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?
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 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?
Barney was a security guard not a janitor.
Shit you’re right. Sorry, got a mad flu. Fixed
Also not a squash.
Lmao
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 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
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
Me browsing Lemmy, finding this post
You’ve got three guesses!
That aside, I remember back in the day that Op4 received a lot of praise from fans, while Blue Shift was considered by many to be underwhelming. I love them both, but I always thought Blue Shift was the better game. Op4 might be longer and more full of new content, but it’s also all kind of thrown together, playing very loose with the universe. Blue Shift was, by comparison, short, clean, well told, and nailed the setting and gameplay. To me it feels like a very Half-Life game, whereas Op4 feels more like fanfic, like the most impressive single player Half-Life mod ever made.
Hah that Konsole theme is sick as fuck, wp my dude!
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].”
New POV: The vending machine getting robbed by Otis.
I would be surprised if its not a mod already.
i haven’t touched it since like before xp came out… never had it installed on anything past 98 or win2k here.
Decay probably would be remembered better if it wasn’t exclusive to the PlayStation port of the game for most of its existence.
People liked Blue Shift more? I’m not sure I finished it…
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)
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 remember mostly liking it. More than HL1. I don’t remember much beyond the bootcamp and how you could use your squad.
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.
Yes, the two HL1 expansions are every bit as well known as the original HL1. Everyone knows about them.
