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.

Additionally included in the Blue Shift package (US version only) is the previous expansion is Half-Life: Opposing Force.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "戰慄時空：關鍵時刻" -- Chinese spelling (traditional)
• "半条命: 蓝色行动" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
• "HL: BS" -- Informal abbreviation
• "Half-Life: Guard Duty" -- Working title
• "Bantiao Ming: Lanse Xingdong" -- 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

User Reviews

Good game, but could have been better	Windows	Katakis | カタキス (39520)
The Making of Barney Calhoun	Windows	vicrabb (7299)
More Half-Life to feed your craving.	Windows	Steelysama (106)
Short, but sweet	Windows	Trixter (9128)
Perfect asset to fit the trilogy.	Windows	MAT (179127)
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

Armchair Empire, The	Windows	Jul 06, 2001	8.7 out of 10	87
GameStar (Germany)	Windows	Jun, 2001	78 out of 100	78
Game Chronicles	Windows	Jun 25, 2001	7.6 out of 10	76
PC Action	Windows	Jun 18, 2001	75 out of 100	75
Game Over Online	Windows	Jun 17, 2001	74 out of 100	74
Shooterplanet	Windows	Feb 12, 2005	73 out of 100	73
GameSpot	Windows	Jun 08, 2001	7 out of 10	70
GameSpot (Belgium/Netherlands)	Windows	Jun 13, 2001	63 out of 100	63
Super Play (Sweden)	Windows	Jul, 2001	6 out of 10	60
GamersMark	Windows	Dec 01, 2001	5 out of 10	50

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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.)