Emphasis on the Rocket Launch

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#1

So I just finished playing through Black Mesa, started playing about 4 days ago. So I thought I’d give some of my thoughts.

AWESOME!!

Honestly, this has to be the best mod I have ever played in my life. To be honest I never actually played Half Life before this just read up about it but Black Mesa hooked its teeth into me pretty good. :smiley:

Now this being the internet and all negativity I feel like I should list just a few issues I have, but remember I’m not complaining as I adore the game but I feel a few things could still be addressed.

  1. The rocket you fire at the end of On a Rail, I feel that why you’re setting off this rocket should be explained more. Because while I was setting it off I just kept wondering “Why am I doing this? Whats the point of this? Whats on that rocket?” it wasn’t until later that I found out that there was a satellite on the rocket that some scientists tried to get into orbit but failed that would halt and reverse the Resonance Cascade. I found that out by going to the wiki. Was this ever explained at all in game? I feel like there should be more explanation on this.

  2. By the time of the chapters Surface Tension and Forget about Freeman the HECU are losing the battle against the aliens forcing the military to pull back and start heavy artillery strikes on Black Mesa. However in the mod I feel this also isnt shown well, in the few times you see the aliens fighting the military the military always seems to come out on top and that Gordon is the only thing really standing in their way. I feel that in the full release this should also be tweaked a bit where you really see more of how the HECU are getting pounded and destroyed against the alien forces. In the beginning when you first meet them in We’ve got Hostiles! they are winning the fight, slaughtering any Black Mesa personal they see and containing the aliens and slowly through the chapters you see them get pushed back more and more due to both Freeman and the aliens and by the events of Surface Tension they are losing the fight. You just don’t really see that.

  3. At the end of Lambda Core they tell you that some creature on Xen is keeping the dimensional rip open and that Gordon has to go to Xen and kill it. So obviously the rocket you sent up into orbit a day earlier didn’t work but they never even mention the rocket. I feel that they should at least mention it in passing like “Unfortunately the satellite you sent up yesterday failed to close the dimensional rip but we still have one solution, we have discovered that a creature …blah blah blah” See? Simple and it addresses it.

Really just a few minor things but fantastic game nonetheless :smiley:

Can’t wait for the full release with Xen and the rest of the chapters! Hope it doesn’t take too long.

#2

Alot of the issues you stated were explained in the mod and you must not have heard them, and playing the original would have helped you learn more about everything. Unfortunately you get a better feel when you have been through the original and thats my opinion :slight_smile: . And this was a recreation/re-imagining of half-life the developers wanted to keep everything very similar to not break the half-life feel so added sequences were not in their best interest to do, we can only assume that the soldiers were not prepared for a full fledged alien invasion and were trained more to kill humans and in the end died off due to large swarms and huge assed aliens such as the gargantua!

#3

Where is it explained that the HECU are kicking the aliens’ asses in every single firefight and are still retreating in spite of that?

#4

I didn’t i referred to his post and answered . He noticed that they seemed to be on top of things at the beginning and now they aren’t and i wanted to explain to him why in a purely hypothetical scenario and gave a reason why its not shown more in depth.

#5

Actually what I meant in my post was the marines being on top and then slowly losing is what it SHOULD have been but instead we got the marines being on top and never losing which is not how it should be.

#6

Exactly my thoughts. I’m in Forget About Freeman, and the last marine battle there is still a marine victory in no time.

#7

I had hoped they would emphasize the importance of the rocket launch, but unfortunately they did not. It was explained in passing both in the original and Black Mesa, and by an ignorant security guard no less. As it does happen with other things in the game, the dialogue should be expanded: we should get a deeper explanation of the rockets purpose before the launch by a surviving scientist, maybe in the control room itself, and maybe a comment on it once we arrive at the Lambda teleporter.

Also, they could add or change a few scripted sequences so that the Aliens start coming up on top against the marines. It looks as if Freeman is the sole reason they are pulling out. In the original this was partly true, too (“Forget about Freeman!” is the name of a whole chapter after all), but you could see that the HECU were losing the battle.

#8

I was so pumped when I saw that the Black Mesa devs had obviously emphasized the Rocket Launch. The explanation by the security guard was as lackluster as in the original Half-Life, but it’s supposed to be that way: he’s a security guard, not a scientist.

So then you spend much of On A Rail getting the rocket in its place. Great puzzle, and it hypes up the launch itself. But… I expected some more explanation about what the rocket does. The rest of the dialogue has been greatly expanded, giving everything a greater context. So… why don’t you, for example, find a barely surviving scientist right before the launch, in the control room itself? He could give you a more detailed explanation of why you’re doing it. Or at least the people at the Lambda teleporter should react to the fact that you had launched the rocket earlier that night, right?

I dunno. It was something that always bothered my in the original Half-Life and it was a teensy bit disappointing that it wasn’t fixed by expanding it a little.

That was my only problem with the mod, to be honest. Apart from that, I’d just love to see a more talkative VOX system, and Ram has confirmed it will be there in future patches, and a more clear vision of the fact that the HECU are losing against the Aliens, which is something everyone seems to agree on so they will hopefully add a few new scripted sequences or change the outcome of some already existing ones.

#9

We don’t know what the rocket does, and messing with canon is generally not a good idea when you have no eyes on the story bible. Half-Life 2: Episode 2 makes a big point of launching what I assume to be a similar rocket, so trying to “explain” what the satellite does is dangerous.

Plus… Honestly, Half-Life does a great job of saying so much by saying nothing at all, and the atmosphere of the game is richer for it. You don’t get sat down while you have the plot narrated to you, you basically have characters dropping hints and allusions to give the story context without explaining things.

To me, Barney saying “Hey, the boys at the Lambda Complex said you need to launch some kind of rocket. The guy didn’t tell me what for, but if it’s important to them, you gotta’ do it.” I honestly prefer that kind of narrative. We’re four games into the series now and we know so much, yet at the same time know so little, which makes the mystery that much more interesting.

In short, I’d rather have the Matrix, rather than its two sequels.

#10

I think they did a far better job explaining the rocket than in the original. I had no idea what the hell was happening. Suddenly I was launching a rocket…for some reason.
At least in this version they made it clear that it was important for the Lamda guys in order to ‘clean up’ the mess.

Of course, for all we know, it could actually have been this rocket launch which enabled the portal storms!

#11

Good point about the intended ambiguity. But at least a reaction from the Lambda team would be nice :wink:

#12

Well the chapter title makes sense, forget about Freeman as in the military has far more urgent matters than Gordon.

I’m REALLY hoping these things are fixed when Xen and the other chapters come out and its all one big nice package.

#13

Didn’t they? I seem to recall the scientist who opens the small door after the huge fight with several alien grunts (beginning of Lambda Core) mentions the rocket.

#14

Gordon was asked to send the rocket to space to serve as a satellite in closing the portal but they can’t close it because the Nihilianth is keeping it open so in Lambda Core, the Lambda Team asked Gordon to kill the being.

#15

I know that, obviously. It’s just that the game doesn’t explain it very well, if at all. We get a single sentence from a security guard who does not know what’s happening, and then, as far as I remember, nothing. Maybe the scientist who opens you the door to the Lambda Complex says something, but I’m pretty sure it’s nothing concrete.

I’m not asking for an overly-scientific explanation. But something more than “it’s to clean up this mess” would be wonderful, and some recognition for launching the rocket at the end, at the Lambda teleporter, would be nice too.

#16

Yeah - I looked around for the storylines online, and it seems that satellites can close portals - like the one in Episode 2. So this’ll be the first attempt to close a portal by satellite, but of course it fails due to Nihilianth.

#17

Yeah, the rocket should’ve been enough but “something big” is holding the portal open. We get that much, by the scientists at the Lambda teleporter. But it’d be nice to know that before launching the rocket itself, and maybe some “hey, thanks for the rocket launch” after.

#18

You can see during “Forget About Freeman” chapter. When you exit the facility there’s a huge war going on, and they’re retreating via Vtols.

#19

There is only two real major fights between the HESU and Xenian forces, one near the end of Surface tension before the tank and TOW missile part and another near the end of Forget about Freeman. In both cases the HESU won and decimated all Xenian forces.

EDIT: Actually I remember two more now, one where you first see a manta ray fly by and a small army of alien grunts show up…only to be bombed and killed by the HESU and then another time with a tank, marines, and alien grunts in a parking garage and the HESU won that too.

#20

HECU: Hazardous Environment Combat Unit please.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.