Yep, that's right, already getting on to the next part of this, because I'm really excited to play it and I wanna talk about it!

And hey, to start this part off, this room, that I recognize from the Xen trailer! It looks even better in person, and-

HhhooOoOoOoh the giant alien murder shark can jump out of the water

Thankfully, I think this is just a scripted scene. So I didn't get snatched out of the air as I was long-jumping over the water!

We also quickly come to the entrance of the first(? I don't know if there are more, yet) research station from the scouts who came here before! You know... all those dead guys we saw earlier...

I just want to say that this? Is completely new. There was nothing like this in the HL Xen chapters. In fact, honestly, most of the stuff in Xen so far is new, but this is especially new, because all the other stuff was like... take the old stuff and expand it and make it pretty. But HL Xen was pretty much just all 'natural' Xen, never anything like humans trying to set up in Xen. And while I understand that back in the day, they were limited by their technology, but I feel like HL missed out on SO MUCH potential to do cool stuff with Xen...

I'm so glad Black Mesa is making up for that!

But anyway. Moving on into the research station...

Dead things in the airlock hallway. That's foreboding.

But there's nothing waiting for you when you immediately step in.

Wait... Wait a second... is that...

IT IS! IT'S AN HEV SUIT ZOMBIE!

(This is another new thing! While there were HEV suited corpses in HL, there were no HEV zombies! And BM pulled it off brilliantly.)

After fighting them, I can safely say that combat wise, they're really not a whole lot more than normal zombies. The biggest thing about them is how... unnerving they are. Like sure, Gordon's probably used to fighting zombies by now; he's been doing that for three days straight practically. But the biggest difference between him and the people who've been turned into zombies is that he's got the HEV suit. The suit designed to protect the wearer. And here, he's suddenly confronted with the fact that that doesn't matter to the headcrabs. If they can get to his head, HEV or no, he's a goner.

It's also really creepy because the zombies' HEV suit warming voices are still playing, but they're all glitched out. So the whole time you're fighting them, you hear this monotone feminine voice, "M- maj-or fr-r-racture detec— war-warning- user vitals are dro-dro-drop— see-eek im-m-medi—cal att-t-t-tention— user- d-de-ath im-im-im-imminent."  And it's the same voice that's been warning you every time you get hurt. And when you kill the zombies, it does the same flatline beep the suit does whenever you die. And some HEV zombies even have the suit flashlight turned on, so you get this shaky beam of light waving around as they walk, and shining in your eyes when you fight them.

Yep, the HEV zombies are incredible and creepy and I love them.

Immediately next to the HEV dock with the zombie in it (how did it get in there anyway??) is this,

An empty first aid station covered in blood. And I just stopped and stared at it for a few seconds, because this potentially tells a really sad story. Like, imagine if you were that first HEV zombie. One of these native creatures you were here to study escapes its crate, and goes for your head. You get away, but not without being injured. You're bleeding, heavily. It's okay, there's a first aid station nearby. You reach it, and either it's already out, and that's it, that's the end, or worse...

You reach the station. Use it. And it's not enough. You're leaning against the wall, bleeding out, and that thing- it's the size of a cat, why is it so dangerous- is still coming for you, and you're too weak to dodge...

Anyway, that's the feel this entire research station gives off, pretty much.

There's also this whiteboard in the station, and...

HMM, WHAT'S THIS?

(It's the Gonarch! But we'll get to that later...

Here's also a shot of a section of the station from the outside, all torn up.

And a bit farther down, on the way out...

Something about this welcome mat at the door is just so very sad to me. There were people here. They were living here, established here, settled in enough to take the time to put a welcome mat at the door- even though it was only them, they were never getting any visitors to welcome. Yet they still wanted to try to give it that homey touch, so they got a welcome mat...

This is kind of the same but just a little more funny, there's just a coffee machine sitting outside at one of the stations! Those researchers, so dependent on their caffeine that they brought a coffee machine to another dimension...

Here'a just another really cool shot of that spire we keep seeing floating in the distance.

"Very unstable," eh? Clearly that means we need to shoot it!

And yep, they are indeed giant, unstable, explosive gourd things. (These are also new to BM!)

Oh, look, another body! Guess they weren't careful enough with the explosive gourds.

I also saw this sheet taped up next to a door:

I have no idea what a Bire Crab is. "Sonic the Bulldog" is clearly a houndeye, and the spit squid is a bullsquid. Mr. Burns is one of these little fire houndeyes:

That instead of doing a soundwave attack, just straight up kamikaze run at you and explode on contact.

I wonder what all the tally marks on that paper are for, though!

Aaaand, that's the picture limit! Don't worry, I have more pictures, though.