Despite the fact I've loved the first Half-Life for a long time I'd never given any of the others much of a shot until now. I played Opposing Force and then Blue Shift, and while I could write about each my feelings on both are intermingled to the point that I think just one of these will suffice.
 |
Opposing Force's title screen is on the left, Blue Shift's is on the right.
Given how familiar I was with the original game, I really enjoyed how each of these was basically a repeat of that, running through similar (or in some cases, the exact same) locations that Gordon did. Opposing Force has you in control of one of the soldiers brought in to contain Black Mesa while Blue Shift puts you in the shoes of one of those expendable security guards you'd run into.
Opposing Force adds some new weapons and even a weird alien grappling hook(!) while Blue Shift is a more straightforward retread of the original game. Seeing those locations again from a new perspective honestly reminded me a bit of Resident Evil 2 and that made for a fun time.
 |
| Opposing Force replaces the flashlight with this green "night-vision" filter, I thought that was a neat touch. |
The puzzles in both games are... obtuse and I found myself lost pretty often, but I can't remember whether Valve's game was less confusing or if I'm just too familiar with it to remember my initial playthrough.
One thing I did really like about Opposing Force was its reliance on AI buddies. Sure, this was an element of the original game as well but there are extended sequences in Opposing Force where you're expected to cart around one or two other soldiers and it added to the feeling of being someone with an army behind them as opposed to Gordon's lone-wolf thing.
All in all, these were enjoyable riffs on the original game but aren't doing anything groundbreaking. I still liked playing them though.
Comments
Post a Comment