For a quick 'nugget' that was very informative, and I completely agree. The half-life example resonates with me especially; that brilliant opening chapter was ALL about putting those places in your mind and humanising them so that when the resonance-cascade did blow everything to buggery, you were all like, "Shit! That npc said 'Good morning, Dr Freeman' and now he's being ripped apart by eldritch creatures! Fuck!"
However, one caveat. Some lazy game designers take this 'revisiting areas is fun!' idea too far, or too literally, and have you backtrack through a linear level, (where things have slightly changed [usually through the addition of harder enemies]) to achieve some random extra objective, often with a time-limit attached. Example: every level of every halo game ever, but mostly the first one. This is not fun. It is the opposite of fun.
However, one caveat. Some lazy game designers take this 'revisiting areas is fun!' idea too far, or too literally, and have you backtrack through a linear level, (where things have slightly changed [usually through the addition of harder enemies]) to achieve some random extra objective, often with a time-limit attached. Example: every level of every halo game ever, but mostly the first one. This is not fun. It is the opposite of fun.