Half-Life: Opposing Force

The Good
One of the great dreams of computer entertainment software was the ability to tell the same story from completely different viewpoints. Few games (or otherwise) have truly attempted such (the interactive fiction piece 'Madness of Roland' is one of the few to come to mind). Half-Life:Opposing Forces (HL:OPFOR) does this very thing - in a first person shooter environment of all things. And it does it well.

In the original Half-Life, you played Gordon Freeman, a scientist caught up in the catastrophe at the Black Mesa research labs. Your first goal was to make it out alive, which was hampered by the introduction of a U.S.M.C. detachment sent in to clean up the mess...including Freeman. In Opposing Forces, you play one of those Marines and get to experience the same timeline all over again, from another point of view. Although you rarely tread the exact same ground, the team did a wonderful job of making you feel like you 'just on the other side of wall' from the previous games events. Freeman even makes a quick visual cameo (he's mentioned a few times as well) and players from the first game almost find yourself rooting for him out of memories. Sympathies develop for the Marines you might have feared/loathed in the original and hatred for the manipulative man in black continues to grow. The experience makes the world of the first game come alive and truly seem three dimensional.

As you play a military man and not a scientist, you would assume that the game would emphasize combat and it does this well. You have squadmates with various skills whom you'll utilize in various situations. Although they don't seem to have the determined team work of the leathernecks you faced as Freeman, your fellow Marines will often play smart (although usually outgunned) and are a little more effective than the 'extra firepower' the guards provided Freeman in the first one. The array of weaponry has been increased as well, although many have subtle differences as opposed to the dramatic variants first person shooter fans may seek. Surprises and trying to gain the tactical high ground make their way into the action.

The emphasis on combat lessens the reliance on jumping puzzles and such. You are required to make some fantastic leaps, but compared to the first game, they're both considerably less and much easier. Your trips to Xan are rare and mostly self-inflicted, so you can avoid the low gravity platform leaps in an alien environment that most people found distateful at the end of the original. It appears that Valve listened to their customers when designing OPFOR.

As in the original, a story carries the carnage as you race about the complex and is on par with Half-Life for its ability to tell the story through both short conversations and visual presentations. Few recent games have done so much with presenting a tale without going into lengthy cut-scenes or long diatribes. In Opposing Forces, Valve proves the talent they showed in Half-Life wasn't a fluke.

Although low in polygon count, the graphics in the game more than do their job in presenting the world around you. Games like Unreal may be prettier, but at times you may find yourself appreciating the way the Valve manages to capture the realism of an area. The base feels real and even though you can't explore the whole thing, between the wonderful architecture and little peaks they give, you get a feeling of there being a complete installation, instead of abstract, connected levels.

The Bad
Even though it's almost as long as the good, non-Xan parts of Half-Life, OPFOR feels much shorter. Granted, the timeline of this game needs to fit within the originals, and you don't arrive in that timeline until a third of the way in, but fans of the original will find themselves wanting more in the end. As OPFOR is an add-on, this is understandable on a logical level, but you can't help feeling like there should have been more.

It's nice to work with fellow Marines, but it's often frustrating that they deliberately force you to move on without them, either because you fall down some hole they can't follow, jump over some obstacle they can't, or they just stop moving up with you. In most cases, I assume the designers figured your buddies would've been killed off by these points, but if you're careful, you can keep them alive. Having them stop and mill around takes away both realism and the feel or truly operating with fellow grunts you want to keep alive. This happened in the original as well, but since your primary goal, as the only one in a suit, was to escape to get help, it made sense that you left people behind temporarily. Here it doesn't work as well.

The emphasis on combat can lead you to 'can't win' scenarios because you wasted ammo early on. While restoring battles isn't as frustrating as for jumping puzzles (and actually can be fun to try to tackle a situation differently, it can get tedious.

The final boss is more interesting than Half-Life's, but the ending is once again unfulfilling and ambiguous. This works for leading into a sequel and fits the mystery and uncertain mood of the tale, but most people like some closure and 'victory dance' for their final win, not an anti-climatic scene.

The Bottom Line
If you enjoyed Half-Life, you'll enjoy this variaton on the tale. See the Black Mesa facility from the viewpoint of the Marines you once feared and try to complete your mission and learn even more of the base's many mysteries. As you'll need Half-Life to play, you may want to play the former all the way through first, as the two games interlock on a grand level and compliment each other. Those who hated the jumping puzzles of the first game will be happy to note that the Corps. apparently doesn't train frogs.

The Good
I'm still bedazzled to see how this game was so spitted upon and said to be like a easy-to-earn on fame of Half-Life crap. This is not true! Not for a second. I stand to the thought that this add-on is equally interested as Half-Life was a year before this mission disc came out.

For those who remember Half-Life (and who doesn't, right? ;) they know that after that lab explosion, strange and unknown portals started to open, and you, as one of renowned scientists, had to find the way out of this hell-bunker better known as Black Mesa government secret facility which was way beneath the surface. The reason I liked this game so much is for the story -- it was the first FPS that actually gave you time for adventuring beside just shooting around (by the time, I didn't play Outlaws which is definitely one of the first shooters with great story, not to mention soundtrack). And eventually, when you finally reached the surface, the fire was open on your fella scientists, guards and you. All points that soldiers for some reason got the orders to shoot at anything that movies, no matter if it's human or not. Now that was a turnover. And now, you're one of those soldiers that you probably kill o'plenty in the original Half-Life.

Time resets, and the game starts as your team of elite soldiers are approaching to the surface of Black Mesa facility. All of a sudden, you see some alien flying 'ship' destroying neighbouring helicopter. Soon after, your own was hit by something unknown and you find yourself on solid ground. That's where you enter the top level of Black Mesa research facility. You see couple of your team members dead, and a scientist trying to revive them... or what's left of them, anyway. Not knowing the surroundings (well, of course that's unfair 'cos you know the whole building inside-out from Half-Life, hehe), your only goal is to stay alive until next orders.

The whole story, which by the way happens same time as the original Half-Life story when you played as Gordon Freeman, is now through the eyes of a soldier, a corporal Sheppard, and no matter how much things can be familiar here, it's a whole new set of everything, and you'll soon discovers that he didn't just see all the same stuff Gordon did. For your fun, only a few basic weapons will be the same as in Half-Life, the basic gun, shotgun, and machine gun, other weapons are all new, with emphasis on many alien weapons that will quite surprise you with their usage. The music is like in a prequel, only a few time appears when it's supposed to be 'suspense' and lasts like 30 secs or so, but with great sound and atmosphere in the game, it looks even more real.

Now, if you're playing a good-guy, and are familiar with the story of the original, you won't have to shoot innocent scientists and/or Black Mesa guards, as some of them will even be more usefully alive, especially for opening some doors and stuff like that. Actually, I think you can even stuck if you kill a guard that needs to open a door for you, so you'll sometimes have to protect him and clean the way to safety for him. But now you'll have much heavier fire support, as soldiers with lower rank can accompany you, and some of them have pretty much great firepower. Also, there are medics that can heal you or the other soldiers, but not with infinite medkits. And engineers can use their blowtorch to cut through some solid metal doors but as medics, they're only armored with a pistol so protecting them can sometimes mean saving your own life.

Most of aliens you encountered in the original are the same, with same way of attacks, but there are some additional that Gordon was lucky to pass them. But additional aliens stand for additional alien weapon arsenal, so now you can find alien ice-gun which will pretty much freeze every foe, or if you remember those tentacles that are hanging from the ceiling waiting to grab on something, you'll have a piece of equipment which you'll be able to use to glue on some harmless alien lifeforms and by that, whip yourself to the other side of the pit or whatever, like we only had the pleasure to encounter in Indiana Jones related games. Also, there will be some heavy automatic weapons and guns, or you can just grab some mounted turret and wipe out the incoming threat on global scale :)

Also, when you played as Gordon Freeman, you fought many enemies that weren't alien lifeforms. Now, you'll see it's not only military that gave you the headache, as those sniper terrorists and unknown soldiers will face you in this game as well. Only now you may be able to find out a bit more about that. Oh, and sweet for the last, as much as it was easy (once you know how to do it) to kill the big bad alien in the Half-Life, the one here is even more dangerous, but can be eliminated in merely few minutes once you figure how :) If there's a thing I like, that's the easy (but hard on first look) end.

The Bad
Let's see, since they managed to make a simple add-on with the quality and playability as the original Half-Life, I think that speaks for itself. Usually, add-ons are something to make money on, and don't have much of a story or new stuff. This game, however, is filled with new stuff, new aspects of playing, new strategies, new foes, new weapons, new tracks and the whole new story. I don't care if they ever make Half-Life 2 or not, but I'm pretty happy to play as many as they make add-ons if they will keep the same quality as this one, or the Blue Shift which I'm looking forward to encounter :)

The Bottom Line
If you liked Half-Life and the story seemed short from that side, try this game and see what was happening for some poor military corporal who got into even nastier positions and traps then our fella scientist. You need original Half-Life game to play this add-on, so it's assumed you already like Half-Life game (as far as I know, whoever played it liked it so far) so this extension will be like extending already short time of the original game, and with more new stuff then you imagined add-on can have. This isn't just a simple extension with kill-all-on-screen strategy, but brings you complete new point of view and complete new story. It's as if this game was the original, and the original Half-Life was an add-on, it wouldn't be much of a difference, so if you like HL, play it, if you weren't too keen on HL world in general, skip this one and try Deus Ex or something else.

The Good
When Half-Life was released in 1998, nobody couldn't predict the real revolution the game started in the FPS World. As Doom, Half-Life was one of the best FPS in all times. So, an add-on was released in 1999, followed by a stand-alone, Blueshift, where you're playing Barney Calhoun, a security guard. Being in 2008, you already know what happened to Gordon and Barney. But what about the hero of Opposing Force?

I'll refresh your mind about the three heroes of the first HL trilogy, set in the Black Mesa Era. Gordon Freeman is a scientist, working for a research center called Black Mesa and without willing it (the same can apply to the majority of his friends), triggered the opening of a portal leading to another world, called Xen. You're discovering that in reality, some scientists did know about Xen and that perhaps, it was planned to have an invasion. Gordon became the only hope for stopping it and having become a killing machine - for survival -, whether it was aliens, Marines or Black Ops, he was suited for the job. Barney Calhoun, a security guard, was working this day. Well, he did not know what or who started this bloody thing but he became an hero by fighting against the aliens and the Marines but only for a few survivors. He was also suited for some dangerous missions given by Professor Rosenberg in order to make work their only chance to escape the center. And finally, you have another hero, who fighted against aliens and Black Ops but who understood that killing guards or scientists wasn't a way for finding an exit to this hell.

This hero, it's the corporal Adrian Shepard, USMC Marine, affected to the HECU unit, specialized in anomalous threats. He's sent to Black Mesa with one goal: kill Gordon Freeman. But his plane was ambushed by aliens. He's the only survivor of his unit. He have to find a way to reunite with others Marines. And when he finds one, well, he's trapped into Black Mesa. Now, it's a matter of survival and finding a way to escape, him, his friends, the scientists and the guards of Black Mesa. What happened to him after is currently unknown. Thanks to G-Man (well if someone wants to strangle him for having taken the bad habit of putting persons in stasis, I give him or her my support).

Being a Marine, even if you have some common weapons found in Half-Life, like the shotgun or the MP5 grenade launcher, you have also the pleasure to see your weaponry increased with a Desert Eagle, a wrench (instead of the crowbar), a sniper rifle (instead of your trusty crossbow), a Barnacle (yep, it's a weapon now), an alien grenade launcher (Daddy's pet), the Displacer (allowing you to go to Xen), a chaingun, a Shocktrooper arm (instead of the Hornet Gun) and a knife. These additions are actually refreshing: Displacer have a good design, the alien grenade launcher and the Shocktrooper arm are fun to use and last but not least, if you love big chainguns making damage, well, you'll be happy.

There are also new enemies or rather a new race: the Race-X, which is difficult to say if they're siding Xen's side or if they're battling against survivors (including Marines), Black Ops and Xen in the same time. You will fear the Pits Drones or the Voltigores (these ones are pretty difficult when being adults). As for the Shocktroopers, well, you will not really fear them but you'll be jealous to see their weapons with unlimited ammo when yours is limited to ten electricity discharges. For the Giant Worm and the final boss, well, as usual, you need to figure a plan to take them out because your weapons had no effect on them. As for the Black Ops, if the female version is still present (you know, the fast women in black), the male version is making an appearance: he has heavier weapons, making him slower than his counterpart but that also means that he can inflict more damage.

That means also new allies: your fellow guys, medic, engineer, soldier but also what the first Marines in Black Mesa were ordered to kill: scientists and guards. Now, it's a matter of cooperation.

You'll perhaps recognize some places (Black Mesa Inbound, you know, your trip in the tramway at the beginning of Half-Life or Lambda Core) but you'll discover others facilities. And shoking truths.

Graphics are still good, despite having more than 10 years of age. Even if it's sometimes angular, you find pleasure to making your way in this environment.

Soundtrack is also as good as HL's. Yes, it's more a military tune but don't forget that you're in the skin of a Marine. I loved the music before fighting the final boss, it was so intense and non-military that it's still one of my favorites tracks for Half-Life.

You don't have the flashlight but you've an infrared vision but sometimes it's not practical, especially when you're in Foxtrot Uniform, in the sewers, fighting against adult Voltigores.

The gameplay is a good one, so why change it? It's Half-Life..., that means shooting, doing some specific actions for progressing and sometimes, well, you have to be careful at what you're doing if you don't want to be blown.

The Bad
Well, first thing, ladders are still dangerous to climb down. It was the case in HL and it's also the same complaint for BlueShift. So, Opposing Force, being between these two stand alones, didn't correct the problem.

Second thing is the disappearance of the crossbow for a sniper rifle (well, loving the sniping feature, I'm happy to see that it didn't disappear from Opposing Force but the crossbow is a much cooler than the sniper rifle) and more shocking, of the crowbar, the trademark for Half-Life. Well, if you see it in 2008 as a crime, in 1999, I doubt that was really considered as a bad thing. Myself, having played Opposing Force at that time, I didn't considered the change of weapons like a traitor action. Also, the crowbar is associated with Gordon (and in a less measure, with Barney) as Adrian is associated with another set of weapons...

Some players will complaint about the poverty of new enemies. Yes, we don't have to kill anymore Marines. But we got new aliens and new Black Ops. It's an add-on, not a stand-alone sequel like BlueShift (who is a good example of not adding stuff although it was needed in 2001) or Half-Life 2. Anyway, I'll complaint about the adult Voltigores who are my nightmare when I'm playing Opposing Force (well, I don't play it now but I've bought Half-Life Anthology for making it work with Steam AND XP and I can tell you that my fears from 1999 were back. It's like the spiders in Tomb Raider II - I'd play it now that I'd still do nightmares about it).

Another negative point is the Friendly AI. They have the nasty habit to go kill themselves when you're trying to tell them to follow you for being in security.

Well, I already can hear complaints about the GoldSource engine and its angular graphics. In 1999, it wasn't a problem, it was really a top engine. As I've previously stated, you can have fun with these graphics. It didn't bothered me when replaying Opposing Force, as I'm an Half-Life fan having played the game at the time of its release. So, replaying it years later hadn't making me "puke" when seeing the graphics. Anyway, I had perhaps needed to readjust to graphics (like playing Doom after years of "next-gen" graphics).

Like a lot of add-ons, Opposing Force is shorter than Half-Life (it represents 1/3 of the lifetime of HL). But it's surely long enough to keep you attentive till the end of the game. And some passages are difficult (the level Missing in Action is a fine example, as the World Collide one).

The Bottom Line
Sorry about not reviewing the multiplayer mode but well, I'm not really interested in it (apart for Team Fortress 2). That said, I'll give you my bottom line.

Half-Life Opposing Force, despite its age, is one of the best add-ons never released, like Battle Out of Hell is for Painkiller or Extraction Point for Fear. You must have played if for enjoying the Half-Life Universe and understanding the mod for HL2 The Awakening as Adrian Shepard is the hero. Valve promises us that Adrian will appear in the HL2 era but we're still waiting that G-Man pulls him out of stasis. He's the last of the trio Gordon-Adrian-Barney. HL2 will not be complete if you don't have the three heroes from Black Mesa reunited for the last fight against Combines. It would be a great symbol for the Earth, no?