I hated the Vortingaunts, to the point where I'd gun down even the passive ones on sight. Their habit of spawning in (often behind you) with a cry of "DIE!" then blasting you seconds later with with a strong attack which couldn't be evaded meant my patience for them had long gone at this point.
One detail I like about Black Mesa Xen and Interloper especially is how the longer this section of the game goes on, the less resources the Lambda team sends you. I thought it was a neat bit of subtle storytelling, especially since theres different interpretations of what happened. I assumed they simply ran out of resources, but my friend assumed they needed it for themselves. And then while discussing it, we remembered that the facility gets nuked, and we don't know when the 7 Hour War happens in relation to the incident.
i didnt even put the pieces together that the lambda team was sending you the resources, i thought they were just more things being randomly teleported between the worlds
@@bowlofboyo Black Mesa does a good job of giving you what you need, and using that as a hint in certain parts of the game. For example, finding a large supply of grenades during blast pit, or missiles during the gonarchs lair, serving as hints towards what you have to do to get past the boss. I put two and two together, with the in-game reason of you just coincidentally getting what you needed being that the lambda team was *somehow* monitoring your progress and helping you along the way.
7 Hour War doesnt happen until after you kill the Nihilanth, i'm pretty sure. As the Nihilanth was an obstacle for the combine to invade Xen, and then Earth.
I thought that was extremely stupid. Why didn't they teleport you closer, they clearly had the ability? Not to mention ruining the feeling of isolation. But other games did supply drops and Crowbar collective is the least creative developer there is.
I've never hated Xen. It can be frustrating and confusing, but I think it helps to make you feel like you're in a world that's really alien to you. Especially since it feels like you're just winging it all the time without knowing what you're doing, just like anyone in their right mind would feel in such an environment.
Thought I was the only one. I also agree that hazardness of the levels really add to the atmosfere of being this hostile, alien dimension. I remember back when I was a kid who took a long while to learn to play Half-Life, then pass it's challenges, until reaching Xen; I was mindblown when I first discovered it years ago, and never ceased to be a cool moment, no matter the so-called "jankyness".
@@FORIAMAM Yeah, Xen forces you to never take anything for granted. You have to discover everything for yourself, like the healing pools. Black Mesa's level design is too self-explanatory, it lets you discover the world of Xen, but it does so in a space that is too safe to feel at a lost.
Yea, Interloper in Black Mesa was way too long, but one thing it did very well was show the sheer size of the Factory and how much it affected Xen, really distincting it from Wild Xen. You go on that huge journey from the very low levels of the factory to its very top and I liked the verticality. In a span of few levels you go as high up as the top of the freaking Citadel. Cool video and an interesting anylisis. I will be interested in seeing more stuff like that from you.
One issue with Black Mesa's Interloper is that it relies heavily on the Gluon Gun at the expense of all other weapons in the game. Ammo drops for other weapons are extremely scarce in the chapter, which becomes a bad sign if you haven't found a source of energy ammo.
I think the issue is that they wanted to stick with the theme of the only resources you get is from the scientists at BM themselves. They’d send you capsules of resources throughout Xen, but would slowly drop off until Interloper where you get only a few last desperate resources (including a capsule full of snacks) There is also a lack of HEV scientists bodies, which also implies that BM has never gotten into the factory. This all makes sense thematically but sucks for gameplay because you’re now strapped for ammo. I think they could’ve rectified this issue if they had more of those rooms where the aliens were keeping human objects and included some ammo packs in there.
I think the controllers are well designed enemies, but are horribly misutilised. Their speed when flying is slow enough to hit them (At least with hit-scan weapons) and their projectiles can be doged. What holds them back and makes them so annoying, is the levels they appear in, being too restrictive and without much cover, the sheer number of them they throw at you at once and the fact that they infinitely respawn never leaving you in cool down, and not even having a lore explanation for doing so .
Xen is probably the most tedious part of Half-Life, so "naturally", the Black Mesa team decided to expand upon it. That's not to say that they did a bad job, Xen in Black Mesa is gorgeous, but some sections are unnecessarily long and kinda pointless, just padding the runtime if anything. I have to admit, I did like how they re-imagined and 'added to' alien architecture, stuff like computers, dams, Vort houses, it's all pretty nice. My absolute favourite part about the remake's Xen is the section where you have to run from the Gargantuans. The end of that section is so cool: you make the big jump, leaving all the Gargantuans behind, then you turn around and see, like, eight of them, all looking mighty angry that you gave them the slip. Hell of a visual!
I remember finding this channel through the Ricochet retrospective. I think it had a different name back then. I'd be interested in seeing more chapter breakdowns for Half Life and other games in the future, this was a very good analysis.
You mention that the Long-Jump Module isn't necessary apart from the first level, while this is true I think a big part of it is being able to dodge the vortigaunt attacks. If you move quick enough, they will never be able to hit you.
I think Xen worked well from a story perspective, it was convoluted and confusing with designs that didn’t make much sense, which is exactly how I would picture an alien world. It’s not supposed to make sense and everything should be foreign and strange, even if it makes for some boring and tedious gameplay.
I’m sympathetic to that view, but I also think you can make an alien world foreign and strange while still keeping the gameplay interesting, fun, and coherent.
I hear two complaints about Black Mesa's Xen most frequently. One is the "gameyness" and the other is the environments. I understand and concede gameyness, but complaining about the environment??? It's seriously some of the most inspired and beautiful environments in video gaming history at best, and at worst is an amazing reimagining of Xen
I mean yeah, BM interloper overextend a bit, but people talk about it like if it was same as bad as the original interloper. The bro in the video says that BM Interloper fails to create a climax, but bro, the final scene in the elevator, when alien controlers try to stop you a last time by stoping the elevator and bringing you back again is just epic. Also the complains about puzles is like... okay?? You complain about puzles in Half Life XD
there should have been something like an "inspection corridor" with intense light (maybe x rays, triggering the suits radiation warning) shining through the barrels and you see the silhouettes of the grunts through the barrels
@roboquebrado5360 I'm not baiting, but I also don't think of it as a bad thing. If anything, I think half life 2's ending making you OP is a great reward to the player is a good and cool thing.
@@lil111 gravity gun is a more creative weapon and it not one note while the egon is, also you literally lost all your weapons and can only use the gravity gun which is different then black mesa and the section before this moment it isn't a drag to play, basically the gravity gun section feels natural while the egon don't.
imo black mesa xen pre-interloper is awesome, but after that it's a drag. bm interloper feels way too cramped & has too many puzzles without any interesting combat
I would've agreed with you after my first playthrough, but on my second I found that Xen (the chapter) had a lot of the same problems Interloper had (i.e. pacing and puzzles). The Gonarch fight is still pretty great though.
@@TheoreticalRain yeah. the Gonarch was definitely a highlight of BM xen. but i found the first chapter goes by way faster if you crouch slide (bug???) through each map.
@@TheoreticalRain Honestly I feel the pacing issues come with expectation. Xen is supposed to be a short 30 min to an hour pre-Nihilanth gauntlet in the original, whereas its a third of the game in Black Mesa (Black Mesa Inbound to Apprehension, Residue Processing to Lambda Core, Xen to Endgame respectively) and that three act structure can really throw you off if you're used to Half Life 1's mostly two act structure. If Xen were broken up into six Chapters (Two for the Xen chapter and two for Interloper) I think that'd more fairly reflect the intentions of the section.
@@TheoreticalRain xen in black mesa screams art project, in fact black mesa as a whole feels better as an art project than as an actual game, it regularly makes baffling game design decsisions, simplifying puzzles, ruining the flow of combat with mismatched ai to level design and just generally feels disappointing compared to how strong the game is visually and tonally.
Delete the "do x three times puzzle" from both Interloper and Xen (and that one bit in Xen that's just the mine section from ST but less fun and with less reason to exist) and the entirety of BMX would have much stronger pacing. Also huge agree on the conveyer belt section where you have to disable the force fields, Half Life has always prioritised player choice so why not let people run their way through that section if they want to? But as for the elevator section, I like that the Controllers try and drag the elevator back down, it makes me feel more like an "Interloper".
I remember getting to the friendly vortigaunt room on my first playthrough and actually noticed that they were friendly. Imagine my surprise when I entered the next and suddenly all the vorts were trying to kill me. The entire Xen section is just annoying, not very interesting and not well though out compared to the finely crafted Black Mesa. Nowadays though, I speedrun HL whenever I play it, so the entire Xen takes 5 minutes or less to blast through with 'infinite' health.
Very interesting analytics, man! Even though i liked Xen chapers like a lot (yea, Im one of those) i still agree that they were rushed too much. But again i have some respect for Valve that they managed to build a game like in less than a year or something. But yeah it could have been great if those Xen chapters got a bit more time to properly build them. As for BM Xen chapters ive got stuck couple of times especially on factory but i think that Its my fault since BM was the first big SP game that ive played in 2-3 years (recently got a new PC so Black Mesa had a priority #1 to play) and maybe in other situation might not stuck there at all. Overall, BMs chapters are better obviously. And proper intoroduction of idea that Vorts are not our enemies at all is a big PLUS for me and for the story telling. Wish it had a little more action moments and some things were made a little different. But still a great job for the devs. Make vids about other chapers. I would like to watch about them too. Cheers!
Yeah, I’m also pretty sympathetic to the Xen chapters in HL1 but Interloper is clearly the weakest of them. And Black Mesa is a massive accomplishment even if I still prefer HL1. Hopefully you can finish Black Mesa one of these days because I think their rendition of the Nihilanth fight is excellent. Glad you enjoyed the video, though!
@@TheoreticalRain no-no, i already finished BM. I mean that ive got stuck back in March when i played Zen for the first time (beated BM while it was in EA). but thanks anyway! Looking for your next vids^)
Finished the video, and I do agree with a lot of your points. Black Mesa’s Xen and Interloper go on for way too long. Although I’m not the hugest fan of Black Mesa’s Xen aesthetic (due to me liking the feel of Xen feeling bizarre and alien), Black Mesa did do a good job in conveying storytelling elements in these chapters. But I do wish Xen was a lot more sinister in Black Mesa, and the Nihilanth doesn’t look as scarred and creepy as Half-Life’s. Anyways, I enjoyed the video!
Glad you liked it! As I say in the video, the aesthetic becomes more grotesque and bizarre the longer Xen goes on, and some of the details in Interloper, like the machinery being stapled into the fleshy walls, are properly creepy. I can understand that criticism of the Nihilanth, though.
You made a good video of explaining one of the most ignored or hated chapters in Half Life. Also comparing it with Black Mesa was a good touch. But there's one thing many people keep mindlessly criticizing Black Mesa's Xen levels and especially Interloper. Black Mesa took so many years to got developed. We, the players, also had to wait a few more years just for Xen levels to get released. Mind you, the people worked on it, Crowbar Collective, were not Valve employees. So they didn't have the exact work tempo, resources and Valve vision. So it makes sense that Black Mesa is different from Half Life. They were dedicated and skillful fans.They wanted to make Xen levels more detailed, intriguing and game-y in some ways. If they made Interloper shorter or simpler, it could take less time to finish of course. But then, they would get criticized for making people wait for so long over short levels. You touched on good points and made fair criticism overall.
Was mostly agreeing with you until your comments on the elevator climb and the build up to it in Black Mesa, which is honestly one of the most fun experiences I've had in a game. It feels incredibly Half-Life. Next you'll be saying that the supercharged gravity gun sequences in Half Life 2 in the Citadel, or the Vault in Alyx don't feel like Half Life. Please, I beg you to reconsider.
personally i think the ambiguity of xen is frustrating but it adds to the sheer alienation the player feels, xen is a completely different world from anything that you’d see even in actual space so it figures that it would be so confusing and ‘different’ on a rail is a completely different can of worms, it lasts like 6 hours longer than it should and its entire existence is relegated to a guard saying “yeah there’s a rocket coming up and you’re supposed to launch it so things get better ok bye”
interloper was the only part of black mesa that i needed to use a fucking walkthrough to help me get through, and i remember grumbling to myself because it was the first time i EVER needed to use a walkthrough for a half life game. everything about black mesa’s xen was perfect to me besides the sheer length of interloper. it felt more like padding and i was practically BEGGING for big baby boss once i saw i had to traverse yet another conveyer.
Three years after uploading, I come across this video and even though it's been over a year (I think, could be more and closer to two years), you've properly worded how I felt about the maps when I first played it (good and bad). When I finished Black Mesa, I was genuinely glad it was over. And I don't think that's a good feeling to have! Thanks for the video and I subbed, will see what your other videos are about.
my first playthought i couldn't even get thru where the vortigaunts are in the enclosed spaces and other things (didn't know they were friendly) on normal for many hours, almost considered noclipping. also i've beaten half life and i never knew that cave existed
I'm not gonna lie I actually really liked the entire long conveyor belt sequence, it was really fun. And I didn't really mind the elevatar segment aswell and to be honest I really liked that the controllers tried pulling down the elevatar as a last attempt to try and stop you from reaching they're boss.
on my second playthrough i got it really easy, it's far easier than actually killing the vorts (i saw the achievement first when i had already beaten gonarchs and thought i couldnt get it before even realising the vorts were gone the entire time)
I LIKED the long Black Mesa Interloper chapter. I played Black Mesa before finishing Half Life (long story) so I had no idea what to expect beyond that portal to Xen. I simply saw that level, and then it was a year before I finished that game. But once I got to the tower in Interloper in Black Mesa, I remember thinking, God. This tower goes on FOREVER. This really feels like I’m fighting insurmountable odds, and ascending to the “God chamber” of this world, to take on the world controller. I kept thinking it would be over, and then there was more, giant, mile-tall rooms full of machinery, full of hr geiger monstrosities, the walls looking like flesh, all to manufacture hundreds, if not thousands, of alien grunts, perfectly genetically created to serve their God. An evil God. That you had to kill to save the world. When I got to that elevator and the music played, I was pumped. Honestly, my only criticism is that the elevator battle isn’t epic _enough._ It’s like 90 seconds long and then it’s over. It’s not even really long enough for the epic music they composed for it. They could’ve gone way harder on it, gotten really creative with the level design, made one final floor that spanned almost the entire width of this giant cylinder, and involved some sort of fusion of multiple game mechanics to really make you feel like a proper god. And, I understand the feeling of being upset that Black Mess goes for a completely different feel than Half Life. I certainly feel that the community could benefit from a Source remake that tried harder to stay spiritually close to the source material. Black Mesa has a completely different feel to it, for better and for worse. Great video!
Wait what? There's a cave there?! I have spent countless hours in this game and replayed it so many times, it feels like I've explored every nook and cranny yet I never knew there was a cave there. I've always jumped to the platforms from one of the pores.
A lot of criticism of Xen make the Mistake, assuming Half Life is a Film and not a Game. From the Game-Desigh standpoint, it makes perfect sence, that the end of a game is - well - hard. Interloper does a god job at this. Btw. you missed one bug: The Black-Sky Map is considered part of the chapter "Xen" if you save there.
there a difference between hard (tedious or frustrating) and hard but fair. The game ethos up to this point was clever use of your surroundings to get a leg up on your enemies but in the last part of this chapter, there is nothing to do but just run hope you hit the controllers and pray you can get up there
i consider that intentional and make sure to hit anybody debating the length of interloper and surface tension with an "Umm, actually.." about how gonarch's and interloper are all within the xen chapter
3:20 "Going through the cave is the obvious solution" I didn't even know the cave existed until 25 years after first playing this game. I always jumped from the hill to the manta. BM's Xen chapters are well designed, but I played them for the first time after a full BM playthrough and they feel VERY padded by that point. Solve this puzzle, now solve it twice, now solve it three times, repeat with new puzzle. That said the garg chase, the ending of interloper with the elevator ride and the Nihlanth fight were INSANE and I loved them, absolue master class. It felt like they were throwing EVERYTHING at you in desperation.
Notice how Interloper maps start with c4a1 while Gonarch's Lair maps start with c4a2. Does this mean that originally Interloper was to come before Gonarch's Lair?
I think the reason why people don't like Xen is because Xen was a step back in the aesthetics of Half-Life. The black mesa facility was moody and the whole design gave you a feeling of realism. Xen was just science fiction clichee in its purest form and the whole design of the Xen-levels just felt expedient. It feels like Valves creativity was already gone when it came to designing Xen. Clichees, annoying puzzles, platforming like in Super Mario. It just wasn't creative or challenging but just annoying from every perspective.
Tbh, as a kid i reached the Xen levels only with cheats, and i shot everything that moved with the gluon gun on my way or spammed dozens of snarks. I also didn't like the setting of Xen that much, so rushed through the levels and never really payed enough attention to notice that the Alien Slaves became passive. Even when i later played HL² with friendly Vorts, i didn't realise that they already became friendly during HL1. I think it took me until 2012 or so, when i began playing Sven-Coop and everyone spammed "Don't shoot" in the chat when we reached Interloper, that the coin finally dropped😅
Interloper is my favourite part of HL1, and perhaps of any game. It not only looks alien but feels alien as well and really challenges you to explore and experiment. Later HL games do such an meticulous job at signposting that you can just turn your brain off for them.
@@TheoreticalRain Hey, thanks for the response. I haven't got a Twitter for personal reasons. Is there a way I could contact you on Discord or Steam? As a fellow small RUclipsr I'd like to make connections with some similar content creators.
@@RichterOvertime You can reach me by email at theoreticalrain@gmail.com. I can send you my Discord info that way if you wish, I’d just prefer not to give it out in my comments section.
Honestly, I could forgive Interloper if that opening map wasn't so shit. The rest of the maps are a fun challenge if you play cautiously and tactically, especially on hard mode.
I think it is honestly hilarious that this infamously bad chapter is just as infamously bad in black mesa. I think they’re both terrific games for mostly entirely different reasons, so it is really fascinating to me that they both fail so catastrophically at the exact same place in the narrative, in completely different ways. Though- I don’t agree that the gonarch has a “gamey” “find the weak spot” design. Most of its body is its weak spot, and many animals have hard shells like that. Seemed logical enough to me. The gonarch having to smash spider webs for you to progress though… different story lmao. Very thinly veiled keydoor design there as for the plug puzzles. i just have too much damn fun with them to criticize them. At least in xen. Not sure what they’re really doing in the earthbound section, the puzzles are a lot less interesting there
THATS HOW YOU DO THE FIRST SEGMENT???? Dude i never found that fucking cave!? what the fuck! Dude i just used the Pore things, And launched up enough to Not die from fall dammage.
Once again to interoper you're going to be using the gluon gun a lot more than normal because you're out of ammo for everything else. Also, constantly using the glue gun does not feel like half-life it feels more Ghostbusters If there was a first person Ghostbusters game because the growing gun is essentially a proton pack.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Black Mesa's Xen is definitely more coherent but it's just so long. Completely agree if you take out the 3 room unlock thing map that the whole chapter would feel less bloated. Also agree with the Gluon gun, it goes on for way too long. It just ended being this slog of repetitive and not intuitive puzzles that goes on for way too long. I would've preferred something a bit more combat focused. It's a shame cause I think the rest of the Xen chapters work pretty well, interloper just seems to be destined to be a pretty meh chapter in both games
Kind of wish that Half Life ended before you saw Xen. The chapter was obviously rushed. Plus, if you think about it, that will mean that it was your fault that humanity lost since you could have stopped this. Maybe the G-man would have intervened, and you would have reached the tram ride.
overall i had more expectations for xen in half life when i played for the first time. i will agree with you on this: xen's design is far worse than compared to the rest of the game. xen is extremely empty and short, it couldve added more stuff to it like reveal more lore or tell a richer story. xen chapter is supposed to be an introduction to zen, but i feel like it couldve been longer. black mesa definitely does a more better job at depicting zen, you can really feel the atmosphere of it. gonarchs lair is probably the best chapter by design, but confusing with gameplay. it took be 10 minutes to realize that i have to damage this guy. interloper is pretty good with aesthetics, but bad with everything else like level design or gameplay. the healing pod seems a bit random, but it fits the factory atmosphere: it's an industrialized version of the healing pools. the barrels at the start were made unbreakable probably so that the player wont accidentally break them, but then they introduce breakable barrels without telling anything about it. the final part of interloper with spinning elevators was pretty annoying to me tbh. nihilanth was a pretty mid bossfight for me. i watched it previously on youtube so i kind of knew the drill. first it randomly teleported me to various sections, i thought it was a forced thing but apparently it's an attack you can dodge (im still not sure about this). then i tried aiming for the head, but when i tried approaching him from the top, he just flied upwards. i thought i could only damage him from the head. then i used my gluon gun, and accidentally killed it in 30 seconds. i thought i did something wrong or it was a bug, but i killed him in a few minutes (before that i was wandering around for 20 minutes in the sections). the gman confrontation is one of the best parts in xen honsetly. the atmosphere of it, and the "punishment" is pretty cool. 9:52 i thought i was softlocked when falling into the pit, but i found the elevator i knew that the barrels had enemies in them, so i never touched them 11:15 at the end of the vent there is a choice between right and left. i was deciding forl ike 5 minutes where to go, but they both lead to same place. it was kind of funny
lol wtf I've played half life at least 5 times in my life and I NEVER knew that there were non-hostile vortigaunts in Xen. the start of those maps is always the most desparate "get in what i can before hiding behind cover", cannot believe the first room of the factory can be done without an infinite amount of controllers lol. Always end up wasting so much ammo and having sucha hard time shooting the super high controllers that it becomes a slow crawl of hivehand tracking shots up into the distance and ducking behind walls/curving shots along them.
I mostly agree, but I LOVE the elevator fight in Mesa. While I can understanding an annoying simplicity of having to just rely on the Gluon Gun out of that vast sandbox of weapons, I think it's a clever call-forward to using only the Supercharged Gravity Gun to invade the Citadel. In addition, there's a nice feeling of the narrative here: you can really sense the increasing fear and desperation of the Alien Controllers who, for all their earlier superiority and vanity, _did not expect you to get this far,_ and are _freaking the fuck out._ Gordon is _winning_ and it makes no sense to them. They pull the elevator back down out of sheer panic, and I love it. It's a perfect sendoff to Interloper.
The OG Xen levels felt much more alien, in the sense that their foundational laws were far outside what Earth norms would be. The Black Mesa Xen levels, while they do play better, feel like Earthborne tropes with an alien coat of paint.
fighting alien grunts may be harder, but not worse. honestly, when I played BM I thought that they're much weaker than in original, because you can run at them and shoot and survive that, while in hl1 I mostly hid and used Tau cannon against them. that part from interloper where a bunch of grunts attack you? it IS hard, but it's intentional. it feels great to lose all your ammo at that moment only to get infinite Gluon gun later. kind of an emotional rollercoaster
I maintain, the climbing of the Interloper Tower would feel underwhelming like the Citadel in HL2 if you didn't feel like you were climbing a Megastructure. It needed to be that long for the final moment standing atop all that to feel as cathartic as it was and the only reason "too long" became so popular is because people had pacing expectations from HL1s Xen. Also disagree completely about the elevator (Other than it making you feel exhausted which as above I think is both intentional and good) Also re: Xen collecting human scientists, that was actually something the Lambda Core science team said in HL1
i honestly think that the main difference between black mesa and hl1 is that; black mesa has an better art direction/story telling but worse gameplay and thats why i prefer half-life 1, i never stop replaying hl1 while black mesa i don't replay and when i do i end up pissed by the gameplay once again. Graphics can only help until a certain point.
i don't think interloper would be much worse than the other xen chapters if it weren't for its length, going on for too long just amplifies the problems that being said i still think i hate blast pit more
I hated the Vortingaunts, to the point where I'd gun down even the passive ones on sight. Their habit of spawning in (often behind you) with a cry of "DIE!" then blasting you seconds later with with a strong attack which couldn't be evaded meant my patience for them had long gone at this point.
You can actually evade it by hiding behind an object
@@ivangenov6782 That's not possible when there's nothing to hide behind. You have 1 second in which to leap for cover.
Gordon freeman waking up in 2023 and seeing vortigaunts eating at the same table as him
@@BlackSailPass_GuitarCoversI think you just suck at the game
You must have had an interesting time going into Half Life 2 where they’re your allies.
without watching the video. interloper's biggest problem is that it's never clear what the fuck you're supposed to do.
In fact I think the way I beat that chapter was by cheesing part of it. BTW Xen, gonarch's lair, and interloper should all be one chapter.
its never clear what the fuck youre supposed to do in any part of half-life, it's supposed to be puzzling
@@cobgod1415 yea but specifically that chapter is confusing as shit. which is more confusing than normal.
Plus, the ugly texture on the environment doesnt help either
One detail I like about Black Mesa Xen and Interloper especially is how the longer this section of the game goes on, the less resources the Lambda team sends you. I thought it was a neat bit of subtle storytelling, especially since theres different interpretations of what happened.
I assumed they simply ran out of resources, but my friend assumed they needed it for themselves. And then while discussing it, we remembered that the facility gets nuked, and we don't know when the 7 Hour War happens in relation to the incident.
i didnt even put the pieces together that the lambda team was sending you the resources, i thought they were just more things being randomly teleported between the worlds
@@bowlofboyo Black Mesa does a good job of giving you what you need, and using that as a hint in certain parts of the game. For example, finding a large supply of grenades during blast pit, or missiles during the gonarchs lair, serving as hints towards what you have to do to get past the boss. I put two and two together, with the in-game reason of you just coincidentally getting what you needed being that the lambda team was *somehow* monitoring your progress and helping you along the way.
7 Hour War doesnt happen until after you kill the Nihilanth, i'm pretty sure. As the Nihilanth was an obstacle for the combine to invade Xen, and then Earth.
@@joshuaespinoza8325 the grenades in blast pit are in the original game, right before you enter the tentacle monster room
I thought that was extremely stupid. Why didn't they teleport you closer, they clearly had the ability? Not to mention ruining the feeling of isolation. But other games did supply drops and Crowbar collective is the least creative developer there is.
I've never hated Xen. It can be frustrating and confusing, but I think it helps to make you feel like you're in a world that's really alien to you. Especially since it feels like you're just winging it all the time without knowing what you're doing, just like anyone in their right mind would feel in such an environment.
Thought I was the only one. I also agree that hazardness of the levels really add to the atmosfere of being this hostile, alien dimension. I remember back when I was a kid who took a long while to learn to play Half-Life, then pass it's challenges, until reaching Xen; I was mindblown when I first discovered it years ago, and never ceased to be a cool moment, no matter the so-called "jankyness".
@@FORIAMAM Yeah, Xen forces you to never take anything for granted. You have to discover everything for yourself, like the healing pools. Black Mesa's level design is too self-explanatory, it lets you discover the world of Xen, but it does so in a space that is too safe to feel at a lost.
@@Spartan00113 HL1 XEN > BM XEN
Yea, Interloper in Black Mesa was way too long, but one thing it did very well was show the sheer size of the Factory and how much it affected Xen, really distincting it from Wild Xen. You go on that huge journey from the very low levels of the factory to its very top and I liked the verticality. In a span of few levels you go as high up as the top of the freaking Citadel.
Cool video and an interesting anylisis. I will be interested in seeing more stuff like that from you.
One issue with Black Mesa's Interloper is that it relies heavily on the Gluon Gun at the expense of all other weapons in the game. Ammo drops for other weapons are extremely scarce in the chapter, which becomes a bad sign if you haven't found a source of energy ammo.
I think the issue is that they wanted to stick with the theme of the only resources you get is from the scientists at BM themselves. They’d send you capsules of resources throughout Xen, but would slowly drop off until Interloper where you get only a few last desperate resources (including a capsule full of snacks)
There is also a lack of HEV scientists bodies, which also implies that BM has never gotten into the factory. This all makes sense thematically but sucks for gameplay because you’re now strapped for ammo. I think they could’ve rectified this issue if they had more of those rooms where the aliens were keeping human objects and included some ammo packs in there.
I think the controllers are well designed enemies, but are horribly misutilised. Their speed when flying is slow enough to hit them (At least with hit-scan weapons) and their projectiles can be doged. What holds them back and makes them so annoying, is the levels they appear in, being too restrictive and without much cover, the sheer number of them they throw at you at once and the fact that they infinitely respawn never leaving you in cool down, and not even having a lore explanation for doing so
.
I believe controllers are limited, there’s just a Lot of triggers that spawn another batch, and they can sometimes hide under some platfourms
Xen is probably the most tedious part of Half-Life, so "naturally", the Black Mesa team decided to expand upon it. That's not to say that they did a bad job, Xen in Black Mesa is gorgeous, but some sections are unnecessarily long and kinda pointless, just padding the runtime if anything. I have to admit, I did like how they re-imagined and 'added to' alien architecture, stuff like computers, dams, Vort houses, it's all pretty nice. My absolute favourite part about the remake's Xen is the section where you have to run from the Gargantuans. The end of that section is so cool: you make the big jump, leaving all the Gargantuans behind, then you turn around and see, like, eight of them, all looking mighty angry that you gave them the slip. Hell of a visual!
We have the same opinion it is a majestic chapter but so long for no reason and gets boring because of that
I remember finding this channel through the Ricochet retrospective. I think it had a different name back then. I'd be interested in seeing more chapter breakdowns for Half Life and other games in the future, this was a very good analysis.
Thank you! And yeah I changed my name about 8 months ago. It was “Kermit the Forg” before.
You mention that the Long-Jump Module isn't necessary apart from the first level, while this is true I think a big part of it is being able to dodge the vortigaunt attacks. If you move quick enough, they will never be able to hit you.
I think Xen worked well from a story perspective, it was convoluted and confusing with designs that didn’t make much sense, which is exactly how I would picture an alien world. It’s not supposed to make sense and everything should be foreign and strange, even if it makes for some boring and tedious gameplay.
I’m sympathetic to that view, but I also think you can make an alien world foreign and strange while still keeping the gameplay interesting, fun, and coherent.
I hear two complaints about Black Mesa's Xen most frequently. One is the "gameyness" and the other is the environments. I understand and concede gameyness, but complaining about the environment??? It's seriously some of the most inspired and beautiful environments in video gaming history at best, and at worst is an amazing reimagining of Xen
I mean yeah, BM interloper overextend a bit, but people talk about it like if it was same as bad as the original interloper. The bro in the video says that BM Interloper fails to create a climax, but bro, the final scene in the elevator, when alien controlers try to stop you a last time by stoping the elevator and bringing you back again is just epic. Also the complains about puzles is like... okay?? You complain about puzles in Half Life XD
there should have been something like an "inspection corridor" with intense light (maybe x rays, triggering the suits radiation warning) shining through the barrels and you see the silhouettes of the grunts through the barrels
Actually with the final boss fight I still didn’t know that I was supposed to shoot energy things. I was not the brightest
24:24 tell me you never beat half-life 2 without telling me you never beat half-life 2
Ok BUT counterpoint:
Ragdoll physics funne
baits used to be believable 😔
@roboquebrado5360 I'm not baiting, but I also don't think of it as a bad thing. If anything, I think half life 2's ending making you OP is a great reward to the player is a good and cool thing.
@@lil111 gravity gun is a more creative weapon and it not one note while the egon is, also you literally lost all your weapons and can only use the gravity gun which is different then black mesa and the section before this moment it isn't a drag to play, basically the gravity gun section feels natural while the egon don't.
imo black mesa xen pre-interloper is awesome, but after that it's a drag. bm interloper feels way too cramped & has too many puzzles without any interesting combat
I would've agreed with you after my first playthrough, but on my second I found that Xen (the chapter) had a lot of the same problems Interloper had (i.e. pacing and puzzles). The Gonarch fight is still pretty great though.
@@TheoreticalRain yeah. the Gonarch was definitely a highlight of BM xen. but i found the first chapter goes by way faster if you crouch slide (bug???) through each map.
@@TheoreticalRain Honestly I feel the pacing issues come with expectation. Xen is supposed to be a short 30 min to an hour pre-Nihilanth gauntlet in the original, whereas its a third of the game in Black Mesa (Black Mesa Inbound to Apprehension, Residue Processing to Lambda Core, Xen to Endgame respectively) and that three act structure can really throw you off if you're used to Half Life 1's mostly two act structure.
If Xen were broken up into six Chapters (Two for the Xen chapter and two for Interloper) I think that'd more fairly reflect the intentions of the section.
@@TheoreticalRain xen in black mesa screams art project, in fact black mesa as a whole feels better as an art project than as an actual game, it regularly makes baffling game design decsisions, simplifying puzzles, ruining the flow of combat with mismatched ai to level design and just generally feels disappointing compared to how strong the game is visually and tonally.
Nice to see you again! I love your videos
Thank you!
I love the Spoiler warning for a 26 year old legendary, genre-defining game lol
Yeah, some people are under 26 years old, believe it or not
Delete the "do x three times puzzle" from both Interloper and Xen (and that one bit in Xen that's just the mine section from ST but less fun and with less reason to exist) and the entirety of BMX would have much stronger pacing. Also huge agree on the conveyer belt section where you have to disable the force fields, Half Life has always prioritised player choice so why not let people run their way through that section if they want to? But as for the elevator section, I like that the Controllers try and drag the elevator back down, it makes me feel more like an "Interloper".
I remember getting to the friendly vortigaunt room on my first playthrough and actually noticed that they were friendly. Imagine my surprise when I entered the next and suddenly all the vorts were trying to kill me. The entire Xen section is just annoying, not very interesting and not well though out compared to the finely crafted Black Mesa. Nowadays though, I speedrun HL whenever I play it, so the entire Xen takes 5 minutes or less to blast through with 'infinite' health.
Very interesting analytics, man!
Even though i liked Xen chapers like a lot (yea, Im one of those) i still agree that they were rushed too much. But again i have some respect for Valve that they managed to build a game like in less than a year or something. But yeah it could have been great if those Xen chapters got a bit more time to properly build them.
As for BM Xen chapters ive got stuck couple of times especially on factory but i think that Its my fault since BM was the first big SP game that ive played in 2-3 years (recently got a new PC so Black Mesa had a priority #1 to play) and maybe in other situation might not stuck there at all. Overall, BMs chapters are better obviously. And proper intoroduction of idea that Vorts are not our enemies at all is a big PLUS for me and for the story telling. Wish it had a little more action moments and some things were made a little different. But still a great job for the devs.
Make vids about other chapers. I would like to watch about them too. Cheers!
Yeah, I’m also pretty sympathetic to the Xen chapters in HL1 but Interloper is clearly the weakest of them. And Black Mesa is a massive accomplishment even if I still prefer HL1. Hopefully you can finish Black Mesa one of these days because I think their rendition of the Nihilanth fight is excellent. Glad you enjoyed the video, though!
@@TheoreticalRain no-no, i already finished BM. I mean that ive got stuck back in March when i played Zen for the first time (beated BM while it was in EA). but thanks anyway!
Looking for your next vids^)
I love how Xen (Border worlds) and Interloper is portrayed in Black Mesa :)
Finished the video, and I do agree with a lot of your points. Black Mesa’s Xen and Interloper go on for way too long. Although I’m not the hugest fan of Black Mesa’s Xen aesthetic (due to me liking the feel of Xen feeling bizarre and alien), Black Mesa did do a good job in conveying storytelling elements in these chapters. But I do wish Xen was a lot more sinister in Black Mesa, and the Nihilanth doesn’t look as scarred and creepy as Half-Life’s. Anyways, I enjoyed the video!
Xen still looks pretty sinister and threatening once you reach interloper though.
Glad you liked it! As I say in the video, the aesthetic becomes more grotesque and bizarre the longer Xen goes on, and some of the details in Interloper, like the machinery being stapled into the fleshy walls, are properly creepy. I can understand that criticism of the Nihilanth, though.
You made a good video of explaining one of the most ignored or hated chapters in Half Life. Also comparing it with Black Mesa was a good touch.
But there's one thing many people keep mindlessly criticizing Black Mesa's Xen levels and especially Interloper.
Black Mesa took so many years to got developed. We, the players, also had to wait a few more years just for Xen levels to get released. Mind you, the people worked on it, Crowbar Collective, were not Valve employees. So they didn't have the exact work tempo, resources and Valve vision. So it makes sense that Black Mesa is different from Half Life. They were dedicated and skillful fans.They wanted to make Xen levels more detailed, intriguing and game-y in some ways. If they made Interloper shorter or simpler, it could take less time to finish of course. But then, they would get criticized for making people wait for so long over short levels.
You touched on good points and made fair criticism overall.
i got stuck on it as a kid for 2 months until my older cousin told me about god mode and cheats, still to this day i play this chapter on god mod
Woah what the heck!? I commented today wondering when he was gonna upload, and then he uploads the very same day!?
Was mostly agreeing with you until your comments on the elevator climb and the build up to it in Black Mesa, which is honestly one of the most fun experiences I've had in a game. It feels incredibly Half-Life. Next you'll be saying that the supercharged gravity gun sequences in Half Life 2 in the Citadel, or the Vault in Alyx don't feel like Half Life. Please, I beg you to reconsider.
personally i think the ambiguity of xen is frustrating but it adds to the sheer alienation the player feels, xen is a completely different world from anything that you’d see even in actual space so it figures that it would be so confusing and ‘different’
on a rail is a completely different can of worms, it lasts like 6 hours longer than it should and its entire existence is relegated to a guard saying “yeah there’s a rocket coming up and you’re supposed to launch it so things get better ok bye”
interloper was the only part of black mesa that i needed to use a fucking walkthrough to help me get through, and i remember grumbling to myself because it was the first time i EVER needed to use a walkthrough for a half life game. everything about black mesa’s xen was perfect to me besides the sheer length of interloper. it felt more like padding and i was practically BEGGING for big baby boss once i saw i had to traverse yet another conveyer.
Three years after uploading, I come across this video and even though it's been over a year (I think, could be more and closer to two years), you've properly worded how I felt about the maps when I first played it (good and bad). When I finished Black Mesa, I was genuinely glad it was over. And I don't think that's a good feeling to have! Thanks for the video and I subbed, will see what your other videos are about.
my first playthought i couldn't even get thru where the vortigaunts are in the enclosed spaces and other things (didn't know they were friendly) on normal for many hours, almost considered noclipping. also i've beaten half life and i never knew that cave existed
would love to hear your thoughts on ravenholm, on a rail, or surface tension
I’ll keep those in mind
I'm not gonna lie I actually really liked the entire long conveyor belt sequence, it was really fun. And I didn't really mind the elevatar segment aswell and to be honest I really liked that the controllers tried pulling down the elevatar as a last attempt to try and stop you from reaching they're boss.
Being able to beat interloper without killing any vorts in black mesa already makes it one of the best chapters in my book.
on my second playthrough i got it really easy, it's far easier than actually killing the vorts (i saw the achievement first when i had already beaten gonarchs and thought i couldnt get it before even realising the vorts were gone the entire time)
I got completely lost in the factory and after a while just went looking for the next loading trigger in noclip.
I forget that I even played through the Xen levels in HL1, whereas I can remember Xen in Black Mesa so vividly
Great video, really interesting to listen to!
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Yay a new video!
Great video! Echoed alot of the thoughts i had in my head when playing through
You need more subs! More people need to see the content your'e making man. Great video
Thank you! I appreciate the kind words.
I wish you also discussed and compared the Nihilanth battles too
I may do that in another video, this one was just focused on Interloper.
@@TheoreticalRain Looking forward to that!
why weren't you in my sub box? I live for these videos!
No idea, RUclips works in mysterious ways. I tweet out whenever I post a video so you can follow me on Twitter if you want (@TheoreticalRain).
Great video! Enjoyed it a lot.
Thanks!
Super underrated. Love your half life vids!
Interloper in TLD : ✨🤭✨
Interloper in HL1 : ☠️☠️☠️
Interloper in the arg : ???
Black Mesa Interloper chapter is inspiration from Prey 2006.
I LIKED the long Black Mesa Interloper chapter. I played Black Mesa before finishing Half Life (long story) so I had no idea what to expect beyond that portal to Xen. I simply saw that level, and then it was a year before I finished that game. But once I got to the tower in Interloper in Black Mesa, I remember thinking, God. This tower goes on FOREVER. This really feels like I’m fighting insurmountable odds, and ascending to the “God chamber” of this world, to take on the world controller. I kept thinking it would be over, and then there was more, giant, mile-tall rooms full of machinery, full of hr geiger monstrosities, the walls looking like flesh, all to manufacture hundreds, if not thousands, of alien grunts, perfectly genetically created to serve their God. An evil God. That you had to kill to save the world.
When I got to that elevator and the music played, I was pumped. Honestly, my only criticism is that the elevator battle isn’t epic _enough._ It’s like 90 seconds long and then it’s over. It’s not even really long enough for the epic music they composed for it. They could’ve gone way harder on it, gotten really creative with the level design, made one final floor that spanned almost the entire width of this giant cylinder, and involved some sort of fusion of multiple game mechanics to really make you feel like a proper god.
And, I understand the feeling of being upset that Black Mess goes for a completely different feel than Half Life. I certainly feel that the community could benefit from a Source remake that tried harder to stay spiritually close to the source material. Black Mesa has a completely different feel to it, for better and for worse.
Great video!
I hate the new gluon gun. it feels like a water cannon. the original feels like an instrument of death. it's instantaneous.
Wait what? There's a cave there?! I have spent countless hours in this game and replayed it so many times, it feels like I've explored every nook and cranny yet I never knew there was a cave there. I've always jumped to the platforms from one of the pores.
A lot of criticism of Xen make the Mistake, assuming Half Life is a Film and not a Game. From the Game-Desigh standpoint, it makes perfect sence, that the end of a game is - well - hard. Interloper does a god job at this.
Btw. you missed one bug: The Black-Sky Map is considered part of the chapter "Xen" if you save there.
there a difference between hard (tedious or frustrating) and hard but fair. The game ethos up to this point was clever use of your surroundings to get a leg up on your enemies but in the last part of this chapter, there is nothing to do but just run hope you hit the controllers and pray you can get up there
i consider that intentional and make sure to hit anybody debating the length of interloper and surface tension with an "Umm, actually.." about how gonarch's and interloper are all within the xen chapter
23:54 this. By this point of interloper i was fighting both frames and controllers to the point that it was such a slog to get through the level
3:20 "Going through the cave is the obvious solution" I didn't even know the cave existed until 25 years after first playing this game. I always jumped from the hill to the manta.
BM's Xen chapters are well designed, but I played them for the first time after a full BM playthrough and they feel VERY padded by that point. Solve this puzzle, now solve it twice, now solve it three times, repeat with new puzzle. That said the garg chase, the ending of interloper with the elevator ride and the Nihlanth fight were INSANE and I loved them, absolue master class. It felt like they were throwing EVERYTHING at you in desperation.
when i first played interloper, i remember killing all the vorts before realizing that they're not actually hostile
on a rail: Am I a joke to you?
On a rail wasn't too bad tbh
on a rail is over hated
it takes to long in my opinion
Notice how Interloper maps start with c4a1 while Gonarch's Lair maps start with c4a2. Does this mean that originally Interloper was to come before Gonarch's Lair?
It's probably just the fact that the Xen levels were rushed, so they just threw together what had already been made into a somewhat random order.
I think the reason why people don't like Xen is because Xen was a step back in the aesthetics of Half-Life. The black mesa facility was moody and the whole design gave you a feeling of realism. Xen was just science fiction clichee in its purest form and the whole design of the Xen-levels just felt expedient. It feels like Valves creativity was already gone when it came to designing Xen. Clichees, annoying puzzles, platforming like in Super Mario. It just wasn't creative or challenging but just annoying from every perspective.
Tbh, as a kid i reached the Xen levels only with cheats, and i shot everything that moved with the gluon gun on my way or spammed dozens of snarks. I also didn't like the setting of Xen that much, so rushed through the levels and never really payed enough attention to notice that the Alien Slaves became passive. Even when i later played HL² with friendly Vorts, i didn't realise that they already became friendly during HL1. I think it took me until 2012 or so, when i began playing Sven-Coop and everyone spammed "Don't shoot" in the chat when we reached Interloper, that the coin finally dropped😅
I thought this was a literal map dissection in hammer 😂
I can count 6 hl1 enemies that where cut: mr friendly panther eye stukabat charger chumtoad flocking floater.
Interloper is my favourite part of HL1, and perhaps of any game. It not only looks alien but feels alien as well and really challenges you to explore and experiment. Later HL games do such an meticulous job at signposting that you can just turn your brain off for them.
Hey man I really like your videos. Great points about this chapter in this one. Can we get in touch?
Thanks! I’m on Twitter at mobile.twitter.com/TheoreticalRain. You could send me a DM on there.
@@TheoreticalRain Hey, thanks for the response. I haven't got a Twitter for personal reasons. Is there a way I could contact you on Discord or Steam? As a fellow small RUclipsr I'd like to make connections with some similar content creators.
@@RichterOvertime You can reach me by email at theoreticalrain@gmail.com. I can send you my Discord info that way if you wish, I’d just prefer not to give it out in my comments section.
@@TheoreticalRain Hey, I completely understand that brother. Shooting you an email now.
Honestly, I could forgive Interloper if that opening map wasn't so shit. The rest of the maps are a fun challenge if you play cautiously and tactically, especially on hard mode.
Great new channel! You have earned a sub. Keep up the good my man!
12:43 they're useful for jumping if you glitched your health in surface tension ;)
3:00 had to idea about the cave
Great video, basically said everything I was thinking about Black Mesa's version lol.
24:36 meanwhile me: ooooo i get to laser more aliens reehehehhehehe
Wait people didn't realize this stuff?
I was pretty young when I first played half life and I got all of this just fine!
I think it is honestly hilarious that this infamously bad chapter is just as infamously bad in black mesa. I think they’re both terrific games for mostly entirely different reasons, so it is really fascinating to me that they both fail so catastrophically at the exact same place in the narrative, in completely different ways.
Though- I don’t agree that the gonarch has a “gamey” “find the weak spot” design. Most of its body is its weak spot, and many animals have hard shells like that. Seemed logical enough to me. The gonarch having to smash spider webs for you to progress though… different story lmao. Very thinly veiled keydoor design there
as for the plug puzzles. i just have too much damn fun with them to criticize them. At least in xen. Not sure what they’re really doing in the earthbound section, the puzzles are a lot less interesting there
thats a weird way of spelling residue processing
I think RP, Apprehension, and Lambda Core are less fun than Interloper by far
9:55 "Daycore"
THATS HOW YOU DO THE FIRST SEGMENT???? Dude i never found that fucking cave!? what the fuck! Dude i just used the Pore things, And launched up enough to Not die from fall dammage.
and then you play Black Mesa and it's the best level design u ever see in your life
Black Mesa elevator scene was 2nd most fun compared to fighting the Ghonark boss.
Alien controllers throws energy balls ,like Imps in Doom 2 throws fireballs .Imps and alien controllers are nasty enemies.
Once again to interoper you're going to be using the gluon gun a lot more than normal because you're out of ammo for everything else. Also, constantly using the glue gun does not feel like half-life it feels more Ghostbusters If there was a first person Ghostbusters game because the growing gun is essentially a proton pack.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Black Mesa's Xen is definitely more coherent but it's just so long. Completely agree if you take out the 3 room unlock thing map that the whole chapter would feel less bloated.
Also agree with the Gluon gun, it goes on for way too long. It just ended being this slog of repetitive and not intuitive puzzles that goes on for way too long. I would've preferred something a bit more combat focused.
It's a shame cause I think the rest of the Xen chapters work pretty well, interloper just seems to be destined to be a pretty meh chapter in both games
Kind of wish that Half Life ended before you saw Xen. The chapter was obviously rushed. Plus, if you think about it, that will mean that it was your fault that humanity lost since you could have stopped this. Maybe the G-man would have intervened, and you would have reached the tram ride.
Interloper was hell to beat in black mesa
Do a series if you want, watching ur hl videos are REALLY fun
7:19 YOU CAN KILL IT WITH THE GLUON GUN!?!?!? Why didnt I know this
overall i had more expectations for xen in half life when i played for the first time.
i will agree with you on this: xen's design is far worse than compared to the rest of the game.
xen is extremely empty and short, it couldve added more stuff to it like reveal more lore or tell a richer story.
xen chapter is supposed to be an introduction to zen, but i feel like it couldve been longer.
black mesa definitely does a more better job at depicting zen, you can really feel the atmosphere of it.
gonarchs lair is probably the best chapter by design, but confusing with gameplay.
it took be 10 minutes to realize that i have to damage this guy.
interloper is pretty good with aesthetics, but bad with everything else like level design or gameplay.
the healing pod seems a bit random, but it fits the factory atmosphere: it's an industrialized version of the healing pools.
the barrels at the start were made unbreakable probably so that the player wont accidentally break them, but then they introduce breakable barrels without telling anything about it.
the final part of interloper with spinning elevators was pretty annoying to me tbh.
nihilanth was a pretty mid bossfight for me. i watched it previously on youtube so i kind of knew the drill.
first it randomly teleported me to various sections, i thought it was a forced thing but apparently it's an attack you can dodge (im still not sure about this).
then i tried aiming for the head, but when i tried approaching him from the top, he just flied upwards. i thought i could only damage him from the head.
then i used my gluon gun, and accidentally killed it in 30 seconds.
i thought i did something wrong or it was a bug, but i killed him in a few minutes (before that i was wandering around for 20 minutes in the sections).
the gman confrontation is one of the best parts in xen honsetly. the atmosphere of it, and the "punishment" is pretty cool.
9:52 i thought i was softlocked when falling into the pit, but i found the elevator
i knew that the barrels had enemies in them, so i never touched them
11:15 at the end of the vent there is a choice between right and left. i was deciding forl ike 5 minutes where to go, but they both lead to same place. it was kind of funny
lol wtf I've played half life at least 5 times in my life and I NEVER knew that there were non-hostile vortigaunts in Xen. the start of those maps is always the most desparate "get in what i can before hiding behind cover", cannot believe the first room of the factory can be done without an infinite amount of controllers lol. Always end up wasting so much ammo and having sucha hard time shooting the super high controllers that it becomes a slow crawl of hivehand tracking shots up into the distance and ducking behind walls/curving shots along them.
Everytime i replay hl1 i just stop right when you enter xen.
I mostly agree, but I LOVE the elevator fight in Mesa. While I can understanding an annoying simplicity of having to just rely on the Gluon Gun out of that vast sandbox of weapons, I think it's a clever call-forward to using only the Supercharged Gravity Gun to invade the Citadel. In addition, there's a nice feeling of the narrative here: you can really sense the increasing fear and desperation of the Alien Controllers who, for all their earlier superiority and vanity, _did not expect you to get this far,_ and are _freaking the fuck out._ Gordon is _winning_ and it makes no sense to them. They pull the elevator back down out of sheer panic, and I love it. It's a perfect sendoff to Interloper.
Having just finished black mesa to day, I do feel like interloper stretched on for way too long.
this was a bitch to get through and so difficult on Normal difficulty i had to use cheats the entire time
I can't help but Interloper always sounded like an european train line to me 😅
I didnt even know about the cave until this video 😭🙏
interloper is so bad i would not blame someone for just noclipping through it just to get to nihilanth
The OG Xen levels felt much more alien, in the sense that their foundational laws were far outside what Earth norms would be. The Black Mesa Xen levels, while they do play better, feel like Earthborne tropes with an alien coat of paint.
fighting alien grunts may be harder, but not worse. honestly, when I played BM I thought that they're much weaker than in original, because you can run at them and shoot and survive that, while in hl1 I mostly hid and used Tau cannon against them. that part from interloper where a bunch of grunts attack you? it IS hard, but it's intentional. it feels great to lose all your ammo at that moment only to get infinite Gluon gun later. kind of an emotional rollercoaster
I maintain, the climbing of the Interloper Tower would feel underwhelming like the Citadel in HL2 if you didn't feel like you were climbing a Megastructure. It needed to be that long for the final moment standing atop all that to feel as cathartic as it was and the only reason "too long" became so popular is because people had pacing expectations from HL1s Xen.
Also disagree completely about the elevator (Other than it making you feel exhausted which as above I think is both intentional and good)
Also re: Xen collecting human scientists, that was actually something the Lambda Core science team said in HL1
Obviously this
On a rail is fucking banger so yeah it can’t be the worst
i honestly think that the main difference between black mesa and hl1 is that; black mesa has an better art direction/story telling but worse gameplay and thats why i prefer half-life 1, i never stop replaying hl1 while black mesa i don't replay and when i do i end up pissed by the gameplay once again. Graphics can only help until a certain point.
This is a great channel to bad there isn't many subscribers
We can always have more Half Life related videos.
i don't think interloper would be much worse than the other xen chapters if it weren't for its length, going on for too long just amplifies the problems
that being said i still think i hate blast pit more
Amazing video how do you only have 2k subs?
I loved the Black mesa Xen chapters even interloper.