I think this was great! I already relayed that in person to
@'77 East and
@Appetite Ruining Kebab, but as far as "official" feedback goes, I can only say that this was a really nice little experience.
The Xen-adjacent atmospherics were incredibly well built, and more often than once did I notice a looming structure or crystal in the distance and go "holy crap that's fucking massive". Although Source as of late has really liked to blow out every color possible for me, it didn't negate the visual fidelity by that much. Some of the crystals - due to the sunlight hitting them - effectively became pure, headache-inducing white, but that's not really something you can fix on the fly anyways.
I also liked the callbacks to Black Mesa, and while my character wasn't able to pinpoint the origin of the "BMRF" acronym, or the H.E.V. suit, I liked it a lot. What I liked more, though, is the cameos of X-8973 and R-4913. Incredibly nice touch.
I'm one of the opinion that, as long as the dialogue is written well and serves to enhance your understanding of what's going on, it's got a place within reason. In pressing escape once or twice, I managed to spy the (in the chatbox blocked) /op chat, and saw some worries about it by the event-runners; I think, personally speaking, it's fine as long as it has a point -- and I didn't think it overstayed its welcome here.
East's directed emotes were an incredibly nice touch, especially as we reached the end of the event. The slowly building dissonance and insecurity from witnessing what very well might have been her own death in another timeline and the holes in her memory being confronted gave me some interesting ideas, moving forward. I'd probably have accepted the Vortigaunt's offer if my character wasn't predisposed to hating them, too; I think that entire little exchange in the device's holding chamber was really nice.
The subsequent battle felt tense, as well; both the emote fight and the ensuing S2K afterwards. I packed relatively heavy, but by the time we reached the Kingpin to return home, I was down to about three reserve pulse cartridges and, like, one battery. The directed emotes during the closure were a nice, hard-hitting crown for the rest of the event: I enjoyed every moment of it, especially for its runtime.
