Act 1

Act 1 begins with Gordon Freeman entering the Black Mesa building with the intent of advancing his way to complete a test experiment, a plot point taken from the original Half Life games. He is quickly stopped by a security guard, later to be introduced as Benry, who berates him for not showing up with his passport to work. Gordon continues on regardless and Benrey follows, as much of the main cast members are met along the way, including Dr. Coomer, Tommy, and Bubby. Through dialogue exchanges, it is revealed that Benrey is not human, and thus is unaffected by the potential radiation that might surface from the testing chamber, explaining as to why he relentlessly follows Gordon into the test chamber. The test follows as normal for Half Life, sparking the Resonance Cascade and causing alien creatures to be released into Black Mesa. After reuniting with the main cast, Gordon and the crew decide to make their gradual journey to the surface. Dr. Bubby mentions he was born in Black Mesa at one point, which becomes relevant in future Acts. As the cast travels through Black Mesa, destroying zombies and aliens along the way, Gordon is very quickly introduced to the incompetency of his team, as they get themselves into various amounts of trouble despite Gordon persistently attempting to guide them away from it. There are numerous instances of crew members shooting innocent Black Mesa staff members, getting nearly eaten by barnacles, getting "killed" numerous times, and leaping into bottomless pits, among many other things. Dr. Coomer is portrayed as a broken AI with incomplete programming, with Dr. Bubby slightly seeming the same, Benrey is portrayed as aloof and unhelpful for much of the dire situations they face, and Tommy seems to be one of the few who takes things seriously, though at the cost of less than competent dialogue. Despite this, the crew sticks together throughout most of the entire story. Gordon witnesses the first of to be many instances of Dr. Coomer reacting to his "clones" (NPCs with identical models to him) with hostility, with Bubby following suit in later episodes, later to become relevant within the story. Bubby is also lit on fire for a short handful of seconds. Dr. Coomer mentions in passing that if Gordon struggles with the puzzles along the way, utilizing Playcoins and the Super Player Feature can help guide him, further solidifying their NPC-like demeanor and 4th wall breaking habits. The crew later take a break and decide to bond a little (while Benrey dissociates in the background and flirts with another guard), and Gordon learns that Bubby truly was born as a test tube experiment, as well as Coomer having multiple ex wives, and Tommy having a dog named Sunkist.

Benrey is shown in numerous instances to possess the Black Mesa Sweet Voice ability, which allows him to communicate certain emotions that Tommy will occasionally translate, help calm people down when beaming it straight at them, and encasing corpses within cocoons for unknown reasons. Benrey is eventually seemingly killed by being crushed by a closing security door, and does not appear for a little while. The crew is briefly introduced to a yet to be named soldier that quickly rushes off before he can be caught by Gordon. During a fight scene with a large number of aliens and other soldiers, Gordon catches a glimpse of a skeleton rushing through the field, later appearing again in the vents and confronting them only through using the Black Mesa Sweet Voice as a means of communication. Finally confronting the skeleton, Gordon demands to know who it is, to which the skeleton responds, "Can I see your passport?" Gordon ends the simulation immediately after this.

Trivia

 * The passport joke was the first thing that popped into Scorpy’s head, according to him.
 * Bubby’s name was chosen on the fly, and Gir states having zero regrets sticking with it, or he would have changed it later in the series.
 * There are many easter eggs in the first Act, such as a hidden dancing scientist, many graffiti images on the walls, and instances of Mike spawning in unintentional NPCs in the background.


 * Mike, the actor of the G-Man, is following the group the entire time as an invisible "stage-hand" of sorts, responsible for map changes and various aids throughout the entire series.
 * Within Act 1, Benrey is consistently referred to by different incorrect names, such as Bipple, Boper, and Benny; this is a gag that was originally intended to remain stagnant throughout the series.
 * During the instance where Bubby points a gun at Gordon and demands he look at him, this was done to avoid Gordon seeing another player using their physics gun, thus avoiding ruining the immersion for viewers.