Blue Shift was actually... good

[MJ12]

I haven't played it in about 3 years, but I was thinking about it today. It was actually very enjoyable, maybe it's just because I'm such a Half-Life geek.

But there was something about it that I really liked, the atmosphere was kinda different, I was almost legitimately creeped out at some parts like when you had to go to the lower levels to find something to bring it up on a lift or something... it just felt more realistic in a way than HL and it was a nice side story, taking the perspective of the average Security Guard.

You just felt more..... alone, which was a good eerie feeling.

Anyways, I can't remember, did you get a crowbar in the game, or was it something else?

 

[MJ12]

Yeah, I kept thinking "did you get a night stick instead of a crowbar???" lol, I don't have it, borrowed it from a friend a long time ago. Might buy it on Steam for my B-Day or something, I think it's only like 10 bucks, not bad.

 

[Barnz]

Blue Shift is greater than Opposing Force in many ways. Here are some good reasons to play it:

-Interesting puzzles, clever crossovers.
-Modern Black Mesa theme & (level) design (and generally original). Xen part is also looking good.
-Dr. Rosenberg, and more information about the teleportation experiments.

Edit: Don't get the Steam version, it's ported by Valve.

 

[SamuraiKenji]

Well if you are willing to spend 100 bucks or so you could get the Valve Mega Pack or somethin like that
Has all the steam games on it(at least all the ones that have to do with HL)

 

[MJ12]

Edit: Don't get the Steam version, it's ported by Valve.

I don't understand?

 

[Barnz]

Standalone Blue Shift, which was designed for Sega Dreamcast is using the earlier version of the Half-Life (GoldScr) engine. The version on Steam is using the vanilla Half-Life engine (it's ported by Valve, not Gearbox) and has tons of bugs.

 

[MJ12]

damn.... it's only 5 bucks too... that's really tempting, you're sure it's not worth the steam version?

 

[Barnz]

I guess you can live with the bugs.

 

[MJ12]

I would figure it has the same ammount of bugs as HL:source, cant be too bad.

 

[ellimanest]

You get the Crowbar in Blue Shift definatly, I played it recently.

 

[Xendance]

I guess you can live with the bugs.

wtf?

I never experienced any bugs with it. It was fine.

 

[kupocake]

Old Retail HL keys got you Blue Shift for free, which is great because even my rabid enthusiasm for Half-Life was never enough to actually buy this expansion. It was ok, but hardly fantastic.

 

[ríomhaire]

My Steam version of BS has the elevator bug, ie, the bug where using lifts kills you. This can normally be avoided by jumping but the first level of BS just happens to have a scene where two scientists ride a lift with you. The two scientists explode and you get a mission failed screen. Never had any problems with my non-Steam version.

 

[Asknoone]

Blue Shift is very hit and miss. It's marred by some extremely shoddy design (Xen vents anyone? Horrendous sewer level?). But I think the general concept – security guard teams up with scientists – is far better executed than say, Opposing Force, which I think did a really crap job of telling the Black Mesa incident through the eyes of a marine. Also the final chapter, where you go down the elevator into the industrial place, is really quite awesome.

 

[MJ12]

Xen Vents? I do not recall this.

 

[Asknoone]

Basically horrible, tiny tunnels in Xen.

 

[kupocake]

Basically horrible, tiny tunnels in Xen.

To be fair, Half-Life 1 has these as well, though Xen is hardly anyone's favorite Half-Life area anyway. They're just a larger network is Blue Shift.

And yes, it was clever to have the last 1/3rd of the game centered around a single sub-facility of the Black Mesa complex. Op4 and Half-Life had done a good enough job of telling the story of an oversized Black Mesa, so it was nice to have a small team you returned too again and again. They were hardly the biggest personalities, but it was a step in the right direction.

 

[MJ12]

So I played it again, and I did not realize you can find snarks in a secret area. Too bad it's so close to the end of the game they are pretty much pointless.


(also, where is that famous easter egg in blue shift?)

 

[Absinthe]

It was alright. OpFor was far more fun though.

 

[highlander]

I like Opfor better, blue shift was okay though.

 

[99.vikram]

I have never been more let down by a Half-Life purchase than with Blueshift. It's mostly a recycled HL. The only memorable areas were the train yards and the generator area.

 

[Iliketobenaked]

Old Retail HL keys got you Blue Shift for free, which is great because even my rabid enthusiasm for Half-Life was never enough to actually buy this expansion. It was ok, but hardly fantastic.

Thats exaclty how I first I got steam i had the Jewel case for BS laying around and I read about steam a few and how bad it was blabla The CD-Key gave my Blueshift HL1 and OF


ever since then <3 steam

 

[Azner]

So I played it again, and I did not realize you can find snarks in a secret area. Too bad it's so close to the end of the game they are pretty much pointless.


(also, where is that famous easter egg in blue shift?)

Beginning in your locker. Get the pistol from the armory upstairs and grab all the ammo you can from the shooting range. Open your locker in the locker room and you'll see a box, waste all your ammo on it.

Also, i have never unexperienced any bugs while playing Blue Shift

 

[Druckles]

It's mostly a recycled HL.

Any half-life is a good Half-Life in my eyes. The new levels and point of view kept me interested for another couple of hours. While I wasn't as nearly impressed as the other two, I certainly enjoyed it more than some of the Half-Life 2 mods flying around nowadays.

 

[stintage]

Blue Shift is greater than Opposing Force in many ways. Here are some good reasons to play it:

-Interesting puzzles, clever crossovers.
-Modern Black Mesa theme & (level) design (and generally original). Xen part is also looking good.
-Dr. Rosenberg, and more information about the teleportation experiments.

Edit: Don't get the Steam version, it's ported by Valve.

STFU! opposing force was way better,blue shift was still good though

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I have never been more let down by a Half-Life purchase than with Blueshift. It's mostly a recycled HL. The only memorable areas were the train yards and the generator area.

Begone, heathen!

I would so much rather play through Blue Shift than OpFor. Blue Shift ruled.

 

[McGooTheWise]

Blue shift, for me, was too short. OpFor had a ton more action and scary parts (sewers full of vultergores anyone?) than Blue Shift did. Blue shift was pretty cool to play on the first level before the shit hit the fan, but then I just felt like I was back in HL again, playing some mod that just came with different maps and puzzles that were related to the old ones... At least half-life's puzzles let you get a clue of what you were to do. I remember one BS puzzle that got me for about 2 days cause I just couldn't tell wtf to do. (I was 8 years old, shut up.) Apparently you were supposed to realize that this broken wire leading to a pile of dynamite had a hole in it big enough for one of the barrels in the room to magically conduct the spark to the other side of the wire... Not particularly scientifically accurate, but what the hell, it's a game... but damn that was a hard puzzle (For an 8 year old.)

 

[MJ12]

Beginning in your locker. Get the pistol from the armory upstairs and grab all the ammo you can from the shooting range. Open your locker in the locker room and you'll see a box, waste all your ammo on it.

Also, i have never unexperienced any bugs while playing Blue Shift

awwww cuuuteee

i thought there was another one as well, like in a vent, like a picture someone made in one of the vents? or was that HL?

also, isn't there like a spot you can find those toads at on Xen during blue shift, like under some rock?

 

[Operational]

The version on Steam is using the vanilla Half-Life engine (it's ported by Valve, not Gearbox) and has tons of bugs.

There is always this
http://www.hl-improvement.com/downloads.php

It converts Blue Shift into a Half-Life Mod (rather than a stand alone game) which allows it to use the more stable and updated Half-Life engine instead of the buggy Blue Shift one.

 

[Slayer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTTsAbF8S3I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKGJcPhACwE&feature=related

 

[nutcrackr]

tiny xen vents sucked which is partly why blue shift was so mediocre.

 

[Trevelyan]

Any half-life is a good Half-Life in my eyes. The new levels and point of view kept me interested for another couple of hours. While I wasn't as nearly impressed as the other two, I certainly enjoyed it more than some of the Half-Life 2 mods flying around nowadays.

This for me.

 

[kupocake]

The thing that kills me about Blue Shift is that Gearbox decided to waste time in such a short-lived game on a sewer complex. That's the video game equivalent of making fun of George Bush on a satirical news show ('Say, that George Bush has been in the news recently! Hohoho'). It's not new, it's not clever and everyone else has done it already (HL and Op4 have sewer sections too), so why waste development and play time on it?

 

[hl_grunt]

The two scientists explode and you get a mission failed screen. Never had any problems with my non-Steam version.

Why do I find that funny? XD

Opposing Force, which I think did a really crap job of telling the Black Mesa incident through the eyes of a marine.

I have to agree - I think that opposing force sucked because they made you work with scientists and you mostly played alone, without any mission objectives. I think it would have been 10 times cooler if you had to waste all the scientists and the guards. I think it should have failed your mission and ended the game whenever you left a scientist alive Also, it would have been a lot better if your squad followed you - from level to level. Kind of sucks that whenever there's a vent or a roof that you have to climb up that means that you have to leave them behind...

Apparently you were supposed to realize that this broken wire leading to a pile of dynamite had a hole in it big enough for one of the barrels in the room to magically conduct the spark to the other side of the wire... Not particularly scientifically accurate, but what the hell, it's a game... but damn that was a hard puzzle (For an 8 year old.)

I remember that. I, too, nearly gave up with frustration when I could not figure it out. Who knew that rusty barrels could perform such feats.

Also, I liked blue shift, mostly for the parts where you fought marines. The fighting that occurred on the stairs was CRAZY first time around.

 

[kupocake]

I have to agree - I think that opposing force sucked because they made you work with scientists and you mostly played alone, without any mission objectives. I think it would have been 10 times cooler if you had to waste all the scientists and the guards. I think it should have failed your mission and ended the game whenever you left a scientist alive

I also think the 'Bad Soldier is just Good Soldier' thing wasn't that great but I think that a game spent killing Scientists and Barneys wouldn't have been that great either, and is probably a lot worse. The biggest problem is that Half-Life had a very shallow portrayal of the HECU to build up from: they were plain evil soldiers who shot unarmed civilians under orders alone.

Whilst I think it would have been awesome to have Scientists who fought back like Freeman* and to have really justified the HECU's genocidal hatred of them (exploring the 'Questionable Ethics' of science at Black Mesa rather than brushing over it in a sort of 'Oh Science Team, when will you learn!' kind of way) - all perhaps instead of the Race-X bullcrap - it really wouldn't have worked in the cartoon-style Half-Life 1 universe.

Given the material, I think Gearbox did all they really could with it: let the player decide for themselves what their role is in the very early chapters (You can pretty much waste most scientists you encounter) though heavily suggesting you should side with them, and then letting other conflicts take precedence so that working with the Black Mesa team makes sense.

* Wasn't anyone else disappointed to see that the one pocket of resistance at the Lambda complex was just a single unarmed guy and a bullet-proof room? Where were the barricades in the warehouses with the jumpy but heavily armed security guards and HEV wearing but tired science types? Considering that the toughest enemies in the Black Mesa were in this section of the base, how the hell had this even weaker defence stayed above water?

 

[Ms. Red]

I wasn't sure where to post this & remembered reading this thread a couple days ago. I just started Blue Shift yesterday. I found an Easter Egg in the chapter "Captive Freight".

I realize someone posted YouTube vids on the easter eggs but I wanted to post my screenshot anyway. This freaked me out when I saw it:

 

[Jkilla92211]

Blue shift was all right but it was really short and the only reason there wasn't much of the truth told about black mesa in opfo was because the marines weren't supposed to know about what was going on they were just supposed to cover up then die by the black ops which would have made an even better exp pack if you were them

 

[TugruL]

I wasn't sure where to post this & remembered reading this thread a couple days ago. I just started Blue Shift yesterday. I found an Easter Egg in the chapter "Captive Freight".

I realize someone posted YouTube vids on the easter eggs but I wanted to post my screenshot anyway. This freaked me out when I saw it:

Shit that's scary.I think you should use spoiler tag or something

 

[Ms. Red]

Shit that's scary.I think you should use spoiler tag or something

Thought of it & figured I'm the only HL nerd playing Blue Shift for the first time a decade after it's release.

 

[Vaun]

Never had any bugs in my steam version of BS, except i cant get custom models for guns working (but i have high-def pack installed and cant find a guide on installing custom weapon models for hl1)

The game wasnt as good as hl1 or opposing force, but then again it was probably the lack of the superscience pwn-o-matic weapons, and it was incredibly short.

Also, if you want kickass scientists in HEV suits, theres a mod out there with that, but i cant remember the name, though i remember koume satou (spelling?) working on it.

Thanks to the developer wiki, i found the name: Sweet Half-Life (SHL for short).