CHAPTER COMMENTARY: Black Mesa: Blue Shift’s Focal Point is an ambitious and jaw-droppingly massive retelling of Calhoun’s journey through Xen. While there are nods and direct callbacks to the original expansion’s short foray through the borderworld such as the river , the floating islands with the Manta using its beam, and even the Chumtoad’s Lair easter egg, even those areas have received substantial remakes amidst the plentiful new dramatic additions. And dramatic indeed they are - an entire forward research base that slowly comes back to life (alongside its Xenian denizens and less-than-stable crystal network) that gives off both Dead Space and Subnautica vibes while retaining horror elements typical of the Half-Life series. A section entirely dedicated to sabotaging a Xenian Sentry Emplacement. And of course, the gigantic jammer facility that bookends the chapter. Alongside these freshly realised maps are setpieces to match their scale. The M.O.U.N.T. ride around an unstable Xen Crystal as tall as a skyscraper. The beautiful and almost ethereal Manta ride to the Relay island (and subsequent chaotic end). The frenetic battles at the Relay and Interceptor Core. And to cap it all off, the movie-esque final escape from an exploding enemy facility as it comes down all around Barney, harkening back to the good ole days of MOHAA and the final run from Fort Schmerzen (I tip my hat to you if you’ve played this gem back in the day). Similar to what the Xen chapters felt like for Black Mesa, Focal Point feels like an episodic expansion to BMBS in all the right ways. The journey to the Relay itself becomes only half of the problem Barney has to contend with, and even then that takes him quite a bit of time, never mind the follow-up detour into the Interceptor facility to take care of the signal jammer. While I do feel that the extended length becomes a bit gruelling near the end (a bit of my PTSD from Black Mesa’s Interloper puzzles and platforming returned), as a whole the package feels like a “greatest hits” of BM’s Xen chapters with much of the fat removed; I appreciate and enjoy the greatly expanded story as the original Blue Shift chapter frankly starts and ends way too soon in comparison. HECU Collective’s efforts are to be commended ten times over. The quality on display is astounding, from the incredibly detailed locales, to the immersive first-person animations, to the god-tier score and sound design in general, to the way the team was able to cram so damn much into a single map and have it still work (looking at you Site Alpha). The replayability as a result is also very high and I found myself enjoying the experience much more on subsequent playthroughs once I was able to take it all properly in. I feel like I say this every time, but this really is HECUC’s best work to date. Given the treatments they’ve done to all of Blue Shift so far, I wouldn’t be surprised if the relatively tamer Power Struggle and Leap of Faith chapters will also receive a massive glow-up befitting of the mod as whole (although to call it just a mod now seems like a gross understatement). Looking forward to how it all ends with great anticipation.
Thought I'd release the video a bit early - quite frankly I couldn't wait to get this out the door as I've already spent a solid 3 weeks on it. Gruelling to say the least, from the actual recording itself to the editing process to all the post-production work, but I do hope you guys enjoy the video and playthrough and that the quality is as you'd expect. Probably my most ambitious video to date and I will now retreat into my cave and hibernate for a bit to recover my sanity :') Have a Merry Christmas everyone, and see you all in the new year for what I'm sure will be an exciting one for Half-Life content.
One thing I really appreciate HECUC did is how much they expanded upon Xen and Black Mesa's exploration of it, cause there is a crazy amount of new assets - both alien and human - they made for this one chapter, and they even included stuff from Half Life: Alyx too, like the Xen Grenade, baby Barnacles, baby Tentacles, etc.
I really feel like a more fitting word for chapters in BMBS is acts. Rarely do the chapters in black Mesa, let alone half life get close to even half the length of the chapters in this game.
I love how skillfully you handle the fights, while also making them look legitimately challenging in the way you move, look around frantically, and sometimes use slightly heavier weaponry than you strictly need to. But serious kudos to the mod makers as well: they've taken a little-loved, irritatingly short mod with what I remember as a very frustrating Xen section into a worthy part of the Black Mesa experience, once again showcasing the breadth of the border world, the expanse of Black Mesa's expeditions there, and the exotic beauty of the place.
Thanks - I took a bit more damage than I wanted to, but was otherwise pleased with how the recordings of those went, so I kept them. Agreed on the dev team's efforts though. Loved this rendition of Xen.
CHAPTER TRIVIA: Feel free to add more interesting facts about the chapter below by responding! Focal Point is massive so I'm sure there's a bunch of things that I've missed. - Barney’s hands are shown to have received many cuts and bruises throughout his adventure, evident while holding and reloading any weapon - Unlike Gordon, Barney takes damage while going through the wormhole to Xen because he does not have a HEV suit (0:00) - It is implied that the Interceptor Facility prevented Barney from reaching his intended teleport location, resulting in him being teleported to a random spot in Xen (0:22) - The giant glowing pink crystal that Barney encounters in the Primary Habitat in Map 3 (the “Heart Crystal”) can be seen in the opening vista upon arriving onto Xen (1:22) - There is a specific type of Xenian flora that seem to be present whenever the game hits an autosave point (2:56) - The Shellsquid is a new Bullsquid variant exclusive to BMBS (3:56) - The tree branches will collapse after Barney crosses them even if Shellsquid mortars don’t hit them (5:24) - I accidentally murdered some Houndeye embryos at 5:44 - The Momeye is a new Houndeye variant which deals AOE shock damage upon attack as well as death (6:03) - It is revealed that the study of the Xen Crystals by Black Mesa destabilized them to the point of criticality, as seen at 20:31 and as mentioned on the whiteboard at 45:47 - The creature first encountered at 21:29 is the Archer, an enemy cut from HL1 and reintroduced in BMBS. Shooting them when they emit their electrical attacks leads to increased damage - The creature first shown at 21:52 is the Flocking Floater, also an enemy cut from HL1. These however appear to be passive in comparison, though they seem to have a parasitic relationship with Boids (1:10:35) - Older models of the HEV Suit are plentifully shown throughout the chapter (23:49). This is the MARK III as indicated on the whiteboard at 45:12 - One of the user flatline tones of the HEV zombies is a common baseball jingle (30:42) - A note saying “Cyv0 was here” can be found on the whiteboard at 45:09. Cyv0 is a gameplay designer for BMBS - The Heart crystal going unstable at 50:17 is reminiscent of the Lambda Reactor puzzle in Black Mesa - The Vort call at 1:09:57 is identical to the one the Victory Mine Vortigaunt performs in HL2EP2, down to the response from the second Vort - Destroying Orange Spires without killing the Vorts first (such as the one at 1:11:32) will still result in their deaths once they are freed from their mind control - Riding the Manta at 1:16:32 is a callback to a similar sequence in HL1 where Gordon takes a Manta to a portal in Xen - Mantas could not be destroyed by the player in either HL1 or Black Mesa. BMBS allows Barney to do so as shown at 1:29:17 - The Xen Grenade is introduced in this chapter (1:36:33) and is a reference to the same weapon in Half-Life: Alyx, and functions quite identically. The Vortigaunts also use Xen Grenades in their attacks back on the Earthbound chapters of this game - Baby Tentacles are shown at 1:41:05. They will not attack Barney and can be killed - The G-man can be seen at 1:47:23 disappearing behind a spire - The original Focal Point chapter’s relay puzzle is much more straightforward compared to BMBS’ - the power source is right next to the console and can be powered up right away, and the console simply requires Barney to turn two dials to pre-marked positions. The emitter puzzle at 2:06:28 in BMBS is a callback to this puzzle - Barney never gets a crossbow in the original game (2:03:50). The one in BMBS seems to be an older model compared to the one Gordon gets in HL1, requiring darts to be loaded after every shot - The crossbow’s scope is cracked due to use upon pickup as shown at 2:04:08 - The dead female scientist in the stasis tube at 2:32:03 is the same one that was kidnapped by the first Vort Barney encounters in the game back in Chapter 3 - The item at 2:33:25 is the Rosenburger, an easter egg that can be found in multiple maps of the game. It is a joke/pun at Dr. Rosenberg’s name - 2 Antlions and a Mortar Synth from HL2 can be seen in the stasis tubes at 2:33:53 - The screen at 2:35:24 displays the Focal Point Relay - The Interceptor’s core is very reminiscent of the Citadel Core from HL2EP1 (2:36:27) - Nihilanth’s Tower from Black Mesa can be seen in the distance at 2:47:44. It was not visible in the first map with the Relay as the Interceptor jamming signal obscured the skyline around the island - A green flash appears and shoots past Barney while he travels through the wormhole back to Black Mesa (2:51:11). Slowing down the video reveals that this is a person. The individual is in fact Dr. Gina Cross and/or Collette Green, characters in the co-op game Half-Life: Decay. In that game, both characters are caught in a “harmonic reflux” event while defending against Xenian forces, and catch a glimpse of Barney going through the portal back to Earth on their end. The green flash is thus a nod to Decay as well as provides the view from Barney’s perspective
nicely done! One thing I noticed at the whiteboards, which is a nice touch, showing that those survey started in 1981, the older tech used until 1997, when it was replaced by the current tech you see in the base game. Also, a log shows the fist camp had its last contact in 1994. It has an exact date, seen on one of the entry doors but i can't remember it, only the year. and those healing bubbles that regre, at first i thought those were like mines you had to avoid, as a star wars game had that
04:08 - you can kinda see classic bullsquid death animation, complete with classic death sound 42:37 - it's interesting to hear Alyx's multi-tool sound in this context - I gave up on trying to list them down, but the Heart Crystal sequence (aka Map 3 climax) uses some very distinct Citadel teleport sound effects 2:21:55 - ah, a sewer level **dink** 2:51:11 - judging from her hair style, it's Gina. Speaking of, I'm so glad they got the timing of the Decay crossover right. I've seen some people thinking that harmonic reflux from Decay's ending happens at the same time as Blue Shift's ending.
The interceptor core visually resembles the citadel core in episode 1, but gameplay-wise it's more like the final part of the dark fusion reactor in hl2, where you blast all the panels off it repeatedly.
The stark difference between HL:BS and BM:BS is the length. Imagine being Rosenberg and waiting for Calhoun for hours, totally on edge because it's only a matter of time for the HECU and aliens to discover Old Black Mesa. But also with Barney's slowly but surely progressing through Xen, it also maintains the hope of survival.
Yeah, that makes it very bad; it makes it ridiculous. I'm pretty sure this chapter is longer than the previous four combined. And you're supposed to be teleported near the focal point base. You have to run a marathon before you get there. And there's a giant alien facility right on the doorstep of the focal point base? The hell? What they couldn't take two steps and realize; maybe it's not a good idea to put critical base on the door step of a giant alien facility? Also, if they were aware of the Nihilanth and his forces construction; why are they surprised of his existence and coming after them after Resonance cascade. Another thing, why are there so many head crab zombies in the giant alien facility that was supposedly "abandoned". If they abandoned it, there wouldn't be any humans left to take over. If they were run off by a alien army attacking them; it wasn't "abandoned", they were forced to leave; and they would have gone back with far greater fire power and security the second time around; aka with the military being their close partner, rather then distant funding. Also if they were there for decades; why didn't any new products, and/or new science come out of all the discoveries they made; the Half-Life world would have been far more technologically advanced than just our technology with only Black Mesa itself having a few impressive anachronisms. Also; why is that initial base so vast; while the focal point is so far away from it. The modern base you go through as Gordon is a tiny insignificant one compared to this. If they knew Xen was as dangerous as it is because they were there for more than a decade, why in blazing hell did they build a heavily fortified and even bigger base? There there's the vanishing Grunts in that base. You see a silhouette and then they run away to the left or right. You follow... gone; and with no place for them to go. The doors are closed; you haven't powered them up yet. They didn't teleport; there was no teltale teleport sound, nor a green bolt in sight; they seem to have just vanished into thin air. Even if they did teleport; why? First off, can Nihilanth even do that; remotely teleporting things away; he's never done it before; he's only teleported folks from close by him to somewhere else as attack forces; hell I'm not even sure he can even do that within Xen. Did he ever do that in either Half-Life or Black Mesa Xen chapters? But beyond that, we see the grunts in tiny narrow corridors; no cover for me, too close to use heavy weapons, Barney would blow himself up; so they would do far more damage to Barney and probably kill him with the first grunt leaving him there. Why teleport them out? And I haven't even talked about the Vortigants? Why are they not attacking me? If they're friendly, why are they working against me keeping the shield blocking my progress up? They helped Gordon out whenever they weren't being mind controlled. Is Barney is just unlucky that he comes across the biggest braindead buffoons of the species? And why is there a shield in the first place; there's nothing behind it but a natural cave and a whole down in a watery grave with whole new flora and fauna from where I was just before. And where are the Vortigants that were behind the shield when I first got there? There was no teleportation sound, no green flashes; they didn't jump down the whole because I didn't come across them anywhere down in the cave either; another bunch of aliens that vanished into thin air. Oh, by the way, this shield facility is in between the big base and the teleportation focal point... why? Was it always there? How did they not notice? Why would the aliens build it after the humans already abandoned the place? If Nihilanth had any sense, he'd have his forces scavenge anything worthwhile then blow up the rest, and then focus his forces upon the new place the humans are coming into his realm? This crap is so bad, I was already kicked out of the experience, and so long, when I finally reached Focal Point I was thinking; "Oh, my fucking god, I'm finally done? One last final battle, activate the stupid device, and finally done." I spent several minutes trying to figure out how to unjam the emitter before realizing it was jammed by the idiotic green streams of light. I was so tired, with so many of the narrow idiotic platforming that had me fall to my death and idiotic length of this chapter and the constant crap that breaks Half-Life lore and makes the aliens and the humans both stupid as hell; I couldn't imagine why anyone would drag this out even longer. So when I realized the shield was now gone and I had to move forward my only thought was, "I'M STILL NOT DONE!?" Then the next crane section pissed me the hell off beyond my breaking point; first there's the trap item box, that drops you to your death if you don't notice early one enough the whole metal plate is on will flip over; and the only question I have for this crap is; "Why? Why? Why? Why?" And then you have to flip the handle and as the crane moves somehow jump on the platform while it's already moving; with a hundred different jump points from which you might just or might not just make it; when I dropped to my death there; I was done. This was so bad, I had no interest in playing this anymore. So I turned it off, and went to see what the rest of this crap is by watching it in this walkthrough... Not a stone's throw away from this focal point station there's a giant alien facility! You have to infiltrate with ANOTHER annoying platforming and stand still to wait for the right time section. Beyond the question of why is it there that I've already asked; it seems to built solely to stop someone from using the focal point emitter from stopping folks in another world from teleporting around their world; because the place is abandoned and is no longer used to teleport into your world!? Even if you were worried they were going to use it again after all; why don't you just destroy the place and be done with it? Why waste the resources and manpower to build and man a giant facility that allows you to remotely, but not that remotely - it's a stone throw away - to block someone from using the focal point... but only if you notice someone is doing it because you didn't guard the focal point itself and push the button fast enough? And why is there cannon the only thing that can bring bring down your giant power source blocking the focal point conveniently sitting there right in front of it? Why does that cannon survive getting hit by flying mantises cannon fire, when the gun in a previous section did get destroyed by it? Why the flying mantisses all of a sudden helping the Nihilanth forces when previously the Nihilanth forces were literally attacking them with those very same cannons when they were in the sky? You have to shoot it THREE times over while you fight everything... and then they STILL won't let you go and to have to fight a horde of the annoying flying things before you can finally teleport back to Earth... why are the developers so determined to do nothing but piss you off by dragging this out? But it gets worse because I haven't even talking about the green balls you have to lug around and throw/put in green power outlets that will blow up after a while; and then make you run up a narrow ramp with it with protrusions of alien life on it that makes it easy to get stuck on, and when the ball explodes you lose like three quarters of your health if you don't have armor! The "puzzles" where you have to let yourself get launched by a fleshy pad (sometimes more than once, and then the second time) that randomly launches you 10 times as hard and 5 times as far as all the other ones; to get to a place where you clearly couldn't go with that fleshy pad because none of the others ever could launch you that far - with an acceleration I might add that would require such an impact it at least would have broken most of your bones anywhere near the impact, and more probably would have killed you instantly. The jumping platforming where there is literally one platform you can't reach, a platform attached to that platform you can reach, but the first platform is positioned so it will block you reaching the other platform if your jump is even slightly off to one side; and you jump over the platform you can reach if your jump is only slight off to the other side! And then there's the giant red explosion you witnessed in the earlier parts of this chapter.... which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be Gordon destroying Nihilanth; which begs the following questions. What the hell are two giant green explosions you come across later? Also, why the heck are there still forces teleporting in; Nihilanth was doing the teleporting; if he's dead, there shouldn't be any more teleporting? If Nihilanth gets destroyed that early on in the chapter; why are Rosenberg and co. still alive that long after that? They either should be killed by aliens who still remain on Earth; the HECU crowd after they notice the aliens are no longer teleporting in and it's now safe to finish the mission, or the heavy ordinance, possibly nuclear air strikes took them - and all of Black Mesa - out if the HECU are too far away to notice the aliens are no longer teleporting in. This chapter, is horrifyingly bad. And I haven't even talked about the constant crashing; previous chapters didn't do it; Black Mesa itself still doesn't do it, despite modding it to hell and back; but focal point crashes nearly constantly; nearly every load, nearly every save; every load if I try to use the mouse; crash, crash, crash. I might have spent more time restarting the game than actually playing it.
@@3dmaster205 I agree FP is so tedious and had a lot of unnecessary additions, but holy hell you just keep on yapping instead of backing off after saying you don't like it once. You make videogamedunkey sound like satire in comparison.
@@ikki6792 And you need to learn to get a greater attention span; merely saying "tedious" and "unnecessary additions" doesn't tell anyone why exactly it is tedious, and what those bad additions are. It means nobody learns what went wrong, and what not to do, and you continue to get the same bad level design; you need to articulate exactly what is wrong for that not to happen.
I've finally finished it. And unfortunately I do not have much to say, or something along in Breen's words; "Too vast for our limited vocabulary." It's peak cinema, ESPECIALLY the last 3 maps. This was, no, is AMAZING. And you made it better thanks to your playthrough. Kudos to you, and the Blue Shift Team. This was a wonderful experience of watching this masterpiece.
@rx-0gundam393 im so happy you enjoyed the whole thing from start to finish! Agreed on those last 3 maps, the action and intensity just keeps ramping up.
58:00 what a beautiful, jaw dropping blend between music and imagery, I swear every iteration of half life just raises the level in th sheer density of atmosphere. Thanks for another gem, Nutella. Always thankful for your content ❤
Couldn't agree more - every chapter of this game has been much more ambitions than the last. That ride around the crystal was one of the highlights. Glad you enjoyed :)
35:00 It’s a miracle that Barney was somehow able to live for 20 years without any health issues after walking through that nasty alien fungus. Just be glad he didn’t get the Jeff treatment
the catharsis of finally breaking those laser cannons at the sentry point, then going into the fortress and the mood shifting from "hell yeah!" to "oh. oh no"
God that was intense, that entire ending had me shaking on the edge of my seat. I know its gonna be...i'm sure a long time before we actually *finish* blue shift but this was such a good addition to the original, Barney had to -work for it- here. He had to bust his ass to get this done, and the aliens felt alot less passive and alot more "we're being invaded" and..god, the dead scientist and random stuff in the tubes for study? reaaally drives hoime black mesa is being invaded, not random aliens got sent through a portal ,this is an invasion force thats choosing to learn abuobt us as we learn about them....kinda makes it scarier to me :o
Good to hear from you again! And yeah, Barney's feats here are not to be scoffed at, considering he didn't have even half the amount of protection Freeman did.
@ClassicFalloutToddHoward that's a large part of it yup. I pretty much go through every map several dozen times until I get a run I like. Hardest part for me in this chapter was the first battle at the relay. I think I had a hundred takes for that alone.
@@Sexy_Nutelladude, your work on portraying these games in a cinematic manner is vastly under appreciated. I first saw your work and black mesa simultaneously through Soup Emporium’s video on it, and I keep coming back to watch your videos because they just tickle my brain. The way you pause and look around to highlight what may draw your eye, and ESPECIALLY your combat style highlights everything that it needs to. Amazing job.
it's good to have you back, dude. i really enjoy your realism (and in-character) style gameplay and like that you're not skipping over anything. (i gotta admit they had me with the release date typo in the teaser though, lol.)
Not sure if this was intentional, but I spent a minute looking around in the control room at 1:39:40, and the Vort made the "follow me" gesture towards me and walked to the shield generator in the middle. It might have just been a random sequence but I like to think he was showing Barney where to put the grenade to shut down the forcefield. A way of saying "hey, you're fighting the bastards who enslaved us, so you're cool."
I’m glad you kept up the act of being in a character’s shoes, like the long gazing of the xen sky or stepping in to the healing pool quick to test if it’s harmful :3 ❤❤❤
Oh Thank God! It's Finally Here!! This Chapter is Amazing! I bet HECU Collective are really proud of you as well. So, I'm very happy! Well done, Nutella. 👏👏👏👏👏
Man, with how much stuff Barney has to go through here (WITHOUT AN HEV SUIT MIND YOU) it's likely he really starts building up the grit and experience he needed to survive the next few decades of hell on Earth until Gordon Freeman's return.
The final battle and escape was epic. At one stage I thought you may not make it through the portal, but you did, I should have had more faith. 😄 subscribed.
Sure there’s less structure and form in BMBS’s attempt at Xen, and BM’s Xen was much more finely tuned, but I guess it will forever be true whether it be Half-Life or Black Mesa, that Blue Shift will have the favorite use of Xen. Seriously I can’t get over how well fed us half life fans are. The total play time in original Xen including the expansions can’t be more than an hour, and now just through community effort (and over 25 years of patience) we’ve got a good 10 or so hours of Beautiful, passionately designed, triple A level quality content for an alien world that keeps showing just how much potential it has. God damn it I love this community ❤
Yet another cinematic walkthrough, aaa. Very, very well done. I have been turning to your playthroughs for quite while since I cannot play stuff myself for some time (and also your style is better anyway lol) (For some reason I am a bit fixated on that one flower that opens, closes and opens again - so interesting. I missed that they were related to autosaves)
@@Sexy_Nutella btw Pawel did some tracks for this update including the track "Take Control". Which is the song that plays when fighting for the focal point.
Saw it from start to finish in 2 years. This Xen is more evolved and scary than ever before, but your style of play was exciting that no one could match.
6:15- 6:56 Playing through areas like these and more into the game ACHED my soul so much. Not because we’re killing Houndeyes around offsprings, but mainly because it’s the parents that Barney’s killing. I don’t wanna look like the bad guy. Why does this have to hurt so much?! 😭
14:38 minutes in; I really like the track playing rn and the possible ones being the same Mysterious and actually alien, almost fantasy-80s'/90s' sci-fi-feel and vibe compared to Gordon's melancholic Xen tracks Barney's represent being sorta weirded out by all of this, while Gordon's being soothing and calm at times because it's a beautiful change of being somewhere after nearly DAYS of being in the massive facility with his own species dead around him in brutal or mundane ways to die The reason Barney's tracks are possibly like this is because he's the earliest to escape too, so the least to see the worse of the most traumatic things lmao
I casually played this chapter, and I really like the presentation of it. It was the best-looking Xen levels that I have seen since Black Mesa Xen. Yes, there were tough creatures and got lost at times due to a lack of light sources, but I enjoyed it a lot. My personal favorite was the Manta flight scene, which was definitely not what I expected but was in the original Half Life that Black Mesa didn't have. I give my thanks to the devs who worked on this chapter and to you for making this video.
No problem at all, glad you liked the video. I also was pleasantly surprised by the Manta ride. Like you, I was always bummed that Black Mesa didn't include something like that in their Xen levels.
I really liked Focal Point. I've heard some people complain that it's too long, but I honestly didn't mind too much. I was definitely ready to return to Black Mesa by the end, but I think that's also partly intentional. Honestly fighting the HECU will probably seem really easy after those Alien Controllers. It makes me wonder what they'll do to spice up Power Struggle. Anyway, I thought it was really cool how they expanded Xen's ecosystem, adding new habitats and new types of houndeyes, bullsquids, protozoans, and even puffball fungi, and of course the archers and flocking floaters. Speaking of which, I wonder what the floater at 1:12:15 is doing to the boid. My first thought was that it might have been cleaning it like a cleaner shrimp does for fish, but I guess it could also be a predator or a parasite. My favourite part was probably the abandoned research base. I really liked figuring out what happened to the survey team. For me at least I didn't find the logs until after I'd picked up the final power cell, so the whole thing really unfolded in pieces like a little mystery thriller. The fact that the crystal network seemed to adapt and react to the scientists and their outpost being there, and the fact that Alien Grunts showed up just after the crystals detected Barney makes me wonder if it's really natural, or some sort of machine...and I mean, Xen has always blurred the lines between nature and technology ever since HL1, so it fits. Anyway, another great playthrough! You're the best my friend!
Yeah that entire research base was one of my favourite parts. So many layers to it and lore. Culminating in the tram ride around the crystal was epic. I also wasn't sure if the floater on the Boid was a parasitic relationship or not. It looked cute so I just left them haha
@@Sexy_Nutella Oh yeah, the tram ride was amazing, and I was actually sort of disappointed when it was over, kind of like the final elevator in Interloper lol.
Rosenberg really just sent an ordinary security guard here without any special protection or even telling him what not to touch and what alien fauna/microbes could be lethal to humans lol. He didn't even tell him how to use the relay device. I know this is done from a gameplay view but realistically it's just silly.
0:431:20:52 2:07:26 Bruh, poor Barney is getting the worst by everything around him. I guess this is how it is not being Gordon Freeman in situations 😭
Bet 💯 that you had in mind that grenade blast to allow the music drop while fighting alien grunts and controllers in focal point site . You know exactly what im talking about bro😂 that was your quality mark
I wanted to time a shot at the beat drop but didn't know exactly how it was gonna go. Once the smg nade popped and the sound went away I knew I had to capitalize on it. So many things happen that are totally unscripted but I end up keeping cus I liked the way it turned out.
I took ages and multiple deaths to handle that Alien Controller + Alien Grunt fight (Relay section). Was waiting for your video to see how you'd tackle it. Excited for this gigantic ass chapter. Black Mesa Blue Shift is also my first youtube series, as an upload. Hopefully I can polish my game (maybe as much as you xD) and upload it some day.
There are some extra HEV MK. 3 voice line references, such as one that reminds me of “you failed” sound effect It’s also weird to see Black Mesa personnel and equipment this deep into enemy territory at 2:36:43
I believe the Survey team was there first, got killed by the Xenians, and then the Xenians established the facility around where the survey team was stationed. That, or that guy genuinely almost pulled a Freeman and managed to come close to sabotaging the core lol
Brilliant as always :) 👍 And maybe I said this before, but I'm really happy that you're back to your TH-cam channel. No joking, you making one of the best Half-Life (and other games) walkthroughs on *entire* TH-cam! It's actually very rare nowadays.
@@Sexy_Nutella Okay, watched it, and it did NOT disappoint. 38:00 "Open up! I want an HEV suit!!" 45:02 Hey, they referenced Allied Processing! It was meant to be the site of a cancelled HL1 expansion starring a Junior G-Man as a player character, and the Team Fortress Classic mercenaries as NPC allies. That entire series of boards tells a pretty harrowing story. I love it. 55:48 Love the little nod to the classic train interface. The entire Giant Crystal sequence at the end of the Primary Habitat map was very intense. It's as if the crystal itself was alive and actively hostile to Barney and Humanity, and trying to summon Bullsquids to fight you on its behalf. I am still shocked they put that much content into a single map. 1:36:35 Oh look, a Xen Grenade! Nice to see an HL:A reference in this. I also love how you portrayed Barney being a bit curious and confused about it, then realizing he's holding a hot potato and yeeting it into the distance. Also, I love how the Vortigaunts simply don't seem to care much for an alien intruder roaming around and causing a mess. They're more like "oh no, the boss is gonna kill me..." when Barney wrecks the force field generators. Still, nice of you to save them from the grunts. 1:41:08 Baby tentacles! Is it possible to kill them, or are they invulnerable? 1:47:46 I find Gman's presence puzzling given he doesn't seem to have any interest whatsoever in Barney, so it's strange to have him seem to keep track of his progress. Though given his appearances have been sparse, it might be his equivalent of glancing over to see what this guy's doing as opposed to his focus being on Gordon and Adrian. Also, dayum that vista is enchanting when combined with the music. 1:55:50 I love the implication that the Nihilanth's forces are just as much of a mess upon Xen as humanity is, where they just pave over the stuff that was there without any kind of cleanup. (which makes the Nihilanth's accusations of Gordon killing the Gonarch rather hypocritical) 1:57:50 Roll Credits! 2:00:36 I like how we see Mark IV suits among the dead, showing it was just being phased in alongside the Mark III ones seen previously. 2:03:02 Whose photo is that on the desk? Looks like Charles Darwin. 2:03:21 I just couldn't help but laugh at the overkill. Barney must be getting sick to death of headcrabs. 2:03:53 A crossbow in Blue Shift? Now that's a pleasant surprise. I love the patchwork look of the crossbow. Would actually fit better into HL2 than the one we had in the base game. The way it's put together also reminds me of the Metro games. 2:04:17 Barney peers into the Postal 2 Main Menu. 2:05:02 That's... counterproductive on the hand of the Survey Team if they're the ones who set up the force field. If it's the aliens, it looks like it'd be more of an annoyance than any real hindrance. 2:09:37 Giving that Grunt the double barrel to the beat drop is just (mwah!) 2:15:00 It would have been so easy to just use a normal water texture, yet they went out of their way to make it contour around the islands. It's wonderful. 2:15:35 The "organic factory surrounded by smog" look reminds me of the HL2 Beta (and the start of Our Benefactors from Retail). Looks like the Nihilanth was more inspired by his former enslavers than he'd like to admit. 2:24:18 Interloper flashbacks. 2:32:05 I love Barney's first instinct being to check if the scientist and guard are alive and if he can save them. 2:33:54 Antlions and a Combine Mortar? Very unexpected, but not unwelcome callback (or Call-forward?) to HL2. 2:35:30 This reminds me of the Citadel Core from Episode 1. Heck, I think the core's model is even visible in the heart of the jamming device. Meanwhile it's destruction obviously echoes the Dark Energy Reactor at the end of HL2. 2:47:46 A brief faraway wonder for Barney, ignorant that his friend would go right there not even a day later. Man, that final escape sequence was VERY harrowing, but you made it in the nick of time. Fantastic work! General Notes: The Mark III HEV suits look like they were based on the old Ivan The Space Biker model for Gordon. They are yellow colored and bulkier than the Mark IV. I think it's a shame they removed the auto-extinguishing feature as it could have made for a fun little sequence where if you ignite an HEV zombie with a flare, it would extinguish and keep coming for you. Given how many Houndeyes and Bullsquids Barney kills in this chapter, I get the impression he's singlehandedly responsible for them being outright gone by the time of HL2. The Manta Rays are notably much more fragile in this than in Black Mesa, where they effortlessly engaged in dogfights with military jets. Here two rockets are enough to shoot one of them down. It also showcases how tough the Bullsquids and Alien Grunts are, as a full rocket is barely (or not, in Grunt's case) enough to kill them, not gib. All in all, BMBS's rendition of Focal Point is simply glorious, and absolutely worth the wait. The Interceptor area was a bit Interloper-y, but definitely trimmed the worst of the fat from that chapter. And your playthrough was worth it, even if I ran out of popcorn before the first hour was up.
@@Sexy_Nutella After watching it over the course of 5 hours (frequently pausing to read text) I must say it was a great and cinematic playthrough. Unfortunately, it seems TH-cam deleted a detailed comment I wrote as I was watching for reasons unknown. Sadly I can't be bothered to rewatch the entire thing just to rewrite it from scratch right now (but may do so in the future if I'm really bored)
@Dafuqinator7 i do still see your comment, at least on my TH-cam Studio app. Hopefully it gets restored for you! I appreciate the detailed comments and insight and am glad you enjoyed :)
this was a phenomenal chapter the HECU collective the Retelling of Barneys trek through zen was peak, but I do have 1 complaint. unlike in the original blue shift I felt like they extended the xen part too long? When I was plying the chapter, it felt like hours before I got to the Rely and even long going into the factory to turn it back on. But other than that, a really good chapter the HECU collective design of the black mesa habit was so cool it was like an old horror movie at times. I was really excited to see you tackle the puzzles in zen because they took me a while to figure out especially the rely one with the codes and the doors with the force field too. Great gameplay Nutella
Thank you! I did feel that some parts of the chapter dragged on too long when I first played it, but on subsequent playthroughs I actually really appreciated the pacing haha.
I just finished this chapter and I will say that I am quite impressed with the visuals, the tweaks to the story, amd the new enemy varients from Xen! It was quite mystifying. That said, I feel like this chapter kinda suffers like Xen in Black Mesa for 1 of 2 reasons: as beautiful as it is, the puzzles and lemgth seem to drag just a bit, where by the Jammer islamd I honestly felt more keen on rushing to the end. I akso felt like the Alien Controllers were a bit unfair to fight even on just Black Mesa difficulty, and the enemy density left me running around with my head chopped iff while trying to manage my health and the objectives. Overall, still a good chapter and i look forward to the last 2-3 chapters!
Yeah, when I first played I also thought it overstayed its welcome. That being said, my subsequent playthroughs were much better once I understood the general pacing of the chapter and I grew to appreciate it much more. Perhaps the same will happen to you, and if not that is totally fine and I get where you're coming from :)
1:19:50 After Interceptor storm hitting sky, the aliens start noticing the light from Calhoun's shadow in the sky so they realize there hostile close begin starting shooting first xen sentry turret
Overall very impressive design and worth the wait time. HECU Collective's Xen adds more variation to Crowbar's Xen and add so much that I cannot compare to the original Blue Shift anymore. You can see how HL: Alyx and Dead Space inspired the hostile Xenian overgrowth in the lab. I would wish to see more active elements in this - like that one part where a wall burst open to reveal a light-stalk. You can see a HEV guy covered in root and think that must happened for a long time ago until you realized what the plant-life in Xen is capable of. If more of this is shown, players can even be afraid to touch the funguous-gory walls - instead only the Xen tree-impalers proved any danger and you shoot them once with a shotgun. The semi-open map design in Site Alpha is also quite neat albeit I must admit that I lost the plot within the spectacles and info drip. You stumbled on the site and at best try to power the doors so you can keep moving on so I don't understand why I had to deal with the big purple lazer crystal and the experiments, some of which would prove too dangerous to bother as they were not the main objective. Hopefully some tweak can be put in to give players some sense of direction. The moment where you whack the old HEV container unit (let me in) gave me the idea that Barney could also benefit from visiting the site to get better gear,: maybe an HEV chestplate so that he can get better protection/movement and use the HEV batteries laying around. A cool moment that became weak later on is they decided to have an Alien Grunt stalk you throughout the level. I at first did not get a good look at it and, with the horror-themed lab, thought that they were going to tease a Gonome boss fight. Later you see what it is and, while I understand that it is Barney's first encounter with a Grunt, I realized it wasn't anything important to deal with after all - just spooky moments. The mantarays shooting lazers was a nice call-back and the xen towers having controller effect is an interesting idea in terms of story-telling. I haven't played the rest yet so maybe I will share more later but I would expect Barney to immediately give Rosenburger shit the moment he made it back to Black Mesa because this is some Gordon-Freeman-level threat that you would not ever send a lone security guard in without support. And Barney did all this with just his standard issue equipment which I found quite unbelievable. Maybe the doctor realized after the tank battle that Barney may have plot armor that they can exploit. Poor guy.
To be fair Rosenberg unfortunately didn't have anyone else more suitable than Barney at that moment. Though he definitely could have maybe outfitted him with a HEV suit if they had one hahaha
@@Sexy_Nutella Still fun chapter, except that big fight near the end. (My dumb ass wasted all my ammo during the second phase not realising I already did wat I had to and had to do the third phase with 50 health, a shotgun and a rocket launcher.)
@@Sexy_Nutella Daver said to me when making it that he tried to take some older tracks and tie them in for important moments. For manta ride I think he used Revival as some underlying moments. Even tho it's hard to make it out and I'm not sure if it's still that way. The interceptor core fight uses some elements of The Coordianate and The Origins uses a lot of elements from both Trains and Rails & Meta-Collide
I did get a bit frustrated at times playing the chapter because it undergoes a lot of the same issues as the Xen chapters of regular Black Mesa (really obtuse level design on occasion and no frame of reference for where to go because, it's, well, alien; as well as some frustrating platform segments) but overall HECU have really figured out what makes Black Mesa's expansion on Half-Life so unique and interesting with so many fantastic setpiece environments and beautiful visual design, to an extent that I feel they get this right even better than Black Mesa itself does. I remember thinking that the whole cinematic stretch of the teleportation labs in Captive Freight felt eerily reminiscent of Valve's setpiece work on Portal 2, and I can say these abandoned Black Mesa outposts on Xen continue this trend and are even better than the already really cool Crowbar Collective ones. I also did love how many enemies made me use the revolver. Usually it feels like the revolver's one tap ability is too worthwhile to waste on anything, and I end up just not using my ammo ever. This mod introduces a bunch of fairly oppressive enemies and a more limited arsenal, such that the revolver is often the most inexpensive way to deal with them quickly. It's great!
Yeah, BM and BMBS' re-envisioning of Xen is ambitious to say the least. Ditto on the revolver, it's probably the best weapon in the game, even more so than the xbow (deifnitely less reliable in a pinch I find with it having to reload after every shot). I do appreciate that they didn't cop out and give Barney the Tau or Gluon as it really highlighted how much more difficult it is for him to survive Black Mesa.
Does anyone get major flood vibes from this area in particular 35:10? Looks a lot like the flood infested areas in halo 3 (high charity and the covenant ship in floodgate) all those fleshy pustules and tentacles creep me the hell out
the old Survey Base always gave me heavy Alien Isolation vibes when Cyvo first showed it to us. It was actually a super difficult decision to whether keep that design and basically everything you see in the final version. It might've been cut cuz Faber and some other team members were questioning how the hell did they build that thing in Xen, with fire sprinklers and pipes, tall walls with wayfinding and stuff. I really liked it the first time but after some time and comments about it, I was also feeling a bit like: "yeah that's a bit overexaggerated...", but we've kept it and many people seem to like it so far
I believe Barney already has a fresh mag that he slips in while swapping out the old one (if it still has bullets). If he completely expends the magazine he actually just discards it on the floor.
@@Sexy_Nutella it was a pretty spontaneous addition, although we were thinking about it even before we started the development of the chapter. The anims for it are not the best lol
CHAPTER COMMENTARY:
Black Mesa: Blue Shift’s Focal Point is an ambitious and jaw-droppingly massive retelling of Calhoun’s journey through Xen. While there are nods and direct callbacks to the original expansion’s short foray through the borderworld such as the river , the floating islands with the Manta using its beam, and even the Chumtoad’s Lair easter egg, even those areas have received substantial remakes amidst the plentiful new dramatic additions. And dramatic indeed they are - an entire forward research base that slowly comes back to life (alongside its Xenian denizens and less-than-stable crystal network) that gives off both Dead Space and Subnautica vibes while retaining horror elements typical of the Half-Life series. A section entirely dedicated to sabotaging a Xenian Sentry Emplacement. And of course, the gigantic jammer facility that bookends the chapter. Alongside these freshly realised maps are setpieces to match their scale. The M.O.U.N.T. ride around an unstable Xen Crystal as tall as a skyscraper. The beautiful and almost ethereal Manta ride to the Relay island (and subsequent chaotic end). The frenetic battles at the Relay and Interceptor Core. And to cap it all off, the movie-esque final escape from an exploding enemy facility as it comes down all around Barney, harkening back to the good ole days of MOHAA and the final run from Fort Schmerzen (I tip my hat to you if you’ve played this gem back in the day).
Similar to what the Xen chapters felt like for Black Mesa, Focal Point feels like an episodic expansion to BMBS in all the right ways. The journey to the Relay itself becomes only half of the problem Barney has to contend with, and even then that takes him quite a bit of time, never mind the follow-up detour into the Interceptor facility to take care of the signal jammer. While I do feel that the extended length becomes a bit gruelling near the end (a bit of my PTSD from Black Mesa’s Interloper puzzles and platforming returned), as a whole the package feels like a “greatest hits” of BM’s Xen chapters with much of the fat removed; I appreciate and enjoy the greatly expanded story as the original Blue Shift chapter frankly starts and ends way too soon in comparison.
HECU Collective’s efforts are to be commended ten times over. The quality on display is astounding, from the incredibly detailed locales, to the immersive first-person animations, to the god-tier score and sound design in general, to the way the team was able to cram so damn much into a single map and have it still work (looking at you Site Alpha). The replayability as a result is also very high and I found myself enjoying the experience much more on subsequent playthroughs once I was able to take it all properly in.
I feel like I say this every time, but this really is HECUC’s best work to date. Given the treatments they’ve done to all of Blue Shift so far, I wouldn’t be surprised if the relatively tamer Power Struggle and Leap of Faith chapters will also receive a massive glow-up befitting of the mod as whole (although to call it just a mod now seems like a gross understatement). Looking forward to how it all ends with great anticipation.
I also see some SOMA in this chapter, even more so than in BM:Xen.
wake up babe canon barney gameplay dropped
Yessir!! :)
Thought I'd release the video a bit early - quite frankly I couldn't wait to get this out the door as I've already spent a solid 3 weeks on it. Gruelling to say the least, from the actual recording itself to the editing process to all the post-production work, but I do hope you guys enjoy the video and playthrough and that the quality is as you'd expect. Probably my most ambitious video to date and I will now retreat into my cave and hibernate for a bit to recover my sanity :') Have a Merry Christmas everyone, and see you all in the new year for what I'm sure will be an exciting one for Half-Life content.
thank you for your work!
@terluj121 you are welcome!
was gonna watch vid but im not gonna spoil myself, I will play black mesa blue shift some time in holidays. I love your content, you beauty.
Hell yes, this is what I've been looking forward to watching the past few weeks. I'm glad to see you released it a bit early.
@@tankingbeast1132 Hope you enjoyed and thanks for the patience while I worked on it :)
One thing I really appreciate HECUC did is how much they expanded upon Xen and Black Mesa's exploration of it, cause there is a crazy amount of new assets - both alien and human - they made for this one chapter, and they even included stuff from Half Life: Alyx too, like the Xen Grenade, baby Barnacles, baby Tentacles, etc.
Absolutely. The tie-ins to HL: Alyx and the inclusion of cut enemies from HL1 shows the dev team's true passion for the series :)
I really feel like a more fitting word for chapters in BMBS is acts. Rarely do the chapters in black Mesa, let alone half life get close to even half the length of the chapters in this game.
I love how skillfully you handle the fights, while also making them look legitimately challenging in the way you move, look around frantically, and sometimes use slightly heavier weaponry than you strictly need to.
But serious kudos to the mod makers as well: they've taken a little-loved, irritatingly short mod with what I remember as a very frustrating Xen section into a worthy part of the Black Mesa experience, once again showcasing the breadth of the border world, the expanse of Black Mesa's expeditions there, and the exotic beauty of the place.
Thanks - I took a bit more damage than I wanted to, but was otherwise pleased with how the recordings of those went, so I kept them. Agreed on the dev team's efforts though. Loved this rendition of Xen.
CHAPTER TRIVIA:
Feel free to add more interesting facts about the chapter below by responding! Focal Point is massive so I'm sure there's a bunch of things that I've missed.
- Barney’s hands are shown to have received many cuts and bruises throughout his adventure, evident while holding and reloading any weapon
- Unlike Gordon, Barney takes damage while going through the wormhole to Xen because he does not have a HEV suit (0:00)
- It is implied that the Interceptor Facility prevented Barney from reaching his intended teleport location, resulting in him being teleported to a random spot in Xen (0:22)
- The giant glowing pink crystal that Barney encounters in the Primary Habitat in Map 3 (the “Heart Crystal”) can be seen in the opening vista upon arriving onto Xen (1:22)
- There is a specific type of Xenian flora that seem to be present whenever the game hits an autosave point (2:56)
- The Shellsquid is a new Bullsquid variant exclusive to BMBS (3:56)
- The tree branches will collapse after Barney crosses them even if Shellsquid mortars don’t hit them (5:24)
- I accidentally murdered some Houndeye embryos at 5:44
- The Momeye is a new Houndeye variant which deals AOE shock damage upon attack as well as death (6:03)
- It is revealed that the study of the Xen Crystals by Black Mesa destabilized them to the point of criticality, as seen at 20:31 and as mentioned on the whiteboard at 45:47
- The creature first encountered at 21:29 is the Archer, an enemy cut from HL1 and reintroduced in BMBS. Shooting them when they emit their electrical attacks leads to increased damage
- The creature first shown at 21:52 is the Flocking Floater, also an enemy cut from HL1. These however appear to be passive in comparison, though they seem to have a parasitic relationship with Boids (1:10:35)
- Older models of the HEV Suit are plentifully shown throughout the chapter (23:49). This is the MARK III as indicated on the whiteboard at 45:12
- One of the user flatline tones of the HEV zombies is a common baseball jingle (30:42)
- A note saying “Cyv0 was here” can be found on the whiteboard at 45:09. Cyv0 is a gameplay designer for BMBS
- The Heart crystal going unstable at 50:17 is reminiscent of the Lambda Reactor puzzle in Black Mesa
- The Vort call at 1:09:57 is identical to the one the Victory Mine Vortigaunt performs in HL2EP2, down to the response from the second Vort
- Destroying Orange Spires without killing the Vorts first (such as the one at 1:11:32) will still result in their deaths once they are freed from their mind control
- Riding the Manta at 1:16:32 is a callback to a similar sequence in HL1 where Gordon takes a Manta to a portal in Xen
- Mantas could not be destroyed by the player in either HL1 or Black Mesa. BMBS allows Barney to do so as shown at 1:29:17
- The Xen Grenade is introduced in this chapter (1:36:33) and is a reference to the same weapon in Half-Life: Alyx, and functions quite identically. The Vortigaunts also use Xen Grenades in their attacks back on the Earthbound chapters of this game
- Baby Tentacles are shown at 1:41:05. They will not attack Barney and can be killed
- The G-man can be seen at 1:47:23 disappearing behind a spire
- The original Focal Point chapter’s relay puzzle is much more straightforward compared to BMBS’ - the power source is right next to the console and can be powered up right away, and the console simply requires Barney to turn two dials to pre-marked positions. The emitter puzzle at 2:06:28 in BMBS is a callback to this puzzle
- Barney never gets a crossbow in the original game (2:03:50). The one in BMBS seems to be an older model compared to the one Gordon gets in HL1, requiring darts to be loaded after every shot
- The crossbow’s scope is cracked due to use upon pickup as shown at 2:04:08
- The dead female scientist in the stasis tube at 2:32:03 is the same one that was kidnapped by the first Vort Barney encounters in the game back in Chapter 3
- The item at 2:33:25 is the Rosenburger, an easter egg that can be found in multiple maps of the game. It is a joke/pun at Dr. Rosenberg’s name
- 2 Antlions and a Mortar Synth from HL2 can be seen in the stasis tubes at 2:33:53
- The screen at 2:35:24 displays the Focal Point Relay
- The Interceptor’s core is very reminiscent of the Citadel Core from HL2EP1 (2:36:27)
- Nihilanth’s Tower from Black Mesa can be seen in the distance at 2:47:44. It was not visible in the first map with the Relay as the Interceptor jamming signal obscured the skyline around the island
- A green flash appears and shoots past Barney while he travels through the wormhole back to Black Mesa (2:51:11). Slowing down the video reveals that this is a person. The individual is in fact Dr. Gina Cross and/or Collette Green, characters in the co-op game Half-Life: Decay. In that game, both characters are caught in a “harmonic reflux” event while defending against Xenian forces, and catch a glimpse of Barney going through the portal back to Earth on their end. The green flash is thus a nod to Decay as well as provides the view from Barney’s perspective
- You can also see the first Xen island you come across from the lake besides the greenhouse at 40:01
nicely done! One thing I noticed at the whiteboards, which is a nice touch, showing that those survey started in 1981, the older tech used until 1997, when it was replaced by the current tech you see in the base game. Also, a log shows the fist camp had its last contact in 1994. It has an exact date, seen on one of the entry doors but i can't remember it, only the year. and those healing bubbles that regre, at first i thought those were like mines you had to avoid, as a star wars game had that
04:08 - you can kinda see classic bullsquid death animation, complete with classic death sound
42:37 - it's interesting to hear Alyx's multi-tool sound in this context
- I gave up on trying to list them down, but the Heart Crystal sequence (aka Map 3 climax) uses some very distinct Citadel teleport sound effects
2:21:55 - ah, a sewer level **dink**
2:51:11 - judging from her hair style, it's Gina. Speaking of, I'm so glad they got the timing of the Decay crossover right. I've seen some people thinking that harmonic reflux from Decay's ending happens at the same time as Blue Shift's ending.
The interceptor core visually resembles the citadel core in episode 1, but gameplay-wise it's more like the final part of the dark fusion reactor in hl2, where you blast all the panels off it repeatedly.
They reference Decay? Nice!
The stark difference between HL:BS and BM:BS is the length. Imagine being Rosenberg and waiting for Calhoun for hours, totally on edge because it's only a matter of time for the HECU and aliens to discover Old Black Mesa. But also with Barney's slowly but surely progressing through Xen, it also maintains the hope of survival.
Yeah, it must have been a nerve-wracking wait for the crew back home. They wouldn't even know if Barney died.
Imo, if they follow the OG Blue Shift, where they escape during the day, I'll say it's gonna be a long night for Rosenburgsr and everyone else.
Yeah, that makes it very bad; it makes it ridiculous. I'm pretty sure this chapter is longer than the previous four combined. And you're supposed to be teleported near the focal point base. You have to run a marathon before you get there. And there's a giant alien facility right on the doorstep of the focal point base? The hell? What they couldn't take two steps and realize; maybe it's not a good idea to put critical base on the door step of a giant alien facility? Also, if they were aware of the Nihilanth and his forces construction; why are they surprised of his existence and coming after them after Resonance cascade. Another thing, why are there so many head crab zombies in the giant alien facility that was supposedly "abandoned". If they abandoned it, there wouldn't be any humans left to take over. If they were run off by a alien army attacking them; it wasn't "abandoned", they were forced to leave; and they would have gone back with far greater fire power and security the second time around; aka with the military being their close partner, rather then distant funding.
Also if they were there for decades; why didn't any new products, and/or new science come out of all the discoveries they made; the Half-Life world would have been far more technologically advanced than just our technology with only Black Mesa itself having a few impressive anachronisms.
Also; why is that initial base so vast; while the focal point is so far away from it. The modern base you go through as Gordon is a tiny insignificant one compared to this. If they knew Xen was as dangerous as it is because they were there for more than a decade, why in blazing hell did they build a heavily fortified and even bigger base? There there's the vanishing Grunts in that base. You see a silhouette and then they run away to the left or right. You follow... gone; and with no place for them to go. The doors are closed; you haven't powered them up yet. They didn't teleport; there was no teltale teleport sound, nor a green bolt in sight; they seem to have just vanished into thin air. Even if they did teleport; why? First off, can Nihilanth even do that; remotely teleporting things away; he's never done it before; he's only teleported folks from close by him to somewhere else as attack forces; hell I'm not even sure he can even do that within Xen. Did he ever do that in either Half-Life or Black Mesa Xen chapters? But beyond that, we see the grunts in tiny narrow corridors; no cover for me, too close to use heavy weapons, Barney would blow himself up; so they would do far more damage to Barney and probably kill him with the first grunt leaving him there. Why teleport them out?
And I haven't even talked about the Vortigants? Why are they not attacking me? If they're friendly, why are they working against me keeping the shield blocking my progress up? They helped Gordon out whenever they weren't being mind controlled. Is Barney is just unlucky that he comes across the biggest braindead buffoons of the species? And why is there a shield in the first place; there's nothing behind it but a natural cave and a whole down in a watery grave with whole new flora and fauna from where I was just before. And where are the Vortigants that were behind the shield when I first got there? There was no teleportation sound, no green flashes; they didn't jump down the whole because I didn't come across them anywhere down in the cave either; another bunch of aliens that vanished into thin air.
Oh, by the way, this shield facility is in between the big base and the teleportation focal point... why? Was it always there? How did they not notice? Why would the aliens build it after the humans already abandoned the place? If Nihilanth had any sense, he'd have his forces scavenge anything worthwhile then blow up the rest, and then focus his forces upon the new place the humans are coming into his realm?
This crap is so bad, I was already kicked out of the experience, and so long, when I finally reached Focal Point I was thinking; "Oh, my fucking god, I'm finally done? One last final battle, activate the stupid device, and finally done." I spent several minutes trying to figure out how to unjam the emitter before realizing it was jammed by the idiotic green streams of light. I was so tired, with so many of the narrow idiotic platforming that had me fall to my death and idiotic length of this chapter and the constant crap that breaks Half-Life lore and makes the aliens and the humans both stupid as hell; I couldn't imagine why anyone would drag this out even longer. So when I realized the shield was now gone and I had to move forward my only thought was, "I'M STILL NOT DONE!?"
Then the next crane section pissed me the hell off beyond my breaking point; first there's the trap item box, that drops you to your death if you don't notice early one enough the whole metal plate is on will flip over; and the only question I have for this crap is; "Why? Why? Why? Why?" And then you have to flip the handle and as the crane moves somehow jump on the platform while it's already moving; with a hundred different jump points from which you might just or might not just make it; when I dropped to my death there; I was done. This was so bad, I had no interest in playing this anymore. So I turned it off, and went to see what the rest of this crap is by watching it in this walkthrough...
Not a stone's throw away from this focal point station there's a giant alien facility! You have to infiltrate with ANOTHER annoying platforming and stand still to wait for the right time section. Beyond the question of why is it there that I've already asked; it seems to built solely to stop someone from using the focal point emitter from stopping folks in another world from teleporting around their world; because the place is abandoned and is no longer used to teleport into your world!? Even if you were worried they were going to use it again after all; why don't you just destroy the place and be done with it? Why waste the resources and manpower to build and man a giant facility that allows you to remotely, but not that remotely - it's a stone throw away - to block someone from using the focal point... but only if you notice someone is doing it because you didn't guard the focal point itself and push the button fast enough? And why is there cannon the only thing that can bring bring down your giant power source blocking the focal point conveniently sitting there right in front of it? Why does that cannon survive getting hit by flying mantises cannon fire, when the gun in a previous section did get destroyed by it? Why the flying mantisses all of a sudden helping the Nihilanth forces when previously the Nihilanth forces were literally attacking them with those very same cannons when they were in the sky? You have to shoot it THREE times over while you fight everything... and then they STILL won't let you go and to have to fight a horde of the annoying flying things before you can finally teleport back to Earth... why are the developers so determined to do nothing but piss you off by dragging this out?
But it gets worse because I haven't even talking about the green balls you have to lug around and throw/put in green power outlets that will blow up after a while; and then make you run up a narrow ramp with it with protrusions of alien life on it that makes it easy to get stuck on, and when the ball explodes you lose like three quarters of your health if you don't have armor! The "puzzles" where you have to let yourself get launched by a fleshy pad (sometimes more than once, and then the second time) that randomly launches you 10 times as hard and 5 times as far as all the other ones; to get to a place where you clearly couldn't go with that fleshy pad because none of the others ever could launch you that far - with an acceleration I might add that would require such an impact it at least would have broken most of your bones anywhere near the impact, and more probably would have killed you instantly. The jumping platforming where there is literally one platform you can't reach, a platform attached to that platform you can reach, but the first platform is positioned so it will block you reaching the other platform if your jump is even slightly off to one side; and you jump over the platform you can reach if your jump is only slight off to the other side!
And then there's the giant red explosion you witnessed in the earlier parts of this chapter.... which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be Gordon destroying Nihilanth; which begs the following questions. What the hell are two giant green explosions you come across later? Also, why the heck are there still forces teleporting in; Nihilanth was doing the teleporting; if he's dead, there shouldn't be any more teleporting? If Nihilanth gets destroyed that early on in the chapter; why are Rosenberg and co. still alive that long after that? They either should be killed by aliens who still remain on Earth; the HECU crowd after they notice the aliens are no longer teleporting in and it's now safe to finish the mission, or the heavy ordinance, possibly nuclear air strikes took them - and all of Black Mesa - out if the HECU are too far away to notice the aliens are no longer teleporting in.
This chapter, is horrifyingly bad. And I haven't even talked about the constant crashing; previous chapters didn't do it; Black Mesa itself still doesn't do it, despite modding it to hell and back; but focal point crashes nearly constantly; nearly every load, nearly every save; every load if I try to use the mouse; crash, crash, crash. I might have spent more time restarting the game than actually playing it.
@@3dmaster205 I agree FP is so tedious and had a lot of unnecessary additions, but holy hell you just keep on yapping instead of backing off after saying you don't like it once. You make videogamedunkey sound like satire in comparison.
@@ikki6792 And you need to learn to get a greater attention span; merely saying "tedious" and "unnecessary additions" doesn't tell anyone why exactly it is tedious, and what those bad additions are. It means nobody learns what went wrong, and what not to do, and you continue to get the same bad level design; you need to articulate exactly what is wrong for that not to happen.
3hr. absolute cinema.
Sure hope it feels that way! ^^
I've finally finished it.
And unfortunately I do not have much to say, or something along in Breen's words; "Too vast for our limited vocabulary."
It's peak cinema, ESPECIALLY the last 3 maps.
This was, no, is AMAZING.
And you made it better thanks to your playthrough.
Kudos to you, and the Blue Shift Team.
This was a wonderful experience of watching this masterpiece.
@rx-0gundam393 im so happy you enjoyed the whole thing from start to finish! Agreed on those last 3 maps, the action and intensity just keeps ramping up.
I've just finished Focal Point for the third time a couple of days ago, and they did NOT disappoint
Hats off for the team as a whole
Yeah its definitely got a ton of replay value
58:00 what a beautiful, jaw dropping blend between music and imagery, I swear every iteration of half life just raises the level in th sheer density of atmosphere.
Thanks for another gem, Nutella. Always thankful for your content ❤
Couldn't agree more - every chapter of this game has been much more ambitions than the last. That ride around the crystal was one of the highlights. Glad you enjoyed :)
The amount of detail gone into this game is phenomenal. And a great gamer who knows how to play it.
@adruralo appreciate the kind words! And yeah, the details in this chapter are incredible. So much density in each map.
God I love the sound effect when alien gun projectile goes past you, gives me goosebumps all the time.
Yeah, it sounds so deadly
35:00
It’s a miracle that Barney was somehow able to live for 20 years without any health issues after walking through that nasty alien fungus. Just be glad he didn’t get the Jeff treatment
Haha totally. He could've benefitted from a HEV suit for sure
Devs be like: "How many houndeyes should we throw at Barney?"
Also devs: "Yes."
The headcrab spam though. No wonder Barney hates those guys so much
the catharsis of finally breaking those laser cannons at the sentry point, then going into the fortress and the mood shifting from "hell yeah!" to "oh. oh no"
Yeah. Just like with BM, they really "humanized" the Vorts. Those guys went through a lot
God that was intense, that entire ending had me shaking on the edge of my seat. I know its gonna be...i'm sure a long time before we actually *finish* blue shift but this was such a good addition to the original, Barney had to -work for it- here. He had to bust his ass to get this done, and the aliens felt alot less passive and alot more "we're being invaded" and..god, the dead scientist and random stuff in the tubes for study? reaaally drives hoime black mesa is being invaded, not random aliens got sent through a portal ,this is an invasion force thats choosing to learn abuobt us as we learn about them....kinda makes it scarier to me :o
Good to hear from you again! And yeah, Barney's feats here are not to be scoffed at, considering he didn't have even half the amount of protection Freeman did.
I like how your gameplay feels like a gameplay trailer footage
That is my intention so I'm glad it turned out that way :)
@@Sexy_Nutella Is that the reason why it took so long to make? making the smooth gameplay over an hours and countless of attempts?
@ClassicFalloutToddHoward that's a large part of it yup. I pretty much go through every map several dozen times until I get a run I like. Hardest part for me in this chapter was the first battle at the relay. I think I had a hundred takes for that alone.
@@Sexy_Nutelladude, your work on portraying these games in a cinematic manner is vastly under appreciated. I first saw your work and black mesa simultaneously through Soup Emporium’s video on it, and I keep coming back to watch your videos because they just tickle my brain. The way you pause and look around to highlight what may draw your eye, and ESPECIALLY your combat style highlights everything that it needs to. Amazing job.
@thewoodpeckers655 thanks for noticing the work that goes into stuff like this and glad you enjoy that playstyle :)
it's good to have you back, dude. i really enjoy your realism (and in-character) style gameplay and like that you're not skipping over anything. (i gotta admit they had me with the release date typo in the teaser though, lol.)
Yeah that teaser was funny lol. Glad you liked the vid!
This makes me appreciate barney more knowing what he goes through in xen. I always love watching your gameplay ❤
Yeah, and Barney didn't have the benefit of a HEV suit! Glad you liked the gameplay
Not sure if this was intentional, but I spent a minute looking around in the control room at 1:39:40, and the Vort made the "follow me" gesture towards me and walked to the shield generator in the middle. It might have just been a random sequence but I like to think he was showing Barney where to put the grenade to shut down the forcefield. A way of saying "hey, you're fighting the bastards who enslaved us, so you're cool."
Oh wow, i do wonder if that's scripted then. Would be in character
Thank you so much @Sexy_Nutella! Awesome walk through. I couldn't have gotten through a few parts without your help!
Glad I could help!
I’m glad you kept up the act of being in a character’s shoes, like the long gazing of the xen sky or stepping in to the healing pool quick to test if it’s harmful :3 ❤❤❤
I am glad you appreciate those little touches as they are always intentional :)
Oh Thank God! It's Finally Here!!
This Chapter is Amazing! I bet HECU Collective are really proud of you as well. So, I'm very happy!
Well done, Nutella. 👏👏👏👏👏
Thank you very much and hope you enjoy :)
Man, with how much stuff Barney has to go through here (WITHOUT AN HEV SUIT MIND YOU) it's likely he really starts building up the grit and experience he needed to survive the next few decades of hell on Earth until Gordon Freeman's return.
Totally. Playing through this, I was like "yup, I can totally buy him as a Resistance leader"
The final battle and escape was epic. At one stage I thought you may not make it through the portal, but you did, I should have had more faith. 😄 subscribed.
Thanks! Yeah I intended to make that a bit harrowing down to the finish. Glad you found it entertaining :)
I like it when you play blue shift more like I'm watching Barney doing his job.
It's what I wished to show so I am glad you think so :)
Good god how thick of a skull does Calhoun have. I’ve seen him faceplant against some rocks like 50 times and he makes ZERO noise afterwards
Lol, it's a running joke on the Discord channel too. I guess he technically does have his helmet 😅
In the interceptor map, in the trash dump area, you can throw a xen grenade inside the chute to prevent headcrabs from coming out of it
No way! That' a neat detail. Thanks for sharing :)
Performed a chef's kiss when you timed jumping in the portal at the last second. Truly, the Nutella guarantee.
Took me a bunch of takes, sometimes I would literally miss it by a second and have to restart lol
That was awesome dude , took me a while to watch it all but boy was it worth it , thanks for all the hard work , peace
No problem and glad you liked it!
That's some top quality gameplay here. You have a talent. Great job. 👍
Glad you enjoy the gameplay and thank you!
Sure there’s less structure and form in BMBS’s attempt at Xen, and BM’s Xen was much more finely tuned, but I guess it will forever be true whether it be Half-Life or Black Mesa, that Blue Shift will have the favorite use of Xen. Seriously I can’t get over how well fed us half life fans are. The total play time in original Xen including the expansions can’t be more than an hour, and now just through community effort (and over 25 years of patience) we’ve got a good 10 or so hours of Beautiful, passionately designed, triple A level quality content for an alien world that keeps showing just how much potential it has. God damn it I love this community ❤
Yeah, I really love the reimagined Xen in the remakes
Yet another cinematic walkthrough, aaa. Very, very well done. I have been turning to your playthroughs for quite while since I cannot play stuff myself for some time (and also your style is better anyway lol)
(For some reason I am a bit fixated on that one flower that opens, closes and opens again - so interesting. I missed that they were related to autosaves)
Thanks for watching and glad I'm able to show good gameplay for you! Yeah, that flower is pretty cute; it's so shy when you get close to it lol.
Wow, I didn't expect it to be so soon
If I had it my way this video would've come out earlier. Nonetheless, hope you enjoy :) Looking forward to your track for the interceptor core battle!
Holy cow, Daver? Didn't expect to see you here.
@@Sexy_Nutella btw Pawel did some tracks for this update including the track "Take Control". Which is the song that plays when fighting for the focal point.
@@Sexy_Nutella th-cam.com/video/YIrTldqsQqA/w-d-xo.html
@@tankingbeast1132 Yup that's my favourite track from his score. The extended Focal Point theme being a close second.
Saw it from start to finish in 2 years. This Xen is more evolved and scary than ever before, but your style of play was exciting that no one could match.
Yeah, I do love that this Xen harkens back to the HL1 style a bit at the latter maps. Glad you liked the video!
2:47:46 OH MY GOD I WISH I NOTICED THAT WHEN I PLAYED NO FUCKING WAY
WHY IS THAT SO COOL
Yeah, definitely a blink and you'll miss it moment
6:15- 6:56
Playing through areas like these and more into the game ACHED my soul so much. Not because we’re killing Houndeyes around offsprings, but mainly because it’s the parents that Barney’s killing.
I don’t wanna look like the bad guy. Why does this have to hurt so much?! 😭
Sad but necessary :(
14:38 minutes in; I really like the track playing rn and the possible ones being the same
Mysterious and actually alien, almost fantasy-80s'/90s' sci-fi-feel and vibe compared to Gordon's melancholic Xen tracks
Barney's represent being sorta weirded out by all of this, while Gordon's being soothing and calm at times because it's a beautiful change of being somewhere after nearly DAYS of being in the massive facility with his own species dead around him in brutal or mundane ways to die
The reason Barney's tracks are possibly like this is because he's the earliest to escape too, so the least to see the worse of the most traumatic things lmao
Yeah this track really does standout for the reasons you mentioned. Rather a bit spooky
30:41 the death of this MK lll zombie sounds like a level up from old retro games
Love those lil bits of humor
WAKE UP, PEAK HAS ARRIVED
IT'S EARLY CHRISTMAS, HALF LIFE BROS
thank you so much for this btw
No problem :) merry christmas!
Poor Patrice 2 from Duty Calls, she was right about the aliens and Murdoch didn't forgive her before dying.
Yeah :/ felt bad for her
I casually played this chapter, and I really like the presentation of it. It was the best-looking Xen levels that I have seen since Black Mesa Xen. Yes, there were tough creatures and got lost at times due to a lack of light sources, but I enjoyed it a lot. My personal favorite was the Manta flight scene, which was definitely not what I expected but was in the original Half Life that Black Mesa didn't have. I give my thanks to the devs who worked on this chapter and to you for making this video.
No problem at all, glad you liked the video. I also was pleasantly surprised by the Manta ride. Like you, I was always bummed that Black Mesa didn't include something like that in their Xen levels.
Wow... What a nice video... Keep up the good work man, you're outstanding! ❤
Thanks so much! Glad you liked the video
Finally! We continue with the adventures of Barney :D.
And what an epic one it is!
I absolutely love the remnants of the black mesa research facilities in xen especially the mark 3 hev suits HECU collective really outdid themselves
Yeah, it's always nice seeing how Black Mesa operated before it all went to shit
25:05 I don't know why, but this cracked me up more than it probably should have
Barney must be severely concussed by the amount of times he's rammed into walls and floors and shit in this chapter alone.
@@Sexy_Nutella Those Black Mesa security helmets must be quite tough :P
welcome back, missed you
Thanks! Glad to be back
We are Focalling Some Points gentlemen
We boutta escape Xen with this one 🔥🔥
I really liked Focal Point. I've heard some people complain that it's too long, but I honestly didn't mind too much. I was definitely ready to return to Black Mesa by the end, but I think that's also partly intentional. Honestly fighting the HECU will probably seem really easy after those Alien Controllers. It makes me wonder what they'll do to spice up Power Struggle.
Anyway, I thought it was really cool how they expanded Xen's ecosystem, adding new habitats and new types of houndeyes, bullsquids, protozoans, and even puffball fungi, and of course the archers and flocking floaters. Speaking of which, I wonder what the floater at 1:12:15 is doing to the boid. My first thought was that it might have been cleaning it like a cleaner shrimp does for fish, but I guess it could also be a predator or a parasite.
My favourite part was probably the abandoned research base. I really liked figuring out what happened to the survey team. For me at least I didn't find the logs until after I'd picked up the final power cell, so the whole thing really unfolded in pieces like a little mystery thriller. The fact that the crystal network seemed to adapt and react to the scientists and their outpost being there, and the fact that Alien Grunts showed up just after the crystals detected Barney makes me wonder if it's really natural, or some sort of machine...and I mean, Xen has always blurred the lines between nature and technology ever since HL1, so it fits.
Anyway, another great playthrough! You're the best my friend!
Yeah that entire research base was one of my favourite parts. So many layers to it and lore. Culminating in the tram ride around the crystal was epic.
I also wasn't sure if the floater on the Boid was a parasitic relationship or not. It looked cute so I just left them haha
@@Sexy_Nutella Oh yeah, the tram ride was amazing, and I was actually sort of disappointed when it was over, kind of like the final elevator in Interloper lol.
1:17:06 I loved this part, It's so good.
Great video👍
That was one of the most beautiful moments I've experienced in a Source game
Finally absolute cinematic gameplay
Glad you thought so! :)
I find it funny and fitting that both versions of Blue Shift had much better Xen chapters than original Half Life/Black Mesa
I love how BMBS' Xen expands on the foundation BM established and ran with it. The results are indeed staggering.
Rosenberg really just sent an ordinary security guard here without any special protection or even telling him what not to touch and what alien fauna/microbes could be lethal to humans lol. He didn't even tell him how to use the relay device. I know this is done from a gameplay view but realistically it's just silly.
Haha he could have prepped him more for sure
Señor, thank you for these videos 👍
My pleasure!
0:43 1:20:52 2:07:26
Bruh, poor Barney is getting the worst by everything around him. I guess this is how it is not being Gordon Freeman in situations 😭
Poor guy just gets yeeted around so much in this chapter alone lol
Bro just really want go home and send task for destroying jammer, atleast Freeman know his situation for destroying whole Nihilanth's factory
The return of the king
My personal favourite is Two Towers ;)
Feliz Navidad amigo 😉🎄
Your content is always entertaining to watch and especially the gameplay.
I am glad :) Thanks for the kind words
Bet 💯 that you had in mind that grenade blast to allow the music drop while fighting alien grunts and controllers in focal point site . You know exactly what im talking about bro😂 that was your quality mark
I wanted to time a shot at the beat drop but didn't know exactly how it was gonna go. Once the smg nade popped and the sound went away I knew I had to capitalize on it. So many things happen that are totally unscripted but I end up keeping cus I liked the way it turned out.
I took ages and multiple deaths to handle that Alien Controller + Alien Grunt fight (Relay section).
Was waiting for your video to see how you'd tackle it. Excited for this gigantic ass chapter.
Black Mesa Blue Shift is also my first youtube series, as an upload. Hopefully I can polish my game (maybe as much as you xD) and upload it some day.
Good luck on the playthrough! Yeah that fight is tough
*"Absolute cinema."*
What I was going for so glad it turned out that way!
There are some extra HEV MK. 3 voice line references, such as one that reminds me of “you failed” sound effect
It’s also weird to see Black Mesa personnel and equipment this deep into enemy territory at 2:36:43
I believe the Survey team was there first, got killed by the Xenians, and then the Xenians established the facility around where the survey team was stationed. That, or that guy genuinely almost pulled a Freeman and managed to come close to sabotaging the core lol
Barney to the vorts be like: oh, now you don't wanna shoot lightning at me you multi-eyed freaks?
Haha, his personality would definitely be like that
30:47 dude this guy is immune to shotguns
Yeah I was getting annoyed lmao which is why I pulled out the crowbar
2:28:43 Grunt jumped in front to save his friend🥲
What a true friend
❤emotional
I'm so fukn pumped for when they release the last 3 chapters man.
Me too man, me too
God it has been a hot minute since I last saw your content!
Yeah it's been awhile since I've been back here. I missed it :')
Brilliant as always :) 👍
And maybe I said this before, but I'm really happy that you're back to your TH-cam channel. No joking, you making one of the best Half-Life (and other games) walkthroughs on *entire* TH-cam!
It's actually very rare nowadays.
That means a lot to me, thank you for the kind words and I am always excited after I upload videos to read comments like these :)
Wow, welcome back. Been a hot minute eh?
Indeed it has! Glad to be back
Note to self: do not watch this without a prodigious supply of popcorn.
Haha yes
@@Sexy_Nutella Okay, watched it, and it did NOT disappoint.
38:00 "Open up! I want an HEV suit!!"
45:02 Hey, they referenced Allied Processing! It was meant to be the site of a cancelled HL1 expansion starring a Junior G-Man as a player character, and the Team Fortress Classic mercenaries as NPC allies. That entire series of boards tells a pretty harrowing story. I love it.
55:48 Love the little nod to the classic train interface.
The entire Giant Crystal sequence at the end of the Primary Habitat map was very intense. It's as if the crystal itself was alive and actively hostile to Barney and Humanity, and trying to summon Bullsquids to fight you on its behalf. I am still shocked they put that much content into a single map.
1:36:35 Oh look, a Xen Grenade! Nice to see an HL:A reference in this. I also love how you portrayed Barney being a bit curious and confused about it, then realizing he's holding a hot potato and yeeting it into the distance.
Also, I love how the Vortigaunts simply don't seem to care much for an alien intruder roaming around and causing a mess. They're more like "oh no, the boss is gonna kill me..." when Barney wrecks the force field generators. Still, nice of you to save them from the grunts.
1:41:08 Baby tentacles! Is it possible to kill them, or are they invulnerable?
1:47:46 I find Gman's presence puzzling given he doesn't seem to have any interest whatsoever in Barney, so it's strange to have him seem to keep track of his progress. Though given his appearances have been sparse, it might be his equivalent of glancing over to see what this guy's doing as opposed to his focus being on Gordon and Adrian. Also, dayum that vista is enchanting when combined with the music.
1:55:50 I love the implication that the Nihilanth's forces are just as much of a mess upon Xen as humanity is, where they just pave over the stuff that was there without any kind of cleanup. (which makes the Nihilanth's accusations of Gordon killing the Gonarch rather hypocritical)
1:57:50 Roll Credits!
2:00:36 I like how we see Mark IV suits among the dead, showing it was just being phased in alongside the Mark III ones seen previously.
2:03:02 Whose photo is that on the desk? Looks like Charles Darwin.
2:03:21 I just couldn't help but laugh at the overkill. Barney must be getting sick to death of headcrabs.
2:03:53 A crossbow in Blue Shift? Now that's a pleasant surprise. I love the patchwork look of the crossbow. Would actually fit better into HL2 than the one we had in the base game. The way it's put together also reminds me of the Metro games.
2:04:17 Barney peers into the Postal 2 Main Menu.
2:05:02 That's... counterproductive on the hand of the Survey Team if they're the ones who set up the force field. If it's the aliens, it looks like it'd be more of an annoyance than any real hindrance.
2:09:37 Giving that Grunt the double barrel to the beat drop is just (mwah!)
2:15:00 It would have been so easy to just use a normal water texture, yet they went out of their way to make it contour around the islands. It's wonderful.
2:15:35 The "organic factory surrounded by smog" look reminds me of the HL2 Beta (and the start of Our Benefactors from Retail). Looks like the Nihilanth was more inspired by his former enslavers than he'd like to admit.
2:24:18 Interloper flashbacks.
2:32:05 I love Barney's first instinct being to check if the scientist and guard are alive and if he can save them.
2:33:54 Antlions and a Combine Mortar? Very unexpected, but not unwelcome callback (or Call-forward?) to HL2.
2:35:30 This reminds me of the Citadel Core from Episode 1. Heck, I think the core's model is even visible in the heart of the jamming device. Meanwhile it's destruction obviously echoes the Dark Energy Reactor at the end of HL2.
2:47:46 A brief faraway wonder for Barney, ignorant that his friend would go right there not even a day later.
Man, that final escape sequence was VERY harrowing, but you made it in the nick of time. Fantastic work!
General Notes:
The Mark III HEV suits look like they were based on the old Ivan The Space Biker model for Gordon. They are yellow colored and bulkier than the Mark IV. I think it's a shame they removed the auto-extinguishing feature as it could have made for a fun little sequence where if you ignite an HEV zombie with a flare, it would extinguish and keep coming for you.
Given how many Houndeyes and Bullsquids Barney kills in this chapter, I get the impression he's singlehandedly responsible for them being outright gone by the time of HL2.
The Manta Rays are notably much more fragile in this than in Black Mesa, where they effortlessly engaged in dogfights with military jets. Here two rockets are enough to shoot one of them down. It also showcases how tough the Bullsquids and Alien Grunts are, as a full rocket is barely (or not, in Grunt's case) enough to kill them, not gib.
All in all, BMBS's rendition of Focal Point is simply glorious, and absolutely worth the wait. The Interceptor area was a bit Interloper-y, but definitely trimmed the worst of the fat from that chapter. And your playthrough was worth it, even if I ran out of popcorn before the first hour was up.
@@Sexy_Nutella After watching it over the course of 5 hours (frequently pausing to read text) I must say it was a great and cinematic playthrough. Unfortunately, it seems TH-cam deleted a detailed comment I wrote as I was watching for reasons unknown. Sadly I can't be bothered to rewatch the entire thing just to rewrite it from scratch right now (but may do so in the future if I'm really bored)
@Dafuqinator7 i do still see your comment, at least on my TH-cam Studio app. Hopefully it gets restored for you! I appreciate the detailed comments and insight and am glad you enjoyed :)
@@Sexy_Nutella Glad to hear that!
Ah yes, a 20 minute adventure, like the og xen from hl1.
Oh definitely ;)
*The King Has Returned !!!*
👑👑👑👑👑👑
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Hope you enjoy the vid man!
this was a phenomenal chapter the HECU collective the Retelling of Barneys trek through zen was peak, but I do have 1 complaint.
unlike in the original blue shift I felt like they extended the xen part too long?
When I was plying the chapter, it felt like hours before I got to the Rely and even long going into the factory to turn it back on.
But other than that, a really good chapter the HECU collective design of the black mesa habit was so cool it was like an old horror movie at times.
I was really excited to see you tackle the puzzles in zen because they took me a while to figure out especially the rely one with the codes and the doors with the force field too.
Great gameplay Nutella
Thank you! I did feel that some parts of the chapter dragged on too long when I first played it, but on subsequent playthroughs I actually really appreciated the pacing haha.
THEY'RE BAAACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOP WOOP!!!!!!!!!!
Lets gooo
1:47:26 ..... Now that is something I didn't expect to see.
Me neither. I didn't expect a G-man cameo in this mod lol
2:51:11 i really like how the portal sound from Dr. Gina/ Collete flyby
Yeah that's a neat reference
I just finished this chapter and I will say that I am quite impressed with the visuals, the tweaks to the story, amd the new enemy varients from Xen! It was quite mystifying.
That said, I feel like this chapter kinda suffers like Xen in Black Mesa for 1 of 2 reasons: as beautiful as it is, the puzzles and lemgth seem to drag just a bit, where by the Jammer islamd I honestly felt more keen on rushing to the end.
I akso felt like the Alien Controllers were a bit unfair to fight even on just Black Mesa difficulty, and the enemy density left me running around with my head chopped iff while trying to manage my health and the objectives.
Overall, still a good chapter and i look forward to the last 2-3 chapters!
Yeah, when I first played I also thought it overstayed its welcome. That being said, my subsequent playthroughs were much better once I understood the general pacing of the chapter and I grew to appreciate it much more. Perhaps the same will happen to you, and if not that is totally fine and I get where you're coming from :)
When this game is finished, we'll just need a Black Mesa: Opposing Force, and we'll finally have "Half-Life - The Black Mesa collection".
That sounds awesome haha
1:19:50 After Interceptor storm hitting sky, the aliens start noticing the light from Calhoun's shadow in the sky so they realize there hostile close begin starting shooting first xen sentry turret
Interesting. I thought it was just because he was getting closer to the island.
Let's go!
Thanks so much to you and your team for this grand experience!
@@Sexy_Nutella thanks to you lol
Overall very impressive design and worth the wait time.
HECU Collective's Xen adds more variation to Crowbar's Xen and add so much that I cannot compare to the original Blue Shift anymore.
You can see how HL: Alyx and Dead Space inspired the hostile Xenian overgrowth in the lab.
I would wish to see more active elements in this - like that one part where a wall burst open to reveal a light-stalk. You can see a HEV guy covered in root and think that must happened for a long time ago until you realized what the plant-life in Xen is capable of. If more of this is shown, players can even be afraid to touch the funguous-gory walls - instead only the Xen tree-impalers proved any danger and you shoot them once with a shotgun.
The semi-open map design in Site Alpha is also quite neat albeit I must admit that I lost the plot within the spectacles and info drip.
You stumbled on the site and at best try to power the doors so you can keep moving on so I don't understand why I had to deal with the big purple lazer crystal and the experiments, some of which would prove too dangerous to bother as they were not the main objective. Hopefully some tweak can be put in to give players some sense of direction.
The moment where you whack the old HEV container unit (let me in) gave me the idea that Barney could also benefit from visiting the site to get better gear,: maybe an HEV chestplate so that he can get better protection/movement and use the HEV batteries laying around.
A cool moment that became weak later on is they decided to have an Alien Grunt stalk you throughout the level. I at first did not get a good look at it and, with the horror-themed lab, thought that they were going to tease a Gonome boss fight. Later you see what it is and, while I understand that it is Barney's first encounter with a Grunt, I realized it wasn't anything important to deal with after all - just spooky moments.
The mantarays shooting lazers was a nice call-back and the xen towers having controller effect is an interesting idea in terms of story-telling.
I haven't played the rest yet so maybe I will share more later but I would expect Barney to immediately give Rosenburger shit the moment he made it back to Black Mesa because this is some Gordon-Freeman-level threat that you would not ever send a lone security guard in without support.
And Barney did all this with just his standard issue equipment which I found quite unbelievable. Maybe the doctor realized after the tank battle that Barney may have plot armor that they can exploit. Poor guy.
To be fair Rosenberg unfortunately didn't have anyone else more suitable than Barney at that moment. Though he definitely could have maybe outfitted him with a HEV suit if they had one hahaha
@@Sexy_Nutellathey had a dusty one in the teleporter room, barney's just not trained lmao
Excuse me this chapter is 3 HOURS LONG?! Goddamn, this one chapter feels longer than all of og blue shift.
It most certainly is!
@@Sexy_Nutella Still fun chapter, except that big fight near the end. (My dumb ass wasted all my ammo during the second phase not realising I already did wat I had to and had to do the third phase with 50 health, a shotgun and a rocket launcher.)
1:47:27 😮😮 G-Man, 2:47:46 Gordon leaves from Xen portal Nihilanth. 😮
Yup. Altho Barney leaves Xen before Gordon ever gets there!
A bit offtopic, but do have plans to replay HL2, maybe with the VR mod? I love how expressive you get in these walkthroughs.
Not at the moment no, unfortunately do not have much time to do so. I am glad you like these walkthroughs though!
29:58 "Shit"
That animation of it rising up was creepy
jfc BMBS focal point have a lenght more large than THE ORIGINAL BLUE SHIFT ITSELF
Yeah it's quite the size haha
Did anyone notice the green field during the teleport at the end? I think that was Gina and Colette
Indeed it was :)
@ Ayo Black Mesa Decay when???
I wonder of the plot story, is Relay Island was made by science team mistake, or taking over by Nihilanth's army?
The relay island was established by the science team, but was then taken over by the aliens
@@Sexy_Nutella Making sense if Alien Controller starting build facility with xenian armory equipment so fast
2:05:47 That's my favorite sound from Half Life Xd
Half-Life button sounds are honestly so good it's like ASMR to me.
Does the Manta Ride contain a reprise of "Interdimensional" (the track that plays upon the opening vista in the chapter)
Not entirely sure. It sounds a bit different, at least to my ears.
@@Sexy_Nutella Daver said to me when making it that he tried to take some older tracks and tie them in for important moments. For manta ride I think he used Revival as some underlying moments. Even tho it's hard to make it out and I'm not sure if it's still that way. The interceptor core fight uses some elements of The Coordianate and The Origins uses a lot of elements from both Trains and Rails & Meta-Collide
2:51:10 Half life decay.
Yeah, that was a nice lil easter egg
"Callhoun, you must come through NOW!"
I did get a bit frustrated at times playing the chapter because it undergoes a lot of the same issues as the Xen chapters of regular Black Mesa (really obtuse level design on occasion and no frame of reference for where to go because, it's, well, alien; as well as some frustrating platform segments) but overall HECU have really figured out what makes Black Mesa's expansion on Half-Life so unique and interesting with so many fantastic setpiece environments and beautiful visual design, to an extent that I feel they get this right even better than Black Mesa itself does. I remember thinking that the whole cinematic stretch of the teleportation labs in Captive Freight felt eerily reminiscent of Valve's setpiece work on Portal 2, and I can say these abandoned Black Mesa outposts on Xen continue this trend and are even better than the already really cool Crowbar Collective ones.
I also did love how many enemies made me use the revolver. Usually it feels like the revolver's one tap ability is too worthwhile to waste on anything, and I end up just not using my ammo ever. This mod introduces a bunch of fairly oppressive enemies and a more limited arsenal, such that the revolver is often the most inexpensive way to deal with them quickly. It's great!
Yeah, BM and BMBS' re-envisioning of Xen is ambitious to say the least. Ditto on the revolver, it's probably the best weapon in the game, even more so than the xbow (deifnitely less reliable in a pinch I find with it having to reload after every shot). I do appreciate that they didn't cop out and give Barney the Tau or Gluon as it really highlighted how much more difficult it is for him to survive Black Mesa.
Does anyone get major flood vibes from this area in particular 35:10? Looks a lot like the flood infested areas in halo 3 (high charity and the covenant ship in floodgate) all those fleshy pustules and tentacles creep me the hell out
Oh my god, I am getting the "Covenant" level PTSD. Nothing is ever as bad as the Library in Halo 1 though.
the old Survey Base always gave me heavy Alien Isolation vibes when Cyvo first showed it to us. It was actually a super difficult decision to whether keep that design and basically everything you see in the final version. It might've been cut cuz Faber and some other team members were questioning how the hell did they build that thing in Xen, with fire sprinklers and pipes, tall walls with wayfinding and stuff.
I really liked it the first time but after some time and comments about it, I was also feeling a bit like: "yeah that's a bit overexaggerated...", but we've kept it and many people seem to like it so far
I can't help but to feel strange when I look at the SMG reload animation. He just reinserts the clip he had removed.
I believe Barney already has a fresh mag that he slips in while swapping out the old one (if it still has bullets). If he completely expends the magazine he actually just discards it on the floor.
yeah it's just tactical reload woes. I think I got the same comment with the glock anim I made back in the day
Love your animations @@lilpif337! The new crossbow is 👌
@@Sexy_Nutella it was a pretty spontaneous addition, although we were thinking about it even before we started the development of the chapter. The anims for it are not the best lol
@@lilpif337 I still really liked them regardless haha :)
Masterpiece
waiting opposing force version
You and me both!
1:09:26 sad "uuuu" noises 💚 (Man I Love Xen's Fauna)
Sniper shot! 1:41:54
Once I found out nades were effective against them there was no going back lol
hey dude i hope you end up doing a playthrough through the hl2 vr mod. cheers
Woah! A comment from the official HECUC channel. I can die happy now :')
Good gaming! 👍
Thanks! Glad you liked it