Is BM's Xenian Invasion Sufficiently FUBAR?

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#1

Have to say, as tight as the product is, there’s something story-wise I’m just not as convinced by as in the original - the HECU withdrawl: sure, we’re told that they’re “pulling out to commence air-strikes” and that (assuming Op4 is canon) they’re evacuated so the Black Ops can nuke the facility. But a huge part of the original was the sense that the base was being overrun by aliens, that the HECU were losing and that they needed to cut their losses and move out.

In Black Mesa’s version of events… I just don’t see it. The HECU are dominating the ground and air and the Xen aliens don’t stand a chance. I think there are two main reasons for this:

1) The mod does a fantastic job of ramping up the intensity of the player versus HECU encounters, as well as adding entirely new sequences. The same isn’t true for the alien foes.

For example, the first time you get to the surface (in “We’ve Got Hostiles”), the HECU seem to be throwing every last thing they have at you, and you have no option but to bolt into the nearest hole as quickly as possible before you’re torn apart by gunfire and shelling. HECU presence is greatly expanded in several areas, because they’ve been beautifully upscaled. Questionable Ethics includes a super-intense new ambush sequence, right where one was needed.

Conversely, Alien Grunt encounters seem to be reined in, especially ones in which you fight on even terms: considering the number of Alien Grunts you kill by hitting a big red button, by using mounted guns or just waiting for a scripted sequence, I don’t think I’d killed more than five with my own guns by the time the HECU decided to flee. Other omissions like the Tentacle in the desert further undermine the sense that the Aliens are everywhere. They’re basically outnumbered 10 to 1 by the HECU…

2) We see fewer situations where HECU soldiers fight Xen aliens.

Now, I don’t want to turn this into another “boo, they cut stuff” discussion. In fact, I pretty much love the cuts to On a Rail anyway. But it is rather unfortunate that both OaR and Surface Tension have received cuts when they’re probably the two chapters that feature the most HECU / Xen battles.

Seeing both armies face off and influencing the conclusion was a major thing in HL1 (usually via snark deployment*). Sure, we’re no longer excited by the then novelty of directly opposed AI forces, but it seems to me that we’re left in Black Mesa with an incomplete picture of the war - there are only a handful of these kinds of fights in the game now, and one of the biggest happens after the HECU state that they’re withdrawing.

In fact, by tipping the game in favour of battles with the HECU, it almost seems like they’re pulling out because Freeman is killing them all, rather than the aliens…

  • (I think perhaps the most jarring cut is when the game arms you with snarks and then puts you toe to toe with the gargantua immediately afterwards. If the game doesn’t teach players to use them immediately, my guess is that most people forget they ever picked them up)

Does anyone else feel that the HECU give up a fight that they’re clearly winning? Interested to hear if opinions vary between those who have and haven’t played the original…

#2

i totally agree… too less fights between hecu marines and aliens are shown…

and they should have cut down residue processing a lot… but thats another topic…

#3

I don’t miss the cut parts, but I do miss what happened in some of them, storytelling-wise.

I agree with you: we are told that the HECU are being overpowered and are pulling out, but we don’t really see it. We glimpse a Manta Ray once or twice and alien grunts are still there, but they don’t have the same presence as the military.

It doesn’t help that the few battles between HECU and aliens are clearly won by the HECU if you don’t meddle in them.

#4

I didn’t think that, but now that you mention it, I do. The marines are powerhouses in this (an observation there, not a criticism, fighting marines is some of the best fun I’ve had in a FPS in ages), whereas the vorts seem particularly underpowered- sure they land a quick first hit but it does relatively negligible damage. Same with grunts, except they can take a punch, granted.

Then again, the xenian invasion is ultimately thwarted by one man in a shiny suit.

One thing I did like about the slight scaling back of the aliens however was the removal of valve’s predictable random zombie trope. BM devs clearly thought much harder about where zombies could be (referring here to the fact that every half life game made by valve features random zombies under every tenth staircase or so just to add something to kill). Makes the teleportation of headcrabs seem much more deliberate and effective.

#5

I do somewhat agree with you. However in forget about freeman, you see the Manta craft warding off fighter jets, and it does feel like the aliens are taking over. However only then do I really get that feel.

A lot of the areas cut out of On A Rail are areas where you discovered slaughtered marines and you could conclude ‘Man, things got messed up in here. o.O’.

In Surface Tension, that big hanger where the Marines are under attack and get reinforced by a Bradley smashing through the wall with reinforcements? That was one of my favorite parts of Half-Life. That battle could readily go either way as well. I loved those moments in Half-Life where you could just go “Ya know? I’m gonna sit this one out and take on the winner.” In Black Mesa the only ‘great’ spot for that are the laser labs in Questionable Ethics. Heck, on the dam where a Vort chases a marine off the tower, that was removed in Black Mesa. Instead of a Marine dropping a grenade as he flees and it taking out the bridge, the bridge is hit by the Apache because… I dunno, cause it felt like it?

#6

Definitely agree.

I’ve played through and finished the original HL1 7 times and the radio message “Forget. About. Freeman.” always gave me a distinct tone of the military being under pressure and realising there’s nothing to be won by staying. That tone is very lacking in BM.

#7

I Concur. While I don’t have issue with the cut stuff from on a rail, the parts of surface tension and forget about freeman that where cut where the parts I felt led to the distinct impression that things where FUBAR. Mostly the parts were you are making your way through all the bombed out buildings. It didn’t have that feeling that the military where loosing, badly, and decided to say, Screw it, lets just turn it into a crater.

#8

Honestly, It did feel lacking to me and left me wondering WHY they pulled out. It didn’t feel like a war in black mesa, just a clean up job. It feels more like they’re pulling out because Freeman is taking them out instead of the aliens. It’s still fun, but it’s just missing chunks of story told through the environment. Much like AshleyAshes said.

It’s still done well, just needs more show to match the tell. If Environmental stories are done right, you can figure out more of what happened and create your own story of why it happened. Such as in Surface Tension the army is bringing in the big guns because the alien army is matching their own, such as tanks breaking into buildings to shoot at the Alien Grunts, tactical traps being tripped as the army tries to route them back from Black Mesa. Only to fail as more aliens teleport in, killing marines more and more forcing them to drop back out of the fight.

I will be honest, Questionable Ethics and Surface Tension though were my most favorite chapters in the original Half life, simply because the stories they told. Questionable ethics because it looked like the scientists were performing Experiments on the aliens for a while. Probably since you triggered the Resonance Cascade, or even longer. They created cages specifically meant to hold them while they performed their tests.

Surface Tension because the environment looked worn and destroyed as the HECU fought back against the invaders, meant to destroy them once and for all by trapping a building to blow up a nuke to destroy the lot of the in one go as soon as they warped in. The farther you go in surface Tension, the more you see the HECU morale is running low. They’ve fought, and they’re losing.

That said, What the black Mesa team has done with those two chapters. I like the the jets bombing the black Mesa facility, it was a nice touch and it makes you think “Wow, I was there…that could have been me.” A little more could have been done though to show you the army is tired of fighting. Like Jets getting knocked out of the sky, tanks getting bombed by the aliens, Soldiers getting flanked. Motars dropping from the sky despite any units in the area that may get killed. To show you the soldiers are getting desperate.

#9

Now that you said it - I do feel like that. Thanks for fubaring my experience.

#10

This is a big reason why I rank Half Life 1 slightly better than Black Mesa. The fact that by the time you come up to the surface the second time you should be seeing more dead soldiers and fewer and fewer alive ones. But yet their still throwing 4+ soldiers at you and you are encountering very few Xenian life. While I really loved OAR from the orignals, I dont think it in it orignal form would have worked as good in this style of build. But they could have built some Xenian vs Marine encounters. I am still trying to figure out where are these new areas that was to have been added. I encountered minor additional areas in the form of rooms but nothing in my opinion to write home about. Ive seen more cut from the orignal than additional new content added.

But while I feel that way I still have to say I enjoyed the game and plan on playing it multiple times trying new routes and new tactics.

#11

I was also puzzled by the heliport battle with the manual loading TOW launcher. Originally this was a howitzer, you blew open the doors and alien grunts came out, just like the alien grunts that engaged the marines on the helipad before you took out the Osprey. Heck, if you went to open the doors back to the alley between the two buildings, an agrunt would pop out of there. Really felt like the aliens were there in force. Meanwhile in black mesa, only the initial agrunts are there and when you blast open that door, a tank comes crawling it. It makes it feel like the military is the force to be reckoned with rather than the aliens.

And ya know what? An Abrams getting messed up by the Xen aliens somehow? That woulda been an awesome sight to see. Maybe a Manta coulda flown down over it and blasted it with that down fireing beam it has? That’d have made you go ‘Oh SHIT… :O’ when you watched it.

#12

I agree very much. I just don’t see the HECU getting overwhelmed.

According to OnboardError, one of the reasons why many of those Surface Tension scenes got cut was because one of their mappers quit halfway through the project, so they had to cut everything between the vent-shooting and the Garg chase due to manpower/time constraints.

#13

That sucks…

#14

Popping in to voice the same. After finishing the mod today and mulling over it for a while; I pretty much came to same issue. I did love the new additions such as the airstrike you see from the cliff side and the Manta/Harrier dogfight overhead before you enter the Lambda tunnels, but the lack of most of the original ones just seems like to me that, like Xen, Surface Tension and Forget About Freeman is unfinished as well in some way, especially since with the early levels like Office Complex or Unforeseen Consequences, where you had all the recognizable events from the original game and plenty of new ones, and even with Questionable Ethics just before ST that has TONS more depth to it than the original.

If I’m right, and the stuff we’re missing is sitting there in some form, it might not be too farfetched that when Xen comes along we may see a more complete Black Mesa Warzone experience come with it.

(And on a slightly related note, does anyone miss the VoX announcement system as much as I do? After the accident, it just…shuts up. Hell I forget it even existed until WGH when it suddenly goes off and it gets that badass military control voice, I hoped then we’d start to hear it more but outside of the rocket launch, that too never comes up again. I don’t know about anyone else, but I liked the occasional reports it gave you about random events happening elsewhere in the facility in HL1. Hearing about a Security team needing help or the Military threatening to kill every Scientist unless you surrender just helped push on the player that things were just getting worse and worse. Not just for you, but for everyone.)

Edit:

And I guess I was right then. I hope someone can take up whatever work’s there and finish it so it can come with the Xen update then. Although to be honest, I really loved how the vent shooting and the Garg chase just came in on top of each other, that really got an out-loud “Oh shit!” out of me.

#15

Actually I find that scene where you get out to the surface for last time before entering Lambda core epic. You see the skies full of planes and Xen mantarays, and the downed Osprey, and compare it to when the HECU first arrived, where they had everything under control. Then you’ll see some HECU troops being killed by snarks. I mean, they’re the USMC, not the Red Army during World War II. They won’t let their soldiers die, they will try to mantain them safe. So when they see there’s no chance to win without a lot of deaths, they just withdraw and let the airstrike start.

#16

I really got the feeling of total FUBAR right as I surfaced from the sewers (after going through the grinding gears and s tuff?), and you see jets and manta fliers all over, explosions, burning buildings, that was great. More staged xenian-army fights beyond player reach might have added a bit more to the feeling… But I didn’t mind too much.

(Talking about the same scene as the guy above me, lolninja)

#17

I agree with this thread.

I just wish that they still had many of the big SUDDENLY ALIENS! encounters. I remember in the original, especially in lambda core, when you turned on each generator the room would flood with alien slaves and alien grunts. Now instead we see about 5 enemies spawning in.

I am for doubling the spawn number of aliens, there really isn’t enough in the game. Also doubling the number of alien vs hecu encounters, and the aliens should win at least a few

#18

Hopefully a level designer comes on the boat to add some of the removed parts, mostly the iconic ones and affecting story/immersion.
But I doubt that… if so, sounds like 1-2 more years.

#19

Though with the complaints about the HECU not getting messed up, props to the devs for making Black Mesa messed up. I loved the first two levels after the cascade. They ramped up the ‘Survival Horror’ feel of both levels. You saw offices full of gore, zombies bashing their heads into windows, everything broken, and even those ‘little details’ like fresh styrofoam coffee cups still on their desks while blood trails lead out of the office? That had a great feel. That did nothing but make me feel “Something has gone horribly, horribly wrong here, and no one was ready for it when it happened.”

#20

I didn’t feel that way, to be honest. There was a massive air battle before you get to the Lambda Complex (which I saved directly before entering) and it seemed that the Xenian Mantas were dominating the skies. It does feel like a war (to me) going on with the Xenians winning. I haven’t explored the Lambda Complex yet but I do feel that the HECU are cutting their losses (especially with the dead HECU bodies you come across) and commencing airstrikes instead.

Just my $0.02.

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.