[Opinion/Advices]About tentacle backtracking...

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#1

Spoiler Alert: discussion about blast pit gameplay

Intro

I’ve just obliterated the tentacle monster and so far black mesa has been awesome, because above all, shares with half-life 2 the total immersion of the player in the game world.

About Backtracking

I’ve never played at half-life so I didn’t know how to get rid of tentacle.
It took a while to realize what to do and the backtracking didn’t help.

Last FPS with backtracking I played has been Bioshock and I didn’t love that part of gameplay.
Backtracking is not so common in recent fps games(there wasn’t in half-life 2) and I guess I am not the only one who felt lost in this part of game.

I didn’t see that there were 2 door in tentacle room and after switching on the engine I didn’t know what to do.

I had to watch on youtube a half-life walkthrought to realize how to continue.

Advices

1- You should add more scripting or npc to help you to understand what to do.
2- Add something that helps to spot the 2 doors(green lights,panels or other)

I hope we can have an intresting discussion in this post about this matter…

#2

You’re lucky, blast pit was much more complicated in the original half life, my first attempt to clear the stage in HL1 probably took 2-3 hours.

Half life has never been a game that holds your hand and tells you how to do things, it makes you use your brain and that’s why it’s better than everything else.

#3

The issue is that Blast pit path is completely different from the previous chapters:
you just don’t know what to do.

#4

The security guard you meet right after the tentacle kills that scientist tells you what the plan is, doesn’t he?

#5

It’s been a long time since I played half-life, and, as much as I enjoyed the original experience, I’ve been putting off playing it again as I wanted the BM experience to be a fresher experience and somewhat more immersive as a result. Which it indeed has been so far, awesome infact.

I personally like the backtracking, atleast the way that half-life implemented it, and BM by extension.
It’s something that draws me in because it gives a sense of persistence in location and environment that just doesn’t come from the modern “on rails” games which constantly move you forward from one spot to the next like a movie script.
Setting the scene in the first encounter, such as the tentacle, establishing the goal and branching out on sub-tasks really keeps you focused on the mission at hand. The anticipation ramps up as you accomplish the sub-tasks and return to the primary location, tables are turned, opening up a can of whoop-ass, there really is nothing like it :slight_smile:
And this is just one example of how groundbreaking half-life was, other developers still haven’t recognized half of the great mechanics this game brought to the table.

As for understanding what to do in the tentacle scene, I think the security guard sheds some light on it, but I had also remembered this from the original half-life, so I was familiar with the sequence. But that is also part of the appeal. Working out what is required for a given puzzle/scenerio, without the destructive hand-holding that is so prevalent these days, makes it so much more rewarding, atleast for me, when it clicks and you understand what to do.:slight_smile:

#6

nope. he doesn’t say that you have to switch on the engine and open the valves.

#7

I didn’t see that there were 2 doors in tentacle room and they’re not so easy to spot, because the only thing you’re focused on is to flee from that bad-ass monster.

I spotted only the ground floor door(engine) but I didn’t see the other (Fan).

#8

back in '98 we had to figure it out for ourselves too. one of the things about HL1 gameplay is there’s a lot of trial and error involved. there will be more backtracking coming up so it might be something you’ll have to adjust to. don’t rush and pay attention to the environment and you should be ok.

#9

Half-Life is as much about exploring and observing than it is about running and shooting. The first room you come into, where you are also introduced to the tentacle, is the control room. Through the window you see a big rocket engine and a button “test fire”. When you press it, it doesn’t work. There are two status indicators, for “Power” and “Fuel”, both are “Off”. This gives you a clue about what to do.

When you turn on the power, the logical thing to do next is to try the test fire again. It still doesn’t work, and you see the control panel say something about there still being no fuel.

I’d suggest it’s not that the path isn’t laid out clearly enough, but that it’s that you’re not used to games requiring you to do some puzzling/figuring out. :slight_smile:

#10

I believe the problem is that the Devs assumed everyone knows how Half-Life is played, which of course most people do. But for someone who hasn’t, some areas are very confusing.
In the original, it was easier to figure out what to do because buttons were huge, and there were so many huge signs and such that pretty much screamed in your face what to do.
In Black Mesa, things are much more detailed, to such an extent that alot of detail is missed. Such as buttons.
I however loved it! I hate it when a game tells you what to do. In Half Life you’re a theoretical physicist in a huge science lab, and it’s up to you to figure out how to get out! Being part of the fun for me.

#11

The new Blast Pit actually IS a lot more unclear about what you need to do than the old one, and that’s down to the design of the console. I went in knowing what I had to do and I still couldn’t figure out where on the console it suggested I do that.

For the curious: To kill the Blast Pit monster, you need to enable the Oxygen and Fuel pipelines (located in the same room) and turn on the power (located in another). In the original, you had three bright lights with signs above them saying “Power,” “Oxy” and “Fuel.” Here, I spotted the “oxygen” and “fuel” signs, but I could never find a sign for power. Considering how much console clutter there is in Black Mesa (that’s natural, the consoles are much more detailed) it’s just hard to pick out what’s important and what isn’t.

The other problem is that the tentacles are much harder to fool in Black Mesa, so you don’t get nearly as much of a chance to look around. In the original, you could toss a grenade, crouch-walk to a spot and duck there for several minutes without worrying the tentacles would find you, but here, it seems like they always know where I am and duck-walking has no effect. If I stand around for more than a few seconds, they ignore the grenade and come after ME.

Also, before you used to be able to temp-kill them. Shotgun one of those tentacles and it slithers back into the hole, then stays there for a good 10 seconds. Now, they’re basically immortal.

I get that the thing was made much more challenging (and, as a result, much more annoying), but this CAN blind players to where they need to go.

#12

I thought for the most part press-able buttons were extremely easily recognizable in BM, though I do agree the tentacles should recede from at least a grenade down the hole.

#13

Actually they made it easier by allowing you to jump down to the lowest level where you jump over on the the middle level because the ceiling fell down on the catwalk.
You can jump down to the lower catwalk and continue.

This was the first thing I saw and I was like, hey. Nice, I don’t have to face the tentacles again when I come back from the fan thingy!

#14

The monster simply distracts you because you are only focused on how to get out
you do not have time to look around.

I’m not suggesting to change the tentacle AI,
just make more understandable what to do and,above all,
put something near the doors the help you to see that there are 2 way out from the blast pit.

#15

No, but it’s pretty clear that you need to activate the power and fuel, and that the valves and the generator are how you activate the fuel and power. It’s not that complicated.

#16

It’s a typical Half-Life moment where patrons of more modern shooters literally have no idea what to do. If you actually look around in the control room, it’s blatantly obvious that Oxygen, Fuel and Power are required to test-launch the rocket. And yeah, the security guard, and all the scientists along the way tell you pretty much what to do. I found it pretty straight-forward in the original game and I have no problem with it in Black Mesa - if anything it’s more clear what you need to do.

As for the difficulty of actually getting past the tentacles, however, that is a completely different story. Even on easy, the tentacles are maybe a 2-3 hit kill with decent suit power, and throwing grenades does pretty much nothing, even if you’re crouch-walking. In addition to that, actually getting your crowbar out to break down the barriers of each door is a royal pain in the ass.

The strategy I’ve devised is pretty much to first throw grenades at the wooden barriers before you reach them in order to blow them up easily, and then throw more grenades to either the very bottom or very top floors, so that when you do start making your way over to the door, they have to change multiple layers to get to you, which can give you vital seconds to run away. Following that, you can access the bottom floor passage from the middle floor passage by just falling down the hole at the right angle which can solve a little grief.

But yeah, the tentacles are immune to any kind of attack and grenades will only distract them for a couple of seconds before they find you again, even if you’re crouching. Even on easy, it’s almost impossible to get through this section without taking damage. Which I could do with ease in the original.

#17

^Yup.

And there’s a reason as to why you are FEEDED with grenades laying everywhere in this chapter!

I’d say its easy to get through without loosing hit points.
For me, in every case you distract someone, you must act QUICK in order to sneak by undetected.
If you’re trying to take someones wallet (pocket thief) you don’t distract and go slow, you distract and go like lightning.
Same goes, distract and run like bloody hell to the door.
Also, one easy spot to not get attacked is the ladders!

#18

What I always do is make sure that I throw one of my grenades at the door before I get there so that it’ll break the planks.

#19

SomeONE, not someTHING. In the original, the Blast Pit monster was supposed to be blind, hence why it hones in on sound. It’s also, I believe, why it’s often heard wailing, which it doesn’t do in Black Mesa. It’s supposed to be one of those creatures you CAN sneak past if you keep quiet, but this seems to have gone completely out the door in the remake. Apparently, now they can still see, just not very well.

I liked having them blind, because it explains why they bang on the walls so much - they attack anything that makes a noise, so they’re flailing blindly.

#20

Or maybe their way of locating sounds have been improved with better use of AI. I agree that they do not act the same as they did in Half-life, and yes its a shame you can’t sneak past by them. But the rushing method was always my appoach anyway. Because frankly, they scare me. I don’t want to be in the same room as this creature for a long time.

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.