Hi there, ive just gotten to the part in black mesa were I am given the jetpack thing, and told about the xen boss, so i assume that im very near completing whats currently available in the game.
So I want to know if its worth waiting for xen to arrive before moving on to half life 2, are there any crucial occurrences?
Welcome to the Half-Life universe! Although I would like you to have the complete experience, I do feel that you are safe to move forward with playing Half-Life 2 as there are no real crucial occurrences in Xen. You should however re-visit Xen when it does indeed arrive.
You could also play through the original game or at least watch a playthrough of Xen on Youtube if you really need to know.
Xen isn’t much on story (unless you’re into theorizing like mad) but it links together some important bits between HL1 and HL2.
My best bet is to play Xen on Half-Life 1 then move onto HL2, if you’re going to delve into the story a lot.
Otherwise, play HL2 because some of the NPCs give context into HL1’s Xen in there.
There is, in my opinion, a rather crucial story element in Xen that will help you with Half-Life 2. As Maxey said, you could either wait for the devs to finish the Xen chapters, play the original game, or watch a video playthrough on YouTube of it.
Good luck! Half-Life 2 and its episodes are more story-driven but still have the shooting-aliens-zombies-and-humans that made Half-Life so popular. Half-Life 2 also serves as a bridge, of sorts, into Portal.
Definitely would recommend watching the ending of the game or playing it. The final boss fight with the creature called the ‘Nihilanth’ and then the ‘cutscene’ after it are quite important.
Half-Life 2 was the first game in the series for me. When i was little, seeing the scenery around made me feel like home.
Just giving you a taste of how in-depth the HL2 really is.
As for the Xen, play the original game.
It will give you the necessary foundation of what the Xen world looked and felt in HL1.
So when the Black Mesa Xen is complete, you can really appreciate the humongous difference in detail and size!
There are a couple important events in Xen, but it’s also a very surreal and different game experience, so it’s very worth it.
Personally I think you should buy Half-Life: Source and play that through to the end. It’ll give you Xen, plus an appreciation for the original.
There are also mods that add fan-made Xen ports to Black Mesa if you wanna try those. There’s one that’s been going around on the BM workshop that seems to be really popular. But that’s only available for the retail Steam release of the game, so if you’re playing the free version then you’ll definitely want to play the original, because the free version won’t be getting Xen anyway.
Welcome to the community though! If you can ignore the need for Half-Life 3, and also ignore the people complaining about it, you’re in for an experience that’ll change how you feel about first-person shooters.
As an aside, I also recommend you play Portal if you want a little extra lore, it’s in the same universe and it’s also a really good game.
To me, the only important part of Xen is the gman. He speaks to you at the end of the game.
I recommend you watch Freeman’s Mind episodes 62-68.
“No. Wait. THIS ISN’T MASSACHUSETTS!”
My recommendation: Play original HL1, Blue Shift and Opposing Force with default_fov 110 on widescreen and original models (the HD pack changes the whole feel of the game by changing the assaultrifle and pistol model, sounds and viewmodel animations. In my opinion the original models looked more clean and sounded more enjoyable). With original Half-Life 1 you also have more coherent art style compared to HL1:Source (original death animations, bulletholes, blood and explosion effects, original HL1 water, explosion, footstep and pickup sounds), more direct player movement, more clean and less bugged Multiplayer mode and the option to play lots of great single and multiplayer mods.
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.