This is an historical moment.
This looks fantastic.
I have to say that, in particular, I really like the scaffolding and the other human stuff. It lends a pretty nice contrast to the alien parts, something Half-Life itself was lacking, and a it’s a great bit of visual storytelling besides. I always loved mods like Point of View, where there were research bases and stuff set up in Xen. It’s certainly a lot more interesting than “dead guys in HEV suits everywhere”.
I hesitate to write my first impressions for various reasons that I won’t get into for the sake of brevity, but, well… here it goes:
Thought 1: That is a beautiful screenshot, and just as much a testament to what Source can still do as it is the designers’ prowess.
Thought 2: These guys were obviously influenced by Dear Esther 
Thought 3: This doesn’t look like Xen at all.
Thought 4: Not sure I’m a fan.
I realize a lot of people weren’t fans of Valve’s Xen for various reasons, and as such the BM team (and probably a good portion of the community) felt it needed a major overhaul in more ways than one. However, my recollection is that most of the negativity posted online over the past couple of decades was about the gameplay and level design aspects of Xen. Never did I hear much about Xen’s unique artistic design, which mostly garnered positive feedback (especially in the early days.) I was a fan of Xen for this particular reason as well. Why? Because it was completely unique and expressed an otherworldly aspect not common in the (by then) cliche take on such settings. Xen was great for the jaded sci-fi fan because it really was bizarre. Were we in some distant part of the universe or shrunk into the size of floating amoeba in a primordial pond? Was that cratered rocks we were standing on, or calcified coral, or the flesh of some living super organism? Was it space or time that we had just traveled through to get here? Whatever it was, and wherever we were, it was ALIEN, and so alien that it really felt like not just another world, but another dimension. Which it was.
This screenshot looks like a cave. A beautiful cave, but… a cave. A cave that could be from about any game really. To have artistic departure from the original I can live with, given a certain degree of understanding the need to bring the concept into a modern engine, a thematic relevance, and of course an art team’s leeway for personal preference and inspiration. But in my mind, the drastic departure here is a step back from the primary charm Xen held in the first place.
I surmise this view will be taken poorly by fans and devs alike given the amount of time spent on this. Meh, what can I say… artistic preference is subjective. I myself have been patiently awaiting media with bated breath. But yeah… I’m not sure what else to say. That’s my opinion on the matter. I’ll reserve final judgement for the play-through though, which will be far more than the sum of this screenshot obivously. I wish you all the best of luck finishing up guys! I’m sure either way, it will provide a lot of value that’s missing in the unfinished release as it stands now, and we’ll all be generally happy and feel closure when it’s released.
(Just two words I’ll leave you with that could help without a lot of time invested: color correction.)
My response to this post is short and sweet. Wait for the rest! And don’t fear posting your opinions on here, whether they be critical or not. We’re fine with that, long as you’re not a jerk about it - which you certainly were not here. Thank you for writing out a well reasoned, thorough, and coherent post.
This screenshot portrays one single section (an interior, no more) of one single map, very early on in Xen. The entirety of all Xen is currently 14 maps, and it gets much more alien, weird, and isolated as you progress through it. Without giving too much away, Interloper becomes pretty crazy, bizzare, and organic. But…well…we wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise by showing our main hand at this early stage now, would we?
The RPS article written about our screenshot summed it up fairly nicely (and hilariously), I feel:
Hah… nice to know I’m not alone in my thoughts here!
Well hey, can’t say I disagree with your decision to hold off showing some of these portions. I generally feel that’s how it should be. A trailer shouldn’t reveal the entire movie.
I can understand the choice to have Xen slowly become more alien (and hence varied, which I must admit I’m a fan of in FPSs)… and yet I still fondly remember the stark contrast of being teleported into the original… the shock of being deposited on some sort of floating rock in… “WHERE THE HELL AM I?!” Hope we still get a little of that.
Thanks for the response, excited for the release.
Our opening scene/map will definitely give you your fair dose of “holy crap this is amazing” and the “where the hell am I!?” sense, while nicely setting up the rest of Xen. I’m incredibly proud of our first map. They’re all shaping up to be great but I think you’ll really enjoy our setup and opener. It’s a nice blend of old and new. You’ll just have to wait and see, rather than take my word for it!
So, if I may offer a differing opinion - I like it, and it seems like it has the potential to seem very alien to me. It certainly does look like a normal cave, but then, why wouldn’t it? Even the fact that everything is floating doesn’t mean that the concepts of erosion and geology wouldn’t still apply, so it’s entirely possible you’re still going to have speleothems forming in areas with normalish gravity.
And really, it’s just a small cave. Obviously, when you’re on the surface, looking at the skyboxes and the floating islands, there’s a lot more involved to give the place atmosphere. I’m eagerly awaiting additional screenshots.
It’s very blue. I like it!
I do hope (and I’m sure they have) thought about the appeal of contrasting color pallets, lots of blues contrasting with yellows, with purples, with greens… Eye candy! :love:
Looking great!
My initial reaction was “holy crap, this is amazing.” I have wanted to see an actual screenshot of Xen and I do say you guys delivered. I honestly thought it was early on since the door in the background was a dead giveaway. I must say I’m excited and hope to see more in the coming months leading to it’s release in 2017.
This is beautiful, guys. Keep up the great work - can’t wait to sit down, relax, and experience this in half-a-year’s time!
If I can crit other people’s crit, I feel like everyone’s spending a little too much time saying “it looks like a cave” and not “This lighting and color pallet is fantastic and the quality and depth of the assets nearly makes you forget it’s Source you’re looking at.”
Like okay, it’s a cave, yeah, but holy shit look at this cave.
This looks simply stunning! Excellent work! Some folks´criticism goes over my head, though. The original Xen had boring level design and dull color palette. In other words, it felt horribly rushed and wasn´t very interesting. And some guys even said “the new Xen being too earth-like because of rocks…” What? 
I´d guess rocks would be present no matter how far into alien-dimension you travel ;D To me CC´s Xen being so different from original is a HUGE plus!
While I like the bluer color scheme as opposed to the original Xen’s vomit-brown, I think KillSmith does indeed have a point that the geometry and structure of the cave make it look fairly generic- it’s the sort of thing you might encounter in Halo 6 or some other painfully focus-grouped AAA game. Xen, in the original Half-Life, had a very alien and distinctive geometry to it with those floating islands and the giant spines(?) sticking up from them. Is this an actual problem in the way Xen is being designed, or just an unrepresentative screenshot? Probably the latter. In fact, I imagine the devs used this screenshot specifically because the area is smaller and more enclosed, and therefore was easier to finish without completing the whole level. But I think it’s a legitimate concern to be aware of.
I mean…the caves that were in Xen still looked like caves.
This project from the screenshots is Xen (Chapter 15) , right ?
But which part from chapter 15 exactly ? This part is just the interior room ?
It’s…a cave. In the early Xen chapter. I’m not sure how to explain it any better than that.
As I already said on facebook, thanks for all the hardwork, it looks stunning, and I can’t wait to play it! Now I saw some complains about the blue atmosphere, so for the lulz, I played with the colours on photoshop, and it doesn’t look THAT bad either IMO x) 
It’s same with a hell.
Guys, for real, this is some Mass Effect: Andromeda level of design. It looks absolutely beautiful!
And of course this enclosed area is only the tip of the iceberg of the awesome content you guys are making.
So would you say that the Xen Chapter, in Black Mesa, is like half of the game, by gameplay experience?
Interesting. I actually think this is more easily identifiable as Xen. The pallet has a big effect. Think about the Diablo 3 fiasco…