Yep, more Black Mesa! What a surprise.

Anyway, having taken down not the first but the second helicopter sent to kill you, you can proceed along the cliffside without being shot to bits.

And this is one of the moments in "Surface Tension" that does a really good job of telling you that this entire incident just keeps getting bigger, just keeps expanding outward. As you start to climb up the side of the cliff, if you're paying attention, you'll see these two jets fly by.

Then they swoop down over those buildings in the distance...

And a moment later...

They dropped bombs on it. They just blow it up. Because this is no longer so simple as sending a few squads into the facility to clean up a top secret project. This isn't even so simple as one scientist turned vigilante killing all the marines. This has gotten to the point of "We can't contain this anymore, we need to just destroy it, regardless of who or what else might be in there. We need to stop it no matter what." And it really hits it home that there's a lot more going on than just what you see, and it helps to remind you that, although Gordon is pretty high on their priority list, he's not the original reason the marines were sent in.

This moment is also really cool, because you can see the shockwave crossing the valley below before it hits you and you hear the explosion. I always think that's really neat.

But moving on,

Hoooo boy. A bunch of batteries and medkits lying on the ground- not even in a crate, so you still see them even if you're not the box-breaking sort! (Really, though, who playing this game DOESN'T love breaking those boxes?) But this has to mean a big battle ahead...

And it actually can be pretty hard, if you don't know what you're doing! This is the first place you face off against a tank, and missiles combined with rapid machine gun fire, not to mention the fire from the marines, can make it tricky to deal with this fight.

But if you know what to do, it's actually really... really... easy.

When you start to enter the arena, you'll find yourself in a sort of little canal, and if you run all the way to the far end, there's another drainage pipe you can jump in- the marines will drop a few explosive barrels in front of it before you get to it, but they're easy to avoid if you know they're coming. Once you're back in the tunnels, take a right instead of going up the ladder, and you'll find another ladder farther down. This is the one you want- there'll be something blocking it at first, but as you climb up, it'll start to move, and once you're up, you'll see it's

That first tank I was talking about! And it's driving away from you! So if you're fast...

You can take it out before it has time to start shooting at you. The rest is as simple as dropping a little ways back into the manhole, equipping the shotgun, and waiting for the marines to come to you.

But as soon as you leave the arena area...

Oh look another tank shooting at me!

This one is a little harder to take out- it'll shoot you down before you can get behind it, and there really aren't any secret tips or tricks. Just gotta go for it and duck under those crates, then fire whenever it's not!

Shortly after, you also get your first glimpse of one of the alien aircraft... manta ray... creatures. Gonna be honest, I actually have no idea what these things really are? You never fight them, they're pretty much invincible, they can shoot lasers from their bellies (though you only observe this, you're never the target yourself) and a couple times after they fly by, aliens will teleport in below them- kinda implying they're troop carriers of a sort? But the aliens could already teleport in anyway, so I don't know about that.

You also get to ride on the back of one in a platforming section in Xen in the original Half-Life, but I don't know if Black Mesa is keeping that. I'm excited to see if they do, though!

...Heck, I'm just excited for the Xen chapters in general. But I think I've said that quite a few times already lol.

You also find this guy to teach you a new game mechanic...

"Please... Somebody help me... I'm dying out here..."

And a scientist in that building over there runs out to help him...

Uh- uh, buddy?? You've got a laser- you might wanna move-!!

Too late. That's right, we've got snipers, now! You can't ever actually see them, though, you just gotta figure out where they're hiding by their laser guides and toss some explosives or shoot a missile in there to kill them.

Also, a fun fact about this bit, if you're fast, you actually can save the scientist (the guard dies anyway without being shot), but then he'll run back into the doorway there and block it, and he won't move. You don't need to go in there, but there's a medkit and some ammo in there, so if you need the supplies...

And then there's this moment, Once you get inside another building...

"I was heading there myself until I wound up here, and, well... [Nervous laugh] simply lost my nerve! Take one look through that door, and you'll see what I mean. I'm going to wait out the catastrophe in here. If you intend to go on, then I beg of you, for all our sake, proceed with extreme caution! ...I can hear those creatures up ahead. Keep your eyes on them! They haven't any clear idea what's at stake! Just one wrong move... One single miscalculated step, and we'll all be wiped clean off the map! Only shoot when you must! one stray bullet and we're all done for!"

And you take one look through that door to find...

What, a few tripmines? A few explosives? Like sure, it's dangerous, and would probably kill anyone without an HEV who set them off, but... don't you think you were exaggerating a little, buddy?

No. No he was not. Because you get a little farther, and you find...

Parkour hell with a side of explosives. And you so much as look at one of those tripmines funny, the entire place goes up and it's instant death for you.

(On a side note, that means that scientist probably made it far enough to see all these tripmines, then made it back across the first few to that other side room.)

But why exactly are all these tripmines here? Like, did the marines come in and go "oh hehehe a roomful of explosives. Let's make it more dangerous! Anyone breathes too hard in here, and we ALL die!"

Like. There is seriously no logic to this. Did they think "maybe Freeman's coming this way, let's try to kill him with a trap, despite the fact he's already proven himself a master of parkour"

I don't understand why it's like this at all. Like, sure. It makes a good video game moment. I can get through with (relative) ease, but I still always get tense and nervous during it. It's the just right amount of challenging and difficult to make you congratulate yourself on its completion, but not so hard as to make you rage quit (*ahem*lambdacomplexfinalbattle*ahem*) on another failed attempt.

But as for why...?

Just.

Why???

I don't know, man. I just don't know.