Aaaand welcome back to "There's still no one listening, but Mouse just keeps on talking about it!" Today, we're going to be looking into the chapter

Blast Pit

"Blast Pit" is a chapter that, for some reason, has always stuck out in my mind. I'm not sure why; it doesn't have any stunning character development moments, nor any incredible plot moments. I guess the tentacle is kind of like a boss battle of sorts, and this is a boss chapter, but other than that...

Anyway. This chapter is the first place we come across radioactive sludge! And then shortly after, we find an entire rocket silo flooded with the stuff!

So I'm actually gonna take a moment here to talk about radioactive stuff in Black Mesa. First I love that you get a Geiger counter click when you get close to it. It's such a neat little touch. And then the visual affects, too? I don't know if being near radioactive stuff in real life messes with your vision, but I love that the closer you get to it, the more staticky looking the screen gets.

One thing that I think is kinda weird, though, is the fact that the HEV battery power doesn't do anything to protect from radiation. If you fall in the stuff, it just instantly starts chewing away at your health. But isn't the point of a charged battery to help protect you? Why does it not help against radiation?

Granted, I... don't know a whole lot about how radiation works, so maybe it actually makes sense that it doesn't do anything.

But anyway. When you enter the silo, you come across this wounded, dying scientist...

"Destroy the damn thing before it gets any larger."

and every time when he dies, he just. Flips out. I realize it has something to do with how the ragdoll physics work or something, but I still think it's ridiculous. He's just sitting there, and then he has one final death spasm or something where he just flails around. It always makes me laugh a little.

But moving on, entering the rocket control booth, I tried to get a good shot of the tentacle breaking through the window, but.

This is the shot I got lol.

I have no idea where the third tentacle went...

"Some scientists snuck down to the generator, to get the rocket up and running. We were gonna try to make a break for the fuel annex. You with us?"

With you? Buddy, pal, I'm the one who's gonna end up doing all the work.

So, fun fact, I think I missed this guy or something in the original HL? Or maybe he wasn't even there, I don't remember. But, regardless, I didn't know that the tentacles found you based on sound, and it took me SO LONG to figure it out. I think there's actually a chapter in this very book where I was complaining about it lol

Fun fact, that security guard down there that runs out and (very loudly) starts shooting the tentacles is canonically (at least as far as Black Mesa goes) names Leeroy Jenkins. I think it's fitting. XP

See, this, this is why I hate the tentacles. Most things, I can get by pretty well and make it out alive by the end. But this? I had full health and a full suit charge. And now look at it. Just from ONE TRIP through the silo. I mean, you're supposed to be able to toss grenades to distract it, but that doesn't work to well when it HEARS YOU PULLING THE GRENADE PIN AND JUST STARTS WHALING ON YOU UNTIL THE GRENADE GOES OFF, BUT BY THAT TIME YOURE ALREADY HALF DEAD.

And I have to go through there again later...

But anyway. On to the fuel annex. Most of this bit is pretty uneventful, nothing exciting, except...

Just how big would a fan have to be and how fast would it have to spin in order to generate enough of an updraft to lift a 200 pound man in armor that weighs at least another twenty five/thirty pounds? This bit always seemed a little implausible (er. Well. More implausible than the rest of the game, anyway.) to me.

But with the fuel annex taken care of, it's time to go back... to the missile silo... to get to the generator...

Thankfully, if you do the upper of the two levels first, you should be able to drop through the hole in the catwalk to avoid having to deal with the tentacle again just yet. So long as you don't also drop through the hole in the lower catwalk, anyway...!

"Smithers went down there... and never came back. ... I hope those guards made it to the fuel annex. Once that creature is out of the way, we can make our escape through the old rail tunnels!"

And once you've talked to this guy, and made it to the generator room, you can find in one of the two control rooms,

A scientist being eaten by a bullsquid. And on the control room on the opposite side,

"I'm not moving until the situation has drastically improved! Now go away! And don't tell anyone I'm here! ... Did you hear something?!? You weren't followed, were you?!? It's survival of the fittest! The law of the jungle! We'll see who's still standing when the smoke has cleared! I had to ditch the others. They were just dead weight, holding me back!"

This guy hiding behind a desk. Now, what I love about this is that it's not clarified in game which of these two is Smithers. He either died heroically, trying to start the generator when a bullsquid caught him, or he's a coward and a jerk, hiding behind a desk after ditching those who were actually trying to do something.

"We'll have the engine up again in no time! ... No sign of Smithers, then? Oh, I do hope he's alright..."

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Smithers is dead either way. Either he was eaten by a bullsquid, or he'll be killed by an alien teleporting in, or if not that, he'll die when the facility is nuked.

But then it's just one more trip back up the missile silo, and then it's time to fire the rocket engine.

Muahahahaha, REVENGE TIME, SUCKER

BUUURN!

"I sure hope there ain't more of those things growing around the base. ... Jenkins is at peace now, I can feel it."

See?? His name was Jenkins.

But beneath the rocket silo, there's apparently a whole river of radioactive sludge?

Why does BMRF have a river of radioactive sludge? What are they DOING that produces this much radioactive sludge? Why are there also barrels IN the radioactive sludge?

But the radioactive green waterfall does look pretty cool, I think.

Also, don't quote me on this, cuz it's been a while since I played the original HL, but I feel like I remember instead of just crawling on top of pipes to get over the river, you had to ride one of the floating barrels and jump off before the waterfall? But maybe not. Maybe I just tried that once in HL to see what would happen, and failed spectacularly. Or maybe I just imagined it up entirely!

At any rate, that's both the end of "Blast Pit" and this chapter. Next up is "Power Up."