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The research team has an unknown administrator, hazardous waste flows freely from sewage pipes, and electrical malfunctions convey a unpredictable atmosphere. Games have explored all manner of these hazardous, industrial spaces, both aesthetically and functionally. Errant Signal’s Chris Franklin touches on the rough division between aesthetic and grounded level design in his “ DUSK and the Design of 90's FPS Games” video, and it’s important context for Black Mesa. Franklin notes that Doom’s Mars levels take the aesthetics of grotesque machinery similar to H.R. Geiger’s work in Alien, but the levels are more mood piece than functional within the fiction. None of the actual floor plans make sense as a cohesive facility, which isn’t really what Id was going for anyway. It’s all about the abstract feeling of a menacing space installation without any real grounding. Then take System Shock 2’s cohesive spaceship design. Unlike Doom or Quake, levels are broken apart by elevator rides rather than teleportation.The floor plans themselves convey a sense of verisimilitude, with practical applications like bathrooms and closets to help fill out the space (Chris Franklin notes these exact features in games like Duke Nukem 3D). Similar to Half-Life, the believable level design heightens the game’s atmosphere while grounding the game’s complex narrative with a sense of tangibility. Half-Life differs from other 90’s shooters because it’s persistently dangerous atmosphere comes from the pace of exploration and combat. Unlike in its contemporaries, players are encouraged through a combination of level design, hit-scan weapons, and character fragility to approach combat situations delicately.
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Among the most critical changes is how circle strafing isn’t viable in the game’s cramped, dangerous corridors. Many levels just aren’t suited for combat, due to Black Mesa’s crumbly infrastructure and various pitfalls. Players are more likely to plummet to their deaths than avoid bullets.