Hello, world! We are about to meet hostiles, again.
Begin chapter:
SURFACE TENSION
Looks like a lengthy outdoor scene is about to commence.
Wow, that door didn't stay open for long.
By the way, sorry about the delay between publishing parts 33 and 34. My available time has been scarce lately.
Based on past experience, I think their guns will be poing through that door at any moment. I wonder if they can be hit as well.
Well, assuming they _were_ right next to the door.
Something is making a lot of noise in the background...
Ah, it's our friend the physics engine again.
Again: I heard about this secret shack somewhere in the beginning of this Surface Tension chapter, so I am taking some extra time to explore stuff in case I would miss it otherwise.
The long delay before publishing part 34 was unrelated to the pursuit of finding the secret shack. I already played this section two weeks ago, and it had been sitting on YouTube annotation-maker since then, waiting for me to find the time. Sorry about that!
It doesn't look like this room is hiding anything secret in it.
Hmm... That formation looks suspect. Is there a way to go up there?
Can you climb up here?
Apparently you can! Just very, very slowly...
Ack, I messed it up for some reason...
This form of climbing is quite unstable. You have to keep constantly in moving...
But yes, I am making progress...
I guess this is a bug. I recall seeing something similar in the Half-Life 2 speedruns.
Well, until now. For some reason, it sometimes stops.
And then you try to correct, and you accidentally fall down. 
Okay. I don't think there is anything worth seeing up there.
I have been informed that the scenery in the outdoors sections of this game looks astonishing. I'm still not sure whether this is the part I'm supposed to "wow" at.
Well, it is more spacey, more detailed, and more beautiful than it was in Half-Life: Source. But it is still not quite the quality of Half-Life 2 episode 2, also a Source engine game.
Oh, d'oh. There's a doorway here.
Allright. Let's move on. I've spent considerable portion of the episode already in a very small space (just as I did in episode 33, and...)
This is nice. Nice to have some depth that is not a bottomless pit.
The water is not rendered that well, though. It may possibly be because I'm playing this on a GMA.
There's some kind of building down there. Is THAT the secret thing? I'm sort of paranoid about secrets here.
This music is really annoying. Those disproportionately loud CLANGs are not enjoyable.
The firepower and accuracy of this gun is awesome, but its small bullet compartment is not that hot in the heat of a battle.
Was that everyone? I expected a larger confrontation...
Hmm, what is that?
Hmm... if I can inch up cliff faces, I can probably inch down them as well. I should at least try if I can reach those mystery buildings somehow.
Let's try it. I made a savestate just in case.
Okay, that was a bit too uncontrolled.
Let's try jumping across the steep part, or maybe making short jumps...
I guess it is not possible. Also, judging from the fact that the screen began to blank before I hit the rock, there's an auto-kill zone built into the map preventing that specific route.
I like the appearance of this car. But I think the texture is way too reflective... The blue reflected tone of the sky doesn't work very well here.
Oh... there's soldiers over there.
In retrospect, I should probably have waited to see if they have dialog that I could hear. Too late for that...
I guess I just saved me some future trouble.
I love these sturdy wheels of the truck.
Incidentally, they are made as a texture rather than by modelling each indent. You don't notice it at a distance.
Oh. Another door that opens where I did not expect it to.
So many uranium batteries... It is as if the game tries to suggest I should actually use this gun!
I admit I have been ignoring it for a while, because it is too awesome to use...
What's that sound?
Oh, it was just one of the background noises. I thought something terrible is going to appear.
Okay, that is definitely not a normal background noise.
A helicopter! I did not quite expect this to happen.
Because you know? When there is a helicopter, there should be a rocket launcher. This is basic Half-Life rule. Whenever there is a rocket launcher (or rockets), there is going to be a helicopter battle. There was no rocket launcher here!
Except, there WAS this uranium ammo stash. I guess I can use it now. It would make sense.
What do you know? It actually worked.
It pays to be genre-savvy.
I can't locate the helicopter, and I can't risk the weapon exploding on my face, so I had to fire it at nothing.
Aand I think I missed.
Yay! I won!
For science!
Huh, who is firing at me?
Is there another helicopter?
Err, when was this truck destroyed? And why?
Eh, why would they even do that? To their own equipment. That is nasty... 
About that one medkit I did not use yet...
Wow, gibs happened. When was that?
I guess it was the helicopter, decimating their own troops' corpses. Mighty military morals.
Anything I forgot to pick up here before I move on?
There's one more... But I am almost full. If I take it now, I'm not going to benefit much. I should probably leave it here in case I do need it later.
And if previous episodes taught me anything, trying to carry extra items with you does not pay off. It is boring to watch, and most likely you even can't backtrack to pick them up later.
The door is not locked or anything, but Gordon still cannot open it. Drats.
At this distance, this water looks quite nice.
Not perfect, but nice.
These walls are still part of Black Mesa. Nondescript unpainted facility walls. In this context, you might think of this as some kind of military fortress just as well.
Here I am going to try climbing up the wall for no reason at all, and it is incredibly boring to watch. You are suggested to skip to 22:30 where I end the foolish pursuit.
Oh, wow, I am beginning to see across.
The edge of the wall disappeared from my view. I wonder how long I still have to climb to get to a proper ground?
Still going up...
I should probably be across the edge already. I wonder what is going on.
Will I fall down, if I peek to see what's beneath my feet right now?
Okay, I will fall down, though not exactly sure which came first: The realization that absolutely nothing worth value is up there, or a mistake in controlling the climbing movement...
Anyway, let's move on.
I could probably have made it across the bridge, if I knew that was going to happen...
Does the game want me to jump down into the sea / river?
I guess it does. And it is a point of no return, so I will go and fetch the uranium battery now.
When did they close this fence? Another no-going-back thing!
They really like to put these into the maps...
I guess blocking the return paths simplifies event design.
You don't have to deal with the player going back into the previous map and then coming back, which, without special precautions, may cause things similar to what you saw in episode 31, where the laser system control panels disappeared.
Those mystery buildings are now lost forever, I guess.
Let's dive!
Wow, what do I see as the first thing when I dive?
What is that... Is that the sky sphere?
Drats, I need oxygen.
Ayup, it is the sky sphere. They forgot to texture this little corner, and the rest of the world behind this wall is one-sided, only visible from the other side.
Or, outside the clip distance. The facility is partially visible because it is not too far.
Whoa, fishy-!
Yweouch-!
There is an achievement for killing a fish (actually an ichthyosaur) with the Tau Cannon, and I am going to go for it.
You cannot fire this gun underwater, though.
Finding this ladder while the fish was on my tail felt like the longest moment in this game.
Just like it did in episode 14 with the tentacle monster.
Okay, that was not too difficult after all.
Achievement Unlocked:
Nuclear Fishin´!
Now to explore the rest of this pool before it closes.
There's a nook of untexture up ahead. Is it the same spot I saw before?
No... There are two.
I guess the other one is a clip distance artifact.
Nice, I can actually sprint on the surface of the water.
This room has got quite wonderful lighting conditions to it.
Did I just pull the plug on the river?
Not exactly sure what is happening on there.
By the way, is this the hydroelectric dam? Or is it some other location?
Let's dive to our death and see what's on the other side.
The other side is a sand beach.
16 little nooks like this?? I am so not going to explore every single one of them...
I guess these minor violations of the 'do not litter' principle are the military's fault, not of Black Mesa's.
Can I have a ladder?
There's one of the mystery buildings...
I guess I can see why they put the kill zones there. This would have been a nice shortcut.
Stream, stream...
merrily flows.
I don't really know any stream related English songs, so I am improvising.
No-go zone?
No-go zone.
Long time no see, crablike Xen species.
I am going for the Headcrab + shotgun achievement again.
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Next up:
PART 35: Missing in Action
