User:S@bre/Locations in the Half-Life series
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[edit] Design
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
[edit] Locations
[edit] Aperture Science Laboratories
The Aperture Science Laboratories are a research facility introduced in Portal and Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Its "Enrichment Center" forms the setting for the entirety of Portal. The company is a direct rival to the Black Mesa Research Facility. The company's history, as revealed by in-game information and a web site for the fictional company, was initially building shower curtains for the US military, but due to mercury poisoning of its founder, shifted directions to create interspatial portals. The project was successful and Aperture Science's facilities expanded, including the installation of a new artificial intelligence named GLaDOS; however, shortly after its installation, GLaDOS turned on its creators and killed everyone in the facility.
The areas of the underground Enrichment Center that the player sees during Portal include clinically-white "test chambers" overlooked by laboratories and office spaces devoid of life, and disused maintenance areas behind these chambers where an unknown person has left helpful messages to the player to be aware of GLaDOS' motives. In Episode Two, the player learns that the Borealis, an Aperture Science research vessel, and a portion of the drydock it was moored to, was somehow teleported to the Arctic, and is a point of interest that the player is told to investigate. However, Episode Two concludes before this investigation.
[edit] Black Mesa East
Black Mesa East is a resistance base on the outskirts of City 17. The base is featured briefly in Half-Life 2, where it acts as the base of operations for Eli Vance, the leader of the human resistance against the ruling Combine. Situated alongside a hydroelectric dam outside City 17, Black Mesa East is mostly underground, consisting of several levels containing laboratories, kitchens, recreational areas and maintenance facilities. Its population includes both humans and Vortigaunts. The base is the primary destination for the player in the early stages of Half-Life 2, as after an attempt to directly teleport to the facility fails, Gordon Freeman must proceed there by conventional means. However, Freeman is tracked by Combine forces, assisted by Judith Mossman, who attack the base soon after his arrival, and consequently capture Eli Vance.
[edit] Black Mesa Research Facility
right|thumb|A Black Mesa test laboratory in Half-Life, where the resonance cascade is caused
The Black Mesa Research Facility is the primary setting for Half-Life and its three expansions, Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Decay. The base is a decommissioned ICBM launch silo in the New Mexico desert that has been turned into a scientific research complex. The facility is depicted as a vast complex of underground research laboratories as well as surface constructions such as offices, chemical waste disposal plants and personnel dormitories, all powered by a hydroelectric dam and connected by a tram system.
Over the course of the series, Black Mesa is revealed to be conducting top-secret research into various fields, such as teleportation and experimental weapons research. Prior to the beginning of Half-Life, scientists experimenting on teleportation discover Xen, a border dimension somehow intricately involved in the teleportation process. Creatures and crystals from Xen are consequently brought back to the facility for testing. At the beginning of Half-Life one such crystal, provided by the engimatic character of the G-Man, is put through an anti-mass spectrometer and causes a resonance cascade, tearing the spacetime continuum. As a result, the Xen creatures are teleported into the facility and attack its human inhabitants.
The resulting crisis is seen from several points of view in Half-Life and its expansions. In Half-Life, protagonist Gordon Freeman fights through the facility and teleports to Xen to try to seal the tear from the other end, where a Xen creature is keeping it open. Blue Shift shows the events from the viewpoint of a security guard, Barney Calhoun, who joins a group of scientists who use the teleportation technology to evacuate survivors from the base. In Decay, another group of scientists attempt to close the tear through their own equipment, before calling in the US military to assist with the situation. The military situation is shown through the eyes of Adrian Shephard in Opposing Force, where US Marines are ordered to kill the entire population of Black Mesa as well as the alien attackers, but are overwhelmed and forced to withdraw, allowing for black operations units to detonate a nuclear warhead in the facility, ultimately destroying it. However, the fracture in the spacetime continuum remains, allowing the Combine to invade and occupy Earth.
[edit] City 17
City 17 is an undisclosed city in Eastern Europe that forms the primary setting for Half-Life 2 and its first expansion, Episode One. The city features a variety of architecture types, from mostly Eastern European architecture dating from pre-World War II neoclassicism, to post-war revival of classical designs, Soviet Union modernism, and post-Soviet contemporary designs, as well as an amount of Combine structures. The city is considerably large, consisting of a train station, a dilapidated canal system, underground road tunnels and multiple communal living quarters and buildings. Much of the city shows signs with written in Cyrillic. The city is run by the Combine Civil Protection, who police the streets and supress any dissent with brutality.
The city is the base of operations for the Combine on Earth, with its Citadel forming the headquarters of Wallace Breen, the human administrator for the Combine. The Citadel itself is an exceptionally tall structure of Combine design, reaching both deep underground and high into the clouds, forming an ominious presence on City 17's skyline. In Half-Life 2, the player initally arrives in City 17 by train, but after being discovered flees the city by via its canal system. When the player returns later in the game, the city has been turned into a warzone as the citizens mount a fullscale rebellion against the Combine rule. The player eventually enters the Citadel itself to confront Breen, later destroying the dark energy reactor and teleporter at the top of the Citadel. This proceeds to destablize the Citadel's main reactor, which the player, accompanied by Alyx Vance, must temporarily stabilize in Episode One to allow for the population to be evacuated. The Combine try to accelerate the Citadel's collapse to send a message to their native dimension, requesting reinforcements. The Citadel eventually explodes at the end of Episode One, destroying the wartorn City 17 and forming a super portal to the Combine dimension.
[edit] Highway 17
Highway 17 is a road featured in Half-Life 2 that runs along a stretch of coast outside of City 17. The player, assuming the role of Gordon Freeman, travels through this area in a dune buggy to get to Nova Prospekt. The area is heavily occupied with antlions, large insectoid creatures that live in underground hives and violently defend their territory. The area around the road is mostly coastal with multiple boathouses and jetties, although the waterline of the sea is notably low, leaving derelict ships deposited on beaches. The road itself is in a bad state of repair, often littered with abandoned cars and in some areas is shown to have collapsed completely. Highway 17 is interspersed with various outposts under control of the human resistance against the Combine, although several of these are under attack or have already been destroyed when the player arrives at them.
[edit] Nova Prospekt
Nova Prospekt is a security and detention installation controlled by the Combine in Half-Life 2. The facility is the player's destination for the middle parts of the game, as Gordon Freeman travels along the coast to get there and free the leader of the human resistance, Eli Vance, after he is captured by the Combine at Black Mesa East. Nova Prospekt is described as once being a high-security prison, set on a coastal cliff. Its interior is largely dilapidated, consisting of several unoccupied and badly damaged cell blocks, a number of interrogation chambers and numerous guard posts and checkpoints. The core areas of Nova Prospekt incorporate Combine infrastructure, a teleporter and a large holding area for political prisoners, held unconscious in pods suspended from the walls. The facility is also shown to deal with processing humans through invasive surgery, either changing them into Combine Overwatch soldiers or into stalkers, dismembered slaves augmented with technology. The facility also incorporates an express train link from City 17. Nova Prospekt is heavily damaged during the player's incursion into the prison due to Gordon Freeman using antlions to break into the facility and rampage through it. The fight at Nova Prospekt is seen as the first strike against the Combine, and signals a major uprising in City 17.
[edit] Ravenholm
Ravenholm is an Eastern European mining town depicted in Half-Life 2. The town was a hidden location housing refugees from City 17 until it is discovered and attacked by the Combine, using artillery shells filled with headcrabs. Consequently, the town was massacred and its survivors infested by the headcrabs, and its linking tunnel to Black Mesa East is sealed. The town's sole survivor, Father Grigori, is shown to be slowly losing his mental health, and is killing the infested residents in order to save them from their torment. Working from the church, Grigori also rigs numerous traps and overhead walkways to keep himself safe from the infested populace. The mines are equally infested, and its structures have been heavily damaged. The player journeys through Ravenholm to get to the coast, after Black Mesa East is attacked by the Combine. Ravenholm has been noted to be a cross-over of the science-fiction and horror genres, as the player encounters the level at night, and many dark areas allow for surprise attacks from the zombies and other creatures within the town.
[edit] White Forest
White Forest is a fictional mountainous region in Eastern Europe that forms the setting for Half-Life 2: Episode Two. The area also contains a Soviet-era missile silo that acts as the base of operations for the human resistance against the Combine. White Forest is the only area of gameplay in Episode Two, and is depicted as a largely forest-land region near the base of several mountains. The area consists of several villages and minor resistance bases, connected by a road in a state of disrepair with a number of abandoned cars. Various other structures include radio stations, industrial warehouses and bridge houses, which are often infested with headcrabs. In addition, there are several mine shafts, which are shown to have been colonised by antlions. White Forest is also home to a ICBM launch silo, which has been converted by the human resistance into their primary headquarters. The silo is the primary destination for much of the game, with the player travelling the forest roads in a 1969 Dodge Charger to reach the base. The base itself is used by the resistance as a platform to launch a satellite containing codes to shut down a Combine portal that is opened in the wake of the destruction of the Citadel at the end of Episode One.
[edit] Xen
Xen is an alternate dimension and is the home of the Vortigaunts. A collection of asteroids hanging over a nebula, Xen is briefly featured in Half-Life and its first two expansions, Opposing Force and Blue Shift. It is often referred to as the "border world", as it is somehow involved in the teleportation process used by the Black Mesa Research Facility. Xen is the natural habitat to multiple types of fauna such as headcrabs, in addition to its sentient inhabitants. The asteroids are linked with their own teleporter system, and a number of asteroids are shown to include underground factory-like areas, where Vortigaunts work to create or mature Xen's military forces. Gravity on Xen is substantially lower than on Earth. Xen forms the setting for the closing parts of Half-Life, where Gordon Freeman travels to Xen to kill the Nihilanth and seal the spacial fracture to Black Mesa. The player briefly vists Xen in both Opposing Force and Blue Shift as well, in the former Adrian Shephard is forced to travel to Xen to escape an otherwise enclosed area, while in the latter Barney Calhoun goes to Xen to align some equipment to allow Black Mesa to be evacuated using the teleporters. After the death of the Nihilanth in Half-Life, the fracture is destablised further, causing large amounts of Xen's wildlife to be teleported to locations across Earth.
[edit] Reception
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Locations in the Half-Life series at Combine OverWiki, a Half-Life Wikia
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