Years have passed since the Black Mesa incident. Since then, things have gone to hell. People are being killed by the millions by a force beyond our comprehension, the world is in absolute chaos, destruction washes over like a roaring sea of agony, and the human race is closing on it's demise. Absolute doom is inevitable, and all hope is lost. But none of that matters, because you've been awoken from your slumber, and you're REALLY pissed about it.
Having lava that just instantly kills you is kind of lame in this context, and it felt really weird to have the player just take damage while walking across it.
I couldn't really figure out a good way of dealing with it, so I turned to other games for inspiration. I had recently replayed Paper Mario, and I remembered that in that game, if you fall in lava, it takes some health and launches you back out of it. It just felt right to have, so I added that instead. It feels really good and really adds to the video game-iness of the whole experience.
very super mario 64, maybe unironically even add a smoke trail like in that game
you know, i was thinking the same thing, but wasn't sure if that was too far