The Resonance Cascade

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#1

This has probably been brought up sporadically in other different threads since the mod’s release, but I just want to congratulate the Black Mesa Devs for making the Resonance Cascade one of the scariest game moments ever. The original Half-Life did a pretty good job detailing the destruction and chaos going on. However, because of age, it has no longer had as much of an impact. Black Mesa’s resonance cascade is terrifying. Even the different effects and situations at ground zero sent chills down my spine. The test beam looked incredibly menacing, bathed the room in an unsettling light, and really made me fear dropping the borderworld sample in it. After finally crawling out of that hole, I got to see all the instantaneous death and collapse around me. All these normal, carefree scientists and researchers were suddenly no more. The headcrab zombies were much more terrifying, including the guard model with the hanging jaw :sick: , and the voicework was horrifyingly great. It perfectly captures the suffering and pain that the hosts supposedly endure, and sounds much more realistic than the “drunken college bro with a busted jaw” noises the HL2 zombies made.

What makes the Resonance Cascade scarier is that you’re weaponless for a good chunk of the disaster. The crowbar and pistol item drops don’t occur where they did in the original, so having a guard protect/escort me while I tried to escape was such a welcome addition to the game, and having to split up with him was kind of sad.

But the scariest moment HAD to be the elevator scene. I remember that scene well in Half-Life, but it was more comical than anything. Gordon calls the elevator and it falls, scientists included, to the bottom before their gibs fly up like it’s a trampoline. In Black Mesa, there are a few male and female researchers and a guard in the elevator, panicking and trying to get out. Then you flip the switch, the elevator shakes, and the guard says “SHIT!” before the elevator careens down to the bottom and is shattered, killing them all. That scene was incredibly terrifying.

Overall, great job with the mod. The attention to detail is astounding and, dare I say, better than Valve’s, and the mod is both innovative and fresh while still very respectful to the original game.

What did you guys think of Black Mesa’s Resonance Cascade? Better than HL’s? Worse? I know I had a nerdgasm when I encountered Kleiner and Eli. The voices, models and even the animations were REALLY spot on.

#2

I must say that indeed the Black Mesa Resonance Cascade was indeed better. This comes from a number of reasons.

  1. The greater sense of realism: Visual-Auditory-Human Interaction.
  2. A greater sense of world building.
  3. A sense of creeping unease.

As a gamer and screenwriter I can tell you that you need to grab the viewer/gamer early (in screenwriting within the first 10 pages/minutes of the script. Black Mesa does this in spades bringing Inbound to life in ways that I hadn’t expected.

You could if you so chose spend over an hour just talking with every scientist in Anomalous Materials- adding immense depth and gravity to the situation.

I’ll also note that from a level design perspective we kept going down, through new rooms, redesigned rooms, hallways- the lighting got more and more dramatic and the danger level amplified the closer we got to the test chamber. All these scientists you had chatted to were about to have a really bad day- all because of a simple test.

The Anti-Mass Spectrometer is like a huge alien creature- and it’s much more grounded and realistic in its design. Once you flip on that switch once again the sounds, the scientist chatter, the buildup through the emmiter stages. Builds right up to the arrival of the specimine.

It’s perfectly balanced. The sounds- your racing pulse- I was afraid to push the cart into the Anti-Mass Spectrometer. But of course eventually we did.

And then everything falls apart in a hurry- but even the destruction builds nicely. The sound design is fantastic- the groans- rumbles- compressed air escaping- electrical crackles. Joel Nielsen you should get an award.

With every bang- every explosion- I was cringing and ducking.

This is Resonance Cascade is like a bad nightmare that’s so spectacularly good in 7.0 Surround Sound.

#3

Kleiner and Vance were great details. Helps it meld into the Half-Life universe as if it was an official addition. I’m going to nitpick here, but Kleiner and Eli’s voices were a tad off. They were great, but not perfect, although that wasn’t expected. Kleiner was a tad too high and Eli sounded like guy trying to be Eli, if you know what I mean. But that’s just being a bastard, they were damn good voiced and wonderful acting.

The RC itself was amazing. Ineffable. All of the original dialogue sounding mostly spot-on. Nielson did an amazing job with the sound effects. That terrifying roar when shit hits the fan… Particle effects, the test chamber itself, the freaking anti-mass spectrometer, nothing could have been more perfect, there
The after effects were great. Shit blowing up, people panicking, wonderful.

I know quite a few people were pretty pissed at this, but I loved how the crowbar was moved. Everyone complains that they thought they might have missed it and that the change through veterans off, but would you really expect the developers to not count in a detail like that? When I noticed it wasn’t there and that the windows were already shattered I immediately smiled with joy in that this game was definitely going to have some surprises that’ll keep me from playing it exactly as I would Half-Life. Relying on the (now very human) security officers was a welcome change. I didn’t feel like Gordon Freeman the alien fighting badass, I felt like Gordon Freeman, Ph.D, degree in theoretical physics and oh my god it’s chasing me.

The scene where the scientist kills a headcrab then the tables turn. Seeing him so pissed, then his moment of victory followed immediately by death, then attacked from behind myself was so much.
Probably my favorite part of this though was the extension of UC. Brilliant. “Oh, some new labs. Elevator. I wonder if there’s any supplies in there. Okay, let’s jump ou-… wait, no I’m not out!”
It explained the sudden change of environment really well. And I’ve already typed so much I should probably stop.

TL;DR It was great.

#4

I absolutely think the BM Resonance cascade was superior, I really did feel like the world was crashing down around me.

It made me feel just like I did in ´98 when I first played Half Life, and I thought I’d never get that feeling again. The only thing I can disagree with is the voice of Eli, Kleiner was spot on, but Eli Vance left a lot to be desired. Not to say that it was bad, by no means, it was just to different from HL2 and episodes to convince me.

Edit

Also, Hey Ross!

#5

I love the resonance cascade and the anti-mass spectrometer. The whole sequence is aces. About the only thing I miss is they cut out a random location Xen teleportation sequence. I heard a developer say it served no purpose so they just left in a dark cave with Vorts, but I hope this makes it back with the addition of Xen.

To me, the Resonance Cascade teleporting is crucial, because it introduces disturbing, strange, unusual imagery into a setting that, up to that point, had felt safe, routine and almost mundane. It’s like the age-old game Another World, in which the protagonist is sitting on his desk one moment, sipping coffee then ZAP! He’s in another world, drowning in water. He swims up only to find an alien landscape and be chased by shadow monsters and kidnapped by slaver aliens. It’s that feeling of being wrenched out of normalcy and thrown in the middle of a raging nightmare that really adds to the experience.

It’s not just a sign that “shit just got real,” it’s a little glimpse of chaos and irrationality to really punctuate the mood.

I should point out that Half-Life 2 also used such a sequence, but in a very different way. There, Gordon was thrown around the world both to see what has become of Earth and to have a major plot point dumped on him by Breen. There’s it’s less about emotional impact and more about plot set-up. In Half-Life, however, emotional impact is exactly what it’s about. The Xen transitions don’t serve to scare, they serve to confuse, and cutting them down to just the dark cave kind of misses that point.

Don’t get me wrong, the Resonance Cascade was amazing. I just honestly thought we’d see more Xen transitions, not fewer.

#6

That moment where you step out of the test chamber and see the scientist trying to revive the guard, and the black mesa theme kicks in. That was some emotional stuff.

#7

I felt the teleporting in and out was lacking a bit, but otherwise it was spot on. :smiley:

#8

I’ve been disappointed when I saw that the only place where I was teleported was around few vortigunts, but no teleportation in Xen (understandable since isn’t done already) and no grunts, despite of what we’ve seen in HL. That said, I was utterly amazed, 100% loyal to HL: dialogues and everything. Anway… as I said in other places: I’ll wait to have completed BM before to write a review.

#9

Ram said something about intentionally shortening the teleportation sequence to avoid spoiling too much of the design direction for Xen. Let’s hope those sequences are added back in with the Xen patch. I’d replay the whole mod for that.

Unforeseen Consequences is probably my favorite part of BM.

#10

Makes sense, I too hope it gets patched, there is a lot they could do with that section.

I also really enjoyed the new dynamic to UC, the whole not getting a weapon right away and actually having to rely on good ole Barney. One thing that’s been getting to me lately though, isn’t it really unsafe to have a bunch of road flares indoors? Also, where were they pre-cascade? When you think about it, its kinda a really dumb idea… but the gameplay is fun, so I’ll let it go.

#11

Technically speaking I’m not so sure they’re meant to be flares but more like Emergency Candles.

However whatever they are it’s possible that they were removed from storage by the scientists who were then overcome by headcrabs so were left in the open for you to use.

It makes some kind of sense and is a relatively quick logical fix.

#12

Well whatever they are they’re extremely flammable, as evidenced by the fact that they will light a zombie on fire in seconds. Still would be silly in real life, but ah well, we’re way past reality here. Plus, when they set of the sprinklers in Office Complex that was one of the coolest moments for me, so I really can’t complain, lol.

#13

I was slightly disappointed with the lack of teleporting, especially the one where you’re dropped into water - that one was iconic as the scariest for me in the original. Other than that I concur, a fantastic sequence and chapter as a whole.

#14

I hope they add that back in when they’re done with Xen. See, the thing is that you get a Xen spoiler right at the start of the game when you have no idea what it is or what to look for, and it’s very short, making it overwhelming. Then you get NOTHING for the entire rest of the game right up until the final jump to Xen. Having seen glimpses of it, I believe, helps build up the apprehension of going to an unknown alien world.

To a large extent, I believe “hating” Xen is good thing. It’s an alien landscape full of incomprehensible physics and populated with hostile aliens. It’s supposed to be confusing and unpleasant. It adds to the atmosphere.

By this point, I’ve replayed Half-Life enough times to know Xen by heart, so it no longer scares me and… Honestly, that kind of makes it less interesting and a little more tedious. But as a first-time experience? Yeah, that first teleport to the Bullsquid lake scared the crap out of me :slight_smile:

They’re the exact same flares as found in Episode 1 in the zombie elevator darkness fight, they’re highly flammable and last a very short time. I’m thinking they’re flares the scientists dug out of storage to deal with the loss of power.

#15

I really liked the additions they made to ‘Resonance Cascade’ adding Kleiner and Eli was a nice touch with the whole dialog plus having that headcrab beam in and Kleiner heading for it, nice touch. The elevator sequence was very nicely done too, and a few other little tidbits like that scrap between the scientist and the headcrab. I also really liked the little extra paths\work added to first accessing the pipes you need to flood and getting into that control room to turn on power before you can ride the platform down… and of course the general level design throughout is spectacular.

The addition of the flares is nice, but I dont really like how it was implemented, just floating there in space in front of you. IMO should have just fully implemented it as a new weapon with proper animations with Gordon hand and all, plus have to ability to carry a bunch with you.

I also liked the little extra platforming added to the part where you have to get past the walkway that gets destroyed… but the destruction itself is slightly poorly timed, you miss the whole sequence if you just happen to not be looking in the right direction. I would delay the Houndeye beam in just a little so the player is closer to the action.

I do as usual have a few nitpicks. The vibration effect during the resonance scan is excessive (I dont know if the devs have any contol over that) its perfect when things go wrong during the cascade but prior to inserting the sample it feels to heavy, same with the huge generater in Lambda Core. If its possible to half the effect (before things go bad) I think it would feel much better and add to the effect when things go bad. Also I dont think those rotating alarm lights on the ceilings put out enough light, they are barely noticeable and considering they are a part of the whole ‘emergency atmosphere’ I belive them being more prominent would have a very nice effect.

Another thing, I really think there should be a little more action, far too many times throughout the game it’s just empty room after empty room. A few more headcrabs and houndeyes beaming in the latter stages of the chapter would be nice, particularly that large cavern just after the collapsed bridge section. Its nice and populated when viewed from up top, but a couple well placed shots and everything is dead. You go down and the place is vacant and you’re loaded with ammo and health because theres been nothing prior to that to challenge you. Having a bunch of houndeyes for example beaming in when you jump in the water or something like that would be sweet. IMO I see the headcrabs as the first wave in the invasion, used to take out personnel and disrupt the place before the main force beams in… ther should be IMO extra headcrab beamins and taken over zombies throughout the early levels.

Oh and BTW your first teleport during the cascade is into water, you just dont see anything, but you can hear your in water.

#16

Can I just thank the devs for getting rid of my biggest nitpick of HL1? The Anti-Mass Spectrometer having floating parts. You connected them to keep the look of a real working machine. I was happy. :smiley:

#17

And they let them float after the cascade for them to be consistent with HL2. :slight_smile:

#18

In HL, post-cascade, I said “I broke everything. Oh well, to the exit”. In Black Mesa, it was more like “What have I done?” Then it was “To the exit.”

#19

Hah. When I first turned on the machine, I noticed the arms extending out and I said to myself, “wow, all the old HL fans will be pissed that there are arms. Oh well.”

And then the stage 2 emitters turned on and the arms let go and the barrel things started floating. IT MADE SENSE. :smiley:

#20

Damnnit really?? I never noticed that! :fffuuu:

I always thought that they floated at all was crappy. I’d be more inclined to change the scene in HL2! :stuck_out_tongue:

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.