Overview
this guide will tell you the backstory of black mesa and storyline of half life, opposing force and blue shift and may have some spoilers alert
the backstory
It all started in Black Mesa, a teleportation ressearch facility in new mexico competing on another teleportation ressearch facility called Aperture, who are experimenting a teleportation system with the help of some known scientist, featuring Dr. Rosenberg, a scientist who participated in the early teleportation experiences, the well known theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman, who holds a Ph.D. from MIT., the administrator of the facillity, Dr. Wallace Breen, Dr. Magnussum, Dr. Isaac Kleiner and Dr. Eli Vance.
the story line
Dr. Gordon Freeman arrives late for work at 8:47 am in the Black Mesa Research Facility, using the advanced Black Mesa train system that leads through the facility. Meanwhile, Barney Calhoun, a young security officer, is also being late at work and arrive at his shift slightly before Gordon’s tram started to move, but unfortunately found stuck pounding at a locked door for security system problem through the facility. Later, Mr. Freeman arrives at the Anomalous Materials Lab, his work place, and is informed by the security officer that the scientists have a special experiment today, so he goes to the locker room and puts on the hazard suit. He goes to the lab’s lower levels, arriving at the Anti-Mass Chamber, where he is instructed that the specimen to be used that day is the rarest and also the most unstable specimen the lab has ever worked with. He is tasked with pushing the specimen into the scanning beam of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer for analysis. However, as soon as the specimen enters the beam, the spectrometer explodes, creating a sudden catastrophe called a “resonance cascade”. Gordon is being stuck in the test chamber as he get teleported at random places from the Xen Planet, such as a pool with 2 bullsquids drinking it and a dark place with vortigaunts around him, this happen at the same moment as Barney was going to fix a broken elevator for 2 scientists pis sed off about their bad days then suddenly see Xen aliens popping out of nowhere and finally the elevator fall straight down and crash on one of the undergrounds floors, with the scientists dead and Calhoun surviving the crash. As for corporal Adrian Shephard, his squad arrived hours after the resonance cascade, but didn’t get the orders of killing the Black Mesa staff, as the helicopter crashed before the commander had time to tell the squad the orders
Freeman wake up in the ruined test chamber after teleporting twice in dimension xen, strewn with the bodies of scientists and security personnel. Finding survivors, Freeman learns that communication to the outside is completely cut and is encouraged to head to the surface for help because of the protection afforded by his suit. His journey consists of sidestepping Black Mesa’s structural damage and defending himself against hostile Xen creatures, such as the parasitic headcrab which “face hug” a human’s head before turning him into a zombie. Other survivors claim a rescue team has been dispatched, only to discover that the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit (abbreviated H.E.C.U) sent in is killing both the organisms and everyone associed with the Black Mesa project as part of a government cover-up of the catastrophe, but only Gordon managed to survive against the marines with the H.E.V suit on and become quickly the biggest soldiers’ enemy. The security officer Barney Calhoun also had to fight the Xen creatures and the millitary forces while he was escaping through the canals and find Dr. Rosenberg and do anything to make an old abandonned teleporter prototype work so they can escape with 2 others scientists called Walter and Simon. On the other hand, Adrian Shephard find out to be left behind when he was about to go to the transport, but unfortunately, Gman had other plans for him and decided to make him stay in Black Mesa with the other stranded soldiers and fight his way through the black ops, a millitary special forces that were ordered to kill Black Mesa personnel AND the H.E.C.U stranded survivors and a second race of aliens called Race X that are composed of pit drones, shock troopers, geneworm, pitworm and voltigore, on which they installed their teleportation technology on xen so they can teleport in Black Mesa.
When Gordon arrives at the Lambda Complex, a scientist from the Lambda team told him about a powerful living creature that keep opening the teleportations of the resonance cascade, in other words the Nihilanth and must be killed. It wont be easy tho, he will have to face alot of the Xen creatures through his travelling in the xen dimension, including the Gonarch, a giant green headcrab reproducing more baby headcrabs. Before he get inside the portal leading him to Xen, Shephard is arriving at the teleportation room the moment the portal is ready and was about to chase Freeman, but fortunately Gordon managed to get inside the portal without problem, now Adrian need to find another way out, end up fighting the geneworm at a giant pink portal, which is the original portal of the race X invasion and turn out to be in stasis from gman just like Gordon when he killed the Nihilanth. As for Barney, he managed to escape the Black Mesa facility with the help of the 3 scientist, but almost didn’t make it for having soldiers after him right before teleporting and teleportation problems
Thank you for reading
Thank you for reading this guide, I hope it helped you understand a bit more the story of Black Mesa. If there’s any missing or unclear parts of the story, just let me know and i’ll try to fix the guide a bit