I sorta hope the Nihilanth will appear and chase you from time to time in Xen
luring you into the Gonarch’s Lair, a Tentacle Nest and a Garg breeding ground to try to kill you
and after that, you stumble onto the Alien Grunt Factory and find the Portal to the Nihilanth’s Lair
Personally, I think that the best way to improve the Xen chapters is to make them vaster and more detailed, instead of reskinned versions of the old maps. Pretty much, I want it to be as detailed as the Ant Lion canvers in HL2:E2 and the Xen concept art the team has shown us. I know that a lot of kvetching HL fans complain about the jumping puzzles, but to be honest, I liked that aspect in the first and third Xen levels. I’ve had years of Hazard Course training to know how to duck jump and long jump, so none of that stuff ever bothered me (although admittedly, it did take me a long time to understand the key combinations originally). In the final release, I hope they do bring an up to date Hazard Course to better acquaint the modern player with the HL1’s gameplay.
I know that a selection of critical gamers complained that Xen was inconsistent with the previous gameplay in Black Mesa, and that it stuck characters into a radifically different environment they were not prepared for. However, I think that was Valve’s point in making Xen. The whole idea was that you have finally infiltrated the natural environment of the Xenian critters, and fighting through their world means operating through the rules of their environment. It doesn’t matter if it challenges what you are used to: your on their turf now, and you got to fight it out like a real scientist.
Even Clive Barker’s Undying used this concept before of entering in the monsters’ dimension, and yes, it even included the floating islands and unique jumping puzzles. The puzzles were a bit harder in that game, but the section still worked. The creators, especially Barker, understood the appeal of having the hero enter the reality of the monsters who have infested ours.
Nah, I like the way it was done originally, where you don’t know what it looks like until you encounter it. It’s a really great “oh shit” moment when enter that creepy looking portal, the next map loads, the screen fades in, and suddenly
FFFREEEEEEEEMMMMAAAAAAANNNNN
I actually loved the Xen levels in the orginial Half Life, Opposing Forces and Blue Shift. They were a nice change of pace and made me become firm friends with the quick save key as we forced our way calculating jump heights and distances. Though like some people, I played Half Life enough to become almost like a second nature, knowing all the enemy locations, how many rounds (from every weapon and every difficulty) they take to die.
Though if they do a major overhaul of Xen, I loved the mod Half-Life : Residual Point. They had an awesome interpretation on it.
I always thought that it would be cool if the first Xen level was some kind of forward operating base that had been constructed on the Xen surface.
It wouldn’t have to be large in size. Just a hastily constructed base made out of pre-fabricated concrete slabs and steel.
It could consist of some small labs, storage areas for specimens and a decontamination area.
Look:
Gameplay:
I liked the larger, more open exploration feel that Xen had, more so than the Earth levels. It made you feel like you were trekking alone into uncharted territory. I hope this is expanded upon in BM’s Xen release.
I know that the Need is there to change Xen cosmetic and gameplay wise, but I am one of the few that actually enjoyed Xen for its eerie, desolate atmosphere, the surprising change of gameplay which felt more like a challenge than annoying to me and ofc the visuals, it felt pretty organic, even the islands themselves. So I would enjoy if the Devs could keep this atmosphere while expanding and modificating gameplay experience.
I have some ideas for how Xen should look. People have been talking about how the Xen should feel organic and alien. I think that the levels should look something like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITvndMQrOEo
The Xen should look like a giant monster turned inside-out. The walls would be pulsating, and the floors would make a squishing sound when you walked over them. But not all of the environment should be made up of squishy living islands. The tall towers in the Xen should be made out of something that is hard, but organically made. I was thinking about something like keratin. The towers would be grown out by the living islands like strands of hair. the texture of the towers would be something that looks like a turtle shell.
I don’t know, these are just some of my ideas. Take it or leave it.
i see ur point, but xen isn’t a living organism, so it shouldn’t seem like you’re running around a zerg base.
xen is a plant with organic infrastructure, maybe, but the land itself, will probably resemble the antlion caverns from ep2, with organic light sources, and darker skyboxes.
correction: xen is a border world a world between worlds, it exists both on large scale and microscopic. it is a equal mix of organic and inorganic, the best example of this is the levels them selves, half of the things you walk on seam to be half alive and half dead some times the island you are on will move or open up on its own accord. …
also is it jsut me or is xen a bunch of astoriods floating around a gas giant (would explain the sky box)
The laws of physics in our universe probably wouldn’t exist in the same way as on Xen, being that it is a borderworld of several (maybe infinite) universes. Which explains how Xen can have both a collection of fleshy asteroids in an organic gas cloud and “downward” gravity.
so basically an asteroid field, between everything that exists and doesn’t.
Organic or Inorganic I don’t know, it seems like the “land” in Xen is comparable to a Coral reef, life that could be hard to identify, Large suspended rocks supplemented by strange plantae fauna.
Xen’s island formations just like in Coral reefs contain lifeforms that are considered animals yet can be confused for plants or rock. For example the glowing lightstocks behave like deep sea tube worms, how they hide to avoid damage to their delicate structure and how they extend out when safe.
The floating islands of Xen at first appear to be rock for the most part with fungi like growth in certain places. However these islands seem very similar to Coral formations, which are often mistaken for rocks but are actually formations of Polyps, colonies of tiny animals that embed themselves in and around Calcium carbonate.
The point being that Xen is organic and inorganic as Darkone mentioned, most islands seem like living Coral reefs that harbor plantae like animals and plants, which could most likely be native Xen fauna. One of the strangest ones is this one…
The island has these towering spires that literally come out of the ground in an impressive fashion and have rings of “electricity?” arcing from the bottom up.
The most bizarre feature are the opening & closing maws in the ground, if the player falls into one of them they gurgle and then spit the player out. So I’m seeing if I can get some idea of how this island works, it could be that these ground maws and spires are some sort of fauna similar to barnacles or plantae sedentary lifeforms. To me it seems that this island is not some inanimate chunk, but an organism…
Also on the topic of the military being in Xen and the Gman stating it is currently “in their control”, he probably does not mean Military control, since most of them were owned during/after the portal storm & 7 hour war, even though he talks about Gordon’s weapons mostly being Gov’t property.
In the scene with the dead soldiers and destroyed tanks the sky is the same as was seen with the Gman in Xen, the sky is unable to change texture in goldsource. In this scene the ground is sandy and terrestrial like the desert around Black Mesa, this shows that this is NOT part of Xen, but it could be taking place IN Xen. Similar to the idea of small, damaged portions of Black Mesa being teleported into Xen this small area could be a chunk of Earth from around Black Mesa that teleported into Xen.
This area could be reworked to established that this is a tiny portion of Black Mesa desert placed against the strange & lonely backdrop of Xen.
well the military “invaded” xen the same way the latter invaded earth, teleportation
and just like how humanity was caught off gaurd during portal storms, the wild and intelligent xen creatures were also caught off gaurd by the sudden armies, tanks and jets teleporting into xen
Sorry, I was editing that part to clarify it more. It’s different now. I didn’t want to say the military wasn’t in Xen, but I don’t think that they were trying to go there in the first place. People would say that area showed the military in Xen, while some would say it was earth and that the sky couldn’t be changed to a more earthly scene. The floor shows that it’s terrestrial, but the sky could mean that it’s now in Xen! D:
I just wanted to mention that I think the desert scene at the end is supposed to be on earth, but due to engine limitations (that were supposed to be fixed before hl1 release) the skybox stays the same until a level change. And it’s supposed to be night time, I would love to see that part fixed in BM.
Not sure about that… “The borderworld, Xen, is in our control for the time being.” There’s no visual indicator of any kind of occupation or military action in Xen if that scene takes place on Earth. Maybe you’re right about their original intentions, but it didn’t pan out that way, and that’s probably for the best (as with many of the early plans for HL).
On a more personal note, I thought it was really cool to see signs of a wider conflict outside Gordon’s experiences, that the military you’d been fighting throughout the earlier game had gone on to take the fight to Xen. Helped make the game’s universe feel more expansive and more real.
Earth’s military was owned by precision teleport strikes from the Combine war machine - the Xenian wildlife and Nihilanth’s army probably aren’t on anything like that scale of a threat.
“he probably does not mean Military control, since most of them were owned during/after the portal storm & 7 hour war”
That’s pretty much what I meant by 7 hour war…
It sounded like you were saying the human military force wasn’t powerful enough to take Xen, with reasoning that Earth was no match for the Combine.
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.