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?
Loved Opposing Force and Blue Shift. Back when expansions were their own games.
Seeing the different perspectives of the same timeline was super super cool to me. loved being able to see Gordon on the cameras haha.
Also loved the characters crossing paths, that was amazing to me. If I recall correctly you pass a security officer on the way in in HL, which is the starting point of Blue shift
i’d like to imagine that people who don’t know about OP4 {and Blue Shift, to an extent.} are people who aren’t really familiar with Half-Life either. i’d argue Decay is the most obscure of the official campaign expansions, since it officially only released on the PS2 port of HL1.
my personal fascination with the HL expansions is the fact they kinda influenced the modding scene by inspiring people to make numerous mods that are about “reliving the Black Mesa incident, but you are [INSERT PROTAGONIST HERE].”
i haven’t touched it since like before xp came out… never had it installed on anything past 98 or win2k here.
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 jumped into Blue Shift for the first time easier this year before playing the Black Mesa: Blue Shift mod.
It’s fucking awesome (both versions)
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!
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
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?
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.
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 never played it but I haven’t played half life 1 yet either which I plan to do as my next game. I’ve only half life 2.
Also give black mesa a try. It’s a half life remake, very high quality. If you have the time do both.
Yeah it’s the main reason I plan to play Half Life 1. I feel like I’ll be able to appreciate Black Mesa more if I go in with the background of Half Life 1 to see all the graphical improvements and work they put in to recreate levels.
I replayed it on Deck a month or two back… And then Blue Shift. Still in my library from when I bought the Orange Box pre steam and then eventually registered it with my steam account
It’s always been a lesser known side game.
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.
I only recently finished black mesa and then HL 2, and just finished episode 1 last night I will start episode 2 soon. I’m loving it . it is much more enjoyable and engaging than so many games today.
I plan to give the others a go once I finish episode 2.
HL Alyx has me wanting to get a VR kit just to play that. Maybe in a few years.
Alyx was fantastic and is the best VR game ever made, also. You’ll enjoy it when you play it
Thats great to know. It sure looks great
Seconding the recommendation. Alyx is the only really amazing experience I’ve had in VR.
