Has it really been 20 years? Blimey! Black Mesa, the fan-made recreation of the original with plenty of bells and whistles has a trailer for the hotly anticipated Xen levels.
Feast your eyes:
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As for when we might finally see the Xen levels ourselves? The Black Mesa team say they're aiming for Q2 2019 so we still have quite a while to wait on it. Good things come to those who wait though, no one wants to see it rushed.
They say they're happy with the design and they want to ensure it's fun. Most of it is "design locked and functioning as intended" so the remaining time is to just finish it all up. They're estimating the Xen levels will take around 6 hours, more if you're a keen explorer.
It's also interesting to see how they made more of a splash about Half-Life being 20 years old than Valve themselves did, which was, well—nothing.
See more on Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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14 comments
Meh. It looks good really it does. But its not Xen. But well Blackmesa was overall Dissapointing so no wonder.
My first thought was similar: "hmmmm, isn't this a bit too colourful"
0 Likes
This looks great. And Black Mesa so far was a wonderful experience.
It's a community project. No wonder it takes them that long considering the quality they achieved.
TBH, I was quite upset that Valve did not come up with anything at all for Half Life's 20th anniversary.
Ofc, no one with a sane mind really expected Half-Life 3 or substantial news about it. But something that shows deep respect to the company's roots that started it all. A franchise that so many gamers still consider a milestone in gaming history.
Nothing.
That's just sad.
It's a community project. No wonder it takes them that long considering the quality they achieved.
TBH, I was quite upset that Valve did not come up with anything at all for Half Life's 20th anniversary.
Ofc, no one with a sane mind really expected Half-Life 3 or substantial news about it. But something that shows deep respect to the company's roots that started it all. A franchise that so many gamers still consider a milestone in gaming history.
Nothing.
That's just sad.
3 Likes, Who?
hmm indeed that does not look like Xen, it has (men-made?) structures - afaik the original Xen from HL1 is not built this way.
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hmm indeed that does not look like Xen, it has (men-made?) structures - afaik the original Xen from HL1 is not built this way.
It was never their intent to rebuild Xen as it was. The folks at Valve weren't satisfied with Xen either...
5 Likes, Who?
hmm indeed that does not look like Xen, it has (men-made?) structures - afaik the original Xen from HL1 is not built this way.
I think that they took a little of inspiration from Doom, where you had scientific outpost in hell. I like it and I'm willing to play it whenever it's complete :D
Last edited by x_wing on 20 November 2018 at 12:20 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Arehandoro Nov 20, 2018
I never played the original Half Life back then -Yes, I know, some punishment is deserved xD- but I actually enjoyed Black Mesa a few years ago and looking forward to Xen.
P.S: No punishment needed for the other Half Life games thankfully haha.
P.S: No punishment needed for the other Half Life games thankfully haha.
1 Likes, Who?
I wished they instead fix the bug preventing AMD users from playing it. If I new they were going to ignore it for long I had asked for a refund on the same day.
Just asked for a refund now, just to see if we get some attention to this problem.
Just asked for a refund now, just to see if we get some attention to this problem.
0 Likes
Can please people understand this is not Half-Life: Remastered, Half-Life: Enhanced or Half-Life: HD? That's Black Mesa and Xen looks fantastic for what it is.
5 Likes, Who?
The original Xen definitely had laboratories on there.
And this looks really good. It has me excited, as the original Xen was by far the worst part of HL1.
And this looks really good. It has me excited, as the original Xen was by far the worst part of HL1.
3 Likes, Who?
Man, they're really pushing the original Source engine to the limit, aren't they?
1 Likes, Who?
I haven't played the original Xen levels in twenty years. I played through them exactly once with my original copy. That's coming from someone that spent the day before bootcamp playing Half Life and the Day I got home from School of Infantry playing Half Life: Opposing Force.
This actually looks awesome. Dig the music. The visuals pop and are actually interesting. I liked what they did with Black Mesa, mostly. Looking forward to this.
This actually looks awesome. Dig the music. The visuals pop and are actually interesting. I liked what they did with Black Mesa, mostly. Looking forward to this.
0 Likes
Bought this a while back but waiting to play it all in one go when finished. I've got a huge backlog of games to get through, so I can afford to wait. I'll savour it when the time comes ^_^
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The original Xen definitely had laboratories on there.
And this looks really good. It has me excited, as the original Xen was by far the worst part of HL1.
I disagree. Xen was awesome.
Xen was awesome because is was really new, with interesting mechanics: low-gravity, healing pools, you get to do some sightseeing in an alien environment, see the creatures in their natural environment, etc.
@Ehvis, min my ind, Xen was actually quite colorful, with a lot of creatures that emit light, coloured walls, etc. But it was honestly quite botched, buggy, difficult to navigate, and didn't quite live up to its potential.
It seems like the guys at crowbar collective are really doing Xen the way it was meant to be. We get to explore more man-made installations, which are part of what the survey team built there.
The survey team had been there for quite some time, performing experiments, collecting fauna/flora/rocks samples already. The sample you analyse in the begging is supposedly from there (although it was actually provided by G-man to jumpstart the resonance cascade). After the cascade, the portals to Xen were closed, and the survey team was left stranded on Xen.
The portal is then reopened to allow Freeman to Xen and close the superportal from there. I don't recall if you see man-made structures on Xen in the first Half-life, but they definitely make sense, as do the bodies of the survey crew you find scattered here and there.
The half-life universe is really all about teleportation, and almost like a reflection of what happens when an isolated group is put in touch with globalization and colonization. It is difficult not to draw parallels between the combine invasion and the European colonization.
One surprising thing with Half-Life is how much lore there is to it. You don't realize it at first when playing, but the rabbit hole really goes quite deep; Marc Laidlaw and the valve team really made a masterpiece there (although much of it grew organically, of course). Here is an interesting theory I came across recently (G-man's motivation is stopping the Combine from acquiring local teleportation), and it seems to make sense.
1 Likes, Who?
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