EP 3 = Welcome back to Xen/Black Mesa? (Heavy Spoiler)

[Savage Spartan]

I know there are a lot of different theories on EP 3 and where it will take place. I decided to make one thread though particularly Black Mesa and Xen itself.

Although I am kind of a bit still confused on the story and I think I am going to have to replay Half Life 1, Oppossing Force, Blue Shift, HL 2,
HL 2 EP 1, HL 2 EP 2 in order to understand everything fully. Anyway...

From what I gather at end of EP 2, you and Alyx were supposed to go somewhere on the Helicopter, you come in the warehouse next thing you know you get attacked by 2 advisors and Eli Vance gets killed. Alyx cries and it ends the episode... great cliffhanger lol. Regarding the portal in Citadel was that a portal from Xen?

What was that Portal all about, what was it going to do? Also some of the scenes with GMAN showed Black Mesa reception room just like it was in Half Life 1.....

I assume your going have to travel back to Black Mesa or maybe portal to Xen again is that possible at all? Hopefully if we get back to Xen on EP 3 we will kill some Gonarchs, Bullsquids, Houndeyes and some new cooler monsters....

What's your opinion regarding Black Mesa and Xen for EP 3? Possible come back??

 

[Tyguy]

I know there are a lot of different theories on EP 3 and where it will take place. I decided to make one thread though particularly Black Mesa and Xen itself.

Although I am kind of a bit still confused on the story and I think I am going to have to replay Half Life 1, Oppossing Force, Blue Shift, HL 2,
HL 2 EP 1, HL 2 EP 2 in order to understand everything fully. Anyway...

From what I gather at end of EP 2, you and Alyx were supposed to go somewhere on the Helicopter, you come in the warehouse next thing you know you get attacked by 2 advisors and Eli Vance gets killed. Alyx cries and it ends the episode... great cliffhanger lol. Regarding the portal in Citadel was that a portal from Xen?

What was that Portal all about, what was it going to do? Also some of the scenes with GMAN showed Black Mesa reception room just like it was in Half Life 1.....

I assume your going have to travel back to Black Mesa or maybe portal to Xen again is that possible at all? Hopefully if we get back to Xen on EP 3 we will kill some Gonarchs, Bullsquids, Houndeyes and some new cooler monsters....

What's your opinion regarding Black Mesa and Xen for EP 3? Possible come back??

From my understanding the combine portal was a direct portal to their homeworld. The room with the G-Man was not the room from Black Mesa. I do not believe we are going back to black mesa as there is no reason to.

I think we will eventually scare the combine of of earth. However, this would be temporary as the combine know where we are so to speak. I see the series ending with a fight on the combine homeworld.

 

[Darkside55]

Black Mesa is a crater. It's a hole in the ground several kilometers wide. There's nothing to go back to, because G-man blew the place up with a nuke.

He was showing an office in Black Mesa, but it was an illusion.

The next game takes place in the arctic, a place called Kraken Base. I do not think we will see Xen, although I would love to. But it simply isn't plausible from a story point of view.

 

[Savage Spartan]

Black Mesa is a crater. It's a hole in the ground several kilometers wide. There's nothing to go back to, because G-man blew the place up with a nuke.

He was showing an office in Black Mesa, but it was an illusion.

The next game takes place in the arctic, a place called Kraken Base. I do not think we will see Xen, although I would love to. But it simply isn't plausible from a story point of view.

how do you know that it is called Kraken Base? Links source? Not saying you are a liar or anything just want to know, where you found out that info....

 

[Darkside55]

Old drafts of the story. You can read about it in Raising the Bar.

 

[leib10]

No Black Mesa and no Xen. Black Mesa is a giant radioactive crater and I see no real reason to go to Xen.

 

[Tyguy]

good book, never really gets old

 

[Savage Spartan]

No Black Mesa and no Xen. Black Mesa is a giant radioactive crater and I see no real reason to go to Xen.

well unless there is a big twist in the story where you have go back into time or something, I wouldn't be surprised if you had to be in B.M or Xen again in that case. I just hope next episode they'll have newer enemies or bring back the old ones like Hound eyes, Gonarchs, and maybe Buillsquids, and I am almost 100% we'll get to fight Advisors.

 

[Acepilotf14]

What about the Borealis?

 

[Iron_cube]

More like, EP 3 = Welcome to the Arctic.

 

[leib10]

well unless there is a big twist in the story where you have go back into time or something, I wouldn't be surprised if you had to be in B.M or Xen again in that case. I just hope next episode they'll have newer enemies or bring back the old ones like Hound eyes, Gonarchs, and maybe Buillsquids, and I am almost 100% we'll get to fight Advisors.

You're right about the last thing you said. Everything else, I'm 99.9999% sure you're wrong.

 

[Dr0ndeh]

a few things about black mesa supposedly being a big nuke crater....

1. the bomb was set off pretty much at the surface (in a carpark, which was probably also in the outskirts of the base), alot of black mesa was deep underground.

2. we dont know how powerful the nuke was. black mesa was HUGE, really huge. there is no way that bomb caused total distruction.

3. that was 20ish years ago, who knows whats been going on at the site, or what reaction a nuke would have to any of the experiments or equipment at black mesa?

people assume too much. before ep2 i wouldve completely dismissed the idea at going back to black mesa as well, but the gman scene is a direct hint thats its a possibility, the gman doesnt appear to be able to travel back and forth in time at will meaning that room (which i believe is the reception room from hl1) appears as shown at the same time as ep2. not that i think its going to happpen mind.

 

[Apocalypse89]

If you listen to the commentary, Black Mesa was shown in the G-man scene as a "link to the past", so I don't think it's appearance is any kind of foreshadowing. Plus, the story is already set up so that we'll be heading to the arctic and the Borealis. In any case, I really hope we don't go back to BM, Xen, City 17, or any old locations in the next game. New locations please, especially when those locations possibly contain GLaDOS...

 

[Avoidist]

There was pressure on us to set Half-Life 2 at Black Mesa, which a lot of us felt would be creative death; it was important to break new ground. Nuking Black Mesa was a good way to ensure that we had a way to avoid setting Half-Life 2 there. You might say I gave the G-Man his orders.
-Marc Laidlaw

The end.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Black Mesa is a crater. It's a hole in the ground several kilometers wide. There's nothing to go back to, because G-man blew the place up with a nuke.

How big was the nuke? You cannot assume that the crater is several kilometers wide, without knowing the size of the nuke.

 

[leib10]

Irrelevant. No matter how big the nuke was, BM is gone, and we're not going back.

 

[QuantumFireball]

I thought that OP4 was just cannon and that the Nuke didn't actually happen.


If the events in OP4 are true then Race X is still real and still a potential enemy right, and Adrian Shepherd could make a return? (not that I want him to mind you.)

 

[Ap2000]

What's your opinion regarding Black Mesa and Xen for EP 3? Possible come back??

I hate Xen and Black Mesa has been nuked.

So... no.

 

[spunge]

Marc laidlaw didn't write that BM got nuked, and he specifically said he isn't going to abide by a storyline he didn't create. Meaning anything in op4 + blueshift didn't necessarily happen, if marc chooses otherwise.