Interloper Review & Xen [Spoilers]

[qwertyfohqwefpl]

Following since 2005 - here are some criticisms on Interloper (note that I love the base game and the previous new Xen chapters):

The Village:

I really liked the Alien village. It sets the tone well. Both exterior and interiors could be more rounded and organic in shape to increase the 'alien' feel. Right now sharp brushes clash with organic looking props. It should be either/or.

Showing more of the Vortigaunt's way of life through the village interior would add to immersion, instead of only being presented storage areas. How about a comms room with a hologram of Xen, or sleeping quarters set into the walls? Give the player more context in regards to where they are.

Seeing how bare-bones some of the brushes, props and textures are, I'm guessing performance was an issue on Interloper. The first chapters of Xen seem to have managed this better. Maybe splitting up the levels would give more opportunity for higher quality assets. (On newer machines, loading times are negligible) Some grate and water textures are very 'last-gen'. The water needs more work to hide the 'seams' where different brushes meet. The waterfalls do not look convincing as well, I thought one of them was a spinning metal barrel at first. (Some CS:GO maps have water streams as dynamic props, would this be a viable approach?)

I'm sure the devs are aware of these issues, and I can't imagine the solutions to be simple.

Note: If you kill the Vortigaunts they should turn hostile. At least all in the vincinity.

The Chase Scene:

Facing the Gargantuas does not pay off all too much. Sure it's hectic, but I don't think it's good gameplay to have scripted boss battles with invincible enemies. (This was also the case with the Gonarch fight, although it worked a bit better because it is paired with exploring its lair)

Having 8 Gargantua's also doesn't really add to the chase, it diminishes the feeling of power that should come from one singular enemy. I don't think a chase was necessary here, as I think the Gonarch fight satisfied this. The gibbing that occurs when the Gargantuas break the barriers looks unrealistic, the large chunks fly away comically fast. Once you reach safety they just stare at you, it feels a bit anticlimactic.

(How about they fire some kind of massive artillery to give the player one last 'oh ♥♥♥♥, I have to get out of here?' moment? Or they start firing at the cliff making the ground collapse underneath the player, forcing them to take a leap of faith?)

I like the large organic arms the player can walk on that give some guidance. Good level design, although the texture needs work!

The Factory:

Arriving at the factory (green pump cave) it becomes clear: Interloper is overlong. The repeat focus on puzzles that have already been explored in the first chapters of Xen does not aid matters. At this stage, simple cable puzzles are immersion breaking as you want the new environment to be a step-up from the rest of Xen in regards to how 'alien' it is. In my opinion the technology in the factory should be beyond the players grasp - machines only the Vortigaunt can interface with, beyond human comprehension. An alien factory shouldn't run on simple cables that a toddler could operate - it seems too easy, too familiar --- This puzzle mechanic is then beaten to death with the player having to do it time and time again.

Observaton 1: The entire pump cave layout is strange. It looks like the Vortigaunt architect made it specifically for Gordon Freeman to come and platform jump across it. It leaves you wondering why the Vortigaunt's didn't just open the doors to corridors that I assume connect the pumps, for Gordon to progress more easily.

Observation 2: What's the point of the pumps? What fundamentally changes when the player overloads them, apart from the player being able to progress and the Alien Controllers getting angry? There seems to be no connection to what happens in the next cave. Unless I'm missing something.

Next comes the part with the exploding barrels, which would probably be better without the exploding barrels. Then some more cable management & platforming, which all seems to look and feel kind of same-ish at this stage. It's nice to see the aliens in vats, but not 'wow' level exciting.

I do like the last cave, which I believe will have the player enter the proper factory, but think it should have come sooner. There may be some great battles ahead, but were all those puzzles and the various caves really necessary to get there? Did they add enough new gameplay, or story progression to really warrant their existence?

Recommendations:

More fights, less puzzles. And the puzzles that are present should introduce a new mechanic that makes sense in its environment. (like the orbs for the combine in HL2)

Look at the citadel in Half-Life 2 as reference for the alien factory layout - you get an intuitive sense of where you are and where you have to go. This was also done well in the first chapters of Xen.
In Interloper, once you leave the village, everything feels loosely interconnected and convoluted. The level doesn't exactly spur you on to get from A to B, 'B' being an amazing location. B never quite arrives (or is foreshadowed).
It's cave A, B, C, D, and they don't really have enough of a logical connection to make a case for themselves.

Interloper should be where the natural world of Xen gets gradually replaced, first by the village, then increasingly by the alien factory until you're completely immersed in the alien industrial setting. This may happen in the next 3 chapters that are still going to be released, but I think it should have been done sooner, with more logic and progression
--- it just takes too long to get there. Show the forest, not the trees!

Conclusion:

It kind of pains me to write this, being both a designer and having created various levels in Hammer (check out my workshop, yo!): A single room can take ages, and this insane project taking 15 years does not surprise. I can only imagine how huge in scope my suggestions are when it comes to re-working the levels, so I don't think they're realistic.

Cutting content, however, is easier, and maybe that is warranted in places in the first Interloper chapters. Maybe there's also an opportunity to re-work the puzzles. It's big, fat and complicated, but just not as fun as it should be. That's a bitter assessment, but I hope there's a solution. It's not all bad, it's atmospheric and fun in parts, but I hope the issues pointed out here are reasonable and warrant a look!

[Just Chill]

How long did it take you to play through Interloper the first time you played it?

[qwertyfohqwefpl]

Over an hour.

[Just Chill]

Same here. For me that's a very fair amount of time to figure out how new content works. :)

I really enjoyed reading your review, even though I feel that you left out the only issue I am able to be really concerned about: Bad stability.
I had 6 crashes. I don't mind bad performance as much as a crash.

I don't want to degrade your recommendations, but I really would go first with stability and maybe either performance upgrades. ;)

[qwertyfohqwefpl]

I expect stability to be fixed without input though, pretty sure that's been mentioned a lot and the devs are aware of it.

[Just Chill]

They are. They even mentioned it in the news update for Interloper.

But that doesn't mean that user should not report about it. As if the devs release new maps with such a flaw, it might be good if users report clear evidence about where and when it crashed.
I've recorded the 6 crashes in the video of my whole playthrough. :)

[Hunter CatzEyes93]

I just wanna know what it takes to kill the bad guy at the end. Sheesh... I threw everything at it and it simply wouldnt die! That said, I got lost a lot. I admit noclip was used. I just... :sigh: perhaps I will enjoy the final product more. :(

[DzieX]

I liked it. I mean new Interlooper. Makes more sense than old one, but we can see element from original xen.

[-{(::™113300™::)}]

At the end of the day, they made a really good job. You might argue of whether it's not perfect, but you can't argue about it being well designed and fun to play. Anyways, good review and honest.

[Ratchet]

I kinda miss those assembly lines from interloper, wish they had one section of them.

[ianMC]

Sigh, they've done an excellent job, and it’s almost finished, I don’t think we need massive overhauls now just to suit personal preferences.

Crash fixing and done should be the only plan now, not redesigning whole levels due to individual quibbles. I for one would be very disappointed if large chunks were now cut.

[thray]

Originally posted by ian323183:

Sigh, they've done an excellent job, and it’s almost finished, I don’t think we need massive overhauls now just to suit personal preferences.

Crash fixing and done should be the only plan now, not redesigning whole levels due to individual quibbles. I for one would be very disappointed if large chucks were now cut.

^this

[Nevermore2790]

Originally posted by Ratchet:

I kinda miss those assembly lines from interloper, wish they had one section of them.

Those things will be on the last 3 maps of Interloper.

[Olde]

Originally posted by crabacrabacrabracrabcrabacra:

-review-

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I agree with pretty much everything you said. I share your concern though that it might be too late for the substantial changes to be made. This is kind of what happens when you let your game be a complete secret and then spring a surprise on everyone...and then that surprise turns out to be something that doesn't satisfy a lot of people. Combat can be added, for sure. But the structure of the puzzles is already in place and can't be easily adapted or changed without extreme cuts and revisions. My guess is everyone's probably just going to have to deal with the tedious segments of Interloper.

[qwertyfohqwefpl]

Originally posted by Olde:

Originally posted by crabacrabacrabracrabcrabacra:

-review-

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I agree with pretty much everything you said. I share your concern though that it might be too late for the substantial changes to be made. This is kind of what happens when you let your game be a complete secret and then spring a surprise on everyone...and then that surprise turns out to be something that doesn't satisfy a lot of people. Combat can be added, for sure. But the structure of the puzzles is already in place and can't be easily adapted or changed without extreme cuts and revisions. My guess is everyone's probably just going to have to deal with the tedious segments of Interloper.

I hope that making changes to Interloper can be seen as a long term thing once the full version is released. I'm sure there will still be passion to optimise the existing game, as Black Mesa isn't exactly a quick cash grab.

Having one less than stellar chapter out of many is unfortunate, but alright. I can only imagine - especially for new players - that the chapters that come before and the prospect of completing the game will carry players through Interloper easily.

[Sexy Nutella]

I agree with your note about the Garg chase. It was awesome in the sense that you ARE motivated to well, run away from them, but having a dozen of them after you does diminish its threat.

Both Garg appearances on Earthbound were great because they always force you to find an alternate solution to kill it. In this Interloper chase, you do have to run rather than fight, but the chase itself is relatively easy, the correct path is telegraphed (probably necessary) and it seems very tightly scripted. Not that there's anything wrong with being tightly scripted (it's Half-Life for god's sake), I just feel that the novelty of getting chased by Gargs has worn out by this point.

The player has also had to run from the Gonarch literally a few maps beforehand. Having another chase scene so soon after (and again, with the Gargs, which we've already had to run from twice) seems kind of repetitive.

I feel that if they'd made the map more of a cat and mouse game, where instead of a chase, the player has to navigate the map to the exit (with or without killing the Gargs), it would've been more satisfying pacing wise.