The Long Jump Module was fine the way it was. All the platforms in Xen were properly placed so that when you’d make a straight jump for them, you’d land almost exactly on them.
And the Module is slightly “streerable”, you could reduce your momentum by pressing the back key.
Although it might not fit into BM, and i know it won’t, having it as a semi-jet pack kind of module would be alright. You could hold jump to lift yourself slightly up but while running it would act as a normal jump module with the boost backwards instead of downwards.
For what purpose? Doesn’t really seem necessary to have a jet pack that only gives you slight lift.
The module was pretty much fine as it was, what I would suggest is having -all- the platforming sections actually have moving platforms (I know there were some, but it would be nice to see all like that).
On Earth it would be just something new, but on Xen with the low gravity, it could add to the gameplay. Maybe to reach a hidden area or just dodge the controllers attacks.
Also i meant semi to mean a quick burst kind of thing. You wouldn’t hover and rise up, you’d just shoot straight up (To a safe level, both on Earth and Xen).
I disagree, I think Dias is onto something. Firstly I think your ‘jetpack’ idea is a too much of a departure from the original, and secondly there were plenty of places, either from long-jumps or bounce pads, where moving or awkwardly placed platforms often lead to frustrating misses. I’d be quite happy if Xen environments had a much greater degree of air control to go along with the lower gravity. Seems like a good way to mollify everyone who complained about the end of HL devolving into frustrating platforming/jumping puzzles.
Like i said, might not fit in. Just thought i’d share. Although the “jetpack” modules jet bursts might help to manuever when in air.
I know many people didn’t like Xen, although i didn’t have anything against it, atleast not the jumping puzzles. Probably because i used to quicksave often and after a while got used to the jumpiness.
And also back there i was referring to HL. Since this is a remake i thought that whatever annoyances there were present in the jumping section would be iron’d out for sure. And i know am right.
I have the feeling there should be some kind of impact on the aux-energy while equipped with the LJM.
Either increase it ( seeing as the LJM would probably use a lot of of energy it could also house another reactor/battery/magic, thus increasing the aux-meter or speeding up the refill ) or make long-jumping tap into the aux-power ( like, make a jump worth 1/3 or 1/4 of the aux-meter ).
It doesn’t seem logical to me that the LJM does nothing but magically increasing your jump width.
Nah, I disagree with you. With the size of that thing, it could regenerate itself and don’t need to be pluged in the HEV suit batteries. I would be pissed of if in the middle of few jumps the batteries run off and make me fall into the doom. it’s already annoying when you miss the good trajectory.
And it’s not magic but technology
So am I the only person who never had a problem with the jumping puzzles in Xen? Only criticism I have is that it’s a pain sometimes to wait for the circling platforms to line up right, but it’s a pretty minor one tbh. I fully expect the BM version of Xen to be so pretty I’ll be too busy looking at the scenery to care
Then the suit is upgraded with the module so you could run always with the light on and jump like a rabbit.
But it goes a bit too far from the original
I never hated them as much as most people seem to do but I could see the faults in them. Before the crash I posted an essay on Xen and its faults. Basically, I felt that Valve attempted (and failed in many people’s views) to make Xen’s gameplay more enjoyable in a different way - it was an alien world with crazy dimensions and they wanted the gameplay to reflect this. You had a lot of vertical elements, thin walkways, jump puzzles and other tasks which required a lot of skill, patience and luck with failure usually resulting in death.
I don’t remember dying very often in Xen but I do remember the frustration. A nice example is one of the rooms that you’re teleported to by the Nihilanth where you have to jump on to pointless catwalks in order to get to the teleporter at the top of the room. If you fell off you had to do it all over again, which pretty much forced me to use quicksave a lot, which I don’t like doing.
I think if you severely reduce the amount of jumping parts and vertical elements, you’d reduce nearly all of the problems and make it far more enjoyable.
I enjoyed Xen the first time that I played it, probably just as much as the rest of the game. When I replayed it for the second and third times, though, it wasn’t quite as fun, although I feel that way about most of the second part of the game. The first part, with limited weapons and ammunition, and longish, interesting puzzles everywhere, has much more replay value, at least in my mind.
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.
