SS2's BotM vs. HL1's Xen - by EvaUnit02
EvaUnit02 on 17/12/2007 at 14:06
Which did you find more annoying, SS2's Body of the Many or HL1's Xen?
My answer would be Xen by a long shot.
-You've got extreme platform-jumping.
-Save for the probably the "factory" level, there's hardly anything to strafe behind to avoid i.e. the instant hit electric attacks of the vortigaunts.
Nihilanth (or whatever the final boss' name is) is one of the most frustrating boss battles I've ever played. You've got his teleport attack that sends you to a bottom of a chasm and leaving you to platform jump all the way to the top to get out. You have to use the stupid jump pads to get to the very top platform, then wait for his banana peel brain to open before can unload ammo into it him.
BotM annoyances are nowhere near as bad IMO. The toxic water section; the stupid grinding pistons; those bubble jets that propel you, usually resulting in some damage (or death as in the case of the one before the "boss room" containing the Many's brain and the endless respawning rumblers)...
Trance on 17/12/2007 at 15:27
Even though I've been through the BotM countless times I still get lost in that thing. Xen I have no trouble with. Few things in games cause me more frustration than getting lost.
D'Arcy on 17/12/2007 at 17:21
I lose interest in HL precisely when I get to Xen. More than once, I've played through the game until I reach Xen, then give up. The BOTM was nowhere near as annoying as the Xen levels in HL.
Matthew on 17/12/2007 at 17:54
I still haven't finished HL1 because of Xen.
Gforce on 18/12/2007 at 06:24
Killing Nihilanth is easy, just hide behind something and take out the three crystals high up on the wall, then shoot him to get rid of the things around his head, then get up high a launch some rockets into him, done.
D'Arcy on 18/12/2007 at 09:51
The annoying part isn't killing him. It's getting there.
WCarnation on 20/12/2007 at 14:41
I liked both. Xen was more frustrating and less interesting than the Body of the Many (when compared to general scenarios of most videogames), but it was still a vital part of the plot (as was BotM) and something different.
Body of the Many was very easy for me every time I've played, and that was likely because of my insistence on bringing a radiation suit with me everywhere and having pretty heavy-duty weapons by then (AR+APer ammo, used the Fusion Cannon's Death mode on the brain)
The idea of crawling through a biological mass' body and jumping along it's grinding teeth and stuff is pretty darn neat.
So comparing them, Body of the Many was better, but I didn't think Xen was that bad either.
AxTng1 on 22/12/2007 at 04:37
Quote Posted by WCarnation
The idea of crawling through a biological mass' body and jumping along it's grinding teeth and stuff is pretty darn neat.
It is, and I don't know why it isn't in more sci-fi games. The thing about the BotM is that is makes no sense. Teeth, fine, but why on the inside of the body? Why so many sphincters?
Apart from a ZX Spectrum game I saw once (called Gutz IIRC), and one level of the suprisingly SS1-like Star Trek Generations, I can't name a game that has the whole Fantastic Voyage thing going on.
WCarnation on 24/12/2007 at 05:58
Quote Posted by AxTng1
It is, and I don't know why it isn't in more sci-fi games. The thing about the BotM is that is makes no sense. Teeth, fine, but why on the inside of the body? Why so many sphincters?
They probably serve different purposes that only a gigantic biomass housing vile creatures would need.
AxTng1 on 24/12/2007 at 22:55
Yeah, like having material to build tents with lying around. And light in the visible spectrum. And a massive tube filled with water that ends up.. wait...
If SHODAN hadn't haxx0red teh space-time gibson, where would that pipe at the end of BotM gone?
