What's your opinion on Xen?

[Lost Stage]

Title

[Solid Gamer]

Had alot of fun playing it on christmas sale! I like it more than original Xen

[Vassago Rain]

It's great. Reminds me of crysis 2 and 3.

[papalazarou]

absolutely loved it, wish it carried on further. perfect

[KirbychuHRD]

Xen (the chapter) is awesomely designed and visually stunning, and is probably one of the most interesting and varied chapters to play through in the game now.

Gonarch's Lair is equally beautiful, the boss fights against the Gonarch itself are awesome, and I love how it feels like you're actually invading an alien nest. This may be one of my favorite chapters in any Half-Life game

Interloper is a bit of a mixed bag. Everything from the start of the chapter until the first plug puzzle room is awesome and has a lot of great world building, the final elevator sequence and everything after it up to the final portal is a great way to conclude the chapter, and I really liked the sequence where you run down a long corridor full of alien grunts, then face off against a group of controllers with the infinite gluon gun. The rest of the chapter has a lot of good ideas, but can get repetitive and overall feels a bit long winded. Probably the weakest Xen chapter, but still pretty great.

And of course Nihilanth is an amazing boss fight. Even if it might not be the most challenging boss fight ever just the sheer scope and scale of the fight make it an awesome conclusion to the game.

[KRON]

One of the best looking games of 2019, despite being a DX9.0 game built on 15 years old Source engine.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1880589592
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1880589645
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1930673983

[H.E.C.U soldier]

I preferred the earthbound chapters, but...
Xen: Probably the best chapter, because it played like any regular earth chapter and retained the atmosphere of the original game, while slowly introducing us to the Xen world. Wasn't a fan of the (jungle/swamps) though, it felt very tedious especially those blue and red leaves. The cable puzzles in this chapter were not that intrusive and kinda fun to do. Unfortunately it was all overused in Interloper factory.

Gonarch's lair: Usually I stick to the rule "if it works don't change it", but this chapter proved that the change wasn't all that bad. A choice to include additional caves here and there between gonarch encounters was excellent. It slowed the pace a bit and this chapter needed it. However, it had it's problems too, mainly because of the gonarch itself. Sometimes when he cornered you there was no way to escape and massive damage was dealt. It was annoying. But overall it was fun, fighting gonarch, sometimes escaping it. The chapter was almost as good as Xen, a little worse but not too much.

Interloper: I prefer to avoid saying anything about this chapter. It would be a massive rant and no one needs to hear that, so let's skip it. I'll just highlight that I liked the vort village and the very first area with tentacles.

Nihilanth: It's hard to say. I had mixed feelings about it. I kinda miss the Nihilanth's ability to be teleported to other locations. And I think too much was going on around the player, especially at the very end of fight when he started throwing those yellow lasers around. But I liked the additional challenges like destroying his protective shield and crystals.

So to sum it all up, Xen is a very, very mixed bag. It has it's moments for sure, but I really couldn't understand some choices that they made in both gameplay and artistic matter.
Did I like Xen ? Yes I did. Do I think it could be better ? Definitely could. Could it be worse than what we've got ? For sure, so all in all, mission accomplished.

[paulusmaximus1983]

I liked it, but overall I felt that every chapter might have been a little too long. The Black Mesa chapters play faster than the originals, and I guess I was expecting the same from Xen, even with the redesign. I had got a faint feeling that I had started to repeat myself ie: slightly too many stone corridors, conveyor belts, or things to power up. However, I appreciated the bits that harked back to the original chapters, but I tired of the whole of the alien world maybe 30-40 minutes quicker than ideal, though of course Nihilanth is a very strong point to end on. In the end, I would have suggested each chapter (other than the excellent final battle) were maybe 20% shorter to keep up the pace. Appreciate the dev's considerable efforts, obviously!

An example would be a bit in Interloper where you have to deactivate three forcefields to make the jump from a Xen Trampoline (there are three trampolines and a health regen booth next to them). All three areas are basically the same, and therefore the one with Controllers/Vortigaunts would have sufficed.

[Monkeybomb115]

Xen: I really liked the whole chapter, highlight goes to the research outpost.

Gonarch's Lair: I really enjoyed the cat and mouse chase in the chapter and it didn't drag on too long, again I like it.

Interloper: This isn't an uncommon opinion but I'm not a fan of the factory. It goes on for way too long, the worst being the section where you have to go to the 3 mini combat arenas just to continue. The elevator fight afterwards also drags on too long. Highlights are the Vort village and the track the plays in the elevator fight (seriously wish we could buy the soundtrack on steam).

Nihilanth: I loved it. Its totally different from the original fight, and totally better. Highlights go to
the Nihilanth throwing chunks of Black Mesa at you

In conclusion, I like most of xen it's lighting is stunning, and the colors are really vibrant. But interloper really drags the whole experience down, nowhere enough where it ruins it, but it enough where it leaves a bit of a sour taste in your mouth.

[Soko]

I loved it overall. The graphics were nothing short of amazing, and I would consider it an art project. The one-woman wail in the soundtrack made it seem a little more ethereal. Comparing the original Xen to this level of masterpiece is like comparing a sketchy roadside carnival to Cedar Point. It felt more immersive and there's a greater variety of settings than the original Xen and worth the long wait. Considering the visual effects of awesome and the chapters being marathon levels, there is no excuse to wonder why it took so long to release.
I do like how the first Xen chapter was kind of a breather level sandwiched in between two harder chapters. Since I find Gonarch to be that one boss (both in this game and HL1), the chase scenes and puzzles kinda felt like a refreshing break from actually fighting it.
If there's one complaint I had about Interloper, I think that it looked “too red” particularly in the conveyor belts. That and the one vertical section with the rotating lasers and force-fields that you had to break while timing it so that you miss the rotating lasers felt artificially difficult for me since aiming for the blood pump was kinda finicky (I was using the hive hand). The infinite gluon ammo kinda reminded me of the supercharged gravity gun in HL2's Citadel. The Vortigaunt village was a nice touch and so was the Vortigaunts acting like NPC's until the controllers show up.
This might be an unpopular opinion but I actually found Nihilanth harder than the elevator leading up to its lair, despite the generous amounts of ammo teleporting into the room. It's like first-person shooter meets bullet hell games. I like how he doesn't teleport you to different rooms this time, just faces you head-on.

[Alexstorm8840]

Hello, my game does not have the Xen chapters at all although they have been released already. The game stops at Lambda chapter.

[t850terminator]

Geometrically and visually stunning, and many of its setpieces are intense and amazing.
However I do think the chase scenes are a bit too forced and fast paced and that alien controllers in general are not fun to fight.

I do also think the conveyor section drags on too long.

As for the final boss, I love it.

[9seed]

Originally posted by Alexstorm8840:

Hello, my game does not have the Xen chapters at all although they have been released already. The game stops at Lambda chapter.

what branch of the game are you currently subscribed to?

[AtomHeartDragon]

Xen is mostly great and significantly expanded, though with some room for improvement (isn't everything, though?) and a bit too much of "I want to be a Pandora".

Gonarch lair past the first arena slightly less so, but is mostly high quality too, apart from last arena which has serious collision issues and doesn't work nor look as interestingly as the original version did (you get a nice bonus option to use there, though).

Interloper is mostly terribly disappointing, with some good stuff here and there. Good stuff generally involves controller telekinesis and leashing vorts, as well as the whole garg chase segment up to and including the outside of the factory waste outlet. Also the Nihilanth's teleport, although I'm unsure if like manta flocks more than original's unsettling empty blackness.
Bad stuff generally involves boring and tiresome, highly repetitive sections (mostly involving conveyors), bland lighting and uninspired geometry alternating between uninspired, very human-like architecture (seriously, just swap textures), and uninspired meaty looking flesh looking like taken straight out of System Shock 2's Body of The Many levels (which could have used better art direcion). It's kind of sad and ironic that original HL achieved much better effect in terms of art direction despite using much more limited means.
Also that part where you could stand in one place getting shot at while being charged by healing pool and both energy crystals.

Nihilanth battle is mostly clear upgrade over original and pretty great on its own too, although I missed some things from the original there.

[a grilled cheese sandwich]

loved it but i hated the gonarch so much and interloper is kinda bad but not garbage and i havent gotten to nihilanth yet.

[Venom415]

Xen: 9/10
Gonarchs lair 9/10
Interloper: 7/10
Nihilanth: 10/10
Music: 10/10
Visuals: 10/10
Only gripe: some levels could do without a section and conveyor belts are a bit janky