From Black Mesa: Wiki

The garbage compactor, which Freeman must escape before being crushed.

Chapter Summary

After firing the satellite into space, Gordon goes back underground and uses a tram to continue forward. While he's moving, the military destroys a portion the track, sending Gordon careening into a flooded room filled with Leeches. After navigating the long, watery maze, he enters a room and witnesses a scientist being eaten by an Icthyosaur. Continuing around the pool, he finds scientist who tells him of a tranquilizer gun in a shark cage suspended over the water, although he is dubious whether it will work on the beast. After Gordon drops into the cage, it falls into the water, giving him a few precious seconds to kill the Icthyosaur and surface for air. Once accomplished, he continues, fighting his way through Xenian aliens and passing through a suit-sapping freezer, until he goes up an elevator and is immediately attacked by Assassins. After defeating them, he walks into a room and is ambushed by two military grunts, who knock him out, confiscate his hard-earned weapons, and drag him to a topside trash compacter. They then activate the crushing walls, giving Gordon little time to climb up the trash to freedom. He finds a crowbar, breaks a vent into a drainage pipe, and continues into Residue Processing.

Apprehension is the ninth chapter in Black Mesa.

Gameplay

Rusty metal hallways, flooded corridors, deteriorated steel paneling and grimy concrete give the chapter a feeling of being left to the elements.

The exhilarating tram crash at the beginning gives to way to a more tense, cautionary atmosphere. Frantic underwater sections abound, as Gordon struggles through the flooded corridors in an attempt to reach air. The dilapidated superstructure often collapses, plunging Gordon into waters inhabited by leeches and Icthyosaurs, and slippery surfaces make navigation tricky. A refrigerated cold room with slick frozen floors drains away at Gordon's suit power, forcing him to move quickly. Finally, Gordon reaches his confrontation with the deadly assassins: they move fast, dodge his attacks, and deal death at long range with their silenced handguns.

Dialogue [1]

Marine 1: "Get him!"

Marine 1: "Hahaha... nice hit. Uh, all right, we got 'im."

Marine 2: "Where are we takin this Freeman guy?"

Marine 1: "Topside for questioning."

Marine 2: "What the hell for? We got 'im. Let's kill him now."

Marine 1: "Uh... and if they find the body?"

Marine 2: "Body? What body?"

Media

Main area (a former decommissioned silo flooded). More Icthyosaur study pool. Cryogenic storage tanks room. Render of one of the flooded corridor (without water).

Redesign History

Apprehension was the first chapter that Kim Dahlgren was assigned to when joined Black Mesa development team. He worked on and off on the chapter for quite some time and finished the last part in February 2009. [2]

Below, the very early prototypes of Apprehension, orange-mapped.

Silo. Stairs. Icthyosaur room. Second Silo prototype. More First prototype of the Hangar. Second prototype of the Hangar. Cryo room. Concept for a pump generator. A texture used in the chapter. By Mark Foreman.

Minor Updates

Throughout the development, some sections of the map were changed and/or received minor updates. The shots below are older than the similar ones in the Media section, but comparing them it is possible to notice the subtle differences and see what was changed.