"Nice camoflauge asshole!" that has to be my favorite line, cause let's be real, wearing a bright popsicle orange suit really doesn't help with stealth
It's a suit built for civilian safety. Civilian safety gear is made to be as visible as possible. Bright orange isn't too found in nature, hence why you see such vests, helmets, and even traffic cones.
I think the fact it lasted seven hours should give you enough of an idea, especially since literally the entire world fought and couldn't even last HALF a day.
I like it how the HECU was depicted as being confident and bloodthirsty in their initial takeover but it falls apart when Xen launched an invasion. Not only were marines left behind in complete disarray amid the chaos, they were even launching air strikes on themselves. Just sheer terror.
If only the HECU help the scientist instead of exterminating them then the invasion might not have been that bad especially since Freeman is on their side
I really like how they changed the first conversation. They didn't change the wording of the lines at all. They just gave it a different tone, and suddenly the grunt isn't a bloodthirsty maniac complaining about how shooting unarmed scientists is boring. He sounds like a conflicted human being, who isn't happy about what he's doing, and is trying to justify his actions to himself.
@@TheArkman360 Not win mind you, no one likes being dead. Just that they fight back to justify killing them. How can you say you are doing the right thing when fighting unnarmed combatants?
Neat touch that at 2:56, the Corpsman (Medic) immediately recognizes it as Latin due to the ridiculous amount of Latin terminologies used in medical schooling.
I wouldn't call it a war crime, it's not a war. It's a government clean up of government personnel. Government tried to cover up what happened at black mesa, any nation would, but it got out of control really fast.
@@overkill-q Killing civilians - order or not - is a crime no matter how you look at it. That particular soldier deserved his fate. May headcrab hump his brain for all eternity.
@@overkill-q another thing. Let's assume HECU is based off real-world marine corps. Therefore all rules and laws apply. Is marine forced to join a mission or is it voluntary decision?
@@adler830 these aren't regular marines. They deal with biohazards and non natural things, so the rules of the average marine wouldn't necessarily apply to HECU as well
7:11 Damn. On my playthroughs I thought he said: "Eyesight's gone. My eyesight is gone." I had this vision of this blind soldier bleeding out, not able to find his First Aid.
The conversation between Echo 3 Juliet and Echo 5 Romeo was a conversation between a Lance Corporal and a Sergeant. The Sergeant was trying to help the Lance with an IFAK and you could just hear the Sergeant's heart sink at the end there.
@@karelpapousek6495 when ever Echo is used with a number and a letter from the NATO phonetic alphabet in that order it means that an individual soldier and not a squad or fire team designation is talking on the radio. Echo in this instance stands for enlisted man I.E not an officer. The number they say is their rank which can go from 1 to 9 where 1 is the lowest rank being a private to 9 being a sergeant major/1st sergeant/master gunnery sergeant. The NATO phonetic letter used after their number is supposed to represent the first letter of their last name (sometimes it can be their first name if you have more then one person in the squad who has the same rank and also has the same first letter of their last name). To identify officers it's basically the same except you replace Echo with Oscar then the number and then the NATO phonetic letter. These work over all in every U.S military branch for radio call outs.
@@karelpapousek6495 Yes the officer was a 1st lieutenant in this case. It should also be noted that when dealing with warrant officers the Oscar will be replaced with Whiskey. These designations were designed to communicate with enlisted and officers across branches in the event of a combined conflict where units from different branches were fighting along side each other. All branches have different names for the same ranks and you can't be expected to know them all and they can be confusing in the heat of battle. For instance let's say a navy captain is giving an order and coordinating with Marines on the ground. He is from a different branch and so captain means a different rank to the Marines. He wouldn't go on the radio and identify himself by saying he is a captain because their could be a high ranking officer on the ground for the Marines let's say for example a major. Now in the navy a captain is the equivalent of a colonel in the marines, so to get rid of all the confusion of who the commanding officer is in that situation the navy captain would say on the radio that he is an Oscar 6. The major on the ground hearing his order now knows that he is dealing with someone two ranks above him instead of someone one rank below him. This is just one example of many where this is used and it helps simplify command structure in battle.
Hearing the Marines in the background at 6:00 is honestly horrific to listen to. The Marine screaming for a Corpsman sounds so genuine and filled with desperation, and just goes to show how hopelessly unprepared they were for a situation like this.
Thinking about how HECU was likely prepared, they probably thought they were some sort of CBRN unit, stationed in the area by black mesa for it’s potential as a training ground of some sort. They thought they’d be fighting human opponents in a potentially contaminated environment. Nothing would prepare them for the aliens they’d face. No doubt they’d be unsettled once they entered the facility, both having to kill civilians and face hostile beings. By the time of surface tension, the Nihilanth had begun pushing its invasion, the Xen aliens began breaching out of the facility and began causing Chaos behind the HECU lines. You can hear the HECU mentioning that there’s no frontline with the aliens, as they just kept teleporting in all around their positions. Panic was starting to set in, and the ground forces were eventually left on their own as the Air Force was trying to contain the threat with interception and bombing
@@BlueRecRoom a Corpsman is basically a medic from the US Navy. Corpsman are attached to Marines due to them having no specific medical personnel themselves.
8:05 I think what happened here is that he noticed one or a few fighter jets were about to bomb his position and screamed in denial before being hit, hence the explosion felt shortly after his transmission.
I’m pretty sure this is when the hecu started air striking/firing mortars/carpet bombing on black mesa and the soldier in the comms happens to be right in it
@Brucewillis235 eh I'd give that a pass, I doubt many of the rebels have military training by that time, plus not like they have artillery, mortar, or any of that nonsense
@@patrickfitz6343 Indeed he is. Sent him an email once acknowledging his work and he said that it was nice that his work was being appreciated, even all the way here in the Philippines (And if you notice the heart on the original comment is gone, I apparently misspelled "HECU" and corrected it so yeah xD)
Dude is also the voice of a No More Room In Hell character, both teams in Insurgency 2014, and "Cleric" the minigun support pilot in Insurgency Sandstorm. Not to mention a dev of both Insurgency games to boot.
6:47 Out of all of them, this was the worst of them to listen to. You can notice Echo-3-Juliet's speech slurring in the last few words, meaning the sudden static was him dropping his radio due to the blood loss making him delirious.
It feels real, in a lot less "gung ho" way some of the other ones do, and that combined with the radio designations being correct IRL (at least according to another guy further up), makes me wonder if there wasn't someone on the team that did a combat tour or two
The radio transmission with BM are great. Major contribution to the environmental story telling aspect of Half Life. First its an alien invasion against unthinking animals. then its a goverment conspiricy to cover up the event and silence the facility. Then suddenly intelligent alien combat formations show up and full on war break out. Then the HECU Marines are overrun and forced to retreat, leaving only the surviving science team to try to save the day. Its an element in Video game story telling i like where a game feels like a journey. That is the advantage of not having "cut scens" as you are in "the game" the entire time (other than when you get knocked out)
This is yet another example of why I wish black mesa was considered official half life material The team has done an incredible job of bringing up half life 1 to a more modern standard, and added so much more content that does incredible world building
@@restoreleader lore wise, black mesa changed very little, it’s the still the same plot. However, they made some more connections to HL2 (adding more character dialogue and interaction to Eli and Kliener), refined parts of the game that otherwise were lacking in HL1, such as revamping the presentation of Xen, humanizing the HECU, and overall far stronger environmental story telling across the entirety of the game.
@@Armin2012 Ok thats true, connecting those scientists was probably from their initiative and xen... well i wasnt able to figure any mind control shenanigans back then, im not sure if it was explained in the base half-life
Their actual dialogs made me kinda sad for killing them, never gave a thought about them but in Black Mesa they "act" so human, you can definitely tell it's absolute chaos to them like to everyone in the facility
Shepard's squad didn't even get their proper orders. The Marines were called in to contain something they were NOT prepared for by people who didn't know what the hell was going on.
And from trying to coverup a facility working with alien specimens, they would later realize they were the now on the frontline of a full on alien invasion. An invasion that had no frontline, unknowable size of the enemy’s strength, and the demoralizing alien horrors weaponized against them. You had just gone in, hearing about friendly aircraft being shot down by unknown assailants, and entering this area-51 esque facility. You are told you have to kill the terrified civilians, some of whom are some of the worlds brightest minds, while facing monstrosities in the dark corridors that materialize out of thin air in bright green flashes. Then, you notice these creatures are starting to become organized, and greater in number. Soon your topside control zones are now under threat, and alien mantra rays are reducing your convoys to dust
The radio conversations from Surface Tension and onwards are the conversations that hit hard. You can hear the desperation in the HECU and the field officers trying their best to keep everyone alive while the soldiers are borderline panicking about how they're getting overrun on every front. Not a single bit of good news comes through the radio at any point. It's just people stranded, getting overrun, hung out to dry, dying, reporting sector-wide retreats, and everything else that could go wrong. My only lament is that there weren't more of these radio conversations throughout the entire game, showing the HECU's grip on the facility slowly unravelling as Xen gradually picked apart their defences through force of numbers.
something even more terrifying is that there wasn't even a front as per the dialogue of the entering soldiers in surface tension "there's no front line with these things!" What the hell do you do against an enemy that can reposition any asset instantaneously to anywhere on the battlefield? how in the bloody hell do you fight that? At any time you can be encircled or flanked by an enemy force, at any time your unit could get ambushed by enemies that just appeared in front of you and you could easily end up like echo-3. Your enemy could just teleport into your HQ and kill all your commanding staff, even air asset could just be teleported behind enemy aircraft or on top of a prime bombing target. they didn't even need the numbers honestly with such an insane tactical advantage. And that's without considering the fact that you're fighting an enemy that has neither moral nor logistic to be concerned with.
Have you ever looked up the cut VOX lines for the original Half-Life? There were a lot of lines written for most chapters in the game but the majority of them were left on the cutting room floor. The lines for Blast Pit, Power Up, On A Rail, and Questionable Ethics shed a bit more light on whats going on and string together and overarching narrative in the game. The lines for Questionable Ethics (some play, some don't) and Office Complex are good as well.
I'll be honest, black mesa paints the militarys fight with xen completely diferently then the original half life. With the original half life depicting the military standing somewhat of a chance dealing blows left and right to the alien forces but gettting outnumbered, here they aren't winning in any way possible
To add onto that, it helps paint the Black Mesa incident in the most accurate way possible: a tragic mess. You have scientists and security guards cut off from one another trying to survive against parasitic headcrabs (some of which have latched on to their former colleagues' heads and turned them into a meat mech) and the HECU trying to cover up the incident until they themselves were being torn apart about by the forces of Xen. Crowbar COllective did a great job in humanizing the marines and, ultimately, helped players to understand just how screwed everything was during the events of Black Mesa.
No idea why but 5:44 is kinda sad to me, especially when the other one is signaling him to get out of blast zone, only to be blown to smithreens, and the the other just lowkey gets crushed by a crate
That scene was one of my favorite bits in the game. It’s also the main reason I made this whole video because I realized that no one had posted that scene (Or any HECU scenes for that matter) to TH-cam.
That's my favorite scene too. When I saw it the first time in my playthrough, I was really hit with how utterly panicked they were, and how chaotic and horrifying the situation really was
2:56 In the original shareware version aka the original Half Life 2 mod, the conversation about the Latin sign here was the two marines gloating about how they were going to molest the female scientists, with one of them responding with a wolf howl. It’s easy to see why this was changed for the retail version. While it sounds like something they’d do (and real armies have historically done), to players and the devs, it felt like a step too far and made them sound like Totally Spies villains.
I always liked that bit for how surprising and menacing it was. I like how one minute you fear and feel betrayed by these guys and want to pay them back for massacring your coworkers, then the next you might feel a little bad for them, and then you hate them again, ect...
@@Raycloud Yep. There's also the field hospital before the gargantua in Surface Tension with headcrabs and the guy on the radio calling for a corpsman.
@@lionocyborg6030and in Power Up, where you can find a small makeshift medical station with an HECU zombie, IV drip still attached to his arm. The story tells itself.
Its coming on the black mesa workshop, atleast i think it is (They are making blue shift and i think ive seen stuff about opposing force flying around)
@@Applesauce006 Are they still working on that? I haven't heard a single peep from them besides some music they released. I think it was Crocodile Tears or maybe that was a different studio.
Feels like the Military lost their bravado as soon as the Nihalanth re-opened the portal and the Xen forces started coming through. And if they could barely hold out against the Xen army, it’s no wonder why The Combine took over Earth so quickly.
@@dislikebutton5149 Isn't it cannon that g-man is somehow resposible for the military to target personnel, for the sake of annihilation in the 7 hour war?
Technically this is not a whole army. This is more like "SWAT" or "FBI". HECU - Hazardous Environment Combat Unit. In fact, the saddest thing is that when the soldiers of HECU failed, special assassins "black operatives" were sent to the black mesa, so that they would have already cleared the base of everyone. And from the soldiers who didn't manage to get out but also from the remaining scientists.
@@Appolo15966 It all depends on what games in the Half-Life franchise you consider Canon. In Opposing Force, Adrian's diary states that G-Man had been talking to the HECU higher-ups prior to them being sent on the Black Mesa mission, which is a pretty big nod that G-Man had at least some part in the conflict at Black Mesa. But, since some people don't consider any of the HL expansions canon, it's more or less just a matter of perspective
It certainly didn't help that the HECU were armed primarily with submachine guns, and while we don't see the entirety of the black Mesa facility, the HECU reasonably can't be more than a brigade sized formation. Not a lot of heavy weapons you can send along with soldiers in V22's
2:02 Well he's walking around without a damn helmet! That always bugged the Hell out of me. This goes for Warhammer as well. You can be wearing some bad-ass protective suit. But if your noggin is exposed...
“If I wore this suit while riding a motorcycle, I’d be breaking the law in 20 states, and you want me to wear it while we shoot poorly aimed lasers at a ROCK, to try and tear apart the fabric of reality.”
What's funny is that if I remember from Sexy Nutella (maybe), their initial conversation is carried on should you remain underwater, like "Holy shit, we actually killed him! Hell yeah!" or that sorta thing. Neat detail.
@@bababooey5402 idk while i was in hammer editor i spent like a hour of browsing through the hecu voicelines trying to find a good one for my map,there wasn't a voice line like that.
@@MaxwellDSTMight’ve been a removed voiceline that Nutella modded back in. Their playthrough has a couple mods that either readds cut content or patches stuff.
This actually gave me goosebumps, genuinely terrifying, you never really pay attention to these conversations enough to know just how terrifying this is not just for the scientists but especially for the marines
I'll be honest I listened to every radio station and conversation the military had with one another (talking about the original half life). For me the perspective of the military was very important, and I was kinda on there side, I understood why they did what they did so I always felt bad killing them
What I find interesting is the environment where you hear E3J comment on his injuries is an ad hoc medical triage area or something similar. You can see IV drips and stretcher beds (some with dead marines on them)alongside strewn out containers and medical items. It’s pretty harrowing seeing all of it once you understand.
Some of them didn't like taking down civvies. It's one thing to take down a, well, an opposing force that's pointing a gun at you. It's another thing to be ordered to do cleanup by executing civvies. They just weren't prepared to have aliens annoyingly teleporting all over the place. Places they cleared would get restocked with hostiles. That's a logistical nightmare. It was bad for Freeman who was taking the alternate smaller routes. Can you imagine the sheer number of teleportation in the bigger areas where the marines were? And each of these aliens had their own abilities, which they, like Freeman, would have to figure out on the fly how to deal with.
@@Supperdude9if the xen invasion of BM never got too bad and the combine didn’t invade (just for the sake of this argument), how exactly would the top brass silence an entire unit of marines that had witnessed so much death and despair and execution of civilians? Would the survivors all be logged on a black book and taken to Guantanamo or would they just deem them clinically insane?
@@TemmieContingenC ...That info would have gotten out. They'd have tried to contain it. I mean, teleporting aliens that are killing everyone? It's a nightmare scenario. Just that notion alone would cause a panic in the world, because with teleportation like that, nowhere is safe. There would have been an effort to contain the news. Just... it was a bad situation.
@@Supperdude9 Exactly and as depicted and shown in half life usually just a few marines were able to take a way bigger numbers of xen troops, so if anything that's just impressive. I think the numbers of xen was the reason of the military having to pull out
@@abhikergaming7783 It's the lack of the front line. That's how standard human military tactics work. As I've said in a previous post, you establish the front line, you secure areas, slowly work your way while covering each other, clearing threats. Setting up areas where you can move up ammo, supplies, and move back wounded/fatigued fighters. If you can't have that, you have a logistical nightmare and bad situations. They aren't trained for that. You're trained to clear areas. You're trained to cover each other. You're trained to move up, cover fire, and overwhelm your opponent with decisive tactics. And if you get overwhelmed yourself, you have that front line that you cleared to retreat to. Look at bad situations where military teams got surrounded. Only a few exceptions survived such situations. Bastogne was only survived because the Germans didn't attack with their full force. Alesia was survived because they unconventionally built fortifications around the city they had under siege in the first place. The Black Mesa incident was a military nightmare. Ultimately, their only decision was the nuke at the end of Opposing Force. And even that didn't end the invasion.
I always have a weird moment in the room where Gordon listens to the Echo-3-Juliet guy. That area has some headcrabs and a zombie but its a place to breathe and take in all the horrible shit. The room is dark and splattered with blood, cots and medical supplies are scattered about. Always makes me stop and feel it.
6:52 i almost cry Beacause that happen to me when i was traped in colombia Me all alone in the midle of the jungle whit a broken arm and a knife on my leg. And the only thing i can do was call for help but in the other side i just hear "tranquilo respira y manten presion en la herida" Then all goes black I dont even remember how i ben capable to walk or move to the base. But that poor solder :(
I tried doing it with a grenade first playthrough but didn't realize that they could be cooked. Got an achievement while also killing both of the HECU marines
You are right, that’s when the radio operator asks “be advised target freeman may be in your sector”. My main goal with this video was to cover all the in-game conversations between the marines. Less focus was put on the radio transmissions because I feel there are already tons of videos covering them. So any transmissions I added was more of a tacked on thing. But thank you for letting me know.
@@patrickfitz6343 Yeah gotcha - wasn’t sure if it was worth pointing out or not, but decided to because I think you do have every other radio transmission in here anyway as well as the chitchats
0:16 I like to intrepid that line as the marine trying to deal with the fact that he’s killing what he knows are innocent people and the fact that they cannot defend themselves in any way makes him feel guilty rather than that he’s just annoyed at the lack of challenge
1:08 I KNEW you gonna do that, as soon as he says "he'll pay". I really feel sorry for both of them, at least with some cheat codes, I can "convince" them to join me in the fight. 2:56 Also, for some reason they changed this dialogue here, the original had the 2 wanting to find a female scientist.
I remember that, I think they changed the lines because having two marines talk about “wrangling up lady scientists” came off as too creepy. I like the new lines honestly, they are more comedic.
@@patrickfitz6343 Just to add on my previous comment about the combine and revel fight. What I actually meant was you could have a normal looking combines with their original in-game model AND another with custom models on the same map with cheats only, without the need of a map editor. If you like I do have a tutorial on how to do it: th-cam.com/video/6Fti5gMJMVw/w-d-xo.html
@@patrickfitz6343 They’re wasting their time anyway. If they REAALLY wanted to get their rocks off, then they should remember that you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.
Something I love is you can hear the solider different opinions how some where blood thirsty others where questions who authorised kill innocents, then when Xen come along you can here the fear in some and others the sadness of losing allies
HL BLACK MESA has the best portrayal of a warzone. The HECU goes in, takes over the area and spreads thin. While they try to stabilize the situation Xen soilders show up and things start to fall apart. Plus the BLACK OPS show up to add to the Freeman threat. They got overwhelmed and some got left behind.
"Ok, you're gonna need to find another pack and get a tourniquet out of it." *No response* "Are you still there?" *No response* "Echo 3 Joliet, can you hear me?" That's when you know when he's gone.
I know the HECU are the "bad" guys in the game, but they really tried to stop an alien invasion with all they had. That deserves some respect. They even had to fight against the government that send the Black Ops to kill them, instead of aiding them to escape or keep the fight.
5:07 You can just hear the desperation in that tank crew. You see hostile Air coming right towards you with a beam laser and you're screaming at your driver to back up but he can't due too him being to paralyzed with fear to move.
There are a lot of HECU Dialogues expressing either disgust or regret for murdering the scientists and the like, it mostly just seems like they were following orders to the end; even if they didn't really *like* doing so (Like the guy at 1:16)
I think alot of people misunderstand the lines. Theyre supposed to be contradictory. Some HECU went in and wanted to fight, some didnt want to kill scientist and civlians, some thought it was fun. Theyre not all the same, the dialogue is supposed to show that they are human and have different views on the situation, their orders and Gordon.
It hits me hard listening how the HECU was being overrun At the beggining they were confident and acting like they got controll over the situation, but as soon as xen attacks they fucking lose it, i mean, listening them in panick, screaming for help, desperately trying to fight back xen and failing, it gives me chills, especially the last one were the marine says they're leaving but he gets killed, its just... So... Horryfing, i mean, i hated this guys in the original game, but now in black mesa just makes me feel... Horrified, specially at 5:18 with the guys in the tank, screaming so scared, but i think its a nice detail showing it in a more human way, gives it more feeling.
I'd like to mention a few thing: the scientists caused this whole mess, knowing about Xen for what seems to be years and not telling anyone about it. And the military was just trying to protect the people, and rightfully considered the scientists as horrible people for you know CAUSING THIS WHOLE MESS
I really wish that there could be a possibility to provide help to marines against alien invaders. Knowing that killing civilians is not really good with some of them, perhaps it could be a good show of that, if they won't shoot at you on sight sometimes.
There is a mod that overhauls the chapters in Black Mesa and for Surface Tension and Forget About Freeman I recall that it adds at least two non-hostile Marines.
They seem to prioritize aliens over you, at least as long as you don't shoot them first If they think there are still enemy aliens nearby they won't attack you, at least from my experience
1:18 I always appreciate when solders are shown questioning orders Reminds me of how in MW2 2022 some of the American soldiers are questioning why they’re betraying 141
Yeah but the reboot story sucks Especially with shadow company deciding to massacre the entirety of some random town in Mexico and "gEnErAl sHeParD sEnDs HiS rEgArD"
On my first run, during QE after the marine struggled with reading Latin, the security guard opened fire and said "Semper Fi, you douchebags" The irony lol
You almost feel a little sympathy for the HECU at the end. Yea they did some heinous shit, but they're still humans, fighting a losing battle against an alien invasion and suffering from it.
Honestly, imagine what could’ve happened if the marines who captured gordon actually brought him topside for questioning? Gordon would probably be out of range for gman or even dead.
Most likely dead, just like what you see after coming out of the building following the hallway ambush in Questionable ethics: dead scientists and security guards gathered near some corners and wall in the parking lot, most likely executed by HECU after interrogation
@@Pendemic1 Ehhh no, freeman can talk, he just doesnt talk much as hinted by the fact we can make people go places or follow us. We just cant hear freeman unless he gets hurt somehow.
8:04 ngl i felt rlly bad for just sudden shock after what i assume to be one of those xen flying laser bomber thingies just lasering them to smithereens
I never realized in the background of the LZ Sparrow radio they were in the cockpit, AND that marines in the osprey were begging for them to take off.😢 Black Mesa Surface Tension is truly the peak of video game storytelling and gameplay.
Some of the desperate yelling on the radio genuinly made me get the feels man. It just reminds me too much of the actual panicked messages between soldiers in combat (for example 2003 Iraq, multiple combat encounters in Afghanistan)
I can see how the soldiers panic because they are not just random soldiers. they are terrified by those xen creatures. for hell, most of them didn't even wanna go there
The Radio Transmissions are just terrifying, the absolute fear and chaos that can be heard is both sad and terrifying. The HECU are really just humans doing what they were told, they never wanted to kill civis.
The black mesa incident Stage 1: spontaneous alien teleportations with small threats such as bullsquids, headcrabs, Barnacles, Hound eyes, and on occasion some vortigaunt slaves to scout Stage 2: Larger creature sightings spotted such as Gargant, Tentacle, as well as an increase in more spawns of Previously mentioned Alien species, HECU Arrival in small platoons to mop up any aliens as well as "Clean up" Of all dead personnel of the Black mesa research complex (Translation, all survivors are captured for interrogation and/or subjugated to execution, No one must know what Black mesa was) Stage 3: Further military response required due to Previous large alien creature sightings, further intel shows rather more if not coordinated teleportation from alien species, Ambushes and key positions being attacked with more numbers than experienced, Advising Further deployment of Heavy armor and air forces. Stage 4: Full deployment of any and all nearby available forces to black mesa is issued, Multiple teleportation incursions rise at an alarming rate, Clear intelligent coordination and attacks all over black mesa, Newer alien species arrival suggesting all are of the same force as well as supply lines and landing zones being high priority target, probable outcome of clean up and retrieval of HPT is highly unlikely and advise Mission abort and full retreat. Nuclear detonation Highly advised Stage 5: Resistance at black mesa growing and sighting reports of unknown growth and change within Black mesa, and full deployment of all available military personal is failing and showing no possible chances of success. New orders dispatched to all remaining HECU forces to initiate full retreat and evacuate what injured and what personnel can be reached, No unnecessary retrievals on low priority personnel is also ordered due to the Extreme hostile resistance from Alien forces, Any personnel that are not able to be evacuated are ordered to be abandoned, Nuclear detonation has been approved. [REDACTED] Black ops personnel are dispatched to deploy Nuclear device for detonation, Previous orders of HECU stand but are to be considered tertiary objectives, Any surviving personnel are to be shot on sight regardless of their affiliations. There was never a Black Mesa
i love how this portrays both the humanity of some individual soldiers as to make them seem more 3 dimensional while still highlighting the horrific acts theyre committing
Marine: Oh yeah…He’ll pay…He’ll definitely pay… *Gordon unloads an MP5 on them* Freeman: THERE! THATS FOR TRYING TO GUILT TRIP ME! Yeah “the big bad Freeman!” Of course! You guys didn’t start SHIT!!! I love Freemans Mind lol
A non military radio transmission (we can find 3 in the game) also mentions the President declared a state of emergency and the evacuation of New-Mexico.
I still love how they don't act like stupid enemies and actually notice Gordon while he's sneaking through the vent. They don't even open fire instantly but instead they wait until they can pinpoint his exact place where he won't be able to escape if they started shooting. This also works if it wasn't Gordon in the went but something else. It gives life to these dudes who were just sent to do a cleanup job they probably weren't qualified for and honestly, I think dropping a nuke would've been the best option even if it cost the lives of everyone in the base.
@@normalepsilon11 since my attention is brought back to this, I think I can answer my own question now. After months of speculating, I feel almost positively certain that it was none other than the G-man. Curse him.
Honestly from Insurgency to Underhell to this game. Literally I always love Tsarouhas's voice acting as every Marine/Police in some Source games and such. Literally makes him almost sound like he has been to the army before.
I really like that they portray the Marines as more human than in the original, especially in a series like Half-Life that’s all about showing you character depth without shoving it in your face. I particularly like that the marines are seemingly trying to justify what they’re doing to themselves through what they’re saying, which is pretty realistic. It also helps that Half-Life was already good at making you feel morally ambiguous, seeing as you’re accidentally responsible for the deaths of a lot of people.
HECU is dealing with the Xen invasion is already terrible as it is but also can't sleep with both eyes closed knowing a single science team with a crowbar *haunting them.*
"Nice camoflauge asshole!"
that has to be my favorite line, cause let's be real, wearing a bright popsicle orange suit really doesn't help with stealth
As the sniper says in one of the radio dialogues when the commander asks if he's sure it's Freeman: "Well he looks like an orange ice pop so"
One of the funniest and realistic line I ever heard.
It is a suit design for maximum visibility in the workplace, like a fully-enclosed hi-visibility vest lol.
@@vinesauceobscurities literally doesn't match with combat.
It's a suit built for civilian safety. Civilian safety gear is made to be as visible as possible. Bright orange isn't too found in nature, hence why you see such vests, helmets, and even traffic cones.
If the black mesa incident was this horriffic, imagine what the seven hour war looked like.
I think the fact it lasted seven hours should give you enough of an idea, especially since literally the entire world fought and couldn't even last HALF a day.
@@soupcangaming662 At least it wasn't the German invasion of Denmark. They lasted 6 hours.
@@babufacio_____wczesniejvin2847 We do not talk about that damned game.
@@soupcangaming662denmark couldn’t even last a quarter of the day when Germany invaded
@@testingsomething6859 HDTF is my favourite half life and I have more than 200h in game
HECU: "Why don't these scientists fight back >:("
HECU: "This Gordon scientist guy is killing us >:("
it’s like a dude playing a shooter and plays against new players and gets mad because theirs no challenge but when a pro comes in, he still gets mad,
Guards: "D:"
hecu are complaining about everything
yeah it feels like they aren't picking the best of the best, they picked the most blood thirsty and obedient killers they could get.
@@Yourlocalwordrobe i would complain that im committing war crimes. Would you?
I like it how the HECU was depicted as being confident and bloodthirsty in their initial takeover but it falls apart when Xen launched an invasion. Not only were marines left behind in complete disarray amid the chaos, they were even launching air strikes on themselves. Just sheer terror.
You never saw the marines in the original bombing themselves I will admit I just prefer the original over black mesa no clue why I just do.
A hell of a lot easier to take out civvies and untrained security then to try and go up against a bunch of aliens
@@cornellblok9543 United States military just blatantly killing unarmed combatants is retarded in nature.
Then there's Gordon Freeman.
If only the HECU help the scientist instead of exterminating them then the invasion might not have been that bad especially since Freeman is on their side
Marine: Oh he’ll pay, he’ll definitely pay
Freeman: Do you accept payment in C4?
Did somebody say boom?
Marine: Huh? OH, SHI-
1:08
@@broadside5994 Yes rico.... boom
Yes @@broadside5994 we go boom
naah i asked them doyou accept payment in rockets
I really like how they changed the first conversation. They didn't change the wording of the lines at all. They just gave it a different tone, and suddenly the grunt isn't a bloodthirsty maniac complaining about how shooting unarmed scientists is boring. He sounds like a conflicted human being, who isn't happy about what he's doing, and is trying to justify his actions to himself.
Yeah, the soldier almost sounds like he's mad they didn't fight him and win.
@@TheArkman360 Not win mind you, no one likes being dead. Just that they fight back to justify killing them. How can you say you are doing the right thing when fighting unnarmed combatants?
I was wondering if someone else pointed that out.
He thought they were sent to kill the evil scientists who were trying to end the world and intentionally caused the resonance cascade.
Meanwhile the other guy is clearly irritated by the hesitation. The other guy is exactly the type to send on this OP. Complete nut case.
Neat touch that at 2:56, the Corpsman (Medic) immediately recognizes it as Latin due to the ridiculous amount of Latin terminologies used in medical schooling.
That's a neat detail
@AletheiaBasin Most intelligent marine.
@@Horny_Fruit_Fliesneed more crayons
I think that's because you Westerners have a stable tradition of choosing any big organization's motto in Latin
@@maximmayoroff4479It's a very influential language despite being dead
The beginning conversation made it seem like the marine was trying to justify the murder, as if he’s trying to cope with him committing war crimes
That... actually makes some sense. Way more than “No one fought back! Boring!” impression this dialogue always gave me.
And then he gets what he wishes and loses his life
"I've killed twelve, dumbass scientists"
It's not a war crime, it's straight up crime.
I wouldn't call it a war crime, it's not a war. It's a government clean up of government personnel. Government tried to cover up what happened at black mesa, any nation would, but it got out of control really fast.
I feel bad for the HECU operator that lost his IFAK and was slowly dying on radio
@@overkill-q they didn’t even want to kill the scientist. A lot of them didn’t want to but they were forced to.
@@overkill-q Killing civilians - order or not - is a crime no matter how you look at it. That particular soldier deserved his fate. May headcrab hump his brain for all eternity.
@@overkill-q another thing. Let's assume HECU is based off real-world marine corps. Therefore all rules and laws apply. Is marine forced to join a mission or is it voluntary decision?
@@adler830 they are special forces too, Hazardous Environment combat unit.
@@adler830 these aren't regular marines. They deal with biohazards and non natural things, so the rules of the average marine wouldn't necessarily apply to HECU as well
3:01 *”it’s latin!”
*”oh…”*
*_”f o r e i g n e r s “_*
“ what- “
“ I don’t know I just wanted to say something unhinged “
“ Alrig- HOLY FUCK IS THAT GORDON FREE- “
Foreigners ? Did she mean to other soldier ?
@@hertoramann *he
@@hertoramann You mean Latino Americans?
@@billhsu6349 yeah. ı didn’t get what does he mean
7:11 Damn. On my playthroughs I thought he said: "Eyesight's gone. My eyesight is gone." I had this vision of this blind soldier bleeding out, not able to find his First Aid.
I thought so too on my first play through, but the wiki and subtitles for the game say otherwise
@@patrickfitz6343 Was that explosion on 7:20 a coincidence or was it the thing that took the guy out?
@@DearestMother probably the latter, which would make the game non-canon. If the former though, then it could be canon.
Now I'm imaging a marine with his eyes gouged out by some abomination bleeding out and trying to find his medkit
IFAK*'s gone
The conversation between Echo 3 Juliet and Echo 5 Romeo was a conversation between a Lance Corporal and a Sergeant. The Sergeant was trying to help the Lance with an IFAK and you could just hear the Sergeant's heart sink at the end there.
How do you know their ranks? I'm genuinely interested.
@@karelpapousek6495 when ever Echo is used with a number and a letter from the NATO phonetic alphabet in that order it means that an individual soldier and not a squad or fire team designation is talking on the radio. Echo in this instance stands for enlisted man I.E not an officer. The number they say is their rank which can go from 1 to 9 where 1 is the lowest rank being a private to 9 being a sergeant major/1st sergeant/master gunnery sergeant. The NATO phonetic letter used after their number is supposed to represent the first letter of their last name (sometimes it can be their first name if you have more then one person in the squad who has the same rank and also has the same first letter of their last name). To identify officers it's basically the same except you replace Echo with Oscar then the number and then the NATO phonetic letter. These work over all in every U.S military branch for radio call outs.
@@evanpeacock6103 wicked! I just learned something new today
@@evanpeacock6103 So that's why officer's callsign was Oscar 2 Papa. Thank you for taking your time and explaining the matter in such detail.
@@karelpapousek6495 Yes the officer was a 1st lieutenant in this case. It should also be noted that when dealing with warrant officers the Oscar will be replaced with Whiskey. These designations were designed to communicate with enlisted and officers across branches in the event of a combined conflict where units from different branches were fighting along side each other. All branches have different names for the same ranks and you can't be expected to know them all and they can be confusing in the heat of battle. For instance let's say a navy captain is giving an order and coordinating with Marines on the ground. He is from a different branch and so captain means a different rank to the Marines. He wouldn't go on the radio and identify himself by saying he is a captain because their could be a high ranking officer on the ground for the Marines let's say for example a major. Now in the navy a captain is the equivalent of a colonel in the marines, so to get rid of all the confusion of who the commanding officer is in that situation the navy captain would say on the radio that he is an Oscar 6. The major on the ground hearing his order now knows that he is dealing with someone two ranks above him instead of someone one rank below him. This is just one example of many where this is used and it helps simplify command structure in battle.
Hearing the Marines in the background at 6:00 is honestly horrific to listen to. The Marine screaming for a Corpsman sounds so genuine and filled with desperation, and just goes to show how hopelessly unprepared they were for a situation like this.
Whats a corpsman?
@@BlueRecRoomit's the same as medic, only for marines.
@@karelpapousek6495 thank you
Thinking about how HECU was likely prepared, they probably thought they were some sort of CBRN unit, stationed in the area by black mesa for it’s potential as a training ground of some sort.
They thought they’d be fighting human opponents in a potentially contaminated environment. Nothing would prepare them for the aliens they’d face.
No doubt they’d be unsettled once they entered the facility, both having to kill civilians and face hostile beings.
By the time of surface tension, the Nihilanth had begun pushing its invasion, the Xen aliens began breaching out of the facility and began causing Chaos behind the HECU lines.
You can hear the HECU mentioning that there’s no frontline with the aliens, as they just kept teleporting in all around their positions. Panic was starting to set in, and the ground forces were eventually left on their own as the Air Force was trying to contain the threat with interception and bombing
@@BlueRecRoom a Corpsman is basically a medic from the US Navy. Corpsman are attached to Marines due to them having no specific medical personnel themselves.
8:05 I think what happened here is that he noticed one or a few fighter jets were about to bomb his position and screamed in denial before being hit, hence the explosion felt shortly after his transmission.
I’m pretty sure this is when the hecu started air striking/firing mortars/carpet bombing on black mesa and the soldier in the comms happens to be right in it
@zorastevanovicthis is black mesa a remake of half life. This isn’t from any of the bohemian interactive games
@@user-safetygate24 I think he was asking about the OP's pfp
@@khaosproductio there isn’t much indication that they were talking about the profile pic, but there is always a chance for that to be the case.
@@user-safetygate24the pfp is from an Arma faction.
Love the dialogue. A little corny sometimes but definitely had to have Marines involved with the writing.
Mikee wrote most of it I believe
Yes
Only minor complaint I have is them saying "repeat" on radio
@@smittymcsmitface2242 i mean hl2 did that to with a citizen on a radio saying "gordon freeman has returned i repeat gordon freeman has returned"
@Brucewillis235 eh I'd give that a pass, I doubt many of the rebels have military training by that time, plus not like they have artillery, mortar, or any of that nonsense
The “foreigners” line was super humanizing. I have friends that might have said the same thing when we were deployed.
Hope a bullsquid eat their faces :D
Were you there during the 7 hour war also?
that was a dumb line. every branch uses latin for their motto.
kind of an anti-military thing from the developer ngl.
@@alexmurray7031Dumb take.
@@John.McMillanno I agree with him, it's pretty juvenile and demeaning to portray soldiers as barely literate brutes
" oh yeah he'll definitely pay "
the remote controlled high explosive infront of him in question:
Mike Tsarouhas did all the HECU voice work for Black Mesa btw
The guy is crazily talented
@@patrickfitz6343 Indeed he is. Sent him an email once acknowledging his work and he said that it was nice that his work was being appreciated, even all the way here in the Philippines
(And if you notice the heart on the original comment is gone, I apparently misspelled "HECU" and corrected it so yeah xD)
Tsarouhas? is he of greek descent?
Dude is also the voice of a No More Room In Hell character, both teams in Insurgency 2014, and "Cleric" the minigun support pilot in Insurgency Sandstorm.
Not to mention a dev of both Insurgency games to boot.
@@icy3-1 wait. He's Filipino?
6:47
Out of all of them, this was the worst of them to listen to. You can notice Echo-3-Juliet's speech slurring in the last few words, meaning the sudden static was him dropping his radio due to the blood loss making him delirious.
It feels real, in a lot less "gung ho" way some of the other ones do, and that combined with the radio designations being correct IRL (at least according to another guy further up), makes me wonder if there wasn't someone on the team that did a combat tour or two
The radio transmission with BM are great. Major contribution to the environmental story telling aspect of Half Life. First its an alien invasion against unthinking animals. then its a goverment conspiricy to cover up the event and silence the facility. Then suddenly intelligent alien combat formations show up and full on war break out. Then the HECU Marines are overrun and forced to retreat, leaving only the surviving science team to try to save the day.
Its an element in Video game story telling i like where a game feels like a journey. That is the advantage of not having "cut scens" as you are in "the game" the entire time (other than when you get knocked out)
There is an explotion too when the static starts,so maybe dint die of blood lose
Developers made a good job! They made HECU much more alive
This is yet another example of why I wish black mesa was considered official half life material
The team has done an incredible job of bringing up half life 1 to a more modern standard, and added so much more content that does incredible world building
to be fair, you can still consider black mesa as head-canon since there is no official canon according to Laidlaw.
@@andrewtruax2830 that’s nice. That I shall
Did they change something in the lore? I dont remember anything which would push it out of official one
@@restoreleader lore wise, black mesa changed very little, it’s the still the same plot. However, they made some more connections to HL2 (adding more character dialogue and interaction to Eli and Kliener), refined parts of the game that otherwise were lacking in HL1, such as revamping the presentation of Xen, humanizing the HECU, and overall far stronger environmental story telling across the entirety of the game.
@@Armin2012 Ok thats true, connecting those scientists was probably from their initiative and xen... well i wasnt able to figure any mind control shenanigans back then, im not sure if it was explained in the base half-life
Their actual dialogs made me kinda sad for killing them, never gave a thought about them but in Black Mesa they "act" so human, you can definitely tell it's absolute chaos to them like to everyone in the facility
Shepard's squad didn't even get their proper orders. The Marines were called in to contain something they were NOT prepared for by people who didn't know what the hell was going on.
Tbh the Marines though it is just "rescue" mission and likely shock to learn that they aren't gonna rescue anyone but to clean house.
And from trying to coverup a facility working with alien specimens, they would later realize they were the now on the frontline of a full on alien invasion.
An invasion that had no frontline, unknowable size of the enemy’s strength, and the demoralizing alien horrors weaponized against them.
You had just gone in, hearing about friendly aircraft being shot down by unknown assailants, and entering this area-51 esque facility.
You are told you have to kill the terrified civilians, some of whom are some of the worlds brightest minds, while facing monstrosities in the dark corridors that materialize out of thin air in bright green flashes.
Then, you notice these creatures are starting to become organized, and greater in number. Soon your topside control zones are now under threat, and alien mantra rays are reducing your convoys to dust
Yeah, remembering their violations to the human rights help you cope with that
@@Supperdude9because their Osprey got downed before their CO could give them any orders
The radio conversations from Surface Tension and onwards are the conversations that hit hard. You can hear the desperation in the HECU and the field officers trying their best to keep everyone alive while the soldiers are borderline panicking about how they're getting overrun on every front. Not a single bit of good news comes through the radio at any point. It's just people stranded, getting overrun, hung out to dry, dying, reporting sector-wide retreats, and everything else that could go wrong. My only lament is that there weren't more of these radio conversations throughout the entire game, showing the HECU's grip on the facility slowly unravelling as Xen gradually picked apart their defences through force of numbers.
GOD I would have LOVED more HECU conversations!
something even more terrifying is that there wasn't even a front as per the dialogue of the entering soldiers in surface tension "there's no front line with these things!" What the hell do you do against an enemy that can reposition any asset instantaneously to anywhere on the battlefield? how in the bloody hell do you fight that? At any time you can be encircled or flanked by an enemy force, at any time your unit could get ambushed by enemies that just appeared in front of you and you could easily end up like echo-3. Your enemy could just teleport into your HQ and kill all your commanding staff, even air asset could just be teleported behind enemy aircraft or on top of a prime bombing target. they didn't even need the numbers honestly with such an insane tactical advantage. And that's without considering the fact that you're fighting an enemy that has neither moral nor logistic to be concerned with.
Have you ever looked up the cut VOX lines for the original Half-Life? There were a lot of lines written for most chapters in the game but the majority of them were left on the cutting room floor. The lines for Blast Pit, Power Up, On A Rail, and Questionable Ethics shed a bit more light on whats going on and string together and overarching narrative in the game. The lines for Questionable Ethics (some play, some don't) and Office Complex are good as well.
I'll be honest, black mesa paints the militarys fight with xen completely diferently then the original half life. With the original half life depicting the military standing somewhat of a chance dealing blows left and right to the alien forces but gettting outnumbered, here they aren't winning in any way possible
To add onto that, it helps paint the Black Mesa incident in the most accurate way possible: a tragic mess.
You have scientists and security guards cut off from one another trying to survive against parasitic headcrabs (some of which have latched on to their former colleagues' heads and turned them into a meat mech) and the HECU trying to cover up the incident until they themselves were being torn apart about by the forces of Xen. Crowbar COllective did a great job in humanizing the marines and, ultimately, helped players to understand just how screwed everything was during the events of Black Mesa.
No idea why but 5:44 is kinda sad to me, especially when the other one is signaling him to get out of blast zone, only to be blown to smithreens, and the the other just lowkey gets crushed by a crate
That scene was one of my favorite bits in the game. It’s also the main reason I made this whole video because I realized that no one had posted that scene (Or any HECU scenes for that matter) to TH-cam.
That's my favorite scene too. When I saw it the first time in my playthrough, I was really hit with how utterly panicked they were, and how chaotic and horrifying the situation really was
Watch it in slow motion and it hurts less. (The two actually turn into gibs right as the box moves before it gets close.)
Hell yeah, the gargantua are fucked. I forget, did black mesa include the scene where the gargantua shoves an SUV into a marine against a wall?
@@lizardizzle No, sadly not. Or atleast i havent seen that. Hate that Crowbar cut so many small details as such
2:56 In the original shareware version aka the original Half Life 2 mod, the conversation about the Latin sign here was the two marines gloating about how they were going to molest the female scientists, with one of them responding with a wolf howl. It’s easy to see why this was changed for the retail version. While it sounds like something they’d do (and real armies have historically done), to players and the devs, it felt like a step too far and made them sound like Totally Spies villains.
I always liked that bit for how surprising and menacing it was. I like how one minute you fear and feel betrayed by these guys and want to pay them back for massacring your coworkers, then the next you might feel a little bad for them, and then you hate them again, ect...
@@Raycloud Yep. There's also the field hospital before the gargantua in Surface Tension with headcrabs and the guy on the radio calling for a corpsman.
@@lionocyborg6030and in Power Up, where you can find a small makeshift medical station with an HECU zombie, IV drip still attached to his arm. The story tells itself.
That ‘It’s Latin/Foreigners’ conversation sounds more marine-esque anyways lol
Or Joss Whedon villains…
I want an opposing force remake so bad
Its coming on the black mesa workshop, atleast i think it is
(They are making blue shift and i think ive seen stuff about opposing force flying around)
Or could wait for Operation Black Mesa by Tripmines Studios.. Which probably going to take a long time.
@@Applesauce006 Are they still working on that? I haven't heard a single peep from them besides some music they released. I think it was Crocodile Tears or maybe that was a different studio.
@@Zackarco Yes, they still worked on OBM and GD, as Tripmine rarely posted teasers for the games.
I'm just worried that the Greaseman might throw a fit and put a stop to it. He totally would.
Can’t wait for Operation: Black Mesa. Going to be interesting to see Tripmine’s interpretation of OpFor and BlueShift.
I saw somebody playing blueshift but its not finished. Looks great tho. But I wanna see the gas mask wearing badass known as Adrian Shephard.
@@davidgreener7419 I think we all do. Guess they're saving the best for last.
Are those mods for Black Mesa or Black Mesa style remakes for Blue Shift and Opposing Force ?
@@plaguedoctorjamespainshe6009 I think it's going to be Black Mesa style remakes for those games.
Feels like the Military lost their bravado as soon as the Nihalanth re-opened the portal and the Xen forces started coming through.
And if they could barely hold out against the Xen army, it’s no wonder why The Combine took over Earth so quickly.
What makes it worse is that if the HECU could have cooperated with the Black Mesa staff they would have stood a better chance.
@@dislikebutton5149 Isn't it cannon that g-man is somehow resposible for the military to target personnel, for the sake of annihilation in the 7 hour war?
Technically this is not a whole army. This is more like "SWAT" or "FBI". HECU - Hazardous Environment Combat Unit. In fact, the saddest thing is that when the soldiers of HECU failed, special assassins "black operatives" were sent to the black mesa, so that they would have already cleared the base of everyone. And from the soldiers who didn't manage to get out but also from the remaining scientists.
@@Appolo15966 It all depends on what games in the Half-Life franchise you consider Canon. In Opposing Force, Adrian's diary states that G-Man had been talking to the HECU higher-ups prior to them being sent on the Black Mesa mission, which is a pretty big nod that G-Man had at least some part in the conflict at Black Mesa. But, since some people don't consider any of the HL expansions canon, it's more or less just a matter of perspective
It certainly didn't help that the HECU were armed primarily with submachine guns, and while we don't see the entirety of the black Mesa facility, the HECU reasonably can't be more than a brigade sized formation. Not a lot of heavy weapons you can send along with soldiers in V22's
2:02 Well he's walking around without a damn helmet! That always bugged the Hell out of me. This goes for Warhammer as well. You can be wearing some bad-ass protective suit. But if your noggin is exposed...
“If I wore this suit while riding a motorcycle, I’d be breaking the law in 20 states, and you want me to wear it while we shoot poorly aimed lasers at a ROCK, to try and tear apart the fabric of reality.”
@@NIN10_Studios 😂
3:07 I love how he randomly sat down 😂
he hittin that "hot milk" pose 😳😳
@@SendirianAjahot milk 🥛😳
Powered by Sorce(tm)
“Nice camouflage asshole!” Was genuinely funny lol
What's funny is that if I remember from Sexy Nutella (maybe), their initial conversation is carried on should you remain underwater, like "Holy shit, we actually killed him! Hell yeah!" or that sorta thing. Neat detail.
@@bababooey5402 idk while i was in hammer editor i spent like a hour of browsing through the hecu voicelines trying to find a good one for my map,there wasn't a voice line like that.
@@MaxwellDSTMight’ve been a removed voiceline that Nutella modded back in.
Their playthrough has a couple mods that either readds cut content or patches stuff.
This is the very definition of environmental storytelling and I love it.
Don't you mean Hazardous Environmental storytelling, lol.
This actually gave me goosebumps, genuinely terrifying, you never really pay attention to these conversations enough to know just how terrifying this is not just for the scientists but especially for the marines
40 LiKes but 0 COmMEnTs LeMme fix ThAt
I'll be honest I listened to every radio station and conversation the military had with one another (talking about the original half life). For me the perspective of the military was very important, and I was kinda on there side, I understood why they did what they did so I always felt bad killing them
What I find interesting is the environment where you hear E3J comment on his injuries is an ad hoc medical triage area or something similar. You can see IV drips and stretcher beds (some with dead marines on them)alongside strewn out containers and medical items. It’s pretty harrowing seeing all of it once you understand.
I was under the impression that his whole leg was gone, hence the total lack of IFAK, delirium and quick blood loss
@@kal558 That is horrifying
There's even an HECU marine zombie with an IV still strapped to his arm
@@ajc0072yeah in Power Up. Poor fella was probably being treated on by their doc and had no idea they were done for
They were all tough when they were lighting up unarmed civilians. When the Xen beings appeared suddenly they’re all terrified. This video is amazing
Some of them didn't like taking down civvies. It's one thing to take down a, well, an opposing force that's pointing a gun at you. It's another thing to be ordered to do cleanup by executing civvies. They just weren't prepared to have aliens annoyingly teleporting all over the place. Places they cleared would get restocked with hostiles. That's a logistical nightmare. It was bad for Freeman who was taking the alternate smaller routes. Can you imagine the sheer number of teleportation in the bigger areas where the marines were? And each of these aliens had their own abilities, which they, like Freeman, would have to figure out on the fly how to deal with.
@@Supperdude9if the xen invasion of BM never got too bad and the combine didn’t invade (just for the sake of this argument), how exactly would the top brass silence an entire unit of marines that had witnessed so much death and despair and execution of civilians? Would the survivors all be logged on a black book and taken to Guantanamo or would they just deem them clinically insane?
@@TemmieContingenC ...That info would have gotten out. They'd have tried to contain it. I mean, teleporting aliens that are killing everyone? It's a nightmare scenario. Just that notion alone would cause a panic in the world, because with teleportation like that, nowhere is safe. There would have been an effort to contain the news. Just... it was a bad situation.
@@Supperdude9 Exactly and as depicted and shown in half life usually just a few marines were able to take a way bigger numbers of xen troops, so if anything that's just impressive. I think the numbers of xen was the reason of the military having to pull out
@@abhikergaming7783 It's the lack of the front line. That's how standard human military tactics work. As I've said in a previous post, you establish the front line, you secure areas, slowly work your way while covering each other, clearing threats. Setting up areas where you can move up ammo, supplies, and move back wounded/fatigued fighters. If you can't have that, you have a logistical nightmare and bad situations. They aren't trained for that. You're trained to clear areas. You're trained to cover each other. You're trained to move up, cover fire, and overwhelm your opponent with decisive tactics. And if you get overwhelmed yourself, you have that front line that you cleared to retreat to. Look at bad situations where military teams got surrounded. Only a few exceptions survived such situations. Bastogne was only survived because the Germans didn't attack with their full force. Alesia was survived because they unconventionally built fortifications around the city they had under siege in the first place.
The Black Mesa incident was a military nightmare. Ultimately, their only decision was the nuke at the end of Opposing Force. And even that didn't end the invasion.
"I can provide you with an ID card."
If it was a passport, he wouldn't have been shot.
Benry would be disappointed
I always have a weird moment in the room where Gordon listens to the Echo-3-Juliet guy. That area has some headcrabs and a zombie but its a place to breathe and take in all the horrible shit. The room is dark and splattered with blood, cots and medical supplies are scattered about. Always makes me stop and feel it.
They put so much effort into this game. I can see they are huge fans of the series. The radio chatter reminds me of Road of the Dead radio
6:52 i almost cry
Beacause that happen to me when i was traped in colombia
Me all alone in the midle of the jungle whit a broken arm and a knife on my leg.
And the only thing i can do was call for help but in the other side i just hear "tranquilo respira y manten presion en la herida"
Then all goes black
I dont even remember how i ben capable to walk or move to the base.
But that poor solder :(
nice pfp, man of culture.
Bro.
That must been a dark time for you.
Let’s be honest literally all of us did that at 1:09
I M203'd them.
I tried doing it with a grenade first playthrough but didn't realize that they could be cooked. Got an achievement while also killing both of the HECU marines
I think you missed just one radio transmission- in on a rail, after that security guard’s dramatic death and the rocket being prepped for launch
You are right, that’s when the radio operator asks “be advised target freeman may be in your sector”.
My main goal with this video was to cover all the in-game conversations between the marines. Less focus was put on the radio transmissions because I feel there are already tons of videos covering them. So any transmissions I added was more of a tacked on thing. But thank you for letting me know.
@@patrickfitz6343 Yeah gotcha - wasn’t sure if it was worth pointing out or not, but decided to because I think you do have every other radio transmission in here anyway as well as the chitchats
0:16 I like to intrepid that line as the marine trying to deal with the fact that he’s killing what he knows are innocent people and the fact that they cannot defend themselves in any way makes him feel guilty rather than that he’s just annoyed at the lack of challenge
1:18 he is the only HECU Who cares about our fellow scientists
Not only him, we hear from many soldiers that this is ethically inadequate.
@muratcangogce3839 Thats true
1:08 I KNEW you gonna do that, as soon as he says "he'll pay".
I really feel sorry for both of them, at least with some cheat codes, I can "convince" them to join me in the fight.
2:56 Also, for some reason they changed this dialogue here, the original had the 2 wanting to find a female scientist.
I remember that, I think they changed the lines because having two marines talk about “wrangling up lady scientists” came off as too creepy.
I like the new lines honestly, they are more comedic.
Shame they changed it, would have made me feel even less bad about killing them.
@@patrickfitz6343 Just to add on my previous comment about the combine and revel fight. What I actually meant was you could have a normal looking combines with their original in-game model AND another with custom models on the same map with cheats only, without the need of a map editor.
If you like I do have a tutorial on how to do it:
th-cam.com/video/6Fti5gMJMVw/w-d-xo.html
@@patrickfitz6343 They’re wasting their time anyway.
If they REAALLY wanted to get their rocks off, then they should remember that you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.
Damn may these war criminals rest in piss 😔
Something I love is you can hear the solider different opinions how some where blood thirsty others where questions who authorised kill innocents, then when Xen come along you can here the fear in some and others the sadness of losing allies
HL BLACK MESA has the best portrayal of a warzone.
The HECU goes in, takes over the area and spreads thin. While they try to stabilize the situation Xen soilders show up and things start to fall apart. Plus the BLACK OPS show up to add to the Freeman threat. They got overwhelmed and some got left behind.
1:19
Its realistic that probaly some of the HECU didnt wanted to kill the black mesa employers but they had to
They were just following orders
I never realized how disturbing these radio comms were until I opened this vid. Jesus christ I literally got flashbacks. Good video
"My I.F.A.K's gone... i don't know" 7:13
damn
"Ok, you're gonna need to find another pack and get a tourniquet out of it."
*No response*
"Are you still there?"
*No response*
"Echo 3 Joliet, can you hear me?"
That's when you know when he's gone.
He said
“My I.F.A.K’s gone… I’m uh..-“
I know the HECU are the "bad" guys in the game, but they really tried to stop an alien invasion with all they had. That deserves some respect.
They even had to fight against the government that send the Black Ops to kill them, instead of aiding them to escape or keep the fight.
I love how the marines point out how completely obvious Freeman's suit stands out.
5:07
You can just hear the desperation in that tank crew.
You see hostile Air coming right towards you with a beam laser and you're screaming at your driver to back up but he can't due too him being to paralyzed with fear to move.
BACK UP BACK THE FU-
@@MEDICGAMING7*boom*
6:50 was hard to listen to. Not because of their death, but because of the confusion and disorientation of the wounded. It just felt too real.
I'm very glad you accurately captioned what their saying, most channels just assume or dont really caption it that much.
I hope more will come!
Thank you!
Marine : Oh, yeah, he'll pay. He will definitely pay...
Gordon : "NO"
"Yeah that's for trying to guilt trip me! Sure, 'the Big Bad Freeman'. Of course, YOU guys didn't start SHIT!"
Gordon: NO U.
Gordon: Is a remote bomb an acceptable payment ?
Hehe I've removed the 69
HECU: "nice camouflage asshole!"
also HECU: wears snow camouflage IN FUCKING DESERT
Nope urban camo used in places like these
Just because it's white doesn't mean it's snow
There are a lot of HECU Dialogues expressing either disgust or regret for murdering the scientists and the like, it mostly just seems like they were following orders to the end; even if they didn't really *like* doing so (Like the guy at 1:16)
I think alot of people misunderstand the lines.
Theyre supposed to be contradictory.
Some HECU went in and wanted to fight, some didnt want to kill scientist and civlians, some thought it was fun.
Theyre not all the same, the dialogue is supposed to show that they are human and have different views on the situation, their orders and Gordon.
So what you’re saying is… human.
The devs/writers wanted to portray the HECU as people, rather than “generic military” Dude-bros.
Can't imagine the carnage on the seven hour war
It hits me hard listening how the HECU was being overrun
At the beggining they were confident and acting like they got controll over the situation, but as soon as xen attacks they fucking lose it, i mean, listening them in panick, screaming for help, desperately trying to fight back xen and failing, it gives me chills, especially the last one were the marine says they're leaving but he gets killed, its just... So... Horryfing, i mean, i hated this guys in the original game, but now in black mesa just makes me feel... Horrified, specially at 5:18 with the guys in the tank, screaming so scared, but i think its a nice detail showing it in a more human way, gives it more feeling.
The HECU losing to aliens after killing civilian workers all morning is the definition of fuck around and find out.
I'd like to mention a few thing: the scientists caused this whole mess, knowing about Xen for what seems to be years and not telling anyone about it. And the military was just trying to protect the people, and rightfully considered the scientists as horrible people for you know CAUSING THIS WHOLE MESS
1:00 “Yeah right, the big bad Freeman. YOU guys didn’t start shit!”
Yes bro 😢
1:55 "What you hear seconds later after getting killed having a premium skin"
Modern COD be like:
@@Juancr2006 I know even regular skins like the Ranger or Kortac urban Camo you can see from afar no camo no matter the skin
I really wish that there could be a possibility to provide help to marines against alien invaders. Knowing that killing civilians is not really good with some of them, perhaps it could be a good show of that, if they won't shoot at you on sight sometimes.
Couldn’t agree more
There is a mod that overhauls the chapters in Black Mesa and for Surface Tension and Forget About Freeman I recall that it adds at least two non-hostile Marines.
@@Raycloud do you remember the mod name?
The closest you could get is just killing the Xen creatures and run past the HECU guys as much as possible.
They seem to prioritize aliens over you, at least as long as you don't shoot them first
If they think there are still enemy aliens nearby they won't attack you, at least from my experience
1:18 I always appreciate when solders are shown questioning orders
Reminds me of how in MW2 2022 some of the American soldiers are questioning why they’re betraying 141
With all due respect, the reboot MWs mostly sucked when it came to story telling. I agree regardless, though, loved the HECU humanization in this game
@@ya_homeboy_prophet this comment was made long before even the MWIII announcement
Wtf did they do to the everything?
@@XtreemAlan word
Yeah but the reboot story sucks
Especially with shadow company deciding to massacre the entirety of some random town in Mexico and "gEnErAl sHeParD sEnDs HiS rEgArD"
On my first run, during QE after the marine struggled with reading Latin, the security guard opened fire and said "Semper Fi, you douchebags"
The irony lol
1:07 this had me laughting for hours
You almost feel a little sympathy for the HECU at the end. Yea they did some heinous shit, but they're still humans, fighting a losing battle against an alien invasion and suffering from it.
lol I don't
I’m only human after all
I love the hecu
The HECU Soldier I locked inside the bathroom watching as the fucking vortigaunt which suddenly appeared grab a sex toy:
HECU DID NOTHING WRONG 10,000,000,000 DEAD BLACK MESA FACILITY PERSONNEL
0:25 he said "shit" like he actually feels bad for him but he called him "dumb*ss"
3:00 their motto, “Semper Fi”, is literally Latin.
Honestly, imagine what could’ve happened if the marines who captured gordon actually brought him topside for questioning? Gordon would probably be out of range for gman or even dead.
Most likely dead, just like what you see after coming out of the building following the hallway ambush in Questionable ethics: dead scientists and security guards gathered near some corners and wall in the parking lot, most likely executed by HECU after interrogation
Did they realize he can't speak 💀
@@Pendemic1 Ehhh no, freeman can talk, he just doesnt talk much as hinted by the fact we can make people go places or follow us. We just cant hear freeman unless he gets hurt somehow.
@@apyr34556can he? Not once i heard Gordon speak ingame
@@sabianv2009in lore he speaks we just can’t hear him
8:04 ngl i felt rlly bad for just sudden shock after what i assume to be one of those xen flying laser bomber thingies just lasering them to smithereens
I never realized in the background of the LZ Sparrow radio they were in the cockpit, AND that marines in the osprey were begging for them to take off.😢 Black Mesa Surface Tension is truly the peak of video game storytelling and gameplay.
Some of the desperate yelling on the radio genuinly made me get the feels man. It just reminds me too much of the actual panicked messages between soldiers in combat (for example 2003 Iraq, multiple combat encounters in Afghanistan)
I can see how the soldiers panic because they are not just random soldiers. they are terrified by those xen creatures. for hell, most of them didn't even wanna go there
1:17 I almost wish I could spare that guy...
...almost
Not to be a nerd, but the crossbow is a tranquilizer gun, so technically, if your thinking the same thing as me, you get it
As much as I love the bombastic, stereotypical and comical nature of the original HECU, these guys are alright.
All right*
@@jaidendeprez1842 I don’t care….
@@TheExperienceYT based
The original HECU felt like robots to me, these guys felt like actual humans
The Radio Transmissions are just terrifying, the absolute fear and chaos that can be heard is both sad and terrifying. The HECU are really just humans doing what they were told, they never wanted to kill civis.
The black mesa incident
Stage 1: spontaneous alien teleportations with small threats such as bullsquids, headcrabs, Barnacles, Hound eyes, and on occasion some vortigaunt slaves to scout
Stage 2: Larger creature sightings spotted such as Gargant, Tentacle, as well as an increase in more spawns of Previously mentioned Alien species, HECU Arrival in small platoons to mop up any aliens as well as "Clean up" Of all dead personnel of the Black mesa research complex
(Translation, all survivors are captured for interrogation and/or subjugated to execution, No one must know what Black mesa was)
Stage 3: Further military response required due to Previous large alien creature sightings, further intel shows rather more if not coordinated teleportation from alien species, Ambushes and key positions being attacked with more numbers than experienced, Advising Further deployment of Heavy armor and air forces.
Stage 4: Full deployment of any and all nearby available forces to black mesa is issued, Multiple teleportation incursions rise at an alarming rate, Clear intelligent coordination and attacks all over black mesa, Newer alien species arrival suggesting all are of the same force as well as supply lines and landing zones being high priority target, probable outcome of clean up and retrieval of HPT is highly unlikely and advise Mission abort and full retreat. Nuclear detonation Highly advised
Stage 5: Resistance at black mesa growing and sighting reports of unknown growth and change within Black mesa, and full deployment of all available military personal is failing and showing no possible chances of success. New orders dispatched to all remaining HECU forces to initiate full retreat and evacuate what injured and what personnel can be reached, No unnecessary retrievals on low priority personnel is also ordered due to the Extreme hostile resistance from Alien forces, Any personnel that are not able to be evacuated are ordered to be abandoned, Nuclear detonation has been approved.
[REDACTED] Black ops personnel are dispatched to deploy Nuclear device for detonation, Previous orders of HECU stand but are to be considered tertiary objectives, Any surviving personnel are to be shot on sight regardless of their affiliations. There was never a Black Mesa
7:01 Echo Five Romeo, that's how they refer Sgt Reyes in Generation Kill (rank code and last name initial).
3:00 it's the medic that recognizes latin, cool detail tbh
8:02 i need to see this part in like an opposing force remastered by crowbar collective
i love how this portrays both the humanity of some individual soldiers as to make them seem more 3 dimensional while still highlighting the horrific acts theyre committing
Some of the conversations made me feel bad for the HECU. Especially the IFAK one.
4:30 We can say this part G-man closed the door for Shephard dosen't attemthing helping his commared's fighting back the Xen and reach the extration ?
Ugh... No. G-man closed it shortly after the tramsmission "to Cooper", at the very end of Surface Tension
I love watching this and the blue shift video every time it shows up on my recommended
Much needed Video thank you
Thanks Izzy
@@patrickfitz6343 OH MY GOD A CELEBRITY RESPONDED TO ME
Marine: Oh yeah…He’ll pay…He’ll definitely pay…
*Gordon unloads an MP5 on them*
Freeman: THERE! THATS FOR TRYING TO GUILT TRIP ME! Yeah “the big bad Freeman!” Of course! You guys didn’t start SHIT!!!
I love Freemans Mind lol
" Oh yeah, he'll pay, he will definitely pay.. "
explodes in lowercase
A non military radio transmission (we can find 3 in the game) also mentions the President declared a state of emergency and the evacuation of New-Mexico.
Fun fact: at the 0:37 part (in the original half life) if you kill those two quickly their dialouge would still play
When goose four and bloodhound three were talking, you could sense fear, that these guys, even being trained killers, still have emotion
Despite HECU Marines following orders to kill everyone, i can feel the drama/terror of the radios stations slowly being silenced one by one
6:00 is my fav
I can provide you with my ID ca-
*Missisipi queen starts playing*
I still love how they don't act like stupid enemies and actually notice Gordon while he's sneaking through the vent. They don't even open fire instantly but instead they wait until they can pinpoint his exact place where he won't be able to escape if they started shooting. This also works if it wasn't Gordon in the went but something else. It gives life to these dudes who were just sent to do a cleanup job they probably weren't qualified for and honestly, I think dropping a nuke would've been the best option even if it cost the lives of everyone in the base.
I like how in one of the conversations the HECU guy says “Monsters? Hell yeah but civilians?” cuz its a realistic depiction that a marine would say
"Who ordered this damn operation, anyway?" No, seriously, who?
@@tailsfan11westandwithukrainemy cat
@@normalepsilon11 since my attention is brought back to this, I think I can answer my own question now. After months of speculating, I feel almost positively certain that it was none other than the G-man. Curse him.
Honestly from Insurgency to Underhell to this game. Literally I always love Tsarouhas's voice acting as every Marine/Police in some Source games and such. Literally makes him almost sound like he has been to the army before.
I really like that they portray the Marines as more human than in the original, especially in a series like Half-Life that’s all about showing you character depth without shoving it in your face.
I particularly like that the marines are seemingly trying to justify what they’re doing to themselves through what they’re saying, which is pretty realistic. It also helps that Half-Life was already good at making you feel morally ambiguous, seeing as you’re accidentally responsible for the deaths of a lot of people.
7:22 You have it written as "idunno" but I think he's actually saying "I'm uh-" and cutting himself off.
HECU is dealing with the Xen invasion is already terrible as it is but also can't sleep with both eyes closed knowing a single science team with a crowbar *haunting them.*