Half-Life - Why Xen sucks hard.
sswift
Hi,
I just completed Half-Life... and let me tell you, that while this is
a great game, it is also one of the most frustrating games I've ever
played!
I see now why everyone hates Xen. I hate Xen now too.
I've never seen anyone say WHY they hated Xen... Here's why I hate
Xen, and why I hate Xen:
It's TOO DAMNED DIFFICULT!
Take the most difficult you've ever played... Now kick yourself in
the nuts a few times. That still doesn't equal the frustration of
playing Xen.
From reading Xen hating posts... I _thought_ people hated Xen because
they thought it was done stupidly for an alien world... or because
they though the art sucked... or because it just didn't give you a
feeling of being "there". Nope. That's not why they hate it... at
least that's not why I hate it...
Actually, Xen is pretty nice looking. I don't think I've seen nicer
"alien world" textures in any game. They looked really 3d, perhaps
MORE 3D than the ones in the rest of the levels...
And the levels certainly look nice... but looks can be decieving.
Okay, the problems with Xen:
Problem #1:
Low gravity.
Low gravity sucks. It sucked in Quake 2, and it sucks in Half-Life.
Most of the time on Xen, the low gravity wasn't a big problem. Most
of the time... But still, when you need to jump, it takes forever to
get back on your feet so you can get moving. And most of the time,
this gets you killed.
Low gravity however, is the least of my complaints. I could have
lived with Xen having low gravity.
Problem #2:
No info about Xen before you arrive.
I had no idea for a while that those pools healed you, and it took me
forever in the beginning to figure out that those chinese "lamps" in
the cave were awctually switches.
Problem #3:
Poor level design.
No, the levels aren't ugly. They're just really badly designed!
Okay, so I spent an hour figuring out those switches.
Then I fight this spider creature which makes baby face-huggers. And
in the process I use up most of my ammo. So now I'm without ammo.
Now I'm outside in this huge open area with these guys who shoot
lighting. Now, normally the guys who shoot lighting aren't much of a
threat. Not so here. Now they are so difficult it's frustrating as
hell! Whever I turn I get electrocuted and killed.
Meanwhile, I keep getting killed when I fall into those damned super
jump holes and they fling me 3000 feet in the air and I get crushed
when I land.
So finally I kill those bastards... and just have to contend with the
alien ships which aren't so difficult. So now I wander around for
ANOTHER hour. I keep going into those jump holes, and getting
killed... on purpouse. It seems that the only way I can get to the
teleporter is to use a jump pad and somehow land safely on the top of
those pillars... a nearly impossible task.
Finally, I manage to exploit a bug... while pushing against the side
of the jump hole, it doesn't fling me as high up. With only 40 mealth
left, I land on a platform which nearly kills me. But, I'm alive. So
I save there because it took me so long to get there. From that
point, I manage to jump on the back of a ship and ride it to the
teleporter. Hell is over... or so I thought.
(Reading a FAQ on how to kill the last guy in the game, it seems that
there's actually some sort of CAVES in those huge poles. But I never
saw any such caves! Did I just totally miss them while concentrating
on the holes and the platforms above? I don't see how I could have
walked around for so long and not seen doors in the sides of those
pillars!)
So now I'm in an alien beer factory. Doesn't bother me... aliens need
beer too. But I'm so low on ammo, this area is nearly impossible to
beat.
(Keep in mind that I have been saving every single time I kill a
monster up to this point. And sometimes several times per monster...
Up until this point in the game, I had had NO difficulty wasting the
forces that were presented to me... even that huge guy who kicked cars
at you... toss 3 or 4 explosive bags at him and detonate them all at
once from the saftey of the enclosed hall, and he was outta there...)
So I finally get into the big huge room with the last portal to
shub-niggurath or whatever the hell the guy's name is... and again,
super-difficult!
I kill the guys on the first level easy. Then I snipe all those
bastard flying things. That was a pain, but forgiveable.
Then, I ride this thing up to the second level, and before I even get
off of it, I get my ass kicked by one of those electic shooting guys.
So, I snipe him from the lower floor. Go up again... AGAIN, I'm
killed instantly before I can get off the platform. (and I'm not
exactly trying to stroll off the platform here) There was NOTHEr
bastard up there... but this one I couldn't snipe from below!
So... there was no way for me to kill this idiot from below. So... I
save the damn game, and keep going up the damn platform and trying my
damndest to jump off it before it arrives at the top and I'm
electrocuted... after 20 or so tries, I finally do it. I'm getting
REALLY frustrated with this game at this point... I can't BELIEVE that
the people who made it ACTUALLY played these last levels without
cheats on and got through it without saving over 100 times like I've
had to. I do NOT suck at playing these games... like I said, levels
on earth... no problem. Rocket laucnher fires 4 rockets on me in "On
a rail" and I expertly dodge them with split second timing.
So I'm finally on the second level. I complete the rest of the level,
getting killed several times. Difficult, but each time I get killed I
learn soemthing that prvents me from getting killed hat particular
wayy the next time. No damn 50-reloads to get past one monster.
Then I ride the last platform to to the top where the portal is...
AND I GET STUCK!
I'm stuck in the world... looking at the portal, and getting hurt
every time the elevator tries to go down. Finally, I duck, and that
unsticks me, and I jump at the portal... and miss!
Reload...
Ride the elevator up ducked this time...
STUCK!
I'm stuck when I'm ducked? I can't move! Kill self with rocket.
Reload.
Stand up while riding elevator. Get stuck. Duck. Jump through
portal.
Is it just me, or did the developers never actually ride this elevator
to the top? No matter where I stood on the elevator I got stuck. The
first time I thought it was me being too close to the pipe in the
middle of the elevator.
Now the REAL bullshit begins!
Fighting the last boss...
I've fought LOTS of bosses before. I don't have anyhting against boss
fights... but I do have something agains this one. It was a TOTAL
pain in the ass!
Let me describe it in a little story:
"Hello Mr. Boss. You're looking quite angry today."
"Oh dear, you flung an energy bolt at me. Gack! I'm dead!"
reload
"You won't do that again you... GACK! Dead!"
reload
"Oh yeah I'll just run over to this jump pad and... DEAD!"
reload
"This time I'll make it! <JUMP!> Ha ha.. I'll just land on this
platf... DEAD AGAIN?!"
reload
At this point, I start saving. a LOT. I make it to the first
platform... I save. I die. A lot. I make it to the second platform
up... I save. I die a lot. I finally figure out to equip my cross
bow, dodge the electric attacks with a strafe on this tiny platform,
sit int he healing pool between attacks, and use the crossbow to shoot
the green balls to destroy them. Which sometimes spawns enemies I
have to kill. Finally I get my health up to 100%. Save, die some
more. Then I run out of crossbow ammo. Nwo I'm screwed because I
can't shoot the teleport balls. So I jump onto the guys head, and
instead of trying to kill him that way (which invariably results in
death or teleportation) I jump down. Finally his head opens up so I
can kill him. I die a lot more. I run for a jump platform. I die.
I run for it again... I die. I run for it again... and again...
finally, I make it, and make it up to the first platform. I save.
So now I tr yto kill this guy using the same technique as before.
Save a lot, shoot his ass... but I can't dodge as easily here. But at
least I have no enemies electrocuting me, and I can duck behind that
rock to avoid the teleport.
FINALLY, a happy ending to this lifetime of hell fighting the boss. I
duck behind the rock once, and he fires electric bolts at me... I'm
like... shit... I can't dodge... too late. So I just sit there witing
to die again... and I don't!
The electroc bolts all converge at me... and hit the tip of the rock
and disperse!
Well, I don't dare move and lose this advantage. I save immediately,
and proceed to kick his ass by shooting form there and letting his
electric attacks harmlessly bounce off the rock.
Hooray! I've saved the world! (Or have I?)
After hearing people talk about how the ending sucks, I wasn't
expecting much. And I didn't get too much, but I got enough. I
thought the ending was kinda cool. And I was happy to see that guy
with the breifcase because all through the rest of the game, I didn't
see him ONCE where I was supposed to see him! (I saw him in the very
beginning talking to a scientist, but then he never appeareed at the
points he was supposed to appear at.)
So here's my advice:
If youy haven't gotten to Xen, get to Xen. The last scene before you
get to Xen kicks ass. Then STOP PLAYING! Get a savegame off someone
of just after the kill the last boss! Do NOT put yourself through
this torture! I don not exxagerate in any way when I say this is the
most difficult and frustrating section of any game I've ever played!
Well, you've read this far. :) Sorry, buy I had to vent on this damn
level... it took me 2 days to beat one last level... when the whole
rest of the game took me just 3 days to beat!
KaL
sswift
>What difficulty level did you use?
The middle one, whatever that was... normal I think.
Stefan Brueggemann
> a great game, it is also one of the most frustrating games I've ever
> played!
>
> I see now why everyone hates Xen. I hate Xen now too.
>
> I've never seen anyone say WHY they hated Xen... Here's why I hate
> Xen, and why I hate Xen:
>
> It's TOO DAMNED DIFFICULT!
PIECE OF CRAP!!!!
I play this sort of game for many years now since Wolfenstein 3D, but I
never played a game before where the difficulty level easy is sucking like
hell! Enemies spawning nearly every second, the only weapon capeable of
getting rid off them eats ammo away like crazy and you can't find any for it
in that dimension and you don't know what sucker to fight first without
getting toasted!
And this Spiderman-thing and his little friends run over you although you're
firing your weapons nearly melt away. No chance!
That was the point where I said "Yeah, fuck off suckers!" and enabled
god-mode!
But there's another point: The keyboard-config! Well, I play with mouse and
keyboard and targetting with keyboard is nearly impossible. But all of these
games have a mouselook feature. But not Half-Life!!! You can config
mouselook- and keyboardlook-modifier in the config-menu, but IT DOESN'T
WORK!!! You can press the damn key through the bottom of the keyboard but
you can't enable mouselook!!! Only way to enable mouselook is in the
advanced menu and enable it always. But when you do that and want to disable
it again, HL doesn't even care what you want! You can try to disable it
until you die but when you return to the game it's on again! So you must
quit HL and edit the config.cfg on your own and then start HL again! Then it
works! Really cool! Wanna know who's responsible for that mess and kick his
ass!
AC
However I guess I was just lucky on Xen. I had a good time there. The
platform jumping to me wasn't too hard, and the sights and residents of Xen
were kind of fun and different. I liked the beer factory, riding the mantas,
and all that. (I've since read somewhere that in the beer factory if you
don't attack the lightening bolt dudes then they don't attack you, but I
didn't know that at the time and fired at everything all the time.)
I got to the boss scene and for some reason lost interest. I didn't think
the baby was very interesting, i thought he was lame, and just restarted the
game from level 1 a few days later.
Are you sure the chinese lanterns were switches? I never noticed any
coreelation, although i did shoot them a few times for the heck of it.
The scrotum spider was pretty hard, yes, but killing it was very gratifying
to me.
Anyway, not at all am I knocking your opinion. It was a good read.
Thumper
Well, I didn't suffer the abuse and indignation you suffered
through while playing Xen, because _I_ knew how to easily beat
the bosses there:
|
|
|
|
|
V
/god
/noclip
/give ammo_egon
The gonad spider and the OOkachaka baby gave me no problems.
(btw, didnt cheat at all until Xen)
Chuck
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Belfong aka fongyee long
However, I don't share similar tradegy and in fact I think Xen was
fun. Let me tell you why... (psst.. actually I did not cheat and no, I
did not read walkthrough but I found a very, very powerful weapon!).
Read on:
On Thu, 12 Aug 1999 08:50:49 GMT,
sswif...@SPAM.SPAMearthlinkSPAM.SPAMnetSPAM (sswift) wrote:
>Problem #2:
>I had no idea for a while that those pools healed you, and it took me
>forever in the beginning to figure out that those chinese "lamps" in
>the cave were awctually switches.
Not a problem to me really. I saved before I jumped into the pool and
when I do, what a pleasant surprised. I am healed. In fact, this is an
alien world and u r not supposed to know what these things do.
I think it is cool to be able to discovered abt such things.
>Then I fight this spider creature which makes baby face-huggers. And
>in the process I use up most of my ammo. So now I'm without ammo.
>
>Now I'm outside in this huge open area with these guys who shoot
>lighting. Now, normally the guys who shoot lighting aren't much of a
>threat. Not so here. Now they are so difficult it's frustrating as
>hell! Whever I turn I get electrocuted and killed.
Ok. I found I nearly run out of ammo. So I have no choice but to use a
weapon that will never run out of ammo: the alien "hand" that produces
seeking hornets. These little babies will seek those electric buggers
and killed em. Ha ha.. that was when I realize how powerful this
weapon is. I used it all the way.
>ANOTHER hour. I keep going into those jump holes, and getting
>killed... on purpouse. It seems that the only way I can get to the
>teleporter is to use a jump pad and somehow land safely on the top of
>those pillars... a nearly impossible task.
You know, in this stupid level (I agreed it is dumb because I was so
low in health after the spider guy...) Anyway, my health is 1!! Yes.
1!! Imagine that. And I died everytime I tried to jump anywhere. And I
have accidentally saved this game. I remembered telling myself: what a
dork I am. Ok... if I still cannot find a way, I may need to cheat...
but then I figure, no one can jump so high!!! So I explore.. and found
a cave!! In the cave, there is a healing pool!!! Wooooooo.. 100 health
and finally I found a way to bring the tall pillar all the way down
and I step up to it and it takes me all the way up... while going up
in high speed, I was taken aback by the beauty of the level! Phew.. it
is definitely worth the try.
>(Reading a FAQ on how to kill the last guy in the game, it seems that
>there's actually some sort of CAVES in those huge poles. But I never
>saw any such caves! Did I just totally miss them while concentrating
Very easy to find it! The cave is at one end of the island.
>(Keep in mind that I have been saving every single time I kill a
>monster up to this point. And sometimes several times per monster...
I have no problem in the beer factory because of the superb weapon.
Just hide in any pillars, fire 8 seeking hornets then hide back.
Killed everything. And the beauty of this weapon is, it won't hit the
"barrel". I accidentally fired the barrel once with a shotgun: it
explodes and out come a baddie with seeking-hornets. Now, by using the
hornets, it will seek the enemies but it will not hit those barrels at
all!!!
>I kill the guys on the first level easy. Then I snipe all those
>bastard flying things. That was a pain, but forgiveable.
No need to snipe here ;-)
>So, I snipe him from the lower floor. Go up again... AGAIN, I'm
>killed instantly before I can get off the platform. (and I'm not
>exactly trying to stroll off the platform here) There was NOTHEr
>bastard up there... but this one I couldn't snipe from below!
I remember this. What I do was, I threw grenade at them before I ride
the elevator. No problem!
>Is it just me, or did the developers never actually ride this elevator
>to the top? No matter where I stood on the elevator I got stuck. The
Ha ha ha... I think it is you. I have no problem.
>Now the REAL bullshit begins!
>
>Fighting the last boss...
The last boss is one of the most innovative I have seen! Really. Big
boss but no lag in framerate. Superb.
>FINALLY, a happy ending to this lifetime of hell fighting the boss. I
>duck behind the rock once, and he fires electric bolts at me... I'm
>like... shit... I can't dodge... too late. So I just sit there witing
>to die again... and I don't!
Hmm.. I was lucky then. I figure that the jutting rocks will shield me
from those electric balls as well as the green teleporter and it did!
So I hide there, use my machine gun and fired those 3 yellow cones,
use 5 rockets on big boss, use lots of energy gun on him and finally
his head opens! I admit that I did try many times but it is not as bad
as your experience.
Creeker
I went through the exact same process as this poor person and thought the
same, the only difference is that I never bothered to stick around long
enough to kill that "boss"....it was far too frustrating.
Anyone have a save game just prior to the ending cinematic that I could use
so I can enjoy the ending?
(btw: Is sswift = Shawn Swift?)
Kevin McGuire
: Ok. I found I nearly run out of ammo. So I have no choice but to use a
: weapon that will never run out of ammo: the alien "hand" that produces
: seeking hornets. These little babies will seek those electric buggers
: and killed em. Ha ha.. that was when I realize how powerful this
: weapon is. I used it all the way.
I thought this aspect of HL was pretty cool. In an alien world, use an
alien weapon, since when in Rome...
--
Kevin McGuire
University of Pennsylvania
#Remove the 2 "moo" to reply#
Christoph Nahr
sswif...@SPAM.SPAMearthlinkSPAM.SPAMnetSPAM (sswift) wrote:
>I see now why everyone hates Xen. I hate Xen now too.
See? Told ya so.
>So now I'm in an alien beer factory. Doesn't bother me... aliens need
>beer too.
LOL! Yes, that's exactly what it looked like. What I don't
understand is why so many reviewers went nuts over these stupid
terminator barrels and declared them a great invention. I thought it
was the most idiotic idea of the whole Xen world. Oh well.
>If youy haven't gotten to Xen, get to Xen. The last scene before you
>get to Xen kicks ass. Then STOP PLAYING! Get a savegame off someone
>of just after the kill the last boss! Do NOT put yourself through
>this torture! I don not exxagerate in any way when I say this is the
>most difficult and frustrating section of any game I've ever played!
Definitely good advice. You might want to play the first couple of
mini-levels, though, just to appreciate the alien environment.
--
Chris Nahr (christo...@uumail.xxde, remove xx to reply by e-mail)
Visit http://uuhome.de/christoph.nahr/ for Might & Magic information
and Star Chess, a strategy game with source code and AI documentation
Please reply either on Usenet or by e-mail but not both!
Demian Rose
> >If youy haven't gotten to Xen, get to Xen. The last scene before you
> >get to Xen kicks ass. Then STOP PLAYING! Get a savegame off someone
> >of just after the kill the last boss! Do NOT put yourself through
> >this torture! I don not exxagerate in any way when I say this is the
> >most difficult and frustrating section of any game I've ever played!
>
> mini-levels, though, just to appreciate the alien environment.
I too think it's worth putzing around a bit on Xen just to see the
natural habitats of all the aliens you've been fighting. Past that,
though, there's nothing but annoying jumping puzzles...GOD, I HATE
JUMPING PUZZLES...phew, feel better now...
Adam Sandler
gratifying
to me."
LOL, this is hilarious!!!
-Adam
Rob Hughes
I don't know what difficulty level you are playing at, but I didn't think
it was THAT tough. The area with the jumping pads was the hardest for me,
till I finally happened upon a cave where you can get onto one of those
pole things. Anyway, with the slave guys that shoot lightning, they
shouldn't be that tough, they always make a noise before they shoot so you
can step out of the way.
I did have a little problem getting stuck on that platform to get to the
last boss, but it only took me a a couple of tries to get through.
With the last boss, I can't believe it took you so long to figure out that
the rocks shield you...I had the luck of only dying once before I hid
behind an outcropping.
How did you get his head to open up? It sounds like you never even blew up
those crystals on the walls that fed him energy.
BTW, I DO thing the ending sucked, although it was pretty funny if you
refused his offer.
-Rob
Rob Hughes
-Rob
cc_daredevil
catch up. Beat it in 2 days (with sleep and food) and ur right i played it
on easy and found those alien dudes tough. Graphics r fine (voodoo2). The
best was fighting the goverment guys. Those Bastards!
sswift
>Your opinion and story are/were most interesting.
>
>However I guess I was just lucky on Xen. I had a good time there. The
>platform jumping to me wasn't too hard, and the sights and residents of Xen
>were kind of fun and different. I liked the beer factory, riding the mantas,
>and all that. (I've since read somewhere that in the beer factory if you
>don't attack the lightening bolt dudes then they don't attack you, but I
>didn't know that at the time and fired at everything all the time.)
>
>I got to the boss scene and for some reason lost interest. I didn't think
>the baby was very interesting, i thought he was lame, and just restarted the
>game from level 1 a few days later.
>
>Are you sure the chinese lanterns were switches?
No no... the ones inside the cave... on the ground. The brown ones
that look like little houses and clamp onto the sparkly light thingys
when they fly near.
>The scrotum spider was pretty hard, yes, but killing it was very gratifying
>to me.
That's a good description of the spider. :)
sswift
>This is one of the best posts I have ever read....I was laughing out load.
>I went through the exact same process as this poor person and thought the
>same, the only difference is that I never bothered to stick around long
>enough to kill that "boss"....it was far too frustrating.
>
>Anyone have a save game just prior to the ending cinematic that I could use
>so I can enjoy the ending?
>
>
>(btw: Is sswift = Shawn Swift?)
Yes. :)
Jesse LeFort
disturb the alien beer factory... If you dont fire, they ignore you.
Jesse
Stefan Brueggemann
> weapon that will never run out of ammo: the alien "hand" that produces
> seeking hornets. These little babies will seek those electric buggers
> and killed em. Ha ha.. that was when I realize how powerful this
> weapon is. I used it all the way.
Outside, 5 or 6 of this fly-dudes or whatelse they're called, on two rocks
these guys that also use this alien-hand-weapon and a few more of them
running around at your level. So what to do? The weapon only fires 8
projectiles and then it must reload. And where to hide for that time? And
all other weapons low on ammo! Yeah, really funny level!!! ;-(
Sean Howard
I never finished Half-Life because of Xen. I played through the entire
game in 2 nights (granted very very long fun nights). Then I get to
Xen and encounter a bug with the spider gonad creature which prevents
me from completing the level, legally or otherwise. I was very angry.
All my saves/quicksaves/autosaves were after I defeated the spider
in the first setting, thus I couldn't reload to get the spider unstuck.
And incredible game marred by a particularly gruesome bug.
sswift (sswif...@SPAM.SPAMearthlinkSPAM.SPAMnetSPAM) wrote:
: I see now why everyone hates Xen. I hate Xen now too.
Scott Shaw
Xen sucked for me not only because the level was lame
but also because due to some bug or something??? after the briefcase
guy made his offer and I made my choice all I got was a blank screen.
Didn't
even get to see the cool? ending.
*sigh*
-Scott
Sean Howard <how...@mailer.fsu.edu> wrote in article
<7p07tr$ib5$1...@news.fsu.edu>...
>
> I never finished Half-Life because of Xen. I played through the entire
> game in 2 nights (granted very very long fun nights). Then I get to
> Xen and encounter a bug with the spider gonad creature which prevents
> me from completing the level, legally or otherwise. I was very angry.
> All my saves/quicksaves/autosaves were after I defeated the spider
> in the first setting, thus I couldn't reload to get the spider unstuck.
>
> And incredible game marred by a particularly gruesome bug.
>
>
> sswift (sswif...@SPAM.SPAMearthlinkSPAM.SPAMnetSPAM) wrote:
>
> : I see now why everyone hates Xen. I hate Xen now too.
sswift
>
>Xen sucked for me not only because the level was lame
>but also because due to some bug or something??? after the briefcase
>guy made his offer and I made my choice all I got was a blank screen.
>Didn't
>even get to see the cool? ending.
Uh... that IS all you get... unless you mean you didn't get any text
just after making the decision...
What you missed was:
"Subject: Gordon Freeman"
"Awaiting Employment..."
And then some VERY short credits (like 10 people) with some music over
them.
Then the screen just stays black forever after that, with your hud
over it.
So you didn't miss much. I thought the breifcase guy WAS a cool
ending... Cooler than the average game anyhow. Better than Quake and
Doom's. :)
jsmi...@my-deja.com
drivers under NT 4 with SP5.
However, I cannot seem to get the game to work using the 3dfx minigl
driver.
Can someone help?
thanks
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
Maxwell Smart
sswif...@SPAM.SPAMearthlinkSPAM.SPAMnetSPAM (sswift) wrote:
> (Keep in mind that I have been saving every single time I kill a
> monster up to this point. And sometimes several times per monster...
> Up until this point in the game, I had had NO difficulty wasting the
> forces that were presented to me... even that huge guy who kicked cars
> at you... toss 3 or 4 explosive bags at him and detonate them all at
> once from the saftey of the enclosed hall, and he was outta there...)
I waited for him to come out of the parking garage and called in an air
strike. It was a satisfying kill. :-)
> death or teleportation) I jump down. Finally his head opens up so I
> can kill him. I die a lot more. I run for a jump platform. I die.
This was the only part of the game where I (and a lot of other people,
judging from all the posts in this NG when Half-Life came out) had to
consult a walkthrough. It wasn't obvious to me that you had to shoot him
in the brain (it wasn't obvious he *had* a brain).
> So here's my advice:
>
> If youy haven't gotten to Xen, get to Xen. The last scene before you
> get to Xen kicks ass. Then STOP PLAYING! Get a savegame off someone
> of just after the kill the last boss! Do NOT put yourself through
> this torture! I don not exxagerate in any way when I say this is the
> most difficult and frustrating section of any game I've ever played!
I agree. I've played Half-Life a couple more times since making it all the
way through the first time. I get to the point where you jump into the
teleporter that takes you to Xen, except I jump in a bit early..
"FREEMAN, YOU FOOL!!"
End of game. :-)
sswift
>Congratulations, that's the most thorough rant I've ever read :).
>I don't know what difficulty level you are playing at, but I didn't think
>it was THAT tough. The area with the jumping pads was the hardest for me,
>till I finally happened upon a cave where you can get onto one of those
>pole things. Anyway, with the slave guys that shoot lightning, they
>shouldn't be that tough, they always make a noise before they shoot so you
>can step out of the way.
>I did have a little problem getting stuck on that platform to get to the
>last boss, but it only took me a a couple of tries to get through.
>With the last boss, I can't believe it took you so long to figure out that
>the rocks shield you...I had the luck of only dying once before I hid
>behind an outcropping.
>How did you get his head to open up? It sounds like you never even blew up
>those crystals on the walls that fed him energy.
I did blow those up. Those were easy to destroy... but kinda
pointless... I mean, what did they do? Stop his head from opening up?
Oooooohhhh..... I was expecting them to keep him from flinging
electricity at me.
Btw, quote less text!
Jamie Carlson
and saw the credits and then got that blank screen once and
thought it was a bug, so I beat the boss (Nihilanth or whatever) again and
then realized..... THAT WAS THE ENDING!!!!
I wasn't so disappointed with Xen really... I thought the level was pretty
cool.... but the ENDING to the game was REALLY bad!!!
Oh well.... Still an AWESOME achievement.... game was great.
- JC
On 13 Aug 1999, Scott Shaw wrote:
>
> Xen sucked for me not only because the level was lame
> but also because due to some bug or something??? after the briefcase
> guy made his offer and I made my choice all I got was a blank screen.
> Didn't
> even get to see the cool? ending.
>
> *sigh*
>
> -Scott
>
> Sean Howard <how...@mailer.fsu.edu> wrote in article
> <7p07tr$ib5$1...@news.fsu.edu>...
> >
> > I never finished Half-Life because of Xen. I played through the entire
> > game in 2 nights (granted very very long fun nights). Then I get to
> > Xen and encounter a bug with the spider gonad creature which prevents
> > me from completing the level, legally or otherwise. I was very angry.
> > All my saves/quicksaves/autosaves were after I defeated the spider
> > in the first setting, thus I couldn't reload to get the spider unstuck.
> >
> > And incredible game marred by a particularly gruesome bug.
> >
> >
> > sswift (sswif...@SPAM.SPAMearthlinkSPAM.SPAMnetSPAM) wrote:
> >
> > : I see now why everyone hates Xen. I hate Xen now too.
sswift
>That's what my previous post was referring to. I made my decision
>and saw the credits and then got that blank screen once and
>thought it was a bug, so I beat the boss (Nihilanth or whatever) again and
>then realized..... THAT WAS THE ENDING!!!!
Well I thought it was pretty cool... having the guy talk to you and
hire you. Of _course_ they don't show anything after he says you're
hired... if they did, that would spoil the next game, now wouldn't it?
They probably didn't even have any idea of what direction they were
going to go.
I like it... it's ominous, and it makes you wonder just what the hell
you're going to be doing in the NEXT game.
But what ARE you going to be doing? I certainly hope to god it's not
another alien world. I don't mind WELL DONE alien worlds as part of a
game, but if Xen is any indicator, I certainly don't want the whole
next game to be set on an alien world. Especially not one with low
gravity. Or big platforms flying around in space... Or alien beer
factories... or impossibly high jumps that get you crushed... or
aliens that shoot lighting all the way across the vast open landscape
and fry you in one shot.
Simon Juncal
> But what ARE you going to be doing? I certainly hope to god it's not
> another alien world. I don't mind WELL DONE alien worlds as part of a
> game, but if Xen is any indicator, I certainly don't want the whole
> next game to be set on an alien world. Especially not one with low
> gravity. Or big platforms flying around in space... Or alien beer
> factories... or impossibly high jumps that get you crushed... or
> aliens that shoot lighting all the way across the vast open landscape
> and fry you in one shot.
Wow, I agree it was a cool ending. Personally I'd say it's
the best short "epilog" ending to any FPS game I've ever played.
Unless anyone considers Doom's "bunny on a stick" ending to rival
it ;) They saved textures and environment maps, to give you something
new and strange to look at, and the slime ball wrapped up what was
already pretty evident, and gave you one last interactive choice
(instead of just ending it) the credits roll and a decent techno
tune plays them out). I guess in this regard some people just don't
want any subtlety or wit in their endings, and just wanted to gib
the slime ball guy, get the girl and ride off into the sunset with
"Our Hero" pasted onto the screen :)
Anyway to address the point that elicited a "wow" I thought the Alien
levels were well done, they had an exceptional quotient of weirdness
and much like all the other levels, seemed more or less INSPIRED
from start to finish. I would have liked to run into a fellow
"Interloper" or two to fight along side, but that's my only real
nit pick.
As for difficulty, I admit I got a little frustrated with the level
that requires you to ride an alien fighter to the teleporter (I
would have preferred they not respawn those lightning shooting
anthropods) but still consider it an ingenious level from a
challenge standpoint. the bosses were inspired, and nicely played
out (by the time I finished Gonarch, and brain boy I was "ready"
to move on) in that I didn't feel cheated (Quake bosses) or overly
frustrated, they were nearly as effective as (most) Doom bosses in
this regard.
Basically you need to use that Alien glove weapon, at any time when
you have cover or a hall to duck behind because it uses no ammo,
you have to balance that with using the .357, crossbow and energy
(gluon gun) weapons in situations where you MUST fight "deathmatch"
style. If you go running in, in typical FPS style for some fights
you're doomed. and will waste ammo, there're a few spots that let
you avoid a toe to toe fight with sniping using the crossbow
(outside area's especially). Fantastic game, I found myself
adapting my tactics to the very end. "sneaking" almost exclusively
which built tension, and added to the experience.
I took them on in general:
Flyers: find cover or hallway and whip out the homing insect glove
move from cover to cover (or tactical withdraw) to avoid damage.
firing blindly (let the homing insects do the work)
Lightning bipeds: shotgun at close range (to save better weapons
ammo) or .357/Crossbow at sniping ranges. In close fights I used
the Gluon gun, and found any cover I could.
Big glove having guy: snipe if possible, find cover and chew them
down with the glove, or go toe to toe with them and the gluon,
crossbow, or .357 and hope there's some health near by ;)
Big semi-boss: five satchel charges, and one rocket as necessary
(from somewhere he couldn't fit obviously).
The jumping was second nature after the beginning, and far less
difficult than most Platformers I've ever played. Not a single
one seemed to require that "you-must-jump-from-the-very-last-
pixel" precision.
--
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walrus1...@gmail.com
> Hi,
>
> I just completed Half-Life... and let me tell you, that while this is
> a great game, it is also one of the most frustrating games I've ever
> played!
>
>
> I've never seen anyone say WHY they hated Xen... Here's why I hate
> Xen, and why I hate Xen:
>
> It's TOO DAMNED DIFFICULT!
>
> monster up to this point. And sometimes several times per monster...
> Up until this point in the game, I had had NO difficulty wasting the
> forces that were presented to me... even that huge guy who kicked cars
> at you... toss 3 or 4 explosive bags at him and detonate them all at
> once from the saftey of the enclosed hall, and he was outta there...)
>
> can kill him. I die a lot more. I run for a jump platform. I die.
> finally, I make it, and make it up to the first platform. I save.
>
> So now I tr yto kill this guy using the same technique as before.
> Save a lot, shoot his ass... but I can't dodge as easily here. But at
> least I have no enemies electrocuting me, and I can duck behind that
> rock to avoid the teleport.
>
> FINALLY, a happy ending to this lifetime of hell fighting the boss. I
> duck behind the rock once, and he fires electric bolts at me... I'm
> like... shit... I can't dodge... too late. So I just sit there witing
> to die again... and I don't!
>
> The electroc bolts all converge at me... and hit the tip of the rock
> and disperse!
>
> Well, I don't dare move and lose this advantage. I save immediately,
> and proceed to kick his ass by shooting form there and letting his
> electric attacks harmlessly bounce off the rock.
>
> Hooray! I've saved the world! (Or have I?)
>
> After hearing people talk about how the ending sucks, I wasn't
> expecting much. And I didn't get too much, but I got enough. I
> thought the ending was kinda cool. And I was happy to see that guy
> with the breifcase because all through the rest of the game, I didn't
> see him ONCE where I was supposed to see him! (I saw him in the very
> beginning talking to a scientist, but then he never appeareed at the
> points he was supposed to appear at.)
>
>
>
>
> If youy haven't gotten to Xen, get to Xen. The last scene before you
> get to Xen kicks ass. Then STOP PLAYING! Get a savegame off someone
> of just after the kill the last boss! Do NOT put yourself through
> this torture! I don not exxagerate in any way when I say this is the
> most difficult and frustrating section of any game I've ever played!
>
>
>
> level... it took me 2 days to beat one last level... when the whole
> rest of the game took me just 3 days to beat!
Spalls Hurgenson
wrote:
the heck not? Sure, it would be nice if people using Google Groups
would actually learn how Usenet works before they post but hell, any
new traffic and users are welcome at this point.)
>> I just completed Half-Life... and let me tell you, that while this is
>> a great game, it is also one of the most frustrating games I've ever
>> played!
>> I see now why everyone hates Xen. I hate Xen now too.
> use godmode for the stupid platforming part, They should have just
> focused on puzzles instead of platforming.
Life, as the game aged I began to appreciate it more and more. It
truly does feel alien compared to the rest of the game, not only
because of the level design but because the gameplay is so different
as well. The game goes from being a pseudo-realisitic military shooter
to a bouncy arcade platformer; you really are in a different world.
That's not to say that Xen wasn't without its frustrating bits; I
still grit my teeth when I have to get to some of the platforming
segments, and I despise the end-boss entirely. But had Valve merely
switched the textures without radically altering the gameplay I don't
think the Xen would have felt half as alien as it did.
(They did something similar again with Half Life 2, when you
infiltrate the alien tower at the end, albeit with a less radical
shift in gameplay. I didn't find it anywhere as engaging as Xen
because it was still pretty much the same as all of the rest of the
game).
Trimble Bracegirdle
So I'm reading this thread with half closed eyes so not to spoil the
ending I MIGHT play one day (year).
Some bits are horrid tough. Same with Quake 1 & II & Unreal .
Its those "find this - switch this - find the next one - & another -
AND do it all in a correct order.
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") mouse (To Good To Abandon)
rms
>> Hi,
>The Gman does show up in those parts, you just didn't see him, and I had to
>use godmode for the stupid platforming part, They should have just focused
>on puzzles instead of platforming.
enemies had markedly better reaction times against me, which made battles
harder; and also that the crossbow now had a flight arc, and seemed to have
a distance limit as well. Or vice-versa, I forget now!
rms
Emmanuel Stephan Mahani
Since the Half-Life:Alyx has been released,the xen flora and fauna looks much better.
And since im a time traveler(lmao) i will tell you how to beat xen level easily(if u want)
1.Xen:Equip gauss,hold right click,jump to the big platform,release the right click,If you bounced to far look for the rotating platform if not just go down and go to gonarch portal
2.Gonarch Lair:3 answer:RPG,Gluon,hivehand.You can find some loot and use healing pools.
3.Inteloper:Yeah this part is boring af,either ride mantis like originally intended or just gauss jump to the portal.
4.Inteloper(2):There a hole near tentacle,use shotgun to make them retreat.Go to the hole,watch for barancles plant some satchel and tripmine lure the garg to the mine you make by simply shot the garg with pistol.Then kaboom(If it still alive use rpg)
Then there tentacle,use snark then spam long jump,use gluon for the 2 alien grunts.
5.Inteloper(3):Everyone in the past call em beer barrel,isn't it supposed to be an alien grunt inside barrel?So dont attack the alien slave(vortigaunt),once you get up the alien controller(those floating things)will attack u,use revolver(357)for this.Then on the next area simply rush with shotgun and revolver,once you near the agrunt-in-the-barrel.Dont let you and enemies destroy the barrel.Then proceed to the most hated elevator section.
Tbh,this part is fun when you know how(Not in sven coop).Use shotgun and mp5 for the slaves.revolver for floating things(or just use gluon) then again and again till u reach nihilanth.
6.Nihilanth:Equip gauss quickly and use primary fire to destroy the healing orange crystal.Then use anything then reduce nihilanth hp(U can use just hivehand to stop green portal),after the head opened equip RPG.There a bug that the rpg will ignore the nihilanth head and just reach the brain core.Congrats you beat nihilanth under 5 minutes
Once you learn all of this you can beat xen just in 30 minutes