I think everybody knows what Half Life is, it's a game that needs no introduction. If you don't know what Half Life is then I suggest you close this page and go play it right stat now because what the fuck is wrong with you? But no matter if your a die-hard fan or casual player I think almost everyone can agree that the games final area, Xen, is a gigantic pile of garbage and it would be more fun to eat a box of thumb tacks than play through this section.
The solid first person game play of Half Life takes a drastic change when you hit Xen. Low gravity, sparse ammunition, flying alien babies, weird terrain and really on paper that doesn't actually sound so bad on paper but when you play it the experience is grueling. Low gravity gives way to stupid, annoying first personal platforming with alien babies blasting you on all sides while you're trying to figure out where to go and how to not die. The weird layout makes this a pain to get around and sometimes you aren't even sure if you're actually making progress or not. Ammunition is sparse but enemies are plentiful so I hope you like using the Hive Hand because otherwise you're going to be struggling. To top it all off as well you have to fight what is probably the most annoying boss in FPS game history, Nihilanth, a giant floating baby that will just teleport you into random jumping puzzles whenever the fuck it wants.
But I'm just talking about the original there. The remake, Black Mesa, completely re-did Xen in an attempt to make it more enjoyable and I have never seen a developer fail at a goal with a remake as hard as Crowbar Collective failed with this. Not only are all the old problems still there but they made Xen WAYYYY longer. Not only is it longer, but it's also full of stupid switch and plug puzzles that bring the pace down to a snails pace. There's even one extremely pointless bit where you have to deactivate 3 barriers by doing the same combat room over and over again. We do have to give them credit though, the Nihilanth boss is significantly more fun in Black Mesa than it is in the original game, I can at least admit that was a welcome change.
Half Life has a massive legacy and for good reason but it's such a shame that it has to be tarnished by that absolutely fucking AWFUL final section. Luckily though Valve realized what a terrible pile of shit Xen was and didn't include it in any of the sequels. Hopefully it will stay that way if they ever decide to release Half Life 3
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