Improved Xen is a modification for Black Mesa game. It gives you an opportunity to immerse yourself into original locations of Xen world from Half-Life, but with improved graphics and optimized geometry. At the moment Improved Xen is supported by zloikot.
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- Thanks to Black Mesa Xen release I could use its new G-man and Nihilanth voices, particles and scenes.
- The soundtrack is also updated, so you can enjoy the new Xen OST and feel its atmosphere.
- Minor cosmetic improvements have touched all locations. Some other things have been updated too, because they worked better in the official Xen.
- Cascading Shadow Maps are more optimized now.
- The corpses of Hev-scientists give you an energy cell. Moreover, I added a new sound and visual effects to the healing water.
- Vortigaunts became absolutely friendly and they attack only when they are affected by the controllers.
- The new “Xog” fog is graphically better than the old one and gives a different feeling of depth and volume. I still want to polish it in the next updates, but even now it looks impressing.
- I left falling damage, because it is an important gameplay element of initial Xen, in order to keep the player in suspense.
More details about the chapters:
Xen: more details on the islands, the old turrets are replaced with the new ones.
Gonarch’s lair: yes, now fully functional NPC Gonarch is engaged and all my previous work with him is removed. But despite this fact, it feels like it was created for this location, it fits perfect. More shallow vegetation. You could also notice it in Xen location in Azure Sheep Remake, because I worked on that mod too.
Interloper: Finally, an option for passing with a stealth is added to the c4a1b map. It is similar to the way it was implemented in HL1. Some scripts are changed due to the adding of friendly vortigaunts, and also you will meet less controllers than before, for the balance. Because they use new attacks now, they became a real powerful enemy.
Nihilanth: I did not implement the NPC of the main boss, because I wasn’t sure that this would work here. On the contrary, I spent a lot of time replacing the model and adapting the environment for it.
Endgame: The main change is a different lighting and dark skybox.
Do you want to return in "good old days" and experience that true classic - Half-life 1, (xen levels) but with improved graphics, geometry, and gameplay? I am very pleased to tell you the news that Ihave prepared a new Improved Xen update specially for Black Mesa 1.0 release!
