Games - Black Mesa Research Facility

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	Games - Black Mesa Research Facility

: For other places called Black Mesa, see Black Mesa

The Black Mesa Research Facility is a fictional complex located in the desert of New Mexico, United States, and is the setting for most of the events of the computer game Half-Life and its expansions.

Research and facilities

The Black Mesa facility is built over a decommissioned missile silo complex, which has been converted into a vast civilian institute for the research of every conceivable scientific discipline. Much of the work undertaken at the facility involves fairly standard scientific research, such as radiation, rocketry, theoretical physics, lasers, experimental propulsion, hydraulics, robotics, hydroelectricity, magnetism, and a very wide spectrum of research into chemistry and all manner of physics research. The facility also serves as a base for decommissioning nuclear weapons. In addition to this legitimate research, several secret projects are also carried out at Black Mesa, which are deliberately left vague and kept strictly secret. As the player progresses through the game, it becomes evident that a great deal of highly classified research is carried out, including the development of high-tech weapons and defence systems, and research into extra-dimensional travel, teleportation, and the study of extra-terrestrial creatures. During the tram ride that opens Half-Life, an announcement on the public address system states that the facility is seeking employees with backgrounds in theoretical physics, biotechnology, and various other high-tech scientific disciplines. Black Mesa, as the same announcement states, is an equal opportunity employer.

The opening sequences of Half-Life and its expansions reveal much about the facility. Apart from hinting at the enormous size of Black Mesa, it is revealed that the facility is very high-security, as each employee is required to undergo a series of rigorous security checks as they travel around the complex. Black Mesa is dominated by a bewildering number of laboratories, test areas, and administration offices. These, along with cavernous storage facilities, take up most of the underground areas of the complex. Despite being located in the middle of a desert, the underground and indoors sections of Black Mesa are maintained at 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) at all times, enabled by Black Mesa's sprawling network of ventilation ducts.

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, basketball courts, swimming pools, a video rental outlet (as seen in Blue Shift), fast food outlets, food courts, cafeterias, and at least one bar serving alcoholic beverages. The facility is well-populated by vending machines and rest areas for the employees of the facility. As Dr. Eli Vance reveals in Half-Life 2 that his daughter lived in Black Mesa with him, it can be inferred that employees' families reside in the dormitory complexes as well. The complex may also have its own newspaper, The Mesa Times, although this may be an outside publication. The Blue Shift manual reveals further details about the facility. Barney Calhoun's duty rota is printed in French, suggesting that the facility recruits international personnel. Included in Calhoun's papers are several pages describing bizarre animals, claiming that the facility houses strange specimens from across the globe (they are, in fact, Xen aliens). A point of interest is that the same pages describe how, in the event of an emergency, security officers are required to co-operate with military personnel from the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, suggesting that Black Mesa has experienced problems with escaped specimens in the past. Possibly to deal with potential escaped specimens, or perhaps as a leftover from the facility's days as a military missile complex, Black Mesa contains many automated machine-gun turrets, which, when activated, will emerge from armoured cupolas and fire upon any moving object in its line of sight.

Black Mesa's motto, as seen in the Blue Shift manual, is: Working to build a better tomorrow for all mankind.

Size

The physical range of the facility is, from an in-game perspective, nothing short of massive, large enough that the surface area is divided into seven lettered sectors and upwards of nine numbered areas. Most of the facility is located underground, where vast concrete-lined caverns and old ICBM silos are linked by a network of electric trams. Black Mesa is apparently self-sufficient, housing its own ventilation, plumbing, sewage, and power generation systems including a hydroelectric dam and multiple types of electrical generators and reactors. The facility is filled with all kinds of laboratories and testing areas, most of which contain very high-tech equipment. The complex also features multi-story car parks (complete with Black Mesa four-wheel drive SUVs), arsenals of nuclear and conventional weapons, a local electric rail materials transport network, laboratories housing the latest equipment for every conceivable high-tech scientific discipline (including a powerful anti-mass spectrometer), and even its own rocket launch site. Black Mesa is kept supplied by a freight rail link to New Mexico. It can be inferred that the facility is relatively old considering that some areas are described by in-game characters as "old" or "abandoned." Several areas of the complex are badly run-down despite the obvious fact that they are still in use. The surface areas of Black Mesa feature more modern construction.

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