Journal #7762

Posted 11 years ago2012-04-26 03:00:14 UTC
People were complaining about my last journal being too long, so I'll try to keep this concise and point driven.

So I played this black mesa themed French mod called Destination Black Mesa. You reprise your role as the orange & nerdy penguin monkeyboy known as Gordon Freeman. The G man has sent Gordon back into Black Mesa to find and extract a key science team member known as the Eli Vance. Recall that in vanilla, Eli is indistinguishable from other scientists so... you know, good luck trying to find him.

It took me about 10 tries to successfully complete the training level. You start in a room with about 10 of the 14 weapons while on-screen instructions in French tell you something I don't know. It looked like a typical target range room, so I was just waiting for the targets to start up, and then SUDDENLY POISON GAS FILLED THE ROOM, and A DOOR OPENED TO REVEAL TWO SOLDIERS SHOOTING at me. WTF KINDA TRAINING IS THIS!? I rushed past the two soldiers and then this hatch on the ceiling opened and this dumbass dropped a satchel on my face. Boom. Gordon's training comes to a swift conclusion. Now that he's a pile of gibs on the floor, he is ready to return to Black Mesa.

After a month's worth of stitches, Gordon is dropped by helicopter into the very same helipad from the "WE'VE GOT HOSTILES" chapter in vanilla. Speaking of which, this mod allows you to revisit a good number of areas that you've seen before. Sure to please the long-time games such as ourselves.

Anyway, not gonna bore you with my unrecorded gameplay footage. Here are two main points to know:

1. Early on, I went thru a duct to end up in front of the Silo D door (the very beginning of "WE'VE GOT HOSTILES", you know, where that one guy says FOR GODS SAKE OPEN THE SILO DOOR!) So I went and opened the Silo D door, and guess what? 5 Soldiers came out, and the game faded with Gordon being banged offscreen.

Turns out you are supposed to go in a completely different duct (very well hidden) in order to actually get thru the mod.

2. The ending. I'm not saying it's bad; it's a kinda cool cutscene of the G-man's interpersonal skills. However (spoiler) you never get to the Eli Vance. You go towards this elevator, get bonked, and that's all there is to it. Break a leg.

This mod may be a bit hard, so I wouldn't recommend it to players new to half life. If you are going to play it though, just don't be expecting a good ending (or any ending, for that matter.)

2 Comments

Commented 11 years ago2012-04-26 23:01:42 UTC Comment #63296
"faded with Gordon being banged offscreen"
"You go towards this elevator, get bonked, and that's all there is to it"

ahahahahahahaha. Poor Gordon must be feeling quite sore no? lol.
Commented 11 years ago2012-04-27 08:01:09 UTC Comment #63297
Seems like one of those good, but weird mods. For some reason, even though I find it frustrating at times, wtf moments amuse me...
But the fact that your mission is to encounter save Eli and you never encounter him seems just... a cheap plot excuse.
How much time did it take to finish?

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