of underground research laboratories as well as surface constructions such as offices, chemical waste disposal plants, and personnel dormitories (even cafeterias, where Gordon Freeman can destroy Doctor Magnusson's microwave casserole), all powered by a hydroelectric dam and connected by an advanced tram system.
Black Mesa (Warm Springs, Arizona), a southern section of Black Mountains (Arizona) containing the Warm Springs Wilderness, and setting for the 1936 film The Petrified Forest
In the Half-Life video game series:
Black Mesa Research Facility, a fictional scientific research complex in New Mexico that forms the setting for the video game Half-Life
Black Mesa East, a fictional resistance base in Eastern Europe, featured in Half-Life 2
Black Mesa (originally Black Mesa: Source and stylized as BLλCK MESA) is a third-party remake of Half-Life.
During its eight-year development period, Black Mesa has been featured in several video game publications and received direct attention from Valve Corporation. Due to its long development time, the modification became notable for its delays, and dwindling updates on the status of its completion. The delays led to Wired awarding Black Mesa high spots on their "Vaporware Of The Year" lists in 2009 and 2010.
The first part of Black Mesa, which included remakes of chapters "Black Mesa Inbound" to "Lambda Core", was released as a standalone download on September 14, 2012. Valve Corporation, through public voting on the Steam Greenlight program, approved Black Mesa for distribution on Steam, where it was released as early access on May 5, 2015.
Gameplay
Black Mesa is a first-person shooter that requires the player to perform combat tasks and puzzle solving to advance through the game. The core gameplay remains unchanged from the original Half-Life; the player can carry a number of weapons that they find through the course of the game, though they must also locate ammunition for most weapons. The player's character is protected by a hazard suit that monitors the player's health and can be charged as a shield, absorbing a limited amount of damage. Health and battery packs can be found scattered through the game, as well as stations that can recharge both.
Black Mesa is a mesa in the U.S. states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. It extends from Mesa de Maya, Colorado southeasterly 28 miles (45km) along the north bank of the Cimarron River, crossing the northeast corner of New Mexico to end at the confluence of the Cimarron and Carrizo Creek near Kenton in the Oklahoma panhandle. Its highest elevation is 5,712 feet (1,741m) in Colorado. The highest point of Black Mesa within New Mexico is 5,266 feet (1,605m). In northwestern Cimarron County, Oklahoma, Black Mesa reaches 4,973 feet (1,516m), the highest point in the state of Oklahoma. The plateau that formed at the top of the mesa has been known as a "geological wonder" of North America. There is abundant wildlife in this arid prairie environment, including mountain lions, butterflies, and the Texas horned lizard.
In the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century the area was a hideout for outlaws; the notable ones who made this area their hideout were William Coe and Black Jack Ketchum. The outlaws build a fort known as the Robbers' Roost. The stone fort housed a blacksmith shop, gun ports, and a piano. The present-day Oklahoma Panhandle area, which was then considered a no man's land, lacked law enforcement agencies and hence the outlaws found it safe to hide in the region. However, as new settlers arrived in the area for copper and coal mining and also for cattle ranching activities by grazing cattle in the mesa region, law enforcement became more effective, and the outlaws were brought under control.
I've been awake for far too long 48 hours and still going strong I can't find a place my limbs belong I'm too scared to fall asleep Too scared to rest my head My dreams plague me The nightmares never leave In the night, I am the god of the world that lies before me My own will isn't strong enough To stop me from doing what cannot be done I would tear the world apart Just to watch your empire fall You can't run and you cannot hide It's not a matter of death of life We're just fighting to stay alive
It's a topic briefly covered in NoClip's documentary about Half-Life and Black Mesa, but Gamer_152 decided to take a DEEPDIVE on the "science" of Half-Life and your activities in the Black Mesa research facility!.
... Half-Life and Black Mesa, but when they say "Black Mesa" they are not just talking about the game. Read why they think there's something "special" about the environment of Black Mesa Research Facility.
10 ... It established more of the world for the series outside of the Black Mesa research facility, giving the franchise an edgier tone that was able to ask grander and more philosophical questions about evolution and fate ... Next ....
I highly recommend reading the rest of the RPS interview with Laidlaw, as the writer also talks about how they used the corridors of the first Half-Life’s Black Mesa Research Facility to tell its ...
1998’s Half-Life is one the best games ever made ...Watch. CCOffEnglish. StrayAlmostFeels Like A ModernValveGame ... The shooter starred silent protag Gordon Freeman as he goes through the worst day of his life in underground research facility Black Mesa.
He’s a physicist at the very secret and hidden Black Mesa research facility held deep underground where they’re researching brand new portal technologies.
