As the various hapless scientists now carrying wee aliens as hats (and Valve Software themselves) may let you know, one want watch out with Half-Life’s alien dimension of Xen. That’s why the gang behind sanctioned remake Black Mesa gang have taken their time remaking these much-reviled end-game ranges, initially releasing the game with none Xen then getting again to work on it. They’ve been progressively increasing Xen in a beta department, and now they invite us to that bizarre meaty manufacturing unit processing (cloning? packaging?) aliens. The sudden idea made it my favorite a part of Xen, so I’m glad to see them go for it.
Developers Crowbar Collective launched the primary 5 maps of Black Mesa’s Interloper chapter to the general public beta department, welcoming us to the meatlab. I don’t have the beta put in proper now nevertheless it appears to be like a little bit one thing like this:
Another three Interloper maps are nonetheless to come back, then they’re principally on the finish of Black Mesa. After this, the ultimate two chapters are the boss battle in opposition to huge spacebaby Nihilanth then our spooky job supply in Endgame. And all of them dwell fortunately ever after.
“The team has been crunching hard to release the last chapters, and the game has been fighting us every step of the way,” Crowbar Collective stated in the announcement. “We will be releasing the last 3 maps of Interloper shortly, after a final art and polish pass. Our current plan is to release Nihilanth and Endgame with those maps, but we may stagger the next releases to better refine the last fight and to get more concentrated feedback from the community.”
The concept that they’re crunching on Black Mesa shocked me, contemplating this mission has been in growth in a single type or one other for fifteen years. I don’t know which (if any) monetary or skilled pressures they might be underneath however huh, it simply feels bizarre. Crunching Black Mesa. Pushing it out onerous and quick. In 2019. Huh.
If you’ve gotten Black Mesa and fancy a peek at Xen, observe these instructions. After beginning the beta in June, they completed the introductory chapter and added the Gonarch bits in August.
