By the time you get to TSE it feels like the game has already surprised you enough that it has to play a bit zanier to keep getting you, like wackier secrets and stuff like the Christmas level, but it still manages to escalate appropriately sometimes. Either way the "joke" is still present. (2/3)

Yeah that’s one of ‘em!!!

Sometimes a joke is worth examining just to see what it can tell you about jokes.

I feel like Aperture being a competitor to Black Mesa makes more sense in the context of this first game. Maybe it's just because it's more clearly a modded HL2, but Aperture behind the scenes feel more industrial and less techno-magical like 2. Or maybe it's just the giant pistons that do nothing.