Half-Life - XEN Reimagined in Source 2 

Really encapsulates the name of "Border World". I love Black Mesa's version of Xen, but it felt more like a living, alien world rather than one that isn't meant to be lived in.

In HL1, Xen was cold, fleshy, kind of creepy. In Black Mesa, it was beautiful, almost heavenly to look at, and full of life. You managed to combine both of those in a way that really works out well.

The amazing detail of the houndeye group sleeping meanwhile one stays awake in case other xen creatures attempt to ambush them, just simply incredible.

amazing work as always, really captures the colder 'nothing was actually meant to live here' motif

While I personally prefer the Black Mesa interpretation of Xen, this is definitely something that I'll hold in my heart; the dark, cold, lifeless, yet otherworldly beauty is something else.

Every dream, every thought, every picture I have, of Xen mentally, is this. This is everything I've ever wanted Xen to be, I love it. It's a master piece. This is a world between worlds, where the very ground you step on is an amalgamation of remnants from distant worlds. Where the impossible is possible, but you might not like what you find. A place meant to be forgotten now leaking into a new world. Ah I could go on for days I just love this so much! This is exactly everything I've ever wanted in Xen.

I’d like to imagine that only some certain spots of xen look like the black mesa version, and the rest of it looks like this. Like a few lush oasis’s in a vast barren desert.

This is what I thought the Black Mesa version of Xen would be like. Dark, atmospheric, and horrifying. Fantastic work.

I love the way you brought back the “lifeless” feeling of the border world back from HL1. Xen in BM was great, but this is something else... something sinister yet beautiful

That looks incredible! I love the dark theme you put on it which is more similar to the original xen Maybe i wouldnt have used a planet there but that concept also looks really cool Youre an amazing source artist

great detail the watchful houndeye warning his group of danger

The Black Mesa version of Xen looks like my inner mind sanctuary I visit regularly when daydreaming, so I kind of like that one a tiny bit more... but this version is incredibly beautiful as well, and portrays Xen more closely to Half-Life 1, than the magical version of Black Mesa. Great job!

1:30. I love the moment when the giant manta rays appear. If in the rest of the video Xen just looks like a gloomy and alien world, then at this moment you really feel yourself a completely helpless little creature in a giant deadly world in which you would not have survived even a few minutes.

Valve's Xen: Dark, lovercraftian, gross and alien. Crowbar's Collective Xen: Warm, teeming with wildlife and natural wonders, it's beauty only matched by it's dangers. TheParryGod's Xen: Cold, desolate, greyed out. A place where life only exists because it got there from other worlds, and would otherwise be a barren expanse. I wonder what Tripmine's Xen will look like.

I love how you've made the scale of it so large. It screams cold and desolate.

Honestly I love both this AND Black Mesa's versions of Xen. Black Mesa was a fresh spin on it to try and make it feel more lively, but yours... yours highlights why Xen was always perfect and just limited by the technology.

Please, dude, keep doing what you are doing. You are helping keep Half-Life alive with this stuff. This is absolutely fantastic. I hope one day we get a movie in the Half-Life universe that includes Xen in some way, shape or form similar to this. This environment would make for such a terrifying Sci-Fi horror movie. This is such a fantastic blend of Valve & Crowbar Collective's iteration of Xen. The same dark, cold, eerie & unforgiving vibes in Valve's xen, combined with the sheer scale & detail and liveliness as Crowbar Collective's Xen. Amazing stuff.

This one definitely shows that even if Xen is an otherworldly demented region, there is still beauty to it in some way or another. Really cool animation, Parry.

this is the BEST sfm animation i've ever seen. you're truly in a lane of your own

Loved the big alien getting teleported due to the resonance cascade

Holy crap the attention to detail is amazing. It looks almost exactly like how it would look like if the og half-life was made today (Plus seeing the manta ray get teleported in the distance was cool)

Absolutely love this, the ambience used is actually one of my favourites from the original. It is such an iconic sound for xen

Simply sublime. Feels like a truly alternate dimesion, I am the only one finding it damn relaxing?

That ray getting teleported looks so seamless, I like it

while in my opinion i do like the vibrant look of the black mesa xen interpretation, YOUR interpretation on the other hand. MY GOD IS IT SO COOL i just love how gloomy, dark, and cold it feels like, like it makes you feel that you are truly somewhere out of earth and in a very veyr hostile place. it honestly really encapsulates the feel of a border world. pheonmenal work as always this is one hell of a scenebuild!

It's alive, yet so cold, lonely and inhospitable at the same time. It looks like it could exist, but that it shouldn't. Truly alien. I loved the portal effect at the end; I never thought the portal effects from the original game could be made to look so convincing in high detail.

I needed this. All the xen infestation in HLA and the brief glimpse of the Borderworld at the end got me thirsting for more. Thankyou ParryGod. You're fucking amazing. I like the touch of entire planets existing in Xen that HLA officially introduced. It implies that if the Resonance Cascade was never halted by the Combine, Earth might have wound up swallowed by Xen to drift through its void for the rest of eternity. Plus it opens up a lot of possibilities for travel to Xen in theoretical future Half-Life games.

this has the same feel as Jordan Peele's most recent movie 'Nope' and now i'd really like the combination of those two - (more) cosmic and psychological horror in the half-life series would be awesome

Seeing the jelly blobber was really awesome.

This is more of a border world feel than the actual planet feeling black mesa gives

Looks amazing. Imagine playing the whole Xen chapter in source 2

A much darker and bleak (almost Giger-esque) take on the border world. So used to seeing all the colours and glowing neons in Xen, this was a fresh take on a barren world. Nice touch with the flocking floater (at least I think that’s what it was?) - added a nice bioluminescent glow to the abyss.

HL1 Xen: No Life BM Xen: Full Life TheParryGod’s Xen: *Half Life* Good work on this 👍

Black Mesa's Xen felt like a truly alien world that had its own ecosystem and really nailed the idea that you were in an utterly different dimension. It's something I hold dear to my heart, but I kinda want to experience something like you just made here now. An absolutely cold, dark, inhospitable hell. The only life you meet here is absolutely ruthless by necessity, and you have to question how there even is an ecosystem.

Nihilanth called, asked me to tell you that you very accurately conveyed the type of area where he grew up) Great work Parry!

This is beautiful dude keep up the amazing work, one thing I hope happens (it never will) is that we get source 2 redux of black Mesa but a man can only dream.

Gives me half life 2 beta chills because of that dark green tone Really impressive

You managed to blend HL1 and Black Mesa's versions of Xen in an absolutely spectacular way! If HL3 ever comes out, its version of Xen had better look like this.

This is awesome, definitely what I would expect if Valve made us go back to Xen again.

It's like heaven and hell rolled into one

[ happy amazed crowbar noises ]

Really love the cold ominous look and feel for this one. Probably something I prefer over the Black Mesa interpretation.

Stunning work, I love the scene where the controllers slowly move into the camera view, I always imagine it’s them looking for some stray vortigaunt

An asteroid field located in a nebulous gas cloud made ENTIRELY of breathable atmosphere. It's not impossible

those controllers are absolutely terrifying really adds to the cosmic horror

Black Mesa Xen is a lush colourful wonderland of countless creatures and life forms we can never fully understand despite it's beauty. This version of Xen is a cold, dark and desolate places where only the strongest of life forms survive. I won't say which is better because they both have such a different tone and feel that any preferences would entirely be down to taste. Both however are utterly breath taking.

You once again outdid yourself. This interpretation of Xen feels more closer to the original than Crowbar Collective's version.

Aww, the houndeyes got spooked by the controllers :(

Props to the cameraman who placed his camera inside xen just to take this beautiful video!

This is the BEST Xen incarnation. Cold and Hostile like HL1's yet full of life like BM's

"Impossible to describe with our limited vocabulary."

I can say without a doubt that I feel the same the same amazement and surprise along with pure desire of experiencing this as the people that first saw James Benson's trailer for the first Half Life years ago. You're spot on on every thing you do man. Keep it up!!! ❤️❤️❤️

that floating dead guy at 0:27 really freaked me out

Amazing... Nobody would believe that this was firstly inspired by a videogame from 1998.

Aww man, I love the Zen Atmosphere seen in both HL1 and Black Mesa, there's something so cool about the skyboxes present in them. It's also quite nice to see that you built a Zen Scene, I really like it.

Amazing work dude..

Those chapter screens for HL3 are looking amazing! ---- Looked very much inspired by Dead Space aesthetics, what with the muted colors, spacescape and the floating body, and oh yes it fits. Feels very different from Black Mesa's version of Xen, much colder, spacier and hostile, more alien. Can't wait to see more!

I like the inclusion of the planet. It may seem contradictory, but the idea that normal physics _and_ funky Xen physics are at play at the same time really adds to the whole _"What the f...."_ feeling.

It definitely captures that feeling of cold hollow-ness that I love about HL1 Xen, though I'm not sure what's up with the planet in the background.

this is much better then black mesa, really nails the original half life vibe thats incredibly hard to recreate

This is some really good eye candy

I have nothing to say other than this is just stunning, really brings out how alien Xen was.

I have set this entire video as my background, and I couldn't be happier with life.

Getting some very heavy Petrichor V vibes from Risk of Rain 2. Beautiful. Alien. Deadly.

It makes sense that creatures adapted for Zer0-G, Low-G, or variable-g environs (but still lower than Earth gravity) would resemble marine life.

I love the H.E.V suit reference here: 0:24

a wallpaper engine adaption for this would be awesome

Now I wondering what Tripmine Studios' interpretation of Xen looks like.

That is a true masterpiece... It really gives me creeps... Well done mate!

I like how sinister but natural is feels. so cool!

Thanks for adding the houndeyes in your vid there my favorite xen species to oberseve at

I like this. It has the detail of Black Mesa's Zen while retaining the sickly brown colors the original HL1 Zen had.

Awesome, I love the final detail with one of the big boids being teleported.

Perfection! One small thing though: the green light from the teleport wouldn't reflect off of the far asteroid, especially if there's no reflection on the one the camera sits on.

Holy cow 10 second in and I'm amazed

The majority of this is Source 2? I'm honestly amazed. Shows what, with a little bit of Post production is possible. What an incredible step up from Source 1, wow!.

Everything about this is amazing, the little details, the description of Xen, the creatures, the luscious layout, and more. You’ve outdone your self @theparrygod

Ohohohohohoh!! The atmosphere and direction of the video is amazing.

woah, this really feels like OG Xen because of how quiet and...dead it feels. more of a collection of floating rocks than a nation or empire. Even if Xen may or may not have been a rushed effort, you took what valve did in the games and made it inospitable and truly unnervingly alien.

Woah. I love this. The way it's in space, yet clearly doesn't seem to care and has its own thing going on. The details, such as the lighting of that teleport at the end showing on the distant islands, or the larger creatures' movements actually throwing particles and floating rocks around. The way the creatures interact, such as being scared of the alien controllers. How the flora is more animal or fungus than plant, not spreading across the barren rocks but more just being singular growths in their spots. The strange shapes of the rocks with those massive spiked pillars reaching only in two directions, and the web-like formations between them. The way this place both has no gravity and still retains a single plane everything aligns to, and some creatures simply retain gravity altogether. The fact that the rocks are clustered around the larger islands, clearly having been pulled in by simple mass as any free-floating objects will, and show how some have moved apart from each other in the trails they leave. The way air resistance and sound transmission seem to still be a factor in some ways, and not in others. The fog in the distance, which makes the farther islands and creatures somewhat hidden by the haze. Amazing.

This is the exact middle of Black Mesa Xen and HL1 Xen. Very nice work!

this is flippin' awesome

My word. This was well done. I relly liked this!

"Worlds stretched thin across the membranes where universes... Intersect..."

You deserve the budget and resources for an hour+ long film. Fucking magnificent.

Crowbar Collective's approach to Xen was really nice, but yours is a much more precise interpretation of what Xen was supposed to be like from the get go. Terrifying, dark and yet so beautiful. What a wonderful work of art have I just seen!

I do admit, I like the idea of this Xen better than Black Mesa's. It's like Xen is the cancer dimension, you really wouldn't want to be there. However, I also prefer the giant enemy citadel from Black Mesa since it gave the entire Xen part of the game an overarching goal to focus on. It would be neat to combine the two ideas together. Also, I'm not sure if those planets in the background work for the scene. Their presence seems kind of "normal."

I like this better than Black Mesa's weird neon jungle and Half Life 2 puzzles.

Those synth Manta Rays being teleported away felt really unnatural, because in the game enemies never teleport away from us. And that made me thinking - there are no special teleportation sites in Xen, where aliens would gather before being teleported, because Nihilanth simply doesn't need them. His control over teleportation is so strong that he can open a portal next to any creature and in any place in his domain. If only such level of local teleportation was available to either humans or the Combine...

Without a doubt beautiful work! When the controllers came up, those were actually frightening to see just patrolling. I will say the planets feel kind of out of place. With Xen being the border between dimensions, I imagine the reason for the floating islands is the same reason we have an asteroid belt. Two massive entities gravitational pull keeping things separated. Regardless, amazing work!

Atmospheric Alien Dimensions

This is an actual work of art. This video tells a story of a world not meant to be with signs that humans have been there. This is absolutely incredible man.

If somebody created a Source 2 version of Black Mesa. This would probably be the Xen used in that said version.

With all the call backs ParryGod makes, we are no doubt going to see that Manta come back later on lol

This is really cool, love the sound design

this is amazing ill set this as my backround probably

Pretty cool stuff bro you really captured something.

Amazing like all your other static Camera SFM this will be added in my android and Computer live wallpaper playlist. I hope to see more of this kind of SFM, - The citadel on alert scenery in Half Life 2. - City 17 before street war - Episode 2 destroyed citadel with portal storm these 3 could look so nice with your style. Amazing work as always

These video just never stop amazing me unreal talent. Keep it up man, its inspiring to see this stuff!

YOu know what this sounds like? a mixture of deep sea microphone recordings and the sounds of saturn