Right, so the holidays are over and I've more or less settled into my school schedule, so I guess it's time to get back to this!

(Also, as of Dec. 23, the game is in full public release! It's no longer in beta! So if you were thinking that you might want to play it, but didn't want a beta game, now you're good to go!)

Anyway, back in December, we'd just gotten to the first encounter with the Gonarch, so now it's time for the Gonarch's Lair! Which is, yes, another boss chapter, wholly dedicated to dealing with the Gonarch. Most of the chapter is actually just running from the Gonarch until you make it to the boss arena and can actually fight it. So don't bother trying to shoot it before then, because I don't think you can actually do any damage.

Inside the lair, the first time you see the Gonarch, it would be kinda hard to take a good shot at it anyway, because it's way across this chasm.

It can still shoot at me, though, with it's stupid long range acid spit with splash effects.

But after a brief chase where you have to run across one side of the chasm and the Gonarch across the other, you can escape down a side tunnel to come to another massive chasm.

This one's just full of alien bird things, though. Not giant headcrab queen.

There's also another little research station on the rim of this pit, and there's another zombie.

So this unfortunate scientist made it all the way past the Gonarch, all the way up here, only to get jumped by a headcrab. Poor guy.

Something I also thought was kind of funny is you can see right behind him there, a first aid station leaning against a crate, and if you look at it from the side.

That's it, that's the whole health station. Just that thin little thing. They're fully operational units in themselves, just like that. No power or bigger mountings or anything required.

Here's another guy who died after getting some distance by the Gonarch. That's a kinda cool grave, really, surrounded by giant glowing crystals.

Then we get to this part. You can't see it too clearly because of the image quality, but the ceiling in this corridor is a sort of web-mesh type deal, and the Gonarch is on top, and while it can't hit you directly, it can still spit baby headcrabs at you. So you kinda gotta keep moving fast.

This is also where one my favorite Xen soundtracks starts playing, "The Hunting."

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Though if I remember correctly, it only plays the first part, and builds in intensity with each phase of the chase. (The ending/climactic part is at the burning bridge section, but we'll get to that later.)

Anyway, as we progress by crawling through some tunnels, the Gonarch gets increasingly infuriated, punching holes through the walls to try to get you. I don't think it actually can, though, and this is more just for building atmosphere. Or, maybe I just got lucky.

Then we get to this pretty cool chase section.

You have to run through this sort of... crystal maze? Except being just a small human, you have to use the long jump module to navigate through it. Meanwhile, behind you, the Gonarch just smashes through everything in its path.

Eventually, though, we manage to crawl into a tunnel the Gonarch can't quite fit into.

It sure broke a lot of crystals trying to fit in, though!

Man, this guy was really unlucky. Made it all the way out here just to have his legs crushed. I wonder if he died quickly or if he just laid there for a while, with the Gonarch running around below?

There's another lilypad jump section, but this time, the water is toxic! Oh, and the lilypads start to sink if you stand on them. Better move quickly!

Then we come up this ridge, and look who's waiting for us on the other side!

This is actually the start of another cool chase that I took a lot of screenshots of but none of them looked good. You had to pretty much keep ducking into these little alcoves, then lighting some stuff on fire to burn away the webbing stuff blocking your path- but doing so also burned away the stuff keeping the Gonarch from getting at you, so then you had to leap through the fire to keep running.

Remember how I kept talking about 'well, all in all, not a bad place to die'? Yeah, this is one of those bad places to die. Trapped in a web... in my path. So I have to whack the corpse with my crowbar to break the webbing. And of course, the body gibs on one hit, so you get body chunks flying everywhere...

The next tunnel section, you're not immediately threatened by the Gonarch...

But there sure are a lot of headcrabs everywhere. Seriously. Eight, nine of them at once? That's a lot of headcrabs.

I also got this kinda funny picture of one leaping at me.

Also during this tunnel crawl, you pass these openings where you can see the Gonarch running by. It's pretty cool.

And finally, as I reach the picture limit,

I'll leave you with this really big waterfall that pours into an abyss.