Hey look! I'm getting to this a lot sooner than I thought I would! Maybe the realization that it's only a week or so until HL: Alyx's release has motivated me to finish this.

Or it's more likely that I just remembered its existence and have found a random and short lived burst of motivation that will die again before I can finish this.

But anyway! Gonarch battle. It's... Largely the same as the first time a while back. It just rubs around, spits acid and baby headcrabs at you, and charges at you. And you just have to keep shooting its egg sac to kill it. The only real differences are that a) you're in a much smaller arena this time, and b)

It now has a scattershot exploding acid spitball attack.

Then we get to ~phase two~ of the Gonarch boss fight. Which is just.

The floor collapses and you fight it on the next floor down. Rinse and repeat.

And then it explodes into a big shower of acid!

You know, honestly, I feel like I'm not doing how awesome this battle was justice. Here's a YouTube video I found of it!

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

(This person is. Much faster at this fight than I was lol.)

But anyway. With the Gonarch out of the way, we can jump down this hole it left in the floor,

And run through this really dark cave...

To get to the next chapter, Interloper!

"Interloper" is probably the biggest story chapter in Xen. Sure, the last two chapters after it are important, but one is just a boss battle in its entirety, and the other is a really long cutscene, pretty much.

And as is usual, everything Black Mesa does to this chapter is incredible. In HL1, when you finally encountered the vortigaunts in Xen, they were passive, seemingly going about whatever task they were doing, ignoring Gordon. For me, at least, I didn't realize that they were supposed to be imprisoned until well into playing HL2. But in Black Mesa, it gives the vorts so much more personality, and in doing so, it handles really well the reveal that the vortigaunts aren't your enemies, and drives it home that, despite everything, they're on your side. BM makes it absolutely clear that the vortigaunts are slaves, and that, for all the damage Gordon has done, they see him as their best possible chance at freedom. (And of course, they're right.)

But anyway. As we exit the Gonarch's lair...

Hmm, that looks suspiciously like that giant spire we've seen floating in the distance for a while now!

After jumping across some floating rocks, you can crawl in through a grating under the floor, through which you can hear... something. I thought it sounded a lot like laughing, but it's actually a vort crying.

Crawling around a bit more, we find out way into this little house- which in itself is really cool, because HL1 didn't really have anything in the way of vortigaunt civilization or culture or anything. So this alone is a huge step up in personality.

But stepping out onto the porch of the house, we find...

One of the big grunts looking over a vort curled up on the floor, and

Another keeping three more at bay. Now, I don't know about you, but this seems an awful lot like some sort of show of power. At any rate, the vorts don't seem nearly so threatening when they're being held down like this, too.

This is also a big difference from HL1. The first interaction with vortigaunts there was a handful working various jobs, but ignoring you, until the two grunt lookouts noticed you, and... commanded an attack, I guess? While meanwhile, here, as soon as you jump down to deal with the grunts, the vortigaunts...

They run and hide and cower in corners whenever you get near. Hardly the high voltage threat they posed back on earth, huh?

I think you can kill these vorts, if you really want to, but... why would you? They're fleeing and hiding, and it was pretty clear they weren't the ones doing the beating a few minutes ago.

Also, another new mechanic here!

If you stand in one of these glowing blue showers, you get your health back, and a full suit charge! These were actually in HL1, if I remember correctly; I was just an idiot and didn't use them because I didn't know they existed.

This is also a kinda interesting concept in terms of in-world technology. Is this the same blue healing water we found in ponds before? How did they get it to charge your suit, too? Why would the vorts have need for a shower with some electrical charging capability? Does it have some sort of effect on them, too?

But anyway. Last couple of screenshots,

There's the house up there! Again, BM giving the vortigaunts actual culture and civilization is such a HUGE change from HL1, and I can't get over how well it's done.

And here's a shot inside the house, of a little shelf and some sort of drawings on the wall. I wonder if they're supposed to mean anything?

So that's it for this part. I'm probably gonna go replay "Interloper" to remember what all my screenshots are about.