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I’ve been looking forward to playing the Half-Life expansions because up until recently, I had never played them before and I’m a big fan of Half-Life. It was an innovative shooter for its time and it still holds up. The first expansion is Opposing Force and I feel it’s quite good. A bit on the short side but fun and it features some cool new content. The next expansion is Blue Shift and it’s another tale set during the events of Half-Life but from the perspective of a security guard. Developed by Gearbox Software and published by Sierra On-Line, Half-Life: Blue Shift was released for PC in June, 2001. A version for the Dreamcast was in the works and from what I understand, it would have included higher detail models and textures, but it was eventually cancelled. The new models were included in the PC version and can be applied to Half-Life and Opposing Force.
The story puts the player in the shoes of Barney Calhoun, a security guard at Black Mesa, and shows his perspective of the events of Half-Life. When Barney reports for duty at Black Mesa, his first assignment is to repair a malfunctioning elevator. While in the elevator, the incident occurs causing massive damage to the facility. Barney survives and as he fights his way to the surface, he learns of scientists planning to escape via teleportation. I really enjoy the concept of seeing the events of Half-Life from different perspectives and Blue Shift is easily the weakest story in the bunch. I fully expected it to tread familiar ground but it doesn’t do anything new or interesting, it’s extremely short and I found the experience to be underwhelming as a whole.
I guess I would say Blue Shift conveys a similar atmosphere and tone to that of Half-Life but it doesn’t do anything interesting with the security guard concept. Opposing Force put you in the shoes of a Marine and backed it up with some unique features that give the player at least a some kind of sense of a military theme. Blue Shift doesn’t do anything like that. I guess the helmet and vest is supposed to be it. But considering the mechanics are identical to that of Half-Life, it doesn’t really feel different or unique. Oh, and the training room is exactly like Half-Life’s but with a new holographic guide and new dialogue to make it feel like it was designed for security personnel.
The new models are the big new thing here and while they do look nice, they don’t really carry the experience. Blue Shift does not include new weapons or enemies. In fact, it gives you a limited selection of Half-Life’s weaponry. Things are more detailed, weapon models have been updated, a Beretta replaces the Glock, assault rifle replaces the SMG, some character models have been changed, and new sounds were given to certain weapons. Personally, I really enjoy the new models and I absolutely love the assault rifle and the muzzle flashes that come with it. It feels awesome to fire and sounds beastly when fired.
Unfortunately, new and updated visual content is all Blue Shift really has going for it as far as I’m concerned. If you strip that away, it kind of feels like watered down Half-Life. All the mechanics from Half-Life are present here. Barney cannot equip an H.E.V. Suit. Instead, he can equip a helmet and vest which serve the same purpose. But this also means he can’t use H.E.V. Chargers to replenish power or armor. The game is structured just like that of Half-Life and Opposing Force. You go from level to level with load points to separate them and the plot is advanced through dialogue and by seeing and listening to what’s going on around you.
There are no new enemies in Blue Shift. You’ll fight the soldiers and aliens from Half-Life. That’s it. This also means no new bosses. In fact, there’s no bosses. You move from level to level, solving puzzles, and blasting away foes. You will meet a specific NPC at some point and work with him for a time and I did encounter a bug where he was leading me to a destination but then decided to stop and turn around just before we got there. I decided to follow him back to wherever the fuck he wanted to go and after he finally stopped, I was able to get him to follow me. Apparently, it’s a known bug that’s been in the game for years.
To me, the level design feels in line with that of the previous campaigns and I honestly found some of the puzzles here to be pretty clever. As expected, the levels flow nicely together, helping to immerse the player into the world and narrative. Most of your time is spent at Black Mesa but you will go to Xen at one point. You don’t spend as much time there as you do in Half-Life but you spend more time there than you do in Opposing Force. However, I did find Xen to be more pleasant here. More pleasant to navigate, anyway. The level design is pretty straightforward, more so than the Xen levels of Half-Life and I can’t say any part of it ever felt frustrating.
I would say the presentation is the real highlight of Blue Shift and that’s only because of the new and updated visual content. Personally, I love the new models and I apply them to Half-Life whenever I play it and I even applied them to Opposing Force. Other than that, Blue Shift looks and sounds like Half-Life. And it does feature a pretty awesome soundtrack with some great tunes to compliment the action. On the technical side, I did not encounter any issues.
Blue Shift is okay. I don’t hate it but the lack of new content is what really brings it down. It’s just more Half-Life with better looking models. I understand the weapon changes are subjective and may turn some people off. Personally, I like the new and updated weapons but since all the HD stuff can applied to the previous games, there’s nothing left to make Blue Shift stand out. Considering it comes from Gearbox Software, the same developer that brought us Opposing Force, I’m a little surprised it’s not better because they can clearly do better. I think Opposing Force proves that. I enjoyed my third trip through Black Mesa and feel some of the puzzles are clever but there’s really nothing exciting or interesting about this campaign that we haven’t seen before. It’s just more of the same.
I would only recommend Blue Shift because you can get it for cheap. It sells for about five bucks on Steam. It’s a short and underwhelming expansion that comes from a developer that can do better. It treads familiar ground, doesn’t do anything interesting and lacks new content. The updated visuals are nice but are not enough to carry the experience.