Half-Life: Blue Shift

aka: Bantiao Ming: Lanse Xingdong, HL: BS, Half-Life: Guard Duty, Hλlf-Life: Blue Shift
Moby ID: 4376
Windows Specs
Buy on Windows
$0.74 new on Steam

Description official descriptions

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.

Spellings

  • ハーフライフ: ブルーシフト - Japanese spelling
  • 半条命: 蓝色行动 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 戰慄時空:關鍵時刻 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

127 People (99 developers, 28 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 68% (based on 42 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 134 ratings with 9 reviews)

Should have been cheaper but worth the money if you don't have Opposing Force yet

The Good
-Excellent update towards the graphics area in Half Life, which has been lagging being in the recent years with the release of Quake 3, Unreal Tournament and Tribes 2.

-New Point of View in Half life which makes Half life, a trilogy now.

-Half Life inspired and original ideas for puzzles.

The Bad
-Little too short in my taste. The story could have been easily expanded. It took me not much more than 5 hours to finish the entire game.

-Overly expensive, considering it's a) has only new single player additions b) no multiplayer mode of its own and nothing really new except for the new MP5/M4 model and the new High Definition Graphics Pack.

The Bottom Line
Overall a decent game to buy. Won't bring like over 50 hours of gameplay (or something like that) like Half Life did but it will bring you something to bring you back to the days of fustrations on how to solve this @&*(# puzzle.

Windows · by Rebel_lord (38) · 2001

Short, but overall good

The Good
Blue Shift has more story then Half Life, describing and neatly ties up many of the loose pieces left by the original game.

The High Definition package is a welcome sight, updating most models and sounds for weapons and characters to become more detailed and realistic.

The level design is quite good as well.

The Bad
Too short. A normal gamer can complete it in no more then 4-6 hours.

The Bottom Line
Well....

My final judgment is that any Half Life fan which would like to know more about the background for Black Mesa, the alternate universe, and the (wormholes?) transporters, should get Blue Shift. Tough I advice playing the original Half Life first, to get the most out of it.

Windows · by Stargazer (99) · 2002

quality rather then quantity

The Good
I liked this game because it answers some of the questions left by the previous two half-life's and generally ties up the loose ends. The new high definition is highly impressive with new weapons sounds and models and generally a better experience.

The Bad
Well almost every review on this game has picked this up it is very short (took me 3-4 hours max to complete).Also there are a few plot inconsistencies other than that this is pretty good.



The Bottom Line
Well if your looking for a totally new half-life experience then your probably best getting opposing force.However if your just want to visit the half-life universe again this is the game for you.

Windows · by connor steven (4) · 2004

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

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 Force**s. Also, they couldn't use the real name as EA still held the rights.

Information also contributed by NGC 5194, Sciere and Zovni.

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Related Sites +

  • Blue Shift UHS hints
    These hints give you nudges before the final solutions are revealed so you can solve the game on your own.

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  • MobyGames ID: 4376
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by frin.

Linux, Macintosh added by dukat.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Foxhack, JoonaZZ, Litude, Paulus18950, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Plok.

Game added June 25, 2001. Last modified January 19, 2024.