Half-Life: Blue Shift

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Description

Return to the Black Mesa complex in this additional Half-Life storyline. In this module, you play Barney Calhoun, a security officer working Blue Shift who is present at Black Mesa at the same time as Gordon Freeman. Your goal is to try to get out of Black Mesa alive as all hell breaks loose and reality is altered around you.

This version can be played stand-alone and also includes the Half-Life High Definition Pack that replaces most of the Half-Life/Opposing Force/Blue Shift player and weapon models and textures with updated high-res models and textures.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "戰慄時空：關鍵時刻" -- Traditional Chinese spelling
• "半条命: 蓝色行动" -- Simplified Chinese spelling
• "Hλlf-Life: Blue Shift" -- Cover / in-game title
• "HL: BS" -- Informal abbreviation
• "Half-Life: Guard Duty" -- Working title
• "Bantiao Ming: Lanse Xingdong" -- Simplified Chinese title
• "ハーフライフ: ブルーシフト" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• 3D Engine: GoldSrc
• Half-Life universe
• Standalone expansions

User Reviews

Good game, but could have been better	Windows	Katakis | カタキス (41999)
The Making of Barney Calhoun	Windows	vicrabb (7291)
More Half-Life to feed your craving.	Windows	Steelysama (106)
Perfect asset to fit the trilogy.	Windows	MAT (222026)
Surprisingly Not Boo Shift.	Windows	MasterMegid (902)
The worst parts of Half-Life with a new main character	Windows	devils102 (20)
Should have been cheaper but worth the money if you don't have Opposing Force yet	Windows	Rebel_lord (40)
quality rather then quantity	Windows	connor steven (5)
Short, but overall good	Windows	Stargazer (105)

Critic Reviews

PC Action (Germany)	Windows	Jun 18, 2001	75 out of 100	75
Gamezilla	Windows	Jul 09, 2001	72 out of 100	72
IGN	Windows	Jun 12, 2001	7 out of 10	70
GameSpot (Belgium/Netherlands)	Windows	Jun 13, 2001	63 out of 100	63
Power Unlimited	Windows	Aug, 2001	55 out of 100	55
Jeuxvideo.com	Windows	Jun 14, 2001	11 out of 20	55
Adrenaline Vault, The (AVault)	Windows	Jul 11, 2001		50
GamersMark	Windows	Dec 01, 2001	5 out of 10	50
Gamekult	Windows	Jun 12, 2001	4 out of 10	40
PC Jeux	Windows	Jul, 2001	40 out of 100	40

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Trivia

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The advertising on the back of the box is rife with inaccuracies.

• Two new episodes for "the best PC game ever" -- The Half-Life: Opposing Force add-on is not new. In fact, there are some versions of the box with a sticker on the front giving existing owners of Opposing Force a $10 rebate. This rebate, by the way, involves not only cutting up the Blue Shift box but also requires sending in the Opposing Force CD.


• Return to Black Mesa as the security guard who allied with Gordon Freeman in the original, award-winning thriller. -- There were multiple security guards who interacted with Freeman.


• 32-Person Multiplayer. Battle opponents from around the world in Capture the Flag and more Half-Life online games. -- This is misleading. While it is possible to play online Half-Life games with this package because it includes the original engine (not storyline, just the engine), there are no Blue Shift-specific games or features except for some additional levels.


• Includes the Half-Life HD Pack. Automatically upgrade all of your weapons and characters with new high definition content. -- There is nothing technically wrong with this statement, but it leads people to believe that the weapons themselves are upgraded, not just their appearance.

Barney

The name of the main character, Barney Calhoun, is a tongue-in-cheek reference to what most fans of Half-Life started calling the various security guards around the Black Mesa complex in both Half-Life and Opposing Force. The reason the fans started to call the guards "Barneys", is because they were usually slow, dim-witted, and not very helpful, which is very much like the deputy sheriff Barney on the old show The Andy Griffith Show.

Development

Blue Shift was going to be the killer app added to the Half Life Dreamcast port, specially since Sierra promised to take full advantage of the Dreamcast's capabilities to handle the new high definition models. The Dreamcast port of Half Life had been in development limbo since 1999 and was eagerly awaited by every Dreamcast owner and his sister until Sierra flushed the port following SEGA's decision to flush the console.

Freeware release

On August 24th, 2005, the full expansion was released for free through Valve's electronic distribution platform Steam for anyone that owns the Half-Life Premier Pack, the Half-Life 2 Silver package, or the Half-Life 2 Gold package.

German version

There are a number of changes in some German releases of the game:

• All human enemies were replaced with robots (not when the HD Pack is installed)
• All blood (except blood which is part of the level design) and gore effects were removed
• Killed scientists don't die but sit on the ground and shake their head
• Some cries of fear were toned down

References

In the beginning of the game, there is an arcade cabinet with the game Prax Wars. This is a little joke by Randy Pitchford. He had been working on the game Prax War at Rebel Boat Rocker for Electronic Arts, but it was never released. The extra "s" was added because people often mistakenly referred to the company as Rebel Boat Rockers or to the Gearbox game as Half-Life: Opposing Forces. Also, they couldn't use the real name as EA still held the rights.

Information also contributed by NGC 5194, Sciere and Zovni.

Related Web Sites

• Half-Life: Blue Shift (official website)
• Blue Shift UHS hints (These hints give you nudges before the final solutions are revealed so you can solve the game on your own.)