Gene Worm

"Listen, you've got to get down below. There's something coming through and it's the nastiest-looking thing yet. Some of your buddies went down there awhile ago, and I haven't seen them since."

- Security guard

The Gene Worm is the final boss of Half-Life: Opposing Force, and the most mysterious of the Race X aliens. This life form is the equivalent of a "biological resource management factory." It is capable of taking any of Earth's natural resources and assimilating it to make them useful to the aliens' needs. If one fully entered Earth and became productive, it would effectively alter the planet enough to become useful as a new homeworld for Race X. However, this was never shown in action.

Overview
Physically, the creature resembles a green, worm-like creature with many tentacles and a beak-like protrusion similar in both shape and position to that of the Xen Tentacle. The Gene Worm attacks with its tentacles and also ejects a deadly chemical stream from its mouth. Its outer hide is impervious to damage; in order to kill it, the player must blind the creature by shooting both its eyes with the mounted laser guns on either side of the worm. This causes it to summon reinforcements by opening its abdominal cavity to reveal a portal orb that a Shock Trooper will teleport through. The worm's weakness is by firing any gun at the rear of this stomach cavity; It should be noted that the portal orb itself is not vulnerable. When the Gene Worm "dies", it sinks back into its portal, but not before emitting a "portal storm" into the room, similar to the one that occurred as the Nihilanth died.

The Gene Worm is found deep underground in a seemingly abandoned industrial area of Black Mesa and appears through a portal opening powered by Sprites in a room there, apparently either unwilling or unable to fully enter this world, most likely because of the minuscule size of the portal behind it in proportion to the Gene Worm's presumably immense size and length. The room itself has been fitted with mounted weapons which are powered by Xen energy crystals. The player character, Adrian Shephard, is sent down to the portal by a Black Mesa security guard, who remarks "Some of your buddies went down earlier, and I haven't seen 'em since." These soldiers were only able to set up the mounted weapons before their unseen demise, although nothing is seen of their remains, possibly indicating they may have been "processed" by the creature.

Criticism
Some players have noted that the Gene Worm is one of many video game bosses which are considered boring and unrealistic to fight, due to the fact that the materials to do so (such as the laser turrets) are already there for the player to use, instead of something they need to find further back or discover.

However, there is still some direct combat involved, such as shooting its stomach cavity or using the Barnacle gun to cross the broken catwalk.

Trivia

 * The Destroyer, an enemy featured in the Gearbox game Borderlands is remarkably similar to the Gene Worm, in the sense that it has many tentacles, has an eye which needs to be shot in order to kill it and the fact that it appears through a portal. Worth noting is that Gearbox developed Opposing Front, and The Destroyer may actually be an intentional reference to the Gene Worm.


 * The Gene Worm somewhat resembles the fictional Shoggoth creature of the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life: Opposing Force