Black Mesa

***Black Mesa***, is a 2020 first-person shooter game and is the seventh game to be played on Butt Spectrum Club. The playthrough started on January 25th, 2021, and ended on January 19th, 2022. Black Mesa serves as a fan made remake of the game ***Half-Life*** which is the first entree in the ***Half-Life Series***, and was followed up by ***Half-Life: Opposing Force***.

## Game Information

Black Mesa is a 2020 first-person shooter game developed and published by Crowbar Collective, on the video game digital distribution service Steam.

The game is fan made remake of the game Half-Life, made in the source game engine. Initially made as a mod, Black Mesa was than approved for commercial release by Valve, who made the original Half-Life.

## Playthrough

The playthrough consists of ***Algernon*** playing through the game, while ***GhostinGhostout*** and ***Psychic Soup Can*** watch.

Throughout the playthrough, Algernon would jokingly kill the scientists and security guards throughout Black Mesa, to Psychic Soup Cans dismay.

Part way through the playthrough, Algernon lost some footage of the recording session, however luckily, Ghost was streaming the recording session on his end and gave the VOD for Algernon to use.

## Plot

Theoretical physicist Gordan Freeman arrives late for work at the ***Black Mesa Research Facility***. As part of an experiment, he pushes an unusual material into a machine, called the ***anti-mass spectrometer***, for analysis. The spectrometer explodes, creating a "***resonance cascade***" that severely damages the facility and opens a portal to another dimension, Xen. Surviving scientists urge Gordon to head to the surface, where he defends himself against hostile Xen creatures and the ***HECU*** (Hazardous Environment Combat Unit), a special unit of United States Marines sent to cover up the incident by killing all of the hostile aliens and any Black Mesa personnel they find.

Heading to the surface, Gordon learns that scientists from the ***Lambda Complex*** may have found a way to close the portal. Gordon travels to the other end of the facility to assist them. Along the way, he activates a rocket engine test facility to destroy a giant tentacled creature and uses a disused railway system to reach and launch a satellite rocket. After he is captured by marines and left for dead in a garbage compactor, he escapes and makes his way to an older part of the facility. There, he discovers Xen specimens collected before the incident. Overwhelmed by the alien forces, the HECU Marines pull out of Black Mesa and begin airstrikes. Scaling cliffs, navigating destroyed buildings, and traversing through underground water channels, Gordon arrives at the Lambda Complex, where scientists learn the portal is being forced open on the other side by an immensely powerful entity. They have developed teleportation technology that allows Gordon to travel to Xen, where he is tasked to stop the entity.

In Xen, Gordon encounters the remains of researchers who ventured there before him and defeats the ***Gonarch***, a huge egg-laying ***headcrab***. At a factory creating alien soldiers, he enters a portal that sends him to a vast cave. There, Gordon confronts the ***Nihilanth***, the entity maintaining the rift, and destroys it. Gordon is summoned by the mysterious G-Man, who has been watching his progress in Black Mesa and praises him. The G-Man explains his "employers" wish to employ Gordon. If Gordon refuses, he is teleported to an area full of alien soldiers to be killed immediately. If Gordon accepts, the G-Man congratulates him and places him into stasis to await his next assignment.

## Episodes

1. The Gang Cause a Resonance Cascade
2. The Gang Kill Innocent Employees
3. The Gang Repeat the Same Joke
4. The Gang Keep Dying
5. The Gang Launch a Rocket
6. The Gang Almost Die
7. The Gang Get R@cist
8. The Gang Meme Around
9. The Gang Cheat
10. The Gang Get Shot Up
11. The Gang Fight a Helicopter
12. The Gang Blow Up
13. The Gang Stay Up All Night
14. The Gang Don't Talk
15. The Gang Forget to Make an Intro
16. The Gang Have Bad Audio
17. The Gang Go to Another Dimension
18. The Gang Hop Around
19. The Gang Yell at Each Other
20. The Gang Fight a Ball Sack Monster
21. The Gang Join Gulunga Gang
22. The Gang Get Chased by Aliens
23. The Gang Duel
24. we just make D&D Characters this episode
25. Fetus Fighter

## Trivia

* Black Mesa is the seventh game to be played on the channel
* Black Mesa is the fifth game to be completed on the channel
* Black Mesa is the first game in the Half-Life franchise to be played on the channel
* The Hosts are Algernon, GhostinGhostout, and Psychic Soup Can
	+ Algernon is playing while Ghost and Psychic are watching
* Black Mesa is a remake of the original Half-Life