Xen Levels

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jellydoughnut217

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was it just me or did those xen levels anoy the hell out of u guys? I loved the game all the way thru...then i got to xen thinking it was gonna be cool, but it was like first person platforming with those damn rotating rocks and stuff damn those pissed me off just wondering if ne one else was slightly dissapointed like me
 
jellydoughnut217 said:
was it just me or did those xen levels anoy the hell out of u guys?
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it's not just you. that is a very common complaint against half-life.
 
I liked the Xen levels, but I agree they were probably the weakest part of the game. Quite an epic conclusion though :)

Valve have stated that you won't re-visit Xen in HL2, so you won't have to worry about that.
 
the next time i see someone complaining about the part where you jump on rocks, i don't know what i'm gonna do, but i'm gonna think you're stupid because that part takes at the most 30 seconds to go through and it is one of the 3 (maybe four) jumping parts that are in the whole game. in all in HL you spend approximately three minutes doing jumping puzzles. how demanding.
 
trizzm said:
the next time i see someone complaining about the part where you jump on rocks, i don't know what i'm gonna do, but i'm gonna think you're stupid because that part takes at the most 30 seconds to go through and it is one of the 3 (maybe four) jumping parts that are in the whole game. in all in HL you spend approximately three minutes doing jumping puzzles. how demanding.
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Word
.
 
part that bugged me the most, i recently re-beat hl, and the xen levels this time with all the rising rocks and levels and stuff, i would stand on em and when i reach the top of where the floating rock was suppose to take me it would make me get stuck to it. so i would have to load my save or hope that a nade would knock me free, and most times it didnt work, but i did work my way through it again.
 
im not sayin it was hard i just thought it was dumb and took away from the action and slowed the game down it was way borring
 
I loved the Xen levels. loved 'em. first of all, you did not expect anything like that at all, i almost friggin had a heart attack after i teleported there the first time (or maybe it was all taht pizza and coke...). and the jumping was not that annoying, it was easy and actually kind of fun. fighting Gonarch (or wahtever taht spider thiung was called ) was also so damn cool. i hate people complaining about those levels.

damN! no xen in HL2....that sucks!

oh yeah, if you turn your volume up loud (i mean real loud),every tiem you transport to Xen you can hear Nihilithak whispering messages to you. it's realyl pretty cool.
 
The third time I went through Half-Life was to GET TO XEN.
It was my favourite part of the game. Not so much the actions but the environment.
I used to love sitting in those healing pools and listen to the music that played. As well as creeping up on those flower thingys that shrunk back when you got to near.
Xen was the best! For me at least.
I also thought it was the hardest spot and I love a challenge. Even with careful metered use of ammunition I always found myself to low for my liking (well compared to the rest of the game)
 
Yeah, I loved the atmosphere of Xen. The gameplay of xen wasn't as strong as some of the better grunt fights, but I always liked it :) After being in a concrete facility for the whole game, it was a huge refreshing change.

BTW, Valve said that, although you don't go to Xen in HL2, parts of xen have 'come to earth'... so I think there will be xen type areas growing in certain places, which should be very interesting.
 
Xen was kinda annoying, as it was a rather steep dive from "reality" to complete surrealism. But I guess it was needed, so that player could use the portal generator :)
 
Gabe has mentioned that what he's not satisfied with about HL the most is Xen. I agree with him.
 
Sharrd said:
Gabe has mentioned that what he's not satisfied with about HL the most is Xen. I agree with him.
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Yeah, I remember reading that due to time constraints they cut a lot of corners and cut a lot of planned stuff from Xen. I hope they give the player another visit to Xen in an expansion or HL3, and fulfil it's potential. With today's technology, they could do some incredible stuff with a location like that.
 
hmm...you know what? i think the problem that everyone has with the Xen levels was that they were challenging. am i on to something? eh?
 
The first few times I played HL through, Xen was annoying. Now I love it :D
 
My only issue with Xen was that the massive potential of that world was wasted. The Xen levels were just alright. The very first moment I teleported there though, was very impressive.
 
I like Xen, there are levels in HL that are worse imo. I still hope of a Xen level on the Source engine, and I don't mean HL Source but it Xen with good textures an models will be very cool. And remember the low gravity on Xen, playing with the physics will be fun too.
 
It was annoying, but Gonarch was cool. Nihilanth was a very annoying boss fight.
 
He_Who_Is_Steve said:
hmm...you know what? i think the problem that everyone has with the Xen levels was that they were challenging. am i on to something? eh?
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What I loved about Xen; "oh crap, I'm on a strange alien planet!" Everything was spooky and alive, and Nihilith very cryptic, symbolic, dark and ominus. Man, what an ending!

What I hated: falling to my death over and over again. Challenging? F'n annoying.

They could have done much better. But HL would not have been nearly as epic without it.
 
When I first played the game, I was sure as anything that I had finished the game when I got to the Lambda complex....but boy was I in for a surprise, it kept going and going...
:)
 
What does the G-Man say at the end. I've heard he gives you a choice, but what does he actually say to you? I'd like to know because apparently he reveals stuff vaguely...
Please answer this in the form of a spoiler for Half Life 1 as people may not wish to know yet...
 
I really didint mind it all THAT much. The final boss DID pissxor me off a bit, but it wasnt that bad, come on.

-Alix
 
Some people would say the same about the Hell levels in Doom 3 (in particular the walls that rebuilt themselevs - spooky or what?), although I enjoyed those more than the Xen levels in Half Life.

I only completed Half-Life once, despite playing it 4 or 5 times. This was because as soon as I got to Xen, essentially the best parts of the game were over, and I wasn't going to slog through it again, just to get the ending sequences.
 
I agree gameplay wise xen wasnt that good than the rest of the game but i sure loved the athmosphere the sounds made you feel like you realy were in a different place.
there is a TFC map called Darkness and its fun playing it just because there is a xen base with all the cool athmosphere.
i wouldnt mind seeing xen part upgraded in HL2
 
czrsink said:
Some people would say the same about the Hell levels in Doom 3 (in particular the walls that rebuilt themselevs - spooky or what?), although I enjoyed those more than the Xen levels in Half Life.

I only completed Half-Life once, despite playing it 4 or 5 times. This was because as soon as I got to Xen, essentially the best parts of the game were over, and I wasn't going to slog through it again, just to get the ending sequences.
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:eek:! Really? The game went up a notch for me when I got to XEN.
 
I found the slaughter of innocent Slaves too much to bear.
 
I thought Xen was one of the coolest parts of the whole game. It was certainly hard. But it was just so alien it was amazing. The atmosphere was brilliant, with the unique flora and healing pools.
 
Lambda's teleportation puzzles annoyed me more than the Xen "Marioland" hopping. As atmospheric as the Xen maps were, they felt rather bland to me when you take things like the game's earlier setpieces into account.
 
Nah I didnt like Xen, I was so very content with 'Black Mesa' being 'real' not only in looks, but also in the fact that there were people to talk with. People on your side. That was new, and cool.
Then, all of a sudden: Xen.
Yay. another alien world. with no humans, as a matter of fact, not much at all.
To make things worse, it wasnt a place where you could swiftly shoot your way tru, noooo sir! One big jumppuzzle, flavoured with shooting enemies to make it harder.

Im glad its out.
 
What I liked about Xen was it forced the player to think and play the game differently than they had been... making the player think outside the box.

Valve really thought outside the box to make Half Life such a unique single player experience... it was nice to make the player do so as well.

Of course I can see how it could tick off a lot of people. They play through a game and towards the end the gameplay style changes.... and people don't like change.

I say kudos to Valve and hope to see Xen in Half Life 3 making the way they wanted.
 
f|uke said:
What I loved about Xen; "oh crap, I'm on a strange alien planet!" Everything was spooky and alive, and Nihilith very cryptic, symbolic, dark and ominus. Man, what an ending!
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totally

f|uke said:
What I hated: falling to my death over and over again. Challenging? F'n annoying.
Click to expand...

that's why you watch where you're walking dude...jeez... :LOL:
 
Xen was fun for about the first 5 minutes, then it was just boring. I only continued to play the game in order to finish and see the ending.

Could have done a lot more with Xen.
 
I also didn't like Xen overall, but I think there were some great bits to it. The general atmosphere, though it did suffer from presentation in low-polgyon graphics, was great. The place was absolutely alien, and totally strange. It really felt like I was on an alien planet without a clue as to where I'll get next, etc. It was great.

The jumping puzzles were annoying, I generally hate stuff like that, but they were at least short. Didn't improve the gameplay any IMO, but weren't THAT horrible either. The Interloper level sucked for me. First, there are bugs - no matter how many times I play that part, I have to use noclip often, as I get stuck there very often. Second, the whole level was a bit too much for me, I think it should have been shorter.

The Gonarch fight was quite fun, and also not too hard. Nihilanth was a great boss, IMO.

Overall, Xen was disappointing in regards to gameplay... but the atmosphere made up for it. It was at least better than Residue Processing, with very average atmosphere and no gameplay fun.
 
Except for the jumping, I thought Xen was great. It was such a shock when you first saw these alien levels, and you kinda went like "Whoa!" the same way you did when you played Unreal and saw the waterfall for the first time. :cool:

Of course, fighting Gonarch was cool. And the puzzle to open a teleport in those caves was really original.
 
Gonarch=my favourite HL fight, and probably my second biggest reaction in the game (eclipsed by the first time I played "the accident").
 
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