Seems like channel and video growth is just exponential nowadays. Haha Thanks a lot, guys. I had loads of other dialogue videos being worked on, but I’ve had my interest in other things since, as evident by my more recent videos. This channel’s been through some shit. I’ve been posting stuff since 2016.
What you really need to appreciate is how this game humanizes the HECU marines. It shows how they were just young, scared men being ordered to do terrible things.
More reasons why I like Black Mesa as a more story based fps game than the original Half-Life. And the EAS broadcasts make it feel how severely the situation was deteriorating even on the outskirts of the facility.
Those EAS broadcasts almost make me wanna see a game or machinima depicting residents of new mexico evacuating while they witness glimpses of alien lifeforms appearing around them. The fact that the scale of the evacuation keeps on increasing with every department of government it goes through really sets the scope of how bad black mesa was. War of the worlds sorta stuff, minus the giant tripods. Well, until the combine show up
@@toiletvision6138 A civilian who is an amateur welder using his engineering knowledge and welding equipment to build weapons and protective equipment to reach one of the evac routes.
The second one is kind of confusing, but it also makes sense considering how much structural damage was caused by the resonance cascade and all the hazardous substances the Black Mesa Research Facility has stored throughout it.
>Just imagine having to fight off all the Xen troops and parasites, leaving one guy to bleed off. The implication I got when he said his team was ambushed was that they didn't make it. Echo-3-Juliet was the sole survivor and bleeding out bad. Still pretty dark and depressing, to be fair.
They were only killing everyone on sight because its the order given to them. HECU Marines don't deserve this murder and bloodshed, that soldier was the lone survivor of his team. HECU is a clean-up team, not some murderers who just want to kill, they thought they could control the situation at Black Mesa but they couldn't.
they always talk about scary and creepy sounds like that is wolfs in forest, or childs laughs in abandoned playgrounds at night... but that EAS sound is the scariest sound ever...
knowing it's context of how someone is missing or there's a super serious event, yea every time I hear that I feel like curling into a ball and accepting the heavy hail to kill me _in my 68°F home with a 2/3 foot thick roof._
You know what's even scarier than the HECU losing control? Imagine if the HECU actually had orders to rescue the science team rather than kill them, and Gordon Freeman was among the scientists rescued. By the time they realized they needed to stop Nihilanth, Gordon Freeman would be too far away from the facility to do anything about it.
Even so, G-Man would definitely still influence events so that Freeman never actually reaches any evacuation zone either by "chance" or by sending waves of aliens
@@DrSabot-A he literaly blocks sheperd from his evac so who is to say he wouldent do they same? Also adrian was a FAR less important asset and he did that
@@DrSabot-A in that kind of scenario, Gordon might actually in USS Ishimura-ish Black Mesa until he accidentally stumbled upon Nihilanth, and every HECU soldier trying to rescue Gordon get "Side characters dies whenever they near the main character" treatment
I love how there's continuity with the HECU callsigns. Phonetic alphabet and number designations for infantry units, their squad/group, and who they are within it. (Tourniquet Marine "Echo-3 Juliet", Corpsman assiting him via radio "Echo-5 Romeo") Avian names for aerial transport units. (Ospreys "Goose-4, 5, 7, etc.) Dog breeds for armored units. (M1A1 Abrams "Mastiff", LAV-25 "Bulldog")
Especially if you compare it to this transmission's context in HL:OP. A guy just sitting in front of a radio giving an order to Cooper, while marines board a V-22, and some guy still trying to interrogate a scientist about Freeman. And the whole place is a clean LZ with a very little hustle going on. And then you've got the BM's take on this situation. Judging by this sound file alone we can tell: That LZ is swarmed by aliens; Airstrikes rock the area 7:31 ; Marines are dragging their fellow WIAs across the rooms towards the hangar exit, yelling for medic 7:28 ; That commander is the last one to leave the crumbling compound as the V-22 is seconds away from lift-off 7:36
@@Mirinovic In the power up chapter after you put the power back on, three marines spawn in the room where you killed vortigaunts with explosives, and you can see a HECU zombie, which they presumably tried to heal but unsurprisingly failed
That would have made life easier when it came to the efforts to set up the Resonance Reversal (the rocket launch and all) & Gordon may have had backup on his trip to Xen. Of course stopping the Nihilanth didn't stop the Combine finding Earth and its questionable that the HECU teaming up with the science team would have changed that.
@@crabulonbestgirl9130 The Black Ops: Barney: "Hey, Freeman right? I got a message for you. One of your scientist buddies told me you need to head to the Lambda complex and launch the rocket. Said that will somehow stop the freaks down here." *Black Ops show up, rescues Barney via getting him in the Osprey*
6:27 What’s funny is, while “ambushed” makes sense, what I hear is “vanished” - which makes me think the squad, or just Juliet-3 himself, might’ve gotten hit by some wayward portals. If that’s true, that implies a few things: 1. Juliet-3’s squad did *not* make it back out of Xen. 2. His leg injury might have been the result of aggressive wildlife maiming him or worse, like teleporting halfway into a solid surface. 3. He likely has no idea where he is, where to go, how to even communicate where in the facility he was dropped in, or where to even find anyone. 4. His IFAK, and likely most of his equipment, could have been lost during teleportation… Meaning, it’s possible he literally had no way to save himself. … Yikes.
@@matthewjones39 Not really. We see proof that others were affected by the portals in the game. Gordon most of all. We literally *_struggle_* against an array of Xen’s lethal wildlife. It’s entirely plausible.
@@matthewjones39 Yes. There’s an enemy who’s attacks are literally portals, and enemies / NPCs get unwillingly teleported around throughout the game. It’s kind of the whole shtick of the Resonance Cascade in the first place.
Fun fact - When they say Echo-(number) and a word after (such as Echo-5 Juliet) means when you need a call sign but don’t have one, you say Echo and the number that corresponds with your rank (E1, E2, E3, etc.) and then your last initial using a word from the phonetic alphabet.
Back in the 90's your Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) was held in your left cargo pocket, the fact that his IFAK was gone gives good odds that he lost his leg at or above the Thigh.
This is why I love Black Mesa. It makes the world feel real. The fact that they ask for anyone with military, firearms, or weapons training, shows how desperate they were. The situation goes to shit so quickly. Poor Echo-3 Juliet. Almost wish you could decide to help the HECU.
It's sad because I realized that they don't realize we're all in the same boat. If he doesn't kill the giant floating god of teleportation space baby, all of humanity would be invaded by mind-controlled slaves, manufactured soldiers, and manufactured floating heads. Of course, it's even sadder when WE know that even that didn't make a difference.
@@Mirinovic i would think the combine would still step in. if anything, They would make the situation WORSE since the nihilanth would still be Their slave. Imagine fighting striders with agrunt support. Not to mention the resistance wouldn't even have alien assistance since the vortigaunts would still be slaves
Warning 1; Freeman and his fellows are climbing from the wreckage of the base; and finding the horror of what exactly happened. Military forces are being alerted; Adrian Shepard being told of a special target he is being assigned to. Warning 2; Military forces arrive; Freeman and fellows fighting for their lives. First Xen forces begin to appear. Things going from bad to worse. Warning 3; Military forces failing; New Mexico is being overrun by Xen creatures. Freeman and fellows are abandoned; Shepard now fighting for his life. Portal storms beginning to erupt across the globe. Warning 4; world is gone. In less than three days; Black Mesa destroys the United States and triggers a world war against an alien race mankind has no hope of stopping. Only Gordon Freeman stops the portal storms long enough for mankind to collect their bearings; but the death of the Nililanth brings the combine to earth. I cannot imagine how much horror the world went through before it all finally came to an end. Based on the globe in Alyx; America is gone.
I assumed that the combine destroyed the USA because we would've been resisting, trust me if the combine invaded everyone would pull out guns and then we would all get blown up or something
@@Clone3A7 My assumption was that the combine saw enough of Shepherd and Freeman that they feared more people were like them; and thus ordered their best forces into battle with the hopes of killing anyone like them. If one person like Freeman can cause that much trouble; there's bound to be several more like him. They must have decided to pull all the stops in case; which is likely why they pushed so hard to kill Freeman when he returned.
I wonder what would've happened if the HECU didn't kill any onsite personal. They probably wouldn't have lost so many men to Freeman and could've stood a better chance of dealing with Xen forces. Would be nice if at some point in the future we get a spinoff where the HECU wins.
The HECU might've been able to hold back the Xenians, but destroying the Nihilanth alerted the Combine anyway. It was a lose-lose situation for humanity.
It probably wouldn’t have changed much in the long run, but another point there is that the HECU ended up basically working *against* efforts the staff were making to contain things - as well as shooting everyone, obviously, they aborted the rocket-launch that was an attempt to close off the portal, and were presumably trying to push into the Lambda labs
@@nobbieslicks2237 no, the combine didnt care about earth or nihilanth, they are too big to care about it. if the military didn't shoot every scientist, the portal storm can be reversed by sending another rocket and the combine wont even know what happened on earth.
Realistically, Freeman took out some 100-150 troops at most. While absolutely a grievous loss to be dealt by a single man, considering the nation wide scale of the Xenian invasion, I doubt the HECU could've effectively fought off their forces even with aid of on-site personnel and Freeman. The situation was doomed from the start.
These kind of radio broadcast add detail to the fact that the situation they are in is scary and dangerous. I like it, because sometimes HL feels like a "shoot and run" game where the backstory is just "kill the bad guys"....
HL1's story has a lot of moral ambiguity. The Vortiguants were enslaved, the marines didn't want to kill scientists, and the scientists were experimenting with innocent Xen fauna long before the incident. I don't see hoy anyone would think HL's backstory is about killing the bad guys...
More like a last minute cover up attempt to me. Black Mesa has tons of chemicals, advanced medical equipment and a nuclear reactor. If it weren't for aliens, the government could have easily covered it up as a Nuclear/Radiological incident.
It was a lie from the government acting like it’s simply a nuclear meltdown from a reactor to prevent panic while they still believed they had the ability to contain the Resonance Cascade. Clearly SHTF later on and they couldn’t really lie about it anymore so they said they were unknown hostiles rather than extra-dimensional aliens, and ordered a mass-evacuation.
the last one is mirrored in OP4 too, in Black Mesa you can imagine how terrifying the combat is on the other side of the facility. In opposing force it was a chill moment, in Black Mesa it is pure chaos.
I Really like when first broadcast is only by local authorities and at the end. The United states Departament of defense. A really cool move from crowbar collective.
Yep. At first, the storms were local, so local authorities were evacuating the area around Black Mesa. Then, it spread statewide, so state authorities were evacuating people from areas around the facility, if not the state. Then, the portal storms started appearing nationwide. The President had to call a national emergency, thus the Emergency Action Notification; Black Mesa was to be hit with air strikes, and eventually, a nuclear weapon. The EAS meant New Mexico, and some within its radius, had to evacuate.
The Seven Hour War didn't happen until much later. I know Marc Laidlaw said that it happened in the days following Black Mesa being destroyed by a nuclear weapon but even then the U.S. Government as well as the rest of the world were still trying to deal with what came from Xen, namely flora and fauna, which means that the Combine faced little conflict by the time those seven hours of combat had passed.
4:19 “This is Treefrog-3, I have eyes on Freeman, I am engaging.” “Treefrog-3 this is Oscar-2, I read you, are you sure its Freeman?” “….. He looks like a orange ice pop, so….” LMAO! Poor Gordon. 🤣💀
@@DONKFORTRESS6956 Another interesting thing I heard is in the Osprey Distress call, You can hear someone yell what I think is “Get off!” Before screaming. I’m not sure about this one either, Though.
@@squidfood639 Towards the end in that transmission too, there’s a bit that’s a little clearer in the background “..why aren’t we taking off yet? Just *go* for it!”
When I first heard the EAS I just stood there to listen to it, but while doing so I was constantly feeling like something was going go appear behind me in game and absolutely smoke me.
Yeah people need to take off the nostalgia goggles. Half Life 1 was campy and cartoony so it's shitty gun sounds/models and cigar-chomping grunts fit. Black Mesa has a much more serious and realistic tone, why would all the marines sound like 50-year old smokers who only speak through a voice filter?
The radio comunication that goes from 7:17 to 7:42 it's kinda dark, first, you hear someone saying "torniquet" and after, someone saying "we're going off without you" They just abandon their injured friend to those monsters
@@rclipse1985 guy who is talking to the radio is a commander. can't leave without the commander. commander exits the vehicle first and enters the last.
@@tychusenfieldlarsson206 Well, possibly. Neither of us can be really sure. Mine was just that the scene is more or less "Get the fuck off the radio and haul ass or we're leaving you", especially with the slight shift in his tone of voice.
4:52 This moment was an unnerving feeling when I was playing the game. The place you hear this broadcast is in a subway portion of Black Mesa, which is a very big part. Hearing this broadcast while you're deep in the facility AND in a big portion of the facility where you're exposed gives me an unnerving feeling, plus is guaranteed to give YOU an unnerving feeling the first playthrough of the game. 7:42 Hard to describe this feeling, you are being targetted by the H.E.C.U. but then suddenly them pulling back, but struggling to, gives a sense of relief but also a sense of uneasiness. Because, we're talking a huge force of Marines that almost killed you multiple times. But, also, you know the aliens holding them back isn't too difficult for YOU to face, so that adds a sense of strength compared to them. Verdict, Black Mesa did an amazing job. AMAZING job remaking Half-Life. The radio transmissions and the broadcasts weren't really that good compared to Black Mesa. So the fact that the Crowbar Collective managed to add upon some of the elements and give these unnerving feelings goes to show you that they did an excellent job. Please, if you haven't already, PLAY THE GAME.
The thing that really messed up with me on my first playthrough was those EAS. Most of them are played while you are out of combat, somewhere covered and with little to no resistance. It really shows what is happening outside of Black Mesa. It's unsettling to hear the world falling apart because of you, and you can't even see the damage you are causing because of how deep into the facility you are.
@@joaofelipegoncalves5891 Exactly! I don't know if Valve implemented that or Crowbar Collective did, but regardless it's an amazing gameplay mood changer.
Local, then state-wide, then national. Going from local to the departament of defense is a simple choice of words of how much everything went to hell. This is why I choose grounded stories instead of fantasy: the impact is so different.
That is what medics are called in the Marine Corps and Navy, the H.E.C.U are Marine Corps Special Forces, the Corpsmen are referred to as medics in the games, likely in case players weren't fimiliar with the term "Corpsman", and in real life Marine Corps squad leaders don't wear berets, Valve likely had the H.E.C.U quad leaders wear berets so players could identify the squad leader, also in HL1 there are AH-64 Apaches and F-16 Fighting Falcons, which aren't or weren't used by Marines at the time or still aren't and are a Army Attack Helicopter and Air Force Fighter Jet respectively, the Apache even has "Army" on it's sides, implying that the Marines were part of a joint operation, in Black Mesa the F-16s are replaced with AV-8B Harriers, which are Marine Corps Fighter Jets/ Bombers, this is likely due to the Air Force being cut entirely from Black Mesa's story, like with HL1 and the expansions the government sent four groups to handle the incident, in HL1 and the expansions (US Marine Corps (H.E.C.U), US Army, US Air Force and Black Ops), in Black Mesa it is, US Marine Corps (H.E.C.U), US Army, Black Ops and the New Mexico National Guard, which are handling what is going on outside the Facility, and likely have no knowledge of what actually happened.
@@TylertheCC1010fan I'm pretty sure that by the time Black Mesa is a full scale war zone, to the point where the HECU and all New Mexico citizens are evacuating, that even the National Guardsmen stationed along the perimeter of the facility would've encountered some of the Xen creatures at some point.
@@TylertheCC1010fan Well actually the first line of defense, the guards, fails, only Barney is a confirmed survivor. The HECU, also fails, except Shepard that manages to stop the entire Race-X(NOT Xen) invasion. The Black Ops was sent in, not only to kill the monsters, or the scientists and guards like the HECU, but also the HECU forces. So it was a desperate attempt to silence all witnesses independent of who it was unless it was a Black Ops. So you can tell that the Army, Air Force, and Navy, even the Marines and the National Guard don't have an idea, the HECU only has an idea of they had to kill Freeman and Black Mesa personnel, and the Black Ops have higher orders to kill even those HECU that have been created uniquely and exclusively for a Resonance Cascade or something near it. So you can tell that the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the higher uppers of HECU were planning it all the time.
@@TylertheCC1010fan The HECU carry mixed equipment, implying that theyre partially regular military and partially marines, thats why some said medic and some corpsman
“My IFAK’s gone...I’m, uhh...I’m-“ Jesus. If you didn’t feel sympathy for the HECU in the original game, you definitely will now. Holy hell, Mike’s acting just meshes so well with these guys. That particular radio convo reminds me of a video called “Last Protection Team” or something like that. Starting with CPs during the uprising in HL2 standing fast, and ending with a lone officer, Defender-3, I believe, begging for help as he’s seemingly surrounded by rebels, only for Dispatch to completely ignore him until he dies. Harrowing. At least Echo-3-Juliet had Echo-5-Romeo on the radio to talk to him before he bled out.
@ThyPeasantSlayer It’s sort of true, the Overwatch/Dispatch AI never seems to cotton on to when things are going horribly, horribly wrong. This is especially true in Episode 1, where she’s clearly trying to direct some OTA Soldiers to figure out what’s going wrong in the citadel, but they’re blatantly ignoring her and trying to evacuate.
Back in the 90's your Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) was held in your left cargo pocket, the fact that his IFAK was gone gives good odds that he lost his leg at or above the thigh.
@@Prussia1991 Fuck, that’s a good point. Either that or it got knocked away when he was trying to treat a smaller injury, that got worse as a consequence of whatever knocked the IFAK away.
@@rhysthereddragon1326 might have broken protocol and used his IFAK on someone else I suppose. (Standard procedure says that you use HIS IFAK on HIS INJURY to ensure that someone else later can use YOUR IFAK on YOU! That's been the standard since WW2, however some poor PFC [E-3 Juliette, one of the old radio methods was if you didn't have / couldn't remember your callsign you would use your pay grade followed by the first letter of your last name] might be forgiven for forgetting protocol amid an alien Invasion.)
For those wondering why a few have the same callsign with Echo and such that isn't their official callsign. Example Echo-5 Yankee. Echo-5 denotes the persons rank E-5 is Sergeant and Yankee denotes a last name beginning with a Y when someone doesn't have an official callsign. And with Echo-3 Juliet, E-3 rank is PFC or Private First Class with a last name starting with J.
Back in the 90's your Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) was held in your left cargo pocket, the fact that his IFAK was gone gives good odds that he lost his leg at or above the thigh.
@the door man assuming it was.. 1. within reach 2. Not disintegrated 3. The ifak wasn't what took the hit. Yes he could have. On the other hand, I think we could forgive some poor e3 for being a bit shook up after loosing his leg.
@@Prussia1991 What’s funny is, while “ambushed” makes sense, what I hear is “vanished” - which makes me think the squad, or just Juliet-3 himself, might’ve gotten hit by some wayward portals. If that’s true, that implies a few things: 1. Juliet-3’s squad did *not* make it back out of Xen. 2. His leg injury might have been the result of aggressive wildlife maiming him or worse, like teleporting halfway into a solid surface. 3. He likely has no idea where he is, where to go, how to even communicate where in the facility he was dropped in, or where to even find anyone. 4. His IFAK, and likely most of his equipment, could have been lost during teleportation… Meaning, it’s possible he literally had no way to save himself. … Yikes.
@@whothehellarewenow that is a sad bit of business. Worthy of plural yikes. One that gets me is thr image of some 20 something lance corporal sat there staring at where his leg(s) used to be amid the shattered remains of his squad bleeding out so far from home. Calling out to anyone who would listen, just so he wouldn't die alone.
@@dunndunn3850 H.E.C.U and the Army were sent to silence the facility, the New Mexico National Guard were sent to help out the civilians in the nearby towns and cities, such as Black Mesa itself, and later to evacuate the entire state, the National Guard are not ordered to kill civilians, all that the general population knows about the Black Mesa Research Facility is that it is a Research Facility that exists and is close enough to the town of Black Mesa to be named after it, but far away enough to be separate from the public and to not harm the town if a disaster happens, that's all they know and as such don't need to be silenced by the military or Black Ops. And in HL1 and the expansions the New Mexico National Guard isn't refrenced and the Air Force is sent to help the H.E.C.U along side the Army, they were likely removed to make way for the National Guard in the story without raising the number of involved groups, they were only in the story in the form of F-16 Fighting Falcons seen in Surface Tension, and in Black Mesa the F-16s are replaced with Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers.
This is why I love Black Mesa. It makes the world feel real. The fact that they ask for anyone with military, firearms, or weapons training, shows how desperate they were. The situation goes to shit so quickly. Poor Echo-3 Juliet.
Fun Fact: The tones we hear at the start of and Emergency Alert System is called a SAME tone. This is so your television, encoder and or any device can know what emergency FEMA or the US Government is transmitting.
*BMRF-EAS Broadcast 1 (LOCAL)* - 0:00 *"The following message is transmitted at the request of local authorities. At 9:47 AM, Mountain Time, a disaster of unknown type has occurred at the Black Mesa Research Facility, causing significant damage and failure to various power and communication systems in the surrounding areas. An immediate evacuation order has been issued for all residents within a 75 mile radius of the facility. An on-site military has been dispatched to provide assistance. Make sure to bring an emergency supply of food, water, clothing, first aid kit, flashlights with extra batteries, and battery powered radios. Follow local evacuation routes which have been marked by local authorities and only use one vehicle. Do not return to the warning area until the all clear has been given. If you are not in the evacuation zone, stay where you are. If you are within the evacuation area and have no transportation, locate your nearest police department or military officer. Do not use telephones or cell phones except in the case of emergencies. Stay tuned to local news media outlets for further details and information on this situation."* *BMRF-EAS Broadcast 2 (STATEWIDE)* - 1:42 *"The following message is transmitted at the request of The New Mexico Department of Emergency Services. At 9:47 AM, Mountain Standard Time, a disaster of unknown type has occurred at the Black Mesa Research Facility, causing significant damage and failure to various power and communication systems in the surrounding areas. This message replaces the previous alert, which expired at 12:01 PM, Mountain Standard Time, this afternoon. A full quarantine has been issued for the Black Mesa area. In the interest of public safety, all residents within a 150 mile radius are advised to evacuate the area immediately. Take only essential supplies, and a battery powered radio. Do not use more than one vehicle for travelling. Follow local evacuation routes, which have been marked by local authorities. If you are within the evacuation area and have no transportation, locate your nearest police department. If you begin experiencing a fever, coughing, nausea, dizziness, muscle ache, pneumonia, hair loss, or any such similar ailments, please contact your nearest disease control center immediately as these symptoms may be related to recent events. Stay tuned to local media outlets for further information on this ongoing emergency."* *BMRF-EAS Broadcast 3 (NATIONAL)* - 4:51 *"The following message is transmitted at the request of the United States Department of Defense. This is not a test. Today, at 4:16 PM Mountain Time, a state of emergency was declared by the President of the United States. An unknown hostile force was declared present at the Black Mesa Research Facility, and several other locations in the surrounding areas of Black Mesa, New Mexico. As of 5:42 PM Mountain Time, the President has issued executive orders to withdraw all ground forces...and begin immediate airstrikes over the Black Mesa Research Facility and surrounding areas, beginning no later than 6:42 PM this evening. For your own safety, an immediate evacuation order has been issued to the entire state of New Mexico. To all residents of New Mexico and surrounding areas, leave your personal belongings. Take a battery-powered radio, and only essential supplies with you. Do not remain in your homes. Seek shelter at your nearest militarized zone outside the state in New Mexico, and await further instructions. If you cannot find your nearest evacuation route, seek assistance from local authorities immediately. If you have military training, firearms training, or any similar weapons training, contact your nearest military officer immediately. Stay tuned to frequency 740 AM for further updates on this emergency."*
I feel like what people fail to realize a lot of the time is that the HECU are a specialized combat unit comprised of reconnaissance marines. Most of the guys probably got reconnaissance contracts or volunteered for BRC straight out of SOI either from Geiger or Pendleton and most of them could not have been more than maybe 21 years old. A lot of the Lances or Corporals you see (the ones with the Echo-3 to Echo-4 callsigns) are probably in their late teens or early 20’s. The only people that I can imagine being more than the age of maybe 23 are probably the Sergeants (Echo-5 callsigns). These guys were probably the same ones having a giant barracks party the weekend prior and then all of the sudden, get called into a situation they were completely unprepared for. What I hate about the original Half Life is that they depicted HECU grunts as these 80’s badass special forces type that you’d probably see in Rambo or Predator but in reality, they were probably scared kids that didn’t know how to handle or even mentally grasp what type of giant shitstorm their entire command probably threw them into.
@@clonecommandermike332 ehhh Maybe its cause i played a little too much hl1 but honestly the are really not that hard to fight again even on hard Though i agree they have their moments of sentience sometime
what i love about black mesa is that the scale is increased exponentially i love how as you progress the alert of the black mesa incident goes farther and farther and gets more chaotic I love the mortar sounds in Forget about Freeman this all just helps expand the universe and how the government attempted to deal with this event.
7:39 Meanwhile... HECU: "Shepherd, you've made it. I take it you didn't find Freeman? Forget it, Corporal. We are pulling out - the airstrike has started. Get to the hangar while we await evac!"
These were such a cool addition to the game. Really adds to the lore of the fall of Earth and what mightve happened to other countries between the 7 Hour War and Half Life 2.
The portion that goes off presumably around the time you launch the missile to destroy those tentacle monsters, that sounds like the symptoms of radiation poisoning. Damn, that's pretty rough.
4:47 Scariest part in this vid. Disturbingly amazing. This is my second time i scared of Half Life. I'm 8 at that time, and now i'm 26 imagine those grunts trying to retreat from unknown horrors :(
@@dunndunn3850 Thats a good point, I dont think any half life game has made me feel like a winner Either the world's ending, or that asshole in a suit shows up. Hmm...
They really humanized the HECU in this game. In the original they were a lot scarier, but i couldn't take them seriously with their stiched togrther speech and sily accents
The characterisation of the HECU is so well made in Black Mesa I feel BAD having to kill them (even though the firefights with the military are extremely fun lmao) and actively try to spare them when i can The EAS also help immerse in the universe as well as the numerous guard/scientist/HECU interactions you find
I like that we get some insight on what's happening outside. There's a lot of action IN Black Mesa, but it's interesting to thing about what's happening outside, with everyone evacuating and the news channels exploding.
@@variegatus4674 Shepherd has executive orders to dispatch Freeman. Dont be naive, just because all we play in the role of Adrian in some time doesnt mean that is a good guy. The good guy is Freeman
@@variegatus4674 yup, I believe he means he has the choice of shooting up the scientists and guards he meets. The scientists also hint at the military killing off personnel, but yeah he crashed before he got his orders
How is possible that Half Life isn't I don't understand how Half Life isn't considered an epic. Look at the narrative elements put into a single fantasy! It's incredible! It's like The Lord of the Rings! There is a surrounding universe, and contrasts of human drama, taking place in a fiction! It is an absurdly fantastic literary work!
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Seems like channel and video growth is just exponential nowadays. Haha
Thanks a lot, guys. I had loads of other dialogue videos being worked on, but I’ve had my interest in other things since, as evident by my more recent videos.
This channel’s been through some shit. I’ve been posting stuff since 2016.
i will use this as a prank
Everybody gangsta until the unknown hostile force is declared present
Everyone gangster until a galactic union esleve Earth under 7 hours
everyone gangsta until the orange boi with a crowbar arrives
Or even worse, declared *president*
@@Wastelander-rt5tb hol' up
@@Wastelander-rt5tb or earth realize that president keemstar is canon
What you really need to appreciate is how this game humanizes the HECU marines. It shows how they were just young, scared men being ordered to do terrible things.
"HOLY SHIT"
In some HECU lines, you can hear them saying things like
"Monsters? Hell yeah, but civilians"?
You can really feel like they don’t want to do any of this, afterall most of these guys probably aren’t even out of their twenties
More reasons why I like Black Mesa as a more story based fps game than the original Half-Life. And the EAS broadcasts make it feel how severely the situation was deteriorating even on the outskirts of the facility.
And propably lied about Black Mesa personel working with terroarist.
“Do not return to the warning area until the all-clear has been given.”
That never happened.
Yep before too long most of the people who heard that transmission would be dead and the remainder would be living as 'Citizens' of the Combine.
And if the globe in Alyx's apartment in Half Life Alyx is any indication, the entirety of North America was never safe again.
The warning area in a few months reached the entire miserable rock.
In half life beta there are two sound files war1 and war5 they sound like distored transmissions left broadcasting from the seven hour war.
New Mexico was expendable but ohio was not. The combine went too far.
“Sure It’s Him?.”
“He looks like a orange ice pop so...”
"Nice camouflage, "a*shole"
So the HECU shoot Orange Ice-Pops?
4:29
What do you think he has seeing?
@@Rodri95 a walking orange ice pop with a crowbar
"IFAK's gone" :(
What is the meaning of IFAK?
@@andrechirinos224 Individual First Aid Kit
it sounds more like "I fuck" when you say it
Yay! :)
:(
Those EAS broadcasts almost make me wanna see a game or machinima depicting residents of new mexico evacuating while they witness glimpses of alien lifeforms appearing around them. The fact that the scale of the evacuation keeps on increasing with every department of government it goes through really sets the scope of how bad black mesa was. War of the worlds sorta stuff, minus the giant tripods. Well, until the combine show up
That gives me an idea. A forest service worker stuck in the woods due to the xen monsters.
@@toiletvision6138 A civilian who is an amateur welder using his engineering knowledge and welding equipment to build weapons and protective equipment to reach one of the evac routes.
L4D3
The second one is kind of confusing, but it also makes sense considering how much structural damage was caused by the resonance cascade and all the hazardous substances the Black Mesa Research Facility has stored throughout it.
@@dhwwiiexpert I really like this idea
Could definitely be a mod
Finally a fictional EAS that doesn’t use text to speech.
Hey I have a soft spot for the VOX lol
that stuff is the most bland and annoying stuff ever, completely kills any room for genuine horror
MY! ASS! IS! HEAVY!
Is anyone gonna tell this dude that real EAS's use text to speech?
@@PanzerMan332 I mean windows text to speech.
That wounded soldier one sounds depressing. Just imagine having to fight off all the Xen troops and parasites, leaving one guy to bleed off.
Its sad, he's just a part of a statistic
>Just imagine having to fight off all the Xen troops and parasites, leaving one guy to bleed off.
The implication I got when he said his team was ambushed was that they didn't make it. Echo-3-Juliet was the sole survivor and bleeding out bad.
Still pretty dark and depressing, to be fair.
they deserve it.... they were killing everyone on sight.... imagine doing this and then being mad at the lose of one of these murderer.
They were only killing everyone on sight because its the order given to them.
HECU Marines don't deserve this murder and bloodshed, that soldier was the lone survivor of his team.
HECU is a clean-up team, not some murderers who just want to kill, they thought they could control the situation at Black Mesa but they couldn't.
@@Kurshkovv clean team = murder with order from higher ranks.... just cause its order don't mean its ok... overlord your master not your God.
they always talk about scary and creepy sounds like that is wolfs in forest, or childs laughs in abandoned playgrounds at night... but that EAS sound is the scariest sound ever...
knowing it's context of how someone is missing or there's a super serious event, yea every time I hear that I feel like curling into a ball and accepting the heavy hail to kill me _in my 68°F home with a 2/3 foot thick roof._
@@TheEmeraldSword04 It's actually designed to hit frequencies that bother people in order to stop it from being ignored.
@@LonelyKnightess Thats pretty interesting ngl
Look up the US amber alert sound.
You know what's even scarier than the HECU losing control?
Imagine if the HECU actually had orders to rescue the science team rather than kill them, and Gordon Freeman was among the scientists rescued. By the time they realized they needed to stop Nihilanth, Gordon Freeman would be too far away from the facility to do anything about it.
Even so, G-Man would definitely still influence events so that Freeman never actually reaches any evacuation zone either by "chance" or by sending waves of aliens
@@DrSabot-A he literaly blocks sheperd from his evac so who is to say he wouldent do they same?
Also adrian was a FAR less important asset and he did that
@@DrSabot-A in that kind of scenario, Gordon might actually in USS Ishimura-ish Black Mesa until he accidentally stumbled upon Nihilanth, and every HECU soldier trying to rescue Gordon get "Side characters dies whenever they near the main character" treatment
in that scenario the team at the Lambda Labs probably could have actually closed the rift
I think that Gman wouldn't let it
"This is not a test."
That gives me the chills every time I hear it.
first time i hear this is not a test... usually this is not a drill
you would like my channel then
Especially when it's transmitted at the request of the Department of Defense
I think this immediately became clear to all employees and visitors
I love how there's continuity with the HECU callsigns.
Phonetic alphabet and number designations for infantry units, their squad/group, and who they are within it. (Tourniquet Marine "Echo-3 Juliet", Corpsman assiting him via radio "Echo-5 Romeo")
Avian names for aerial transport units. (Ospreys "Goose-4, 5, 7, etc.)
Dog breeds for armored units. (M1A1 Abrams "Mastiff", LAV-25 "Bulldog")
Goose is also used and first appeared in Opposing Force, which makes it even more consistent
I thought the LAV-25’s call sign was Bloodhound-3 ?
Yep, whoever wrote those stuff did their homework.
I find it really heartbreaking that Juliet knows he will die soon and it just so happen that Romeo was the only one to pick it up.
It’s scary how you can hear a marine screaming for a Corpsman in the second last transmission
That's why I don't want to kill them. Some of them are young men's .
But I have forced to. :(
This would be world war 3
I thought he was screaming "fall back", but with the guy yelling "tourniquet" not too long after, that makes a lot of sense
Especially if you compare it to this transmission's context in HL:OP.
A guy just sitting in front of a radio giving an order to Cooper, while marines board a V-22, and some guy still trying to interrogate a scientist about Freeman. And the whole place is a clean LZ with a very little hustle going on.
And then you've got the BM's take on this situation. Judging by this sound file alone we can tell:
That LZ is swarmed by aliens;
Airstrikes rock the area 7:31 ;
Marines are dragging their fellow WIAs across the rooms towards the hangar exit, yelling for medic 7:28 ;
That commander is the last one to leave the crumbling compound as the V-22 is seconds away from lift-off 7:36
Now I can’t stop seeing Gordon Freeman as an Orange Ice pop thanks random HECU soldier
Thank you, Treefrog-3
Damn the HECU was grounded so hard they had to break the golden rule in the military: "Leave no man behind"
Well did this rule consider extraterrastrial Invasion?
@@Mirinovic In the power up chapter after you put the power back on, three marines spawn in the room where you killed vortigaunts with explosives, and you can see a HECU zombie, which they presumably tried to heal but unsurprisingly failed
@@bizmasterTheSlav there are no HECU zombies in the original Half-Life
@@thecaketubby5764he might be thinking of opposing force
@@ndhart3213he's talking about black mesa, the remake, where there are zombie hecu.
Alternate Universe: HECU and the Black Ops are actual rescue teams
Would’ve went a lot better.
"Don't shoot, I'm with the science team!"
"Ok."
*credits roll*
That would have made life easier when it came to the efforts to set up the Resonance Reversal (the rocket launch and all) & Gordon may have had backup on his trip to Xen.
Of course stopping the Nihilanth didn't stop the Combine finding Earth and its questionable that the HECU teaming up with the science team would have changed that.
When the SCP foundation is sent instead of HECU and Black Ops.
@@crabulonbestgirl9130 The Black Ops:
Barney: "Hey, Freeman right? I got a message for you. One of your scientist buddies told me you need to head to the Lambda complex and launch the rocket. Said that will somehow stop the freaks down here."
*Black Ops show up, rescues Barney via getting him in the Osprey*
6:27 What’s funny is, while “ambushed” makes sense, what I hear is “vanished” - which makes me think the squad, or just Juliet-3 himself, might’ve gotten hit by some wayward portals.
If that’s true, that implies a few things:
1. Juliet-3’s squad did *not* make it back out of Xen.
2. His leg injury might have been the result of aggressive wildlife maiming him or worse, like teleporting halfway into a solid surface.
3. He likely has no idea where he is, where to go, how to even communicate where in the facility he was dropped in, or where to even find anyone.
4. His IFAK, and likely most of his equipment, could have been lost during teleportation… Meaning, it’s possible he literally had no way to save himself.
… Yikes.
The idea of randomly having your leg teleported into wall is terrifying
That’s a pretty big stretch.
@@matthewjones39 Not really. We see proof that others were affected by the portals in the game. Gordon most of all. We literally *_struggle_* against an array of Xen’s lethal wildlife. It’s entirely plausible.
@@whothehellarewe But do you accidentally walk into a portal?
@@matthewjones39 Yes. There’s an enemy who’s attacks are literally portals, and enemies / NPCs get unwillingly teleported around throughout the game. It’s kind of the whole shtick of the Resonance Cascade in the first place.
The EAS broadcast describing the Black Mesa situation as "a disaster of unknown type" is the understatement of the year.
“Forget about Freeman” the moment they realized this disaster is bigger than Black Mesa
Black Ops would bit off more than they can chew when Race X shows up as well
Jesus Christ, I have never seen panic and desperation on such a scale portrayed so well in games, or anywhere else even.
Fun fact - When they say Echo-(number) and a word after (such as Echo-5 Juliet) means when you need a call sign but don’t have one, you say Echo and the number that corresponds with your rank (E1, E2, E3, etc.) and then your last initial using a word from the phonetic alphabet.
Mikee did such a great job with the VO on this game
Mikee does the best soldier voices
He also did all the soldiers in insurgency
Likee.
RIP Echo 3 Juliet :(
His IFAK was gone
@@TheSixteen60 Say again?
@@StephenMckeighen His IFAK gone, he beed another one STAT.
Actually I just realized but echo 5 Romeo was a reference to something as Echo 3 JULIET and echo 5 ROMEO like Romeo and Juliet
Back in the 90's your Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) was held in your left cargo pocket, the fact that his IFAK was gone gives good odds that he lost his leg at or above the Thigh.
This is why I love Black Mesa. It makes the world feel real. The fact that they ask for anyone with military, firearms, or weapons training, shows how desperate they were. The situation goes to shit so quickly. Poor Echo-3 Juliet. Almost wish you could decide to help the HECU.
Yes it make me be sorry for HCU grunts.
If only the HECU didn't attack Black Mesa personnel, Gordon would have allied with them and probably led a squad of HECU to Xen to kill Nihilanth.
It's sad because I realized that they don't realize we're all in the same boat. If he doesn't kill the giant floating god of teleportation space baby, all of humanity would be invaded by mind-controlled slaves, manufactured soldiers, and manufactured floating heads. Of course, it's even sadder when WE know that even that didn't make a difference.
@@hansonkerman7286 Well if Freeman dont kill Nihiliant (gigant baby) He will be one who conquest erth and not Combine it self
@@Mirinovic i would think the combine would still step in. if anything, They would make the situation WORSE since the nihilanth would still be Their slave. Imagine fighting striders with agrunt support. Not to mention the resistance wouldn't even have alien assistance since the vortigaunts would still be slaves
The Black Mesa Research Facility must be very VERY large
Large enough to be government-funded, hence why they decided to do the “cleanup”. If I remember correctly.
@@dunndunn3850 they must have sent 2,000 marines then.
@@dunndunn3850 yes over 13 decommissioned silos . From the Cold War era.
@@elitecrew255 They look to at least have slight use. It's not left to rust like Aperture did to it's old facilities from 1971-1986.
Black Mesa thicc
Warning 1; Freeman and his fellows are climbing from the wreckage of the base; and finding the horror of what exactly happened. Military forces are being alerted; Adrian Shepard being told of a special target he is being assigned to.
Warning 2; Military forces arrive; Freeman and fellows fighting for their lives. First Xen forces begin to appear. Things going from bad to worse.
Warning 3; Military forces failing; New Mexico is being overrun by Xen creatures. Freeman and fellows are abandoned; Shepard now fighting for his life. Portal storms beginning to erupt across the globe.
Warning 4; world is gone.
In less than three days; Black Mesa destroys the United States and triggers a world war against an alien race mankind has no hope of stopping. Only Gordon Freeman stops the portal storms long enough for mankind to collect their bearings; but the death of the Nililanth brings the combine to earth.
I cannot imagine how much horror the world went through before it all finally came to an end. Based on the globe in Alyx; America is gone.
Because President Keemstar promised revolt in his surrender speech.
I'll show myself out.
@@syrsafox32 M Y F E L L O W A M E R I C A N S
@@bigblue9996 W E H A V E M A D E A S T R A T E G I C D E C I S I O N ,
I assumed that the combine destroyed the USA because we would've been resisting, trust me if the combine invaded everyone would pull out guns and then we would all get blown up or something
@@Clone3A7 My assumption was that the combine saw enough of Shepherd and Freeman that they feared more people were like them; and thus ordered their best forces into battle with the hopes of killing anyone like them. If one person like Freeman can cause that much trouble; there's bound to be several more like him.
They must have decided to pull all the stops in case; which is likely why they pushed so hard to kill Freeman when he returned.
I wonder what would've happened if the HECU didn't kill any onsite personal. They probably wouldn't have lost so many men to Freeman and could've stood a better chance of dealing with Xen forces.
Would be nice if at some point in the future we get a spinoff where the HECU wins.
The HECU might've been able to hold back the Xenians, but destroying the Nihilanth alerted the Combine anyway. It was a lose-lose situation for humanity.
It probably wouldn’t have changed much in the long run, but another point there is that the HECU ended up basically working *against* efforts the staff were making to contain things - as well as shooting everyone, obviously, they aborted the rocket-launch that was an attempt to close off the portal, and were presumably trying to push into the Lambda labs
@@nobbieslicks2237 no, the combine didnt care about earth or nihilanth, they are too big to care about it. if the military didn't shoot every scientist, the portal storm can be reversed by sending another rocket and the combine wont even know what happened on earth.
lose-lose.. but.. at least the HECU helped
Realistically, Freeman took out some 100-150 troops at most. While absolutely a grievous loss to be dealt by a single man, considering the nation wide scale of the Xenian invasion, I doubt the HECU could've effectively fought off their forces even with aid of on-site personnel and Freeman. The situation was doomed from the start.
These kind of radio broadcast add detail to the fact that the situation they are in is scary and dangerous. I like it, because sometimes HL feels like a "shoot and run" game where the backstory is just "kill the bad guys"....
HL1's story has a lot of moral ambiguity. The Vortiguants were enslaved, the marines didn't want to kill scientists, and the scientists were experimenting with innocent Xen fauna long before the incident. I don't see hoy anyone would think HL's backstory is about killing the bad guys...
@@capitanpastabase6342 I think his point is Black Mesa reinforces a lot of what Half Life 1 hinted/pointed at.
You miss one In chapter 8: On a Rail, they have a radio too.
Right, right. That one where they instructed the soldiers to "not let Freeman get onto that launch pad." That was hard to understand anyways
@@dunndunn3850 Yep.
70th like
@@dunndunn3850 in the current version, that radio message is extended a bit and a lot easier to catch
Rocket team red Rocket team red be advised Dr. Freeman may be in your sector stay on high alert. *Do not let him get onto that launchpad*
All of those medical conditions like hair loss, sickness, and whatnot in the second warnings are definitely after the nuke has been set to go off.
also might be because xenian fauna and flora was actively spreading through the portals and infecting people
More like a last minute cover up attempt to me. Black Mesa has tons of chemicals, advanced medical equipment and a nuclear reactor. If it weren't for aliens, the government could have easily covered it up as a Nuclear/Radiological incident.
It was a lie from the government acting like it’s simply a nuclear meltdown from a reactor to prevent panic while they still believed they had the ability to contain the Resonance Cascade. Clearly SHTF later on and they couldn’t really lie about it anymore so they said they were unknown hostiles rather than extra-dimensional aliens, and ordered a mass-evacuation.
I didn’t think of that, although would also allow them to say it was just a nuclear reactor disaster.
Nope.
Black mesa incident probably caused alot of radiation..
the last one is mirrored in OP4 too, in Black Mesa you can imagine how terrifying the combat is on the other side of the facility. In opposing force it was a chill moment, in Black Mesa it is pure chaos.
This makes me wonder what an Opposing Force remake would look like since Shephard is supposed to be on the other end of that call
I Really like when first broadcast is only by local authorities and at the end. The United states Departament of defense. A really cool move from crowbar collective.
Yep. At first, the storms were local, so local authorities were evacuating the area around Black Mesa. Then, it spread statewide, so state authorities were evacuating people from areas around the facility, if not the state.
Then, the portal storms started appearing nationwide. The President had to call a national emergency, thus the Emergency Action Notification; Black Mesa was to be hit with air strikes, and eventually, a nuclear weapon. The EAS meant New Mexico, and some within its radius, had to evacuate.
The last EAS Transmissions must have been right before the seven hour war
The Seven Hour War didn't happen until much later. I know Marc Laidlaw said that it happened in the days following Black Mesa being destroyed by a nuclear weapon but even then the U.S. Government as well as the rest of the world were still trying to deal with what came from Xen, namely flora and fauna, which means that the Combine faced little conflict by the time those seven hours of combat had passed.
@@EnclaveSOC-102 I think it was about a week later or something.
@@EnclaveSOC-102 yeah that and 7 hours isn’t enough for every nation to ready their army
sure maybe America but EVERY NATION??
Or it could be Black Ops or Race X entering the scene
4:19 “This is Treefrog-3, I have eyes on Freeman, I am engaging.”
“Treefrog-3 this is Oscar-2, I read you, are you sure its Freeman?”
“….. He looks like a orange ice pop, so….”
LMAO! Poor Gordon. 🤣💀
When the Commander says:"We're abandoning the Base", I think someone in the background yells "FALL BACK!" I could be wrong though.
I think he's yelling "CORPSMAN!" which is another term for medic
@@DONKFORTRESS6956 Another interesting thing I heard is in the Osprey Distress call, You can hear someone yell what I think is “Get off!” Before screaming. I’m not sure about this one either, Though.
@@squidfood639 Towards the end in that transmission too, there’s a bit that’s a little clearer in the background “..why aren’t we taking off yet? Just *go* for it!”
@@squidfood639 headcrab attack
I can picture Adrian Shepherd just in the carnage.
Hearing the EAS for the first time during office complex was genuinely haunting, makes you realise that the resonance cascade was HUGE
When I first heard the EAS I just stood there to listen to it, but while doing so I was constantly feeling like something was going go appear behind me in game and absolutely smoke me.
Better than the old HECU, they just sounded so funny and ridiculous.
MY.ASS.IS.HEAVY.
BASTARD.
MY.ASS.IS.GOING.TO.SHIT.
Yeah people need to take off the nostalgia goggles. Half Life 1 was campy and cartoony so it's shitty gun sounds/models and cigar-chomping grunts fit. Black Mesa has a much more serious and realistic tone, why would all the marines sound like 50-year old smokers who only speak through a voice filter?
@@abhaybhatt4286 It's not even an official game
THIS. FACILITY. IS. NOW. UNDER… MILITARY.. COMMAND.
The radio comunication that goes from 7:17 to 7:42 it's kinda dark, first, you hear someone saying "torniquet" and after, someone saying "we're going off without you"
They just abandon their injured friend to those monsters
True, didnt notice
For some reason I think the guy they left is the unique survivor of Echo-3 Juliet
Sounds more to me like they're telling the guy on the radio to get his shit together.
@@rclipse1985 guy who is talking to the radio is a commander. can't leave without the commander. commander exits the vehicle first and enters the last.
@@tychusenfieldlarsson206 Well, possibly. Neither of us can be really sure. Mine was just that the scene is more or less "Get the fuck off the radio and haul ass or we're leaving you", especially with the slight shift in his tone of voice.
Wish there were hours of these, full system shock two vibes and stuff. I could listen to this for hours
6:49 Don’t be a jerk freeman, don’t take other’s IFAK /medic bag along your way. People died because your scavenging.
*Bunnyhops through 3 medkits in nanoseconds as he flies through the corridor.*
*casually takes IFAK on 99hp*
@@lazmanyacanavar5888 "Ok so you want to grab this soldier's IFAK bag, use it to prop fly over these obstacles."
@@Myne1001 yes
To be fair if freeman found their ifak its probably because they tried to kill him and he killed them
2 seconds in and i thought my tv was advising another warning. Guess that's what I get for not playing this game
Another? XD
@@dunndunn3850 not saying if global warming is real or not but it might as well be. 😆
-he looks like an orange ice pop so-.
-roger, if you have the shot, take it.
-copy.
**One grenade later...**
"unknown hostile force"
Jesus that's chilling. Especially at the end when it asks for combat volunteers.
4:52
This moment was an unnerving feeling when I was playing the game. The place you hear this broadcast is in a subway portion of Black Mesa, which is a very big part. Hearing this broadcast while you're deep in the facility AND in a big portion of the facility where you're exposed gives me an unnerving feeling, plus is guaranteed to give YOU an unnerving feeling the first playthrough of the game.
7:42
Hard to describe this feeling, you are being targetted by the H.E.C.U. but then suddenly them pulling back, but struggling to, gives a sense of relief but also a sense of uneasiness. Because, we're talking a huge force of Marines that almost killed you multiple times. But, also, you know the aliens holding them back isn't too difficult for YOU to face, so that adds a sense of strength compared to them.
Verdict, Black Mesa did an amazing job. AMAZING job remaking Half-Life. The radio transmissions and the broadcasts weren't really that good compared to Black Mesa. So the fact that the Crowbar Collective managed to add upon some of the elements and give these unnerving feelings goes to show you that they did an excellent job. Please, if you haven't already, PLAY THE GAME.
The thing that really messed up with me on my first playthrough was those EAS. Most of them are played while you are out of combat, somewhere covered and with little to no resistance. It really shows what is happening outside of Black Mesa. It's unsettling to hear the world falling apart because of you, and you can't even see the damage you are causing because of how deep into the facility you are.
@@joaofelipegoncalves5891 Exactly! I don't know if Valve implemented that or Crowbar Collective did, but regardless it's an amazing gameplay mood changer.
I wish I could play it, but it's given me issues since I bought it years ago.
@@sanguineskull What kind of issues?
Because sometimes you have to listen to the end of the Earth in another universe.
Local, then state-wide, then national. Going from local to the departament of defense is a simple choice of words of how much everything went to hell. This is why I choose grounded stories instead of fantasy: the impact is so different.
7:20 you can hear a marine screaming "CORPSMAN" in the background
That is what medics are called in the Marine Corps and Navy, the H.E.C.U are Marine Corps Special Forces, the Corpsmen are referred to as medics in the games, likely in case players weren't fimiliar with the term "Corpsman", and in real life Marine Corps squad leaders don't wear berets, Valve likely had the H.E.C.U quad leaders wear berets so players could identify the squad leader, also in HL1 there are AH-64 Apaches and F-16 Fighting Falcons, which aren't or weren't used by Marines at the time or still aren't and are a Army Attack Helicopter and Air Force Fighter Jet respectively, the Apache even has "Army" on it's sides, implying that the Marines were part of a joint operation, in Black Mesa the F-16s are replaced with AV-8B Harriers, which are Marine Corps Fighter Jets/ Bombers, this is likely due to the Air Force being cut entirely from Black Mesa's story, like with HL1 and the expansions the government sent four groups to handle the incident, in HL1 and the expansions (US Marine Corps (H.E.C.U), US Army, US Air Force and Black Ops), in Black Mesa it is, US Marine Corps (H.E.C.U), US Army, Black Ops and the New Mexico National Guard, which are handling what is going on outside the Facility, and likely have no knowledge of what actually happened.
@@TylertheCC1010fan I'm pretty sure that by the time Black Mesa is a full scale war zone, to the point where the HECU and all New Mexico citizens are evacuating, that even the National Guardsmen stationed along the perimeter of the facility would've encountered some of the Xen creatures at some point.
@@TylertheCC1010fan Well actually the first line of defense, the guards, fails, only Barney is a confirmed survivor.
The HECU, also fails, except Shepard that manages to stop the entire Race-X(NOT Xen) invasion.
The Black Ops was sent in, not only to kill the monsters, or the scientists and guards like the HECU, but also the HECU forces. So it was a desperate attempt to silence all witnesses independent of who it was unless it was a Black Ops.
So you can tell that the Army, Air Force, and Navy, even the Marines and the National Guard don't have an idea, the HECU only has an idea of they had to kill Freeman and Black Mesa personnel, and the Black Ops have higher orders to kill even those HECU that have been created uniquely and exclusively for a Resonance Cascade or something near it.
So you can tell that the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the higher uppers of HECU were planning it all the time.
@@TylertheCC1010fan The HECU carry mixed equipment, implying that theyre partially regular military and partially marines, thats why some said medic and some corpsman
@@TylertheCC1010fan No, those were AV-VB Harrier Aircrafts.
Everybody gangsta until the final credits appears "Based on real events"
I'm willing to die on the hill that the best changes Black Mesa did over the original Half-Life are the EAS alerts and the new version of On a Rail
“My IFAK’s gone...I’m, uhh...I’m-“
Jesus. If you didn’t feel sympathy for the HECU in the original game, you definitely will now. Holy hell, Mike’s acting just meshes so well with these guys. That particular radio convo reminds me of a video called “Last Protection Team” or something like that. Starting with CPs during the uprising in HL2 standing fast, and ending with a lone officer, Defender-3, I believe, begging for help as he’s seemingly surrounded by rebels, only for Dispatch to completely ignore him until he dies. Harrowing. At least Echo-3-Juliet had Echo-5-Romeo on the radio to talk to him before he bled out.
@ThyPeasantSlayer It’s sort of true, the Overwatch/Dispatch AI never seems to cotton on to when things are going horribly, horribly wrong. This is especially true in Episode 1, where she’s clearly trying to direct some OTA Soldiers to figure out what’s going wrong in the citadel, but they’re blatantly ignoring her and trying to evacuate.
Back in the 90's your Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) was held in your left cargo pocket, the fact that his IFAK was gone gives good odds that he lost his leg at or above the thigh.
@@Prussia1991 Fuck, that’s a good point. Either that or it got knocked away when he was trying to treat a smaller injury, that got worse as a consequence of whatever knocked the IFAK away.
@@rhysthereddragon1326 might have broken protocol and used his IFAK on someone else I suppose. (Standard procedure says that you use HIS IFAK on HIS INJURY to ensure that someone else later can use YOUR IFAK on YOU! That's been the standard since WW2, however some poor PFC [E-3 Juliette, one of the old radio methods was if you didn't have / couldn't remember your callsign you would use your pay grade followed by the first letter of your last name] might be forgiven for forgetting protocol amid an alien Invasion.)
@@Prussia1991 he's not a PFC, he's a Lance corporal
Remember This happened in the span of 1-2 days.
For those wondering why a few have the same callsign with Echo and such that isn't their official callsign. Example Echo-5 Yankee. Echo-5 denotes the persons rank E-5 is Sergeant and Yankee denotes a last name beginning with a Y when someone doesn't have an official callsign. And with Echo-3 Juliet, E-3 rank is PFC or Private First Class with a last name starting with J.
You can really here the realization that he was going to die at 6:53 when he said "My IFAKS gone...I'm, uhh..."
Back in the 90's your Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) was held in your left cargo pocket, the fact that his IFAK was gone gives good odds that he lost his leg at or above the thigh.
@@Prussia1991 he could have just pulled it out of the pocket on his detached leg
@the door man assuming it was..
1. within reach
2. Not disintegrated
3. The ifak wasn't what took the hit.
Yes he could have.
On the other hand, I think we could forgive some poor e3 for being a bit shook up after loosing his leg.
@@Prussia1991 What’s funny is, while “ambushed” makes sense, what I hear is “vanished” - which makes me think the squad, or just Juliet-3 himself, might’ve gotten hit by some wayward portals.
If that’s true, that implies a few things:
1. Juliet-3’s squad did *not* make it back out of Xen.
2. His leg injury might have been the result of aggressive wildlife maiming him or worse, like teleporting halfway into a solid surface.
3. He likely has no idea where he is, where to go, how to even communicate where in the facility he was dropped in, or where to even find anyone.
4. His IFAK, and likely most of his equipment, could have been lost during teleportation… Meaning, it’s possible he literally had no way to save himself.
… Yikes.
@@whothehellarewenow that is a sad bit of business. Worthy of plural yikes.
One that gets me is thr image of some 20 something lance corporal sat there staring at where his leg(s) used to be amid the shattered remains of his squad bleeding out so far from home. Calling out to anyone who would listen, just so he wouldn't die alone.
Imagine just going about your day and you suddenly hear one of the EAS transmissions
Well if that happened it would be safe to say goodbye to your old life
And I forgot to mention that you would need ONE GOOD FREAKING LUCK trying to survive the seven hour war and the combine that came after
Btw, I noticed the "treefrog" lines about the sniper play during the menu screen showing the HECU in the Questionable Ethics lobby.
The “Forget About Freeman” radio transmission was such a cool scene
The EAS speak so good and perfect and normal that subtitles write it perfect and understand well
Military has been dispatched to provide assistance
Or so they say.
@@dunndunn3850 H.E.C.U and the Army were sent to silence the facility, the New Mexico National Guard were sent to help out the civilians in the nearby towns and cities, such as Black Mesa itself, and later to evacuate the entire state, the National Guard are not ordered to kill civilians, all that the general population knows about the Black Mesa Research Facility is that it is a Research Facility that exists and is close enough to the town of Black Mesa to be named after it, but far away enough to be separate from the public and to not harm the town if a disaster happens, that's all they know and as such don't need to be silenced by the military or Black Ops. And in HL1 and the expansions the New Mexico National Guard isn't refrenced and the Air Force is sent to help the H.E.C.U along side the Army, they were likely removed to make way for the National Guard in the story without raising the number of involved groups, they were only in the story in the form of F-16 Fighting Falcons seen in Surface Tension, and in Black Mesa the F-16s are replaced with Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers.
This is why I love Black Mesa. It makes the world feel real. The fact that they ask for anyone with military, firearms, or weapons training, shows how desperate they were. The situation goes to shit so quickly. Poor Echo-3 Juliet.
Fun Fact: The tones we hear at the start of and Emergency Alert System is called a SAME tone. This is so your television, encoder and or any device can know what emergency FEMA or the US Government is transmitting.
*BMRF-EAS Broadcast 1 (LOCAL)* - 0:00 *"The following message is transmitted at the request of local authorities. At 9:47 AM, Mountain Time, a disaster of unknown type has occurred at the Black Mesa Research Facility, causing significant damage and failure to various power and communication systems in the surrounding areas. An immediate evacuation order has been issued for all residents within a 75 mile radius of the facility. An on-site military has been dispatched to provide assistance. Make sure to bring an emergency supply of food, water, clothing, first aid kit, flashlights with extra batteries, and battery powered radios. Follow local evacuation routes which have been marked by local authorities and only use one vehicle. Do not return to the warning area until the all clear has been given. If you are not in the evacuation zone, stay where you are. If you are within the evacuation area and have no transportation, locate your nearest police department or military officer. Do not use telephones or cell phones except in the case of emergencies. Stay tuned to local news media outlets for further details and information on this situation."*
*BMRF-EAS Broadcast 2 (STATEWIDE)* - 1:42 *"The following message is transmitted at the request of The New Mexico Department of Emergency Services. At 9:47 AM, Mountain Standard Time, a disaster of unknown type has occurred at the Black Mesa Research Facility, causing significant damage and failure to various power and communication systems in the surrounding areas. This message replaces the previous alert, which expired at 12:01 PM, Mountain Standard Time, this afternoon. A full quarantine has been issued for the Black Mesa area. In the interest of public safety, all residents within a 150 mile radius are advised to evacuate the area immediately. Take only essential supplies, and a battery powered radio. Do not use more than one vehicle for travelling. Follow local evacuation routes, which have been marked by local authorities. If you are within the evacuation area and have no transportation, locate your nearest police department. If you begin experiencing a fever, coughing, nausea, dizziness, muscle ache, pneumonia, hair loss, or any such similar ailments, please contact your nearest disease control center immediately as these symptoms may be related to recent events. Stay tuned to local media outlets for further information on this ongoing emergency."*
*BMRF-EAS Broadcast 3 (NATIONAL)* - 4:51 *"The following message is transmitted at the request of the United States Department of Defense. This is not a test. Today, at 4:16 PM Mountain Time, a state of emergency was declared by the President of the United States. An unknown hostile force was declared present at the Black Mesa Research Facility, and several other locations in the surrounding areas of Black Mesa, New Mexico. As of 5:42 PM Mountain Time, the President has issued executive orders to withdraw all ground forces...and begin immediate airstrikes over the Black Mesa Research Facility and surrounding areas, beginning no later than 6:42 PM this evening. For your own safety, an immediate evacuation order has been issued to the entire state of New Mexico. To all residents of New Mexico and surrounding areas, leave your personal belongings. Take a battery-powered radio, and only essential supplies with you. Do not remain in your homes. Seek shelter at your nearest militarized zone outside the state in New Mexico, and await further instructions. If you cannot find your nearest evacuation route, seek assistance from local authorities immediately. If you have military training, firearms training, or any similar weapons training, contact your nearest military officer immediately. Stay tuned to frequency 740 AM for further updates on this emergency."*
I feel like what people fail to realize a lot of the time is that the HECU are a specialized combat unit comprised of reconnaissance marines. Most of the guys probably got reconnaissance contracts or volunteered for BRC straight out of SOI either from Geiger or Pendleton and most of them could not have been more than maybe 21 years old. A lot of the Lances or Corporals you see (the ones with the Echo-3 to Echo-4 callsigns) are probably in their late teens or early 20’s. The only people that I can imagine being more than the age of maybe 23 are probably the Sergeants (Echo-5 callsigns). These guys were probably the same ones having a giant barracks party the weekend prior and then all of the sudden, get called into a situation they were completely unprepared for. What I hate about the original Half Life is that they depicted HECU grunts as these 80’s badass special forces type that you’d probably see in Rambo or Predator but in reality, they were probably scared kids that didn’t know how to handle or even mentally grasp what type of giant shitstorm their entire command probably threw them into.
That's my favorite part about them, they're difficult to fight because they barely seem human.
Guys! I hit him!
@@clonecommandermike332you mean in hl1? 'Difficult to fight'???
@@GarryTale They can be pretty tough to fight sometimes. They're definitely smart.
@@clonecommandermike332 ehhh
Maybe its cause i played a little too much hl1 but honestly the are really not that hard to fight again even on hard
Though i agree they have their moments of sentience sometime
when i first played hl1 and i heard the name cooper and i got confused on why i heard my name
did you find an ifak
@@Bacony_Cakes negative, keep searching
"He looks like an orange ice pop, sir..."
"That's him"
Lmao.
Amazing, this ambience radio transmit the desesperation and the big escale about the incident it was terrorific.
6:10 The situation got so bad they already started asking for civilian support. This is incredible work by the Crowbar Collective.
7:12
kinda dark, you can hear a ''LOOK AT HIS HEAD''
an unlucky fellow got headcrabbed
No, the guy was yelling "Gimme a hand here!"
Sounds to me like “Look at his head over here, c’mon!”.
I hear either
"We're getting pinned over here, come on!"
or
"Give me a hand over here, come on!"
It’s more like “FALL BACK!”
what i love about black mesa is that the scale is increased exponentially i love how as you progress the alert of the black mesa incident goes farther and farther and gets more chaotic I love the mortar sounds in Forget about Freeman this all just helps expand the universe and how the government attempted to deal with this event.
I love how they described freeman as an *orange ice pop*
7:39 Meanwhile...
HECU: "Shepherd, you've made it. I take it you didn't find Freeman? Forget it, Corporal. We are pulling out - the airstrike has started. Get to the hangar while we await evac!"
I find the radio silence after the last transmission haunting, because they're all gone, dead, or MIA.
honestly I think that adrian sent the last message right when he was leaving
@@i_am_secretly_uncool I think you forgot the scene in OP4 where you stand next to the guy giving the “Forget about Freeman!” message.
@@ic0nic707 i mean maybe that was 8 months ago so i dont remember
@@i_am_secretly_uncool fair enough
These were such a cool addition to the game. Really adds to the lore of the fall of Earth and what mightve happened to other countries between the 7 Hour War and Half Life 2.
the third one is the scariest, they mention air strikes and full evacuation in the game. just send chills down my back lol
The portion that goes off presumably around the time you launch the missile to destroy those tentacle monsters, that sounds like the symptoms of radiation poisoning. Damn, that's pretty rough.
You don’t actually launch a missile though, all you do is just fire up a rocket thruster that burns the tentacles to a crisp.
4:47 Scariest part in this vid. Disturbingly amazing.
This is my second time i scared of Half Life. I'm 8 at that time, and now i'm 26
imagine those grunts trying to retreat from unknown horrors :(
its gordon freeman killing them
@@apchistuz in that transmision it's a Xen Aircraft destruying their tank
It's M1A1 tank "Mastiff 1" being destroyed.
Seeing the tank getting Blown up with that playing, as well as the music makes me almost feel bad for the HECU.
Wasn’t it an Alien Manta Ray that killed them?
what a dire note to leave on
Much like every Half-Life game...
@@dunndunn3850 Thats a good point, I dont think any half life game has made me feel like a winner
Either the world's ending, or that asshole in a suit shows up. Hmm...
They really humanized the HECU in this game. In the original they were a lot scarier, but i couldn't take them seriously with their stiched togrther speech and sily accents
Eh, maybe its because i played through the game too much but in HL1 the HECU arent even scary since they are so easy to fight against even on hard
You know its bad when the department of defense is asking for anyone who knows how to shoot a gun.
(gordon survives all of this btw)
based on the game context, the strongest country got destroyed first.
"Strongest"
@@cloacky4409 Yes
@@cloacky4409 +1000 social cridets
@@007megaoof ok ?...
@@drsnakhenry653 how do I forget that I made this reply?
I always stop to hear radio transmission, it always gave me goosebumps.
I like the game radio because it useful to heard what happened to the world and how the 7 hours war does.😍👍
Thx for asking btw I really like that game.XD
7h war start after black mesa. First was war with aliens from xen
The characterisation of the HECU is so well made in Black Mesa
I feel BAD having to kill them (even though the firefights with the military are extremely fun lmao) and actively try to spare them when i can
The EAS also help immerse in the universe as well as the numerous guard/scientist/HECU interactions you find
Spare them?
*looks at the dead scientists, civilians, and security-guards around them*
@@Razgriz_01 After the Xen aliens comes the 7 hour war with the Combine. Killing them now spares them that horrible future.
@@xotl2780 huh. I don't see my post that you replied to.
Ah typical TH-cam.
7:18 Opposing Force Moment
I like that we get some insight on what's happening outside. There's a lot of action IN Black Mesa, but it's interesting to thing about what's happening outside, with everyone evacuating and the news channels exploding.
There should be some friendly Marines in lambda complex
Change my mind
What would be the reasoning behind that, if I can ask?
@@haroldgage7347 well, one would be Adrian Shepherd and that's the ONLY one. he never recieved orders to kill.
@@variegatus4674 Shepherd has executive orders to dispatch Freeman. Dont be naive, just because all we play in the role of Adrian in some time doesnt mean that is a good guy. The good guy is Freeman
@@RodLucanor no like, Adrian's osprey crashed somewhere in black mesa before his whole squad or whatever could even recieve orders to kill.
@@variegatus4674 yup, I believe he means he has the choice of shooting up the scientists and guards he meets. The scientists also hint at the military killing off personnel, but yeah he crashed before he got his orders
I almost got ptsd just from listening to this one video. cant imagine about actual infantry guys
The Echo-3 Juliet one gets me every time, oof.
This isn’t what we wanted but what we needed
How is possible that Half Life isn't I don't understand how Half Life isn't considered an epic. Look at the narrative elements put into a single fantasy! It's incredible! It's like The Lord of the Rings! There is a surrounding universe, and contrasts of human drama, taking place in a fiction! It is an absurdly fantastic literary work!
Wondering what kind of broadcast will be in the expansion pack remake of Operation Black Mesa, Guard Duty and Peer Review?
those are made by different devs.... we might not get and radio trans.
@@greyraven9164 Isnt there literally a EAS broadcast in the operation black mesa trailer
Michael Tsarouhas' voice work is simply oustanding
Amazing piece of writing and acting right there.
The one where the guys team was ambushed is probably the only one that stuck with me besides orange pop and the evacuation order
That grunt is still bleeding to this day, unable to find a tourniquet. No one knows how he's still alive.
Its eerie how the last HECU radio transmission shows the death of the transmitter of the message
I just love the fact that it has EAS in Half Life.
I remember playing this game on day 1, back when it was still a HL2 mod. Even then, it was a damn masterpiece, and the Xen update doubled that.