Despite being located in the middle of a desert, the underground and indoor sectors of Black Mesa are maintained at 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) at all times, enabled by Black Mesa's network of ventilation ducts.Ī food court from Black Mesa's transit systemĪs employees are required to live in the complex itself, Black Mesa contains personnel facilities including laundromats, recreation and sports areas such as lounges, basketball courts, swimming pools, restaurants, a video rental outlet (as seen in Blue Shift), fast food outlets, food courts, cafeterias, and at least one bar serving alcoholic beverages. These, along with storage facilities, take up most of the underground areas of the complex. Black Mesa is dominated by laboratories, test areas, and administration offices.
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Apart from hinting at the large size of Black Mesa, it is revealed that the facility is very secure, as each employee is required to undergo a series of rigorous security checks as they travel around the complex. The opening sequences of Half-Life and its expansions ( Blue Shift and Opposing Force) reveal much about the facility. Black Mesa, as the same announcement states, is an equal opportunity employer. It also notes that jobs in low-clearance security and materials handling are available. During the tram ride that opens Half-Life, an announcement on the public address system states that the facility is seeking employees with backgrounds in theoretical physics, biotechnology, and various other high-tech scientific disciplines. A large amount of classified research is carried out, including the development of high-tech weapons and defense systems, research into extra- dimensional travel, teleportation, and the study of Xen (an extradimensional domain).
In addition to this legitimate research, several secret projects are also carried out at Black Mesa, which are deliberately left vague, an aspect praised for its suspense. The facility also serves as a base for decommissioning nuclear weapons. Much of the work undertaken at the facility involves fairly practical scientific research, such as radiation, rocketry, theoretical physics, lasers, experimental propulsion, hydraulics, robotics, hydroelectricity, genetics, applied mathematics and a very wide spectrum of theoretical research into chemistry and all manner of physics research. The Black Mesa facility is built over several decommissioned missile silo complexes constructed during the 1950s, which have been converted into a vast civilian institute for the research of scientific disciplines. 4.4 Sector C Test Labs and Control Facilities.So who will stop the aliens then? Only my hours spent gaming will stand between our world and total destruction on that day.ĭid I mention the giant sliding metal door? Dude. I don't know if any my co-workers have even heard of Half Life, much less played it. Hideous monsters will come pouring out of one of those test chambers and run amok along these corridors.Īll I'm saying is, it had better happen on one of the days I'm working. So sue me if I can't help imagining that one day when I'm off in search of toner cartidges or something equally mundane, one of the labs will suddenly fill with otherworldly light.
Workers on foot and in whirring forklifts wend their way through towering canyons of stacked boxes and metal fences with padlocked gates.
If my errand takes me to the warehouse, a huge metal door slides up at my approach to reveal a huge, echoing space the size of an airplane hangar. Wooden packing crates are stacked against the corridor walls, just waiting for someone to dive behind them for cover or smash them open to get weapons or supplies.
Scientists in white coats peer into eerily lit test chambers.
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My path takes me past windows looking in on laboratories with large signs warning of RADIATION and BIOHAZARD. Because then I have to take out my security badge, swipe it past a sensor, and enter a series of sealed corridors that look exactly like the ones at the Black Mesa research facility in Sierra's first-person shooter game Half Life. In other words, working here is no longer a big deal.Įxcept, that is, during the few times that my work takes me away from my desk and into another part of the building. This alone was pretty cool to me when I first got the job but over time familiarity bred-well, not contempt, but complacency. I work at a large biotechnology firm in San Diego.
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