Black Mesa - Interloper
Black Mesa Interloper is actually good, the 'I got bored and decided to make this' rant.
So like... you jump through the Lambda Core teleporter and are greeted by this absolutely stunning skybox in Xen, and towering in the distance is the Nihilanth's lair, the 'Interloper Tower' as I like to call it. And you spend a good couple of hours moving your way slowly across Xen towards it.
Until you're finally standing at the base of this absolutely massive megastructure. Journey less than half over because you've still got to climb it.
And the god damn chapter makes you feel that climb. That's always something I've felt HL2s Citadel lacked, its like 8 kms tall in lore but it does not feel like anything other than a skyscraper, which after towering over you for much of the game is so anticlimactic. Like yeah the Super Gravity Gun is nice but the tower don't feel like the behemoth its supposed to.
Interloper does, and it is glorious. It's a slog as you slowly push your way up, as the Nihilanth throws all these forces at you trying to stop you from ascending, and you're burning through your ammo until, when you're close to running out, you come across the Gluon Gun recharging crystals and it goes wild. The tower itself is an absolutely amazing bit of worldbuilding too, it's like a massive living organism with technology sewn into it, enslaved by the Nihilanth to produce Alien Grunts like everything else in the factory.
And you climb, and climb. Reach the elevator and ascend, you can feel Nihilanth's desperation as you get closer. You're hurting, and tired and running on fumes but its a battle of wills between the two of you as to who will crack first.
Until you, at long last triumph, and are standing at the top of all that, overlooking everything you've come through over the last third of the game, conquering the tower. The catharsis of this moment would simply not have worked if the tower was half that height. Without the struggle the payoff is nothing.
This chapter is good, and I only wish the Citadel was like it. Imagine getting stocked up by Barney right before entering the Citadel, only to slowly burn ammo ascending through the Combine's manufacturing plants, going up past Striders and weapons and up to ships. And then hitting the confiscation field just as your ammo is hurting. And then bam, Super Gravity Gun. And then the catharsis of finally reaching the top and knocking Breen of the pedestal you've fought tooth and nail all the way up.