Blue Shift

[kineaesth]

Okay, so, I've just finished. Therefore I have now played every HL game, except for Decay. To be honest, I was dissapointed. When I got around to downloading Op4 and playing through, I wasn't at all unhappy that I did. It seemed a worthy angle on Black Mesa, and had some pretty awesome weapons, enemies and battles, as well as good plot and some cool G-Man stuff.

Blue Shift, on the other hand... I don't know what was up with it. It seems the entire point of the game was simply to

Spoiler

get in a teleport, and leave the central Black Mesa compound.

And that's not even much of an achievement. There was no final battle to speak of, no big hurdle to overcome, and very few weapons. Is this because, after all, Barney is just a security guard?
I'm not sure, but at the end of it, I was left wanting for something more. A real story line, a real challenge, a real point.

Wah. Maybe because I have flu? I don't know. Any other viewpoints on this?

 

[kineaesth]

How is this the wrong forum? And, what you said is true, but I'm talking about the game, and the story here. I mean, it's by the same people as Op4, so I was expecting it to be of similar quality, but... Well, see first post.

 

[Tuskin]

I enjoyed Blue Shift.

 

[CyberPitz]

I could never get through it completely...I was so bored

 

[Evo]

OpFor -> Blue Shift

Loved 'em both though

 

[Rapstah]

Blue Shift was the reason Decay was never released for PC.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Blue Shift was awesome. The end.

 

[Asknoone]

Blue Shift was better than Opposing Force in the sense that it avoided dumb-ass weapons and crappy as hell new enemies. Unfortunately, it didn't really nail the atmosphere as well as Opposing Force, and can feel somewhat drab and at empty at various points. The worst sin it commits is that goddamned horrible mother ****ing sewer level.

 

[leib10]

I could never get through it completely...I was so bored

I have problems with it too. I found it uninspiring, with few things we didn't do in HL, and too short. Of all the full-fledged games and expansion packs, Blue Shift was my least favorite. Sure, OpFor had cheap weapons and enemies and an abominable final boss, but at least it had more interesting gameplay and better environments IMO.

 

[Cheomesh]

What about this sewer level?

I need to buy the anthology and get myself the original and both xpacks back...

 

[ríomhaire]

Blue Shift was better than Opposing Force in the sense that it avoided dumb-ass weapons and crappy as hell new enemies. Unfortunately, it didn't really nail the atmosphere as well as Opposing Force, and can feel somewhat drab and at empty at various points. The worst sin it commits is that goddamned horrible mother ****ing sewer level.

I've always though the same, about OP4. God I hate that level in OP4 with all the damn voltigores and pit drones.

I liked Blue Shift, it's short, but it's good. It's also the only Half-Life game with a truly happy ending. Too bad the elevator bug makes my Steam copy of BS unplayable without cheats (I never had that bug with my non-Steam HL games, but it's really bad in my Steam-versions. And I lost all my originals D=)

 

[Xendance]

Its always the second time round you enjoy something.

I hated Blue Shift at first, but the second time was completly awesome. Must play it again soon.

And what riomhaire said, it has a happy ending which I find great.

 

[Asknoone]

I've always though the same, about OP4. God I hate that level in OP4 with all the damn voltigores and pit drones.

Eh, I didn't mind that too much. The sewer level in Blue Shift has goddamned headcrabs placed in the players path and that's ****ing it. Hatehatehatehate

 

[knut]

I loved Blue Shift. The game really shines when you get to towards the end and you meet up with a group of survivors/scientists. Love finding surivors in these types of games, and then having to go into the generator complex underneath the facility was awesome.

 

[Asknoone]

Yeah, I loved...Power something. Great chapter.

 

[Iron_cube]

How can you manage to complain against new content? :O

Whenever a generic gamer buys an expansion, he expects the game to be in the same context as the original, but with different settings, weapons and foes.

New content comes before the storyline development in their point of view, thats mostly why alot of people complained about ep1 being very low on new content (which is kind of untrue, if you're a modder).

 

[Pinkle]

Blue shift is ****ing awesome, what the hell is wrong with you people. I love it when shit starts hitting the fan,

Spoiler

and that one part where the cart/car thing comes flying out of the tunnel and crashes

. I actually started playing this again the other day, since I finished HL again.

 

[ríomhaire]

Yeah, I loved...Power something. Great chapter.

Power Strugle. Good good chapter.

 

[Que-Ever]

This is wierd. I used to think everybody but me hated Blue Shift. Maybe that was planethalflife.

 

[Asknoone]

You are not alone.

 

[Absinthe]

BS was mediocre. The problem wasn't the lack of new content (which was regardless disappointing after OpFor). It's that it just felt like a retreading mission pack. Episode 1 made up for its absence of new content because it introduced new gameplay scenarios and tricks mainly via Alyx and differentiated itself from the previous game with distinct differences in setting. If one had been dropped in the middle of BS with no point of reference, there's a good chance many wouldn't be able to tell it apart from the original HL.

 

[Cheomesh]

I liked that there wasn't any "kewl new l337wtfpwn weapons" in Ep1. We're in the same place we where in HL2, so we should see the same stuff.

 

[leib10]

New weapons does not equal good gameplay, but on the other side of the coin one or two new ones should be introduced in a series to spice things up a bit and to provide new challenge for the player. Same thing with new enemies.

And in Episode Two, it looks like we're going to get a little of both.

 

[A True Canadian]

I didn't find Blue Shift to be all that great, but that's likely due to me playing the Azure Sheep mod beforehand.

[YOUTUBE]MvSJcXRHdm0[/YOUTUBE]


That being said, my view of Blue Shift has actually been more positive as the years go on. Currently, it's the only Half-Life game that I've completed in one sitting. That's not so much because of it's length but because of the pacing. It's also due to the fact that the levels in the game get better as you go on. Unlike the other games where the levels tend to sag towards the middle, Blue Shift starts off with the mediocre levels in the beginning only to get better in quality as you progress through the chapters. At least that's how it was for me.

 

[Absinthe]

I liked that there wasn't any "kewl new l337wtfpwn weapons" in Ep1. We're in the same place we where in HL2, so we should see the same stuff.

I agree, but then Ep1 succeeded IMO because it offered new and unique experiences in other areas, whether it was Alyx covering with sniper fire and reprogramming rollermines, getting tossed into the citadel, or simply getting a big hug that did ****loads in terms of developing meaningful relationships with NPCs. The fact alone that you had a persistent, competent accomplice for most of the game alone was extremely refreshing.

Blue Shift, however, was just a collection of levels in almost the exact same vein as the original Half-Life.

 

[Asknoone]

Absinthe you can't leave now you're here.

 

[leib10]

I agree, but then Ep1 succeeded IMO because it offered new and unique experiences in other areas, whether it was Alyx covering with sniper fire and reprogramming rollermines, getting tossed into the citadel, or simply getting a big hug that did ****loads in terms of developing meaningful relationships with NPCs. The fact alone that you had a persistent, competent accomplice for most of the game alone was extremely refreshing.

Blue Shift, however, was just a collection of levels in almost the exact same vein as the original Half-Life.

Good post.

 

[Cheomesh]

Yup. Loved everything though I do wish that when she "reprogramed" stuff, she actually had an animation tinkering with it. Zapping stuff to fry locks is fine.

Also, if she can get combine forcefields to go down, why is it that I had to go fine a powerbox to get past human electronicly locked doors? Why couldn't I just shoot the lock open...

 

[Xendance]

I just played Blue Shift from start to finish in 2.1 hours according to my SteamID.

That was awesome. Loved it all.

 

[Stene]

Azure Sheep mod seriously beats Blue Shift in everything, the story, gameplay, sequences and all.

Blue Shift was quite lame, I waited it for long when it was getting released, and when I bought it straight from market and played, it felt stupid. The sewer level that has been mentioned was truly horrible, seriously. And there were nothing new. Basically, just laundry scientists and Otis were new.

Opposing Force had the new enemies that were quite good, though those Antlion-family Voltigores where really stupid, aswell as the BullSquid-like running dudes.

Those blue large Vortigaunt-like creatures where nice.

 

[Cheomesh]

Blue Shift was good for story I guess. Tells us a bit about Barns, who is a great character.

 

[Xendance]

And I just worked it out (correct if wrong)

2.1 hours = 2 hours 6 minutes...

D:

 

[Rapstah]

Azure Sheep mod seriously beats Blue Shift in everything, the story, gameplay, sequences and all.

Blue Shift was quite lame, I waited it for long when it was getting released, and when I bought it straight from market and played, it felt stupid. The sewer level that has been mentioned was truly horrible, seriously. And there were nothing new. Basically, just laundry scientists and Otis were new.

Opposing Force had the new enemies that were quite good, though those Antlion-family Voltigores where really stupid, aswell as the BullSquid-like running dudes.

Those blue large Vortigaunt-like creatures where nice.

AZURE SHEEP? Seriously! All that did was take the weapons that were there, change their models, do the same thing with NPCs and add them to a series of crappy levels where you had to escort a NPC that was biologically impossible.

STFU.