I don’t get why everyone hates Xen so much. Personally I found it awesome. The most well thought out alien ‘world’ ever done in a computer game.
That said, if they want to add to the existing areas, and improve them with better platforming ( probably Xens weakest part ) I’m all for it.
However I don’t want them adding in NPCs to play with, or changing anything that could relate story-wise. More areas with more aliens to kill with improved platforming. Sounds awesome, and a great addition.
they have stated multiple times that they will not be adding any extra creatures/NPCs that were not in the original official game, so no worries there.
I would like Xen to be a lot darker, both literally and figuratively. Much of the outside areas were too bright and monotonously-lit, and it felt a little silly at times with enemies just sort of standing around in broad “daylight” until you walked up and started shooting. So I hope the devs go for an eerie feeling in some of it, at least the parts where the player has gotten past the feeling of awe at having transported to another dimension.
Xens main difference between it and Black Mesa, was the use of gravity. This resulted in new puzzle types to solve and different style combat at certain locations. I personally, think it would be better if the devs highlighted this mechanic more than the original Half-Life. Have the players constantly feeling the effects of the different gravity, I.e speed of the player, jump height, maybe even weapon projectile speed. Also, as it’s Xen , a very random world, have areas with different gravity levels. One area could have very weak gravity, resulting in increased speed, jump height grenade throw etc. Then, moments later, encounter much stronger gravity, resulting in a whole new play experience in that area, I.e lower speed etc. To keep with the alien theme and difficulty level, the aliens could be unaffected by the gravity, giving them a real out of this world feel, as well as keeping them fresh. By that I mean, the player has been fighting most of these enemies for the past 10 hours or so, by lowering the players speed and what not in these high gravity areas, but keeping the enemies at normal speed, it will be almost like fighting a new and hard alien. Just throwing some ideas out.
So no Eli Vance, Barney, Kleiner or Dr. Breen?! That would be a damn shame. 
Eli Vance, Barney and Kleiner are featured in the same place they appeared in HL1. Breen is not featured.
Xen’s design is already fixed, since we’ll se a liitle scene of it when the resonance cascade happens
Specifically: Barney will be the guard pounding on the security door during the Inbound chapter. Eli and Isaac will be the two scientists who ask “what the HELL is going on with our equipment” and then, after the Resonance Cascade, Eli will be the one that tells Gordon to let someone know that they’re stranded and lets you out of the Test Chamber area.
Technically, they weren’t in HL1, they only became NPCs in HL2 based on NPC models from HL1.
I’m sounding pedantic, I know, but the key difference will be there being only one version of each character in BM.
SPOILERS!!!
Oh wait… everyone knew that already?
I heard they aren’t using Magnusson, which seems strange considering they are using the others. True?
Kleiner and Eli’s location were confirmed by Marc Laidlaw. Magnusson wasn’t around when the incident happened, or else he’d have been berating you constantly after blew up his casserole.
No one knows exactly where Magnusson was during the events of Half Life. We know where his casserole was, but not him.
I always thought xen had SO MUCH creative potential that went unexplored. Rather than present as a narrow, linear path that Gordon traverses, I feel like it’d be really cool to build xen more around the idea of a massive open environment to explore, much like how Blue Shift presented it. I loved xen in blue shift, being able to explore Xenian gulches, waterfalls, canyons, cave systems, it’s so interesting. I also feel like the passive aliens could be explored more thoroughly, like the Boids, or in blueshift the chumtoad. I think it’d be awesome to see floating balloon-type creatures lazily drifting around, watching jellyfish-like creatures float in little flocks or zip around by themselves, different creatures that could wander around, run away from you, or scurry through little holes you can’t fit through, and even particle effects could be useful to simulate insects buzzing around. (like the yellow orbs in kokiri forest in zelda: ocarina of time) I dunno what you guys think about this wildlife take. It’d take away from the loneliness feel, but it’d add greatly to the sensation of being in a strange, mysterious alien world. There are certain things that really add to your mindset when considering how alien and foreign something is, mostly when something can’t be explained. For example, the electric fungus towers on the first xen island, the xenian turrets, the floating islands, the goop room where you release the butterfly things to activate the teleport, the giant butthole chutes, all of those are hard to explain and therefor add to the eeriness. There should be little things that pop out of the walls, but suck back in when you approach them, denying any opportunity for further examination (kinda like the light plants in xen). One thing that’d add to both this concept and the puzzle element would be to have things pop in and out of the walls continuously, and you have to jump across them with perfect timing to get across (like crash bandicoot). What do you guys think?
I’m still downloading, what do we see during the RC teleport?
The scene with the bullsquid, lake and floating planet is gone, but you get to see a small part of Xen when the Vorts come, i.e It’s not just a flat ground.
I’d love it if someone revealed exactly when black mesa finishes. And also ‘how’ it finishes. From memory you jump into a portal and then you’re in Xen, does the mod stop when you hit the portal and then credits, or does it just cut no credits?
Or does the mod stop sooner? I’d download it and check for myself but i don’t have the gigabytes to spare
2 words. Vortigaunt uprising.
Also, in reply to above post. You jump into the portal, and it’s all crazy n shit, and then you see a windows xp screen saver, like the one that gman chill in. Then it fades to black and bam credits.
Basically, it’s just the teleport effect, then credits. Then “To Be Continued…”
Thanks Dinnsfire5, I might even prefer that to playing through Xen. Less confusion and flying babies xD.
dude, you just totally blew my mind…
ok i need to go and have a lie down now.
If anyone’s played Mario Galaxy 2, it should be across between the level design in that and the Alien Spaceship segment of Crysis.
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.