Fun fact: the ending of the 343 Guilty Spark level in halo is hundreds of feet lower than the beginning of the level, despite nearly overlapping, because there is a surprise elevator that goes down instead of up halfway through and the level never makes up the altitude.
Yeah that’s basically it, just a very video game-y thing where environments can be radically different without the player noticing. It’s just the discrepancy between where the game says ground level is.
I opened it in blender to make a better comparison, the difference between the two ground levels is about 150 meters, and close enough that it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Which is fine but it’s just kinda fun to see, like one of the VFX things where if it is a good movie you don’t notice until someone points it out.
Ah! Ok! Now I understand better. Thanks.