10 Totally Out-Of-Place Levels In Awesome Video Games
5. Xen - Half-Life
Half-Life is undeniably one of the most ground-breaking and influential video games of all time, with about 90% of its action unfolding at the sterile Black Mesa Research Facility.
But in one of the game's final chapters, players are transported to the alien dimension known as Xen.
Xen is entirely unlike anything else seen in the game up to this point - its geometry is composed of free-floating platforms, while low gravity allows Gordon to leap large distances.
As a result, players are forced to complete some frustratingly fiddly platforming in order to progress onward, and while the level is a brief one, it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the game whether you dig its atmosphere and aesthetics or not.