Black Mesa Research Facility

"The biggest embarrassment has been Black Mesa facility, but I think that's finally taken care of itself."

- The G-Man

The Black Mesa Research Facility, B.M.R.F. for short, is the headquarters of the Black Mesa corporation and the primary setting for Half-Life and its three expansions, Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay. It is located in the New Mexico desert, USA.

Overview







 * The Black Mesa facility was apparently built over several decommissioned ICBM launching and testing silo complexes probably constructed during the 1950s, which was converted into a vast civilian institute for the research of almost every conceivable scientific discipline. Several Half-Life texture files names contain the word "fifties", suggesting the facility is as old as from the 1950s. Some areas are also described by characters such as Rosenberg as "old" or "abandoned"; several areas of the complex are badly run-down despite the obvious fact that they are still in use. However the surface areas of Black Mesa feature more modern construction.


 * Black Mesa undertakes its various scientific researches in the facility, which is very high-security complex, as each employee is required to undergo a series of rigorous security checks to access most areas.


 * The facility is apparently self-sufficient, housing its own ventilation, plumbing, sewage, and power generation systems including a Hydro-Electric Dam and multiple types of electrical generators and reactors, some using nuclear technology.


 * The complex is dominated by a bewildering number of underground laboratories, test areas (including a powerful Anti-Mass Spectrometer), and administration offices, most of which contain very high-tech equipment, and even a rocket launch site.


 * The complex also features multi-story car parks (where only Black Mesa SUVs can be found), arsenals of nuclear and conventional weapons, and a local electric rail materials transport network, Sector E Materials Transport.


 * Black Mesa is also apparently kept supplied by a conventional freight rail linked to the outside, managed in the Freight Yard.


 * As employees are required to live in the complex itself, Black Mesa contains many personnel facilities, including laundromats, recreation and sports areas such as lounges,  at least one basketball court, at least one swimming pool, a library, a video rental outlet, fast food outlets, food courts, cafeterias,  and numerous vending machines.


 * The facility is well-populated by rest areas and dormitories for the employees of the facility. As Eli Vance reveals in Half-Life 2 that his wife and daughter lived in Black Mesa with him, it can be inferred that employees' families reside in the dormitory complexes as well.


 * All main Sectors are linked together by the Black Mesa Transit System, the monorail network going through the whole facility.


 * Black Mesa is equipped by a public address system, the Black Mesa Announcement System, relaying audible messages and announcements across the facility with a male voice. It is also used in the Black Mesa Transit System to give general information about the facility and mention each stop, with a female voice.


 * The complex also has its own newspaper, The Mesa Times, although it is unknown if it is an outside publication or exclusively made by the company for its personnel.


 * Despite being located in the middle of a desert, the underground and indoor sectors of Black Mesa are maintained at a "pleasant" 68° Fahrenheit (20° Celsius) at all times, enabled by Black Mesa's sprawling network of ventilation ducts.


 * In the underground laboratories, administration offices and dormitories, the main sections are always indicated in important intersections areas, and follow color codes consisting of lines running along the corridors to the related location. Several colors can be seen running along corridors, disappearing each time a related location is reached. This is seen for instance in Sector C and the Level 3 Dormitories.


 * The complex is also equipped with heavy blast doors that may shut down in case of fire, explosion or other event. Black Mesa can be completely sealed from the outside.


 * Overall, Black Mesa is as large as a city and is completely self-sustained in all fields.


 * In the event of an emergency, the "military" and "trained assassins", referred to as "a dangerous and very efficient clean-up crew" are to enter the facility. This suggests that Black Mesa has experienced problems with escaped specimens in the past and that a possible intervention from the HECU and the Black Ops is a known fact among the personnel, although some employees consider it a rumor. Possibly to deal with potential escaped specimens, or perhaps being a leftover from the facility's days as a military missile complex, Black Mesa contains many automated ceiling turrets, which, when activated, will emerge from armored cupolas and fire upon any moving object in their line of sight.

Personnel
Black Mesa employs in its facility two main groups of civilian employees: a science personnel and a security personnel, along with various other inhabitants including administrative personnel, service personnel and occasionally the employees' families.

The Black Mesa Incident
Occurring on May 16, 200-, the Black Mesa Incident is caused directly by a failed experiment in Sector C, triggering a Resonance Cascade. This leads to the invasion of the facility by Xen creatures, and finally its complete destruction by a thermonuclear bomb.

Facilities
The various Black Mesa facilities are loosely grouped into seven Sectors, although many areas visited during the games have no known Sector (it is actually unknown if every single area has to belong to a Sector). They are all linked together by the Black Mesa Transit System. Each sector has a letter ranging from A to G, and bears the name of its main facility. Thus Sector E Biodome Complex does not have only alien study labs, and Sector D Administration does not have only administrative offices.

The details about all the Black Mesa area names are given in signs found within the maps, character dialogs, and Black Mesa Announcement System announcements. However many announcements are never heard in-game, only to be found in the file "sentences.txt" located in each game's sound folder, showing that many more message were originally to be heard during the games. Each sentence has a map name before it, allowing a clear identification of the related area.

Sector A Training Facility


Encountered in all four of the Half-Life games, Sector A contains the separate Hazard Courses used for training scientists (predominantly to the use of the HEV Suit) and security guards.

Sector B Coolant Reserve


The Coolant Reserve apparently stores the industrial coolant used to maintain Black Mesa's thousands of computers and machines. It is first seen by Gordon Freeman when he escapes from Sector C.

Sector C Test Labs


Sector C is notable primarily for housing the Anomalous Materials Laboratories, Gordon Freeman's workplace. This area contains the Anti-Mass Spectrometer (in Test Lab C-33/a), the initial source of the Black Mesa Incident, the starting point of the Half-Life series.

Sector D Administration


Seen early in Half-Life, Sector D is mainly a large underground complex of Administration Offices where the bureaucratic aspects of Black Mesa's upkeep take place, along with some limited research.

Sector E Biodome Complex


The Biodome Complex, a relatively recent area of the facility, contains a series of Specimen Observation Areas, where captured Xen aliens and flora are kept and observed in artificial recreations of their natural habitats. Sector E also features Sector E Materials Transport, Black Mesa's freight monorail, as well as the High Altitude Launch Center, where rockets are launched.

Sector F Lambda Complex


The heavily fortified Lambda Reactor Complex is the site of Black Mesa's top secret teleportation labs. It features a huge reactor consisting of the Lambda Reactor Coolant System, and the cylindrical Lambda Reactor Core, as well as a large teleport.

Sector G Hydro Electric


Sector G mostly provides the power for the facility. It features the Topside Hydro Plant and its iconic Hydro-Electric Dam, and the Drainage Canals.

Additional / unspecified areas
The following areas are either not linked to a specific sector, or their specific sector is unknown.

Advanced Biological Research Lab


Located near Sector G's Hydro-Electric Dam and partially above the Biological Waste Processing Plant, the Advanced Biological Research Lab covers the Half-Life chapter Questionable Ethics. Its ground floor features a large lobby leading to the Hydro-Electric Dam, and is also connected to the Biological Waste Processing Plant (the road leading to the dam is obstructed by alien moss later in the incident). There can be found two Sterilizers, large rooms that disintegrate any biological form they contain, a surgical unit that can perform surgical operations on two beds at a time, several Alien Grunts kept alive in large tanks, and Headcrabs contained in glass cases. The second floor is dedicated to testing a large high-powered laser. The Tau Cannon is introduced there, so it was possibly developed on that floor. The name of that area is given in Black Mesa Announcement System announcements.

Alien Quarantine Labs


Located under the Gamma Labs, aliens brought with the Displacement Beacon Focus Emitter are studied there. In these labs can be found a partially dissected Headcrab, a headless Zombie, venom sucked out of a partially conscious Bullsquid (the machine to which can be operated, causing pain to the creature), an Alien Grunt in a tank and a dead Vortigaunt with its slave collars hooked up to a large power device, which, when turned on, reveals that the collars play an important role in creating their lightning bolts. Cross and Green are sent there by Keller to turn on a beam matrix to power the Displacement Beacon Focus Emitter on the surface. The matrix consists of three primary-colored lasers that have to be combined and sent through multicolored Xen crystals to give power to the Focus Emitter located above. As usual, the place is swarming with the common Xen creatures.

Area 7 Recreational Facilities
Whilst not seen in the game, a Black Mesa Transit System map featured in Blue Shift mentions Area 7. As Black Mesa's employees are required to live in the facility itself, Area 7 may contains comforts and diversions such as sporting areas, cafeterias, a cinema, shops and other personnel facilities. It is connected to the Green Line of the Black Mesa Transit System.

Area 8 Topside Dormitories


One of the many topside dormitories on the surface of Black Mesa, it features a basketball court, a small train platform and an orange flag of Black Mesa. Barney Calhoun lives in one of the Area 8 dorms, which resemble portable houses.

Area 9 Central Transit Hub
Also named "Area 9 Transit Hub" or "Area 9 Security Checkpoint", Area 9 Central Transit Hub is only mentioned and never actually visited. It apparently acts as one of the many transit security checkpoints throughout the Black Mesa Research Facility. Trams that pass through the Area 9 Transit Hub can be rerouted to both the Sector B and C transit lines. There high-security trains can be boarded. The final destination of the tram used by Barney Calhoun to reach Sector C is Area 9. It is connected to the Blue Line of the Black Mesa Transit System.

Biological Waste Processing Plant


It is first mentioned by Black Mesa Announcement System in Sector D in a message asking for an "emergency clean-up team" (it likely refers to the HECU and the Black Ops, although none are seen there). It is later visited during the Half-Life chapter Residue Processing, after Gordon escapes certain death from a garbage compactor located near Sector E Materials Transport. The Biological Waste Processing Plant disposes of and process Black Mesa's wastes through large tanks and an endless conveyor belt network. The area is mostly populated with Headcrabs, Barnacles, and a few Bullsquids. It is connected to the Advanced Biological Research Lab's ground floor.

Black Mesa Air Control


This building is adjacent a large airstrip, and is used to monitor and direct activity in the airspace above Black Mesa. Special clearance codes have to be entered at this building before any rocket launch can take place in other areas.

Black Mesa South Access Tunnel


A 5-mile tunnel leading outside the compound, this is where Calhoun, Rosenberg, Bennet and Simmons reunite after teleporting, before leaving with a Black Mesa SUV. This access is likely the other end of the South Exit found near the Freight Yard.

East Personnel Entrance


Connects Area 8 Topside Dormitories to the rest of the facility through the Transit System. Its name suggests there are other such entrances.

Freight Yard


The Freight Yard consists of the Train Yard, the Freight Warehouses and its three-stories administrative building, the Freight Management Offices. Connected to the New Mexico Railroad Line, this area is used to ship freight in and out of the facility. Under that area is a small tunnel portion, the Steam Tunnel Maintenance Area, leading to the basement of one of the warehouses. This basement either leads to the Freight Management Offices or to the Section A-17 Prototype Labs, located further below and accessed through an elevator hidden by recent transformations. The surface area is also connected to the South Exit tunnel and Sector G's Drainage Canal, through a small trapdoor. The Freight Yard is connected to the Red Line of the Black Mesa Transit System.

Gamma Labs


This facility was originally used "as a sort of cross-dimensional netting ground", where organic alien samples and creatures where captured from Xen without the need of actually going there, with the Displacement Beacon Focus Emitter located in the nearby canyon, and powered by three Xen crystals channeling the power from the beam matrix located in the Alien Quarantine Labs. In Decay, Gina Cross and Colette Green must activate the Focus Emitter to create a Resonance Reversal, and seal the rift between Earth and Xen.

Infirmary


After his Osprey is taken down by Manta Rays, Adrian Shephard wakes up in a damaged Black Mesa infirmary, which appears to still be under the control of Black Mesa personnel, who are caring for wounded soldiers and studying Headcrabs under the protection of security guards. The infirmary is equipped with CAT and MRI scanners, which are still functional. Some areas of the infirmary, though, have been abandoned probably due to parasitic infestation, and have been blocked off with furniture and hospital beds. There also are laser-based experiments taking place in the building.

Level 1 Main Facility Entrance
Never physically seen within any of the Half-Life games and only seen on a Black Mesa Transit System map featured in Blue Shift, the name of that area heavily implies that it is used as a central entrance checkpoint for all the facility personnel, and that it may be the entrance to Black Mesa. It is connected to the Green Line of the Black Mesa Transit System.

Level 3
As heard during Freeman's tram ride from Level 3 Dormitories on the day of the Black Mesa Incident, the Black Mesa Hazard Course Decathlon was to start on Level 3 around 19:00. This never happened due to the incident.

Level 3 Dormitories


Personnel dormitories. Features the Dormitories with dual bedrooms, the Library, the Cafeteria, and the Aquatic Center, featuring a large pool. This is the area where Gordon Freeman lives while working at Black Mesa, and where he comes from at the very start of Half-Life. His dormitory (Dorm 309) can be explored and shows to be furnished with a bed, a television and a small bathroom with shower (although all the other dormitories except Montague's are dual bedrooms, it can be assumed their content is similar). Several areas also include carpeted lounges with widescreen televisions and vending machines. That area is first introduced in Half-Life, and shows to be right beside the Area 3 Medium Security Facilities and the High-Energy Particle Labs in Blue Shift. Originally very simple, the entrance was redesigned for Half-Life: Decay. It is connected to the Red Line of the Black Mesa Transit System.

Section A-17 Prototype Labs


A very old sector of Black Mesa, these labs are located below the Freight Yard and accessed through an elevator hidden by recent transformations. There Black Mesa's first teleportation experiments took place, and an older teleport can be found (it was used by Calhoun, Rosenberg, Bennet and Simmons to escape from the facility). That area is powered by a coolant generator facility located deep underground.

Topside Motorpool


First seen in the Half-Life chapter Surface Tension, this area features the bulk of Black Mesa's still-functional military facilities. Connected by a sewer system to a large cliff and located not far from the Topside Hydro Plant, it includes, among others, an Ordinance Storage Facility surrounded by two HECU Snipers and containing two rockets topped by nuclear warheads and trapped by Tripmines, a barracks building including the Topside Armory, two helipads, at least three Helicopter Hangars (Hangar 16, seen in-game, and Hangar 1 and Hangar 4, only mentioned by the Black Mesa Announcement System), a garage with three Black Mesa SUVs, a small indoor parking lot where a Gargantua fights HECU soldiers and destroys SUVs, and other ruined buildings. The indoor parking lot leads to the Waste Processing Area 3, where the Gargantua is destroyed by Freeman thanks to the Tactical Map.

Waste Processing Area 3


Waste Processing Area 3 is first introduced in the Half-Life chapter Surface Tension. There can be found a Tactical Map originally manned by Cooper, a now dead HECU soldier, and used by Gordon Freeman to defeat the chasing Gargantua and clear the way ahead, leading to the Sector F.

Another part of Waste Processing Area 3 is seen in Opposing Force. That area comprises several Waste Stations and a main Toxic Disposal Basin, where the Pit Worm can be found. It also includes two garbage compactors, directly designed after the Death Star's garbage compactor seen in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, left there as Easter Eggs. It is connected to Sector E by the ventilation system. It is unknown how it is connected to the Waste Processing Area 3 section seen in Half-Life.

Behind the scenes



 * Series' writer Marc Laidlaw coined the name "Black Mesa Research Facility". He came up with other names during his brainstorming, including "Black Butte [unreadable] Missile Base" (located in Montana instead of New Mexico), "Sand Basin", "Diablo Mesa", "Mesa Diablo", "Diablo Plains", and "Fertile Plains". He states it is great fun for Valve to invent names for their creations, and then see them go out into the world and take on lives of their own. He also states he is very glad he decided to go with "Black Mesa Research Facility" rather instead of "Black Butte".


 * Ted Backman suggested Black Mesa areas that were not included in the final game, such as a large fuel depot stacked with barrels of oil that would have forced the player to use hand-to-hand combat instead of their weapons, with creatures coming from the opposite end of the room, and a morgue full of tanks containing dead alien specimens.


 * According to Jay Stelly, all Half-Life maps were designed ahead of time on paper by a "Cabal" consisting of level builders, animators, programmers, and anyone else needed for their creation so the team ensured all the available technology was being used to its fullest potential throughout the game.


 * Half-Life: Uplink features two instances of security cameras following the player, not seen in any other game set in Black Mesa. Shielded cameras were also suggested at some point in a "Detectomatic 2000" security checkpoint. This is featured in Opposing Force, in the Santego Military Base.


 * According to old Half-Life builds, the facility was also to feature a particle accelerator.


 * As seen in the Half-Life texture files, offices were to feature more posters and photos, and not only a child picture in Gordon Freeman's locker, although they might have been left in the files only as Easter eggs never to be seen in-game. The images include several public domains images taken by Valve on the website Public Domain Images, existing as far as 1996 : one of Babe Ruth, one of a bald eagle, one of Thurgood Marshall, and a computer generated image of a carcinogen bound in DNA double helix put into a calendar; the retail calendar using an image of Earth also coming from that website. The files also include a cropped version of a picture of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X smiling while shaking hands, one of an unknown man, two of jet fighters, one of a windsurfer, one of the White House (used in the map " " in Counter-Strike), three images of Xena and finally images of Valve employees, such as a photo group of the whole team (apparently on a baseball field, with Gabe Newell sitting in the middle), and probably Ted Backman and girlfriend. Many of these pictures were heavily reused in Half-Life mods.


 * As with Aperture Science, the Black Mesa Research Facility / Black Mesa logo is directly based on the company's name, appearing as a stylized mesa mountain against the sky.


 * The Black Mesa Research Facility bears many similarities with real world scientific facilities such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Area 51 or the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life: Day One
 * Half-Life
 * Half-Life: Uplink
 * Half-Life: Opposing Force
 * Half-Life: Blue Shift
 * Half-Life: Decay
 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
 * Half-Life 2: Episode One
 * Half-Life 2: Episode Two