Am I the only one who thought Xen in Half Life was good, and still is to this very day?

[Oneitiscel]

Almost everyone I've seen who's played the game universally agrees with one another that the last section of the game is designed poorly with heaps of flaws throughout the second you exit Black Mesa. Maybe I'm biased because I love boomer shooters, but during my playthrough, I thought the textures as well as new enemies you fought leading up to the final boss were created using a well-chosen color pallette and provided the necessary evolution from fighting your way through a base. They took on a much more extraterrestrial design, and the final boss satisfied the build-up of gradually making your way deeper and deeper into the foreign dimension. Where else do you see this in a game for its time? No where else, as the next great, influential FPS that came along a year later, SS2, fumbled its ending with a rushed 3rd half which was confirmed by Looking Glass Studios, even more so than what Gabe Newell claims with Half Life's ending.


I feel like a lot of people who hated on it and still do are either nitpicking on the platforming sections, wanted it to be longer, or played Unreal and had a better impression with that title instead.

 

[Pancakecel]

Did you enjoy the xen in the black mesa remake

 

[WhereIsHamudi]

I only played Black Mesa and I liked it just as much as everything else gameplay-wise.
The visuals were a bit mushy, e.g. floors and walls have very similar colors like an alien jungle, which made it hard to navigate sometimes.

 

[Oneitiscel]

Did you enjoy the xen in the black mesa remake

No, because I haven't played it. Never got around to it, although I see it's on sale for only 2 dollars. Is it worth buying?

 

[Pancakecel]

No, because I haven't played it. Never got around to it, although I see it's on sale for only 2 dollars. Is it worth buying?

I think so yeah, it's a good remake overall, and it heavily expands the xen level

 

[ordinaryotaku]

I liked it in Nigger Mesa, but in the OG game it was booty cheeks.

 

[turbocuckcel_7000]

liked original Xen a lot, did not like reinterpretations of Xen like Black Mesa or its removal in other games
Xen was also done very well in Opposing Force, its integration with the normal environments was clever and so was the Displacer gun

it's a gay and unimaginative opinion to hate Xen imo, you just have to sweat it a little to adapt to the new environment and that's it, this type of lazy thinking from players led to a lot of sequels getting dumbed down and having more boring and predictable environments and enemy types, i am thinking of Thief 2, Half-Life 2, the STALKER sequels, and probably more

 

[BasedGoyslopReviews]

No, because I haven't played it. Never got around to it, although I see it's on sale for only 2 dollars. Is it worth buying?

that game mogs hl1 imo. Just about everything seemed like an improvement to me. Unless ur a hardcore nostalgia fag fan.

 

[Oneitiscel]

did not like reinterpretations of Xen like Black Mesa or its removal in other games

Never got around to playing its interpretation in the Black Mesa mod.

it's a gay and unimaginative opinion to hate Xen imo, you just have to sweat it a little to adapt to the new environment and that's it

The gravity platforming and factory parkour sections aren't even that bad. Getting the hang of timing the jumps right is frustrating for the first 5 minutes or so, but then it becomes fairly straightforward. Not sure if most of the complaints come from veterans who played it back when it came out or newgens, but as someone who indulged heavily in old first-person shooters as a teen to compensate my lack of equipment needed to play newer titles, there are much worse bad endings in boomer shooters that came out in the 90s.

this type of lazy thinking from players led to a lot of sequels getting dumbed down and having more boring and predictable environments and enemy types, i am thinking of Thief 2, Half-Life 2, the STALKER sequels, and probably more

100 percent agree. Was very underwhelmed of HL2 when I finished it. I hated how the linear level design had a tendency to constantly trap you in an area while spawning enemies to attack you in waves instead of you progressing forward naturally. The shooting also kind of sucks. Firing the machine gun is very underwhelming, and taking out the flying ships with rocket launchers is a huge pain in some areas.

 

[turbocuckcel_7000]

It's a double whammy of QA testing, and listening to whiny player feedback, the player feedback tells them to make the game's theme more uniform and boring, while the QA testers are unable to solve any gameplay that isn't very easy and repetitive

i'm sorry but console players should never have been "merged" with PC players into the same consumer base and community, there are many interesting and deep console games, but console gamers are by and large kinda retarded

It's not that rare for players to do the "Thief 2 Thing" where they screech like irate monkeys as soon as the game tries anything interesting that makes it a little more difficult, essentially behaving the same as a video game journalist
the worst part is the smugness these players develop after getting their way, claiming the sequel was improved because of their feedback, when they were just behaving like a dipshit game journalist that can't double jump in the tutorial.

 

[Icarus]

Xen was probably my favorite section of the whole game. Killer final boss too.

 

[Icarus]

Xen was probably my favorite section of the whole game. Killer final boss too.

I've only finished the original though. Might go back and try black mesa.