*Just to clarify, focal point isn't bad, by any means, its overwhelmingly good but there were a fair few issues I had with it that made it tedious*

This level is far too long, it took me 2 and a half hours to reach the actual focal point and then another 2 hours to complete the vortigaunt factory, I found the level pacing to be irritating and not in-keeping with the previous two levels, much like how Black Mesa's Interloper feels like tedious busy work, focal point does the same, I understand the developers want to put their own spin on the game but when you add over 2 hours of extra and unnecessary level design it stops being fun and faithful to the original.

The first section of the level leading up to the base is excellent, gives you some time to get used to the lower gravity and get a feel for the jumps (although it feels as if some of them can barely be made), parkour in half life has never been it's strongest feature, with both Freeman and Calhoun sliding all over the place like they've got sticks of butter glued to their shoes but you do get used to it, you're introduced to a new puzzle element in the form of the sticky bomb launcher but after, it becomes irritating fast, the platforms feel too small and not well placed, I'll admit to getting lost and confused on where to go, normally there are lights or environmental events that guide you but in the caves there are none, leading me to run around in circles trying to find the way out and when I do find the way to go enemies are thrown at you like cannon fodder, this doesn't feel like strategy, more like bullet sponges, they often run right up to you and die before they can even attack, I tried on hard mode but they still die so quickly, feels like I'm being slowed down for no reason other than to stretch the level out.

The base feels good after the first leg of the journey, it has a nice change of pace and introduces you to new mechanics (unless you already played Xen in Balck Mesa) such as the Xen trees being vulnerable to explosives, that you need to pick off the acid bullsquids from afar and introducing the grunts to the game, I liked the energy spikes throughout the facility (apart from the instant deaths from not knowing where you're supposed to jump to), it has a feel good atmosphere when you figure out where to go and how to recharge the last power cell since the third one is charged by accident (a real aha moment) but reaching the last cell has some really cheap deaths, you need to know the pattern that the energy bursts are going to have otherwise you have a insta' death from stepping one foot in the wrong place, feels cheap to do that.

The MOUNT is pointless busy work in my opinion, the FPS dies at this point, sound cuts out and at one point I got stuck on the ammo crate and couldn't dislodge myself, I tried noclip but I ended up clipping through the platform and falling to my death, the acid bullsquids are annoying AF, they represent a hazard in an already dangerous area, you've got energy beams everywhere, reduced FPS and now I have to try to shoot targets that have perfect aim while my camera shakes uncontrollably from the environment, following this is a platforming section on timed electrified rails, I could not complete this section without noclip, Calhoun cannot make some of the jumps, often being bumped off and falling to his death, the FPS lag and sound screaming made it virtually impossible, I know others have complained about this but it hasn't been fixed, the only thing HECU as suggested is to reduce the graphics settings, which still doesn't fix the issue of bad platforming.

After this is the Manta ride, it's nice, you can see where you came from and where you're going, more in keeping with that in-game cut scenes vibe, right up to the point when your manta is shot down, you fall into the third worst area in the game, this stupid platforming and shooting section, I died so many times from platforms that require pixel perfect jumping, it is possible but downright brutal, the navigation of this area is outright maddening, looks like you need to go up the side of the island with the pipes on it but no, you need to go forward, left and then jump to various platforms in the vain hope you'll make that jump, then get the crystal, fire the gun and then repeat the tedious platforming with grunts, vortigaunts and manta's all bring hell down on your head (this is completely unfair, even Freeman didn't face this amount of opposition!).

From here there is a section very similar to Interloper from Black Mesa, (universally hated by everyone) and there is a glitch that makes this section (and sections later on) nigh on impossible to complete, picking up the organic grenades and throwing them into the green ports before they explode, you can't rush this, if you grab the grenade and immediately sprint or turn Barney will drop the grenade at his feet and you can't pick it up, so you have to grab it, slowly turn around and walk to the port before throwing in the grenade, this took me 20 minutes!

From here we go into the second to worst area and the most time consuming, area after area of platforming on those stupid leaves, because that was fun in Xen, these things are the worst part of Black Mesa, you have to detonate the polyps to get the leaves to move, finally, a use for the most useless weapon in the game, the C4 explosive packs, at least it would be if I hadn't already used them all in the previous area and now there are no ammo crates to replenish my supply, what you're supposed to do is tote the red bullsquids into shooting the polyps to get access to the next area but after 25 minutes of trying, failing and dying I could not for the life of me get them even close to the polyps, I literally gave up at this point, I noclipped my way through all the the "gates", it just isn't fun!

Eventually we reach the "Focal Point", another change of pace, similar to the base, we have some simple puzzles to solve, the code for the door and deactivating the force-field to bring the powercell to the generator, and then "align the emitter until it reaches full strength", I've played the original Blue Shift, I knew that the controllers would come and a battle was going to happen but what I was not expecting was the worst section of the whole game thus far, Interloper 2.0.

In the original, once the controllers are dead the emitter turns back on and you can go back to Earth, after the massive slog that I went through, almost 2 and half hours I felt that it was good to end it here, no chance, the signal is "jammed" and I spent 15 minutes wondering around trying to figure out what I was supposed to do, at this point I watched a playthrough, I was so ready to call it quits after the romp I went through to get to this point I felt like the game had sucked all the fun out of the level already but nope.

Another version of Interloper, this was a massive ball ache, jump on slippy platforms, more timed electrified platforms, more instant death zones, more tedium, remember the grenade section where you can't run with one in your hands, welp, enjoy trying to complete the same section over and over again before the grenade blows up in your face, I tried for 45 minutes and I could not get the grenade to the port before it detonated, it is impossilbe! all resulting in another gun fight against the core from half life 2 episode one, but this one is green, I just couldn't be asked at this point, I was so low on ammo, health and armour I would die from the moment I stepped out of that room, I gave up, turned on god mode, notarget and shot the core until it popped, this took 20 minutes, with cheats, it wasn't fun, it wasn't compelling, it was just more busy work to fill out a level that had already outstayed its welcome, the base starts blowing up (for some reason), and I make it back to the portal... except not really.

More controllers beat my already battered, bruised and defeated Calhoun until I use killall to get past them before jumping into the portal and ending the level.

Honestly, this level is longer than the four previous levels combined, it has great design, it's beautiful to look at but it is needlessly drawn out, if it was cut down to the start, base, manta ride and just focal point it would still be an hour long, more than enough to meet the pacing of this game, you're in an alien realm, you're not Gordon Freeman and you don't have "high impact reactive armour", you're playing a security guard for goodness sake, in the original game you are actually dropped close to the emitter as Rosenberg states, in this game "close" is three county's over, the level is trying to tell a story but it fails at that, with Freeman, he's going in to save the world but Calhoun isn't, he wants to escape Black Mesa, he wouldn't give a crap about the world of Xen, its just another obstacle towards freedom, passive story is what this game needs, we don't need to interact with the vortigaunts to know they are slaves, we can see that with the controllers and the giant green dil- I mean, towers that come out of the ground, we could just walk around the structures of Xen and get the same story (it would cut a good hour out of the slog).

I don't hate this level, I just don't like the filler, going back to it I find myself using the console to enter in specific points of the game, just to skip the tedium of the other parts that are too drawn out and boring, much like interloper but less conveyor belts, yes, I know it isn't a remake, its a "re-imagining" and that's fine but take it from a gameplay perspective, the platforming in the level sucks, Calhoun can barely make the jumps, (something that HECU has had to patch in previous levels, that stupid vent in Duty Calls being almost impossible to jump/ crawl into has a nice platform that lets you walk in) he slips and slides all over the place, the FPS lag is laughable and still hasn't been addressed, the sound cuts out, getting stuck on random objects, enemies have aimbot levels of accuracy and can shoot through objects, so many, many polyp puzzles, it just needs to be shorter and more faithful to the source material.

That being said, and I'm going to sound hypocritical here, if the next level "Power Struggle" has the same amount of attention as this one, I am excited, spending so much time in Xen has made me nostalgic for the "steel corridors".