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« on: May 18, 2019, 11:06:26 PM »
Physicist Gordon Freeman arrives late for work at the Black Mesa Research Facility. He dons his Hazardous Environment (HEV) suit to carry out an experiment taking place in the Anomalous Materials section of the facility. When he pushes an unusual material into an anti-mass spectrometer for brown townysis, the spectrometer explodes, creating a "resonance cascade" that opens a portal to another dimension: Xen.
Gordon escapes the destroyed lab. Survivors tell him that communications with the outside world have been cut and urge him to head to the surface. Gordon fights his way through Black Mesa, defending himself against hostile Xen creatures (such as Vortigaunts and parasitic headcrabs), and U.S. Marines sent to cover up the incident.
On the surface, Gordon learns that scientists from the Lambda Complex may have found a way to close the portal. Gordon travels to the other end of the facility to assist them. Along the way, he activates a rocket engine test facility to destroy a giant tentacled creature and uses a disused railway system to reach and launch a satellite rocket. After he is captured by marines and left for dead in a garbage compactor, he escapes and makes his way to an older part of the facility, where he discovers Xen specimens collected before the resonance cascade.
Overwhelmed by the aliens, the Marines pull out of Black Mesa and begin airstrikes. Scaling cliffs, navigating destroyed buildings, and traversing through underground water channels, Gordon finally arrives at the Lambda Complex, where scientists have developed teleportation technology that allows travel to Xen. The remaining staff tells Gordon that the satellite failed to reverse the effects of the resonance cascade as an immensely powerful being on the other side of the rift is keeping it open. The scientists activate the teleporter to send Gordon to Xen and stop the being.
In Xen, Gordon encounters the remains of researchers before him and defeats Gonarch, the huge egg-laying headcrab. At a factory creating alien soldiers, he enters a giant portal that sends him to a vast cave. There, Gordon confronts the Nihilanth, the entity maintaining the rift, and destroys it. Gordon is then awoken by the mysterious G-Man, who has been watching his progress and praises his performance. The G-Man explains that his "employers" wish to employ Gordon. If he accepts, the G-Man congratulates him and places him into stasis. If he refuses, he is teleported to an area full of alien soldiers and is presumably killed.