This game always fascinated me as a companion piece to Half-Life. It cemented some things in the HL lore that have just become accepted, while at the same time existing in Schrodinger’s canon.
I’m considering giving it another playthrough and taking notes. How many people have actually played it? How many people who weren’t gaming when it released have actually played? Is there any interest in it?
Yes, the two HL1 expansions are every bit as well known as the original HL1. Everyone knows about them.
To me Blue Shift and Opposing Force were both fun experiences. Played all games several times. They provided more Half-Life when the craving after finishing the main game had not been satiated.
I played all three back in the day. They were all good. Blue Shift wasn’t as engaging as the first two, as I recall. I still have it on the shelf, I’ll play it again and see.
It’s always been a lesser known side game.
opposing force will always be cemented in my mind as “where gearbox came up with their final boss”. borderlands was pretty underwhelming as a result.
i haven’t touched it since like before xp came out… never had it installed on anything past 98 or win2k here.
I remember that at some point in the game you activate VALVE and GEARBOX switches at the panel, that was a good one, but other than that I can’t recall it. I played it right after doing HL1 at max diff, so I probably went into it and found this expansion not balanced towards that thus dropped it half way in.
I actually liked Opposing Force and Blue Shift better than HL1 back when they were still new. Recently I thought I would play through them all again, but I only made it a little way into the original before I quit. Going back to old mechanics is not generally enjoyable for me. Or maybe I should have just skipped HL1 and gone directly to the ones I liked better. To be fair, I skipped ahead to HL2 and am still struggling to enjoy the dated mechanics.
Dude play Black Mesa! It’s a modern remake of the original Half Life but with a new and improved Xen at the end. I played Opposing Force and Blue Shift back in the day but barely remember them. I’d love to replay those games.
Edit: https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/ It’s on sale for $5 right now. Also it runs decently in Linux, when I played it would crash every 20 minutes or so in some sections, I think there is/was a memory leak or something.
Thanks, I’ll check it out!
A second vote for Black Mesa. I played HL1 and Black Mesa back to back, and BM was way more enjoyable!
I played it and Blue Shift way back when. I don’t have a lot of specific memories of the levels or story. At the time I was just happy to have more Half-Life to play, and I enjoyed it.
I liked how in Blue Shift you play as the security gourd yet there’s more puzzles in it than the one you play as a scientician
Barney was a security guard not a janitor.
Shit you’re right. Sorry, got a mad flu. Fixed
Also not a squash.
Lmao
That was definitely a bold design decision, but I’m glad it paid off for Gearbox. Never before had I played a first person shooter from the perspective of an underpaid pumpkin.
No one ever said he was underpaid, but I think you and I really know an intrinsic truth about this world eh?
Be sure to play Blue Shift as well if you haven’t already. Awesome seeing it from all three perspectives.
Loved Opposing Force and Blue Shift. Back when expansions were their own games.
A fun video I actually came across recently about Opposing Force/Blue Shift. It had been years since I had thought about it.
Civvie is the best.
Aw man, I loved opposing force so much! The idea of having allies (with their own infinite ammo!) to fight for you was everything I had ever wanted in a game.
Some years ago, I decided to play all the Half-Life games and expansions available at the time after watching a video game history series on YouTube. I enjoyed them all.
