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.
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!
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
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…
Which feels a little wild to someone who was “there at the time.” Op For was the one that got the praise at the time for having the cool new weapons and interesting new enemies and such, Blue Shift had normal Half Life weapons, basic armor pickups and I guess some cool level design. Plus I think there’s still backlash against the HD models that came with Blue Shift.
I think it got easier to dismiss the Gearbox expansion packs as non-canon when basically the only thing they kept from them was Barney’s last name.
It may be The Algorithm reacting to my search history but when it shows me Half-Life content it’s often centered around Half-Life 2 or Portal. I don’t get “Cut unreleased content from an old build of Opposing Force.”
I think one thing that might be a factor is, Op For and Blue Shift don’t pose more questions than they answer. Half-Life still has some mystery to it, there’s a lot of intrigue to it, people want to know more about the setting.
Tangentially related note: I had an idea for a video game but no one will ever make it. You almost have to glom onto an existing project. Imagine a normal open world sandbox game like GTA 4 or something, and the normal game is there, but if you pay close attention some of the NPCs are a little weird, and if you follow them there’s a WHOLE OTHER, BIGGER STORY.
Problem with that is you have to make an entire game to hide the “real” game in, and what you want to bet it would be found by people going through the game files rather than playing.
So a From Software DLC, basically?
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’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.
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 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
i haven’t touched it since like before xp came out… never had it installed on anything past 98 or win2k here.
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.
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.
Yes, the two HL1 expansions are every bit as well known as the original HL1. Everyone knows about them.
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 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
I remember mostly liking it. More than HL1. I don’t remember much beyond the bootcamp and how you could use your squad.
