Finally, someone with class. Surface Tension is absolute buttcheeks and Xen's chapters handled their sense of scale wayyy better.

@Froggi1337 glad to see another Xen enjoyer. Xen's huge expanses evoke a sense of wonder in me. All the game you're fighting these genuinely strange, gnarly aliens that are so distinct from what we have on Earth and then you finally get to see the very, very alien environment they're evolved to live in. It feels like this desolate, inhospitable, scary place you're not supposed to be, but the vastness and strangeness of it still makes it beautiful in a way. Half Life's alien design reminds me of the strangeness of deep-sea life, and Xen evokes the same curiosity and awe in me as like, the Marianas Trench or other remote, inhospitable parts of the world where extreme life evolved- "oh my God, this place is so strange; stuff LIVES HERE? There are organisms for whom this is actually the ideal place to live?" It feels so perfectly strange and "alien" and it embodies what I love about Half Life's creature design but like, as a level.

It also helps that it's fun to zip and zoom through the air from platform to platform. Fuck the haters I love Xen's jumping puzzles

@SlimeLord Oh yeah, I love Xen. Peopkle genuinely don't give it enough credit. The platforming is an awesome change of pace from the rest of the game. You're in a new world, unsure of what to expect or where to even go from your drop-off point from the very get-go! All the while, the Nihilanth seemingly taunts you in your own tongue, but as the game it becomes clearer it's a farce to save himself from destruction. Not unlike Wallace Breen from Half-Life 2, transparently taunting with the player to hide his own anxiety transforming into pleading with an alien lifeform to save yourself; inevitably they admit to your themself that they're the last of their kin. A member of a dying race trying to save his own skin at the very end? Who can say, but what I can affirm is the undeniable parallel lines that are humankind and the Xen races. You're sent in on a one-man mission to fight your way through Xen and you inevitably find yourself in a factory that feels reminiscent of home- the vortigaunts (one of the few remotely humanoid aliens in the game) even stop attacking you at a certain point once you start climbing up the factory, seemingly caught up in their own work much like the scientists at the start of the game. The fan-made remake leans into this a lot harder than the original game does, and I'd debate that this focus on the slavery aspect of the vortigaunt race the possible curiosity aimed focused towards the human race is something it surpasses the original game in.

God, I fucking love Half-lIfe.

@Froggi1337 desperately need to play Black Mesa- I bought it and it's been sitting in my library. I like never remember how much I adore Half Life until I'm talking about/playing one.