Half-Life: Blue Shift - Chapter 3: Duty Calls
4,138 views · Published 23 May 2016 · 7:59 · Indexed 22 October 2026
Channel: Ross Mahon · 2016 · Gaming
Barney Calhoun regains consciousness at the bottom of the elevator shaft to the sight of a houndeye eating the body of a fellow security guard. The two scientists in the elevator are dead, and so Calhoun sets off through the industrial waste areas of Black Mesa to try to find help. Along the way he gains an insight into the scope of the disaster, and sees a pair of marines dumping corpses into a sewer opening, thus discovering that the military is trying to cover up the disaster rather than evacuate surviving personnel.
Trivia
At the end of this chapter, a reference is made to previous Half-Life expansion, Opposing Force, as one of the marines grumbles "just because Shephard's team didn't make it, we have to do the crap jobs?"
Although the previous chapter corresponds chronologically with Anomalous Materials in Half-Life, Barney encounters a scientist who mentions the infiltration of Black Mesa by the HECU, meaning that enough time has passed for the HECU to respond to the emergency. A possible reason for this jump in time is that Barney was unconscious from the fall in the elevator until just after the soldiers arrive. According to a Black Mesa scientist met by Gordon Freeman, the soldiers arrive in the Half-Life chapter Office Complex.
This chapter takes place at the same time as the Half-Life: Decay chapter Crossfire.
