How Far Away Is The Lambda Complex From The Test Chamber?

*I would like to apologize to Per Borgman for calling his map inaccurate, since after researching this issue further, I am unable to find any inaccuracies. The errors I found were my own.

Song used is Stellar Wind by Unicorn Heads - (free to use).

[emil]

I personally assume the canonical distance is much bigger, and that this, while most likely accurate, is not canonically representative of the entire journey, as the amount of distance traveled feels, and is likely designed to feel much bigger than it in reality is. Also there's the fact that op4's canonicity is questionable, which makes it, in my likely uneducated opinion not reliable, but still fun to see.


Regardlessly, nice videos man. Actually really interesting to see

[jcrosenkreuz]

The bit in Freeman's Mind where he imagines an architect saying "oh, you took _that_ route? That added another three miles." was really spot on!

[InfraredScale]

Black Mesa has its own dedicated transit system, power plant, an abandoned underground rail system, a recycling facility, a toxic waste dump ect ect. There is no way it's canonically only 91 meters from one end to the other. but there is no way they could stretch the gameplay to fit the intended distance, like imagine actually having to walk through 10km in game (it sounds pretty cool tho)

Half Life maps have wide open areas with buildings and mountains in the distance, there are seemingly bottomless pits all around the facility, maps take place in different times of day, just to give the illusion of a massive facility that we only explore a tiny bit of, it's some brilliant level design

[TheEngieTF]

If Eli tells Gordon to go to the Lambda Complex, the game would've been cut short to like an hour of gameplay

[TheEngieTF]

It should be noted that even if that was the distance to the Lambda Complex, Black Mesa is more of a maze, especially there are some pathways that are blocked, forcing you to take another route, let alone the obstacles that lies ahead of you

[ghhn]

YOU'RE TELLING ME THIS WHOLE TIME I WAS JUST A SHORT JOG FROM THE END OF THE GAME FROM THE BEGINNING

WHAT DID I SPEND ALL THAT TIME DICKING AROUND AND KILLING HEADCRABS FOR THEN

[Awesomeness-izdh]

Using Opposing Force to bridge the gap is really clever. I've always wanted to see a full map of every game taking place in Black Mesa combined, and to see if it's even possible or if areas overlap. Though of course with Decay being mission-based, we get almost no information from it in terms of where areas are located relative to other areas. Also makes me wonder if the Pit Worm's nest is actually beneath the area with the tactical map in HL1, as they're both marked with the same label, Waste Processing Area 3.

[procyon]

I've used a tool called OpenSource which puts all the Half-Life: Source maps into one space and it's really interesting. Apart from finding out that the Test Chamber overlaps with the Blast Pit, as well as many other spatial impossibilities, I discovered there are only two rockets: the one seen early on in On A Rail that's not mandatory, and the one that is mandatory in On A Rail, is seen on the monitors at the launch site, and is the one launched at the end of the chapter.

[ominousvirus]

It’d be really, REALLY cool to explore the entire Black Mesa facility as one map... before the resonance cascade required you to go through vents, pipes, and radiation waste that is.

[utterderc]

Huh... if you think about it the scientist who says "it's at the opposite end of the base" he actually means it

[CKVanilla]

I’ve asked this question for months and I’m so glad there’s finally an accurate answer

[Seb-Storm]

To all the people wondering why this seemed shorter than it feels is because this is just drawing a straight line from point A to point B but not considering in-game routes, detours, combat pauses, explorations to open doors and stuff like

[SamekhAniki]

I just wanna see a full map of the whole Black Mesa, including the levels from op4, bs and decay!

[Evandroworks]

Even though hammers official measurement is 1 inch, wouldn't it make more sense to take Gordon's height to put to scale the teleporter room? I think this would be more accurate, and maybe even put the map osprey to scale as well.
How much would it differ from the current measurement?

[dkskcjfjswwwwwws]

Aa far as I know, 1 hammer unit is actually 1 16th of a foot for maps, while 1 inch for characters. This is why goldsrc and source maps look big

[garakds]

So what the scientist said is pretty accurate. You work your way through the old railing system, and you'd end up in the Lambda Complex.

[itsallgoodman]

Rest of the world: This thing is XXX meters long

Americans: 5:12

[oron]

Here's a question: how much travel time would Gordon and Adrian cut out of their travels if all the doors were unlocked? if all the locked doors in the maps didn't need to be bypassed, and every sealed door that acts like part of the wall could be opened?

[erykzysk]

I've actually been thinking about this a lot lately, considering that most of the time Gordon doesn't know where he's going.

[blueorange]

Good work, nice of you to make this. Hm thr scientist that says "it's on the opposite side of the base" said that while Gordon was at WGH chapter. But it's probably not from ground zero considering Gordon went up most of the time and traversed a lot with traincart.

Imagine if we had a map of the areas from all 3 games, but before disaster where everything is normal, and to walk from each area to the next....