Are you serious? This had got to be the worst comparison in existence. You missed 2 million things this time because you're brain dead by the looks of it. Literally look at any other comparison and just copy them because it'll be 100 times better than this pile of garbage. Like, man, the history part was all wrong. Did you even take history class? You probably wasted your time with Fortnite or some other related trash. And while I could make a normal comment with legitimate criticism, I'm just gonna act like a 5 year old and roast you. First, your 22 thousand subscribers probably don't care about you. Heck, you probably even paid them to suscribe to you. TH-cam probably secretly hid your channel because it was physically breaking their servers. That would explain the 0 views you get per year. Also, damn, your "humor" causes headaches when watching for more than 3 seconds. OSHA probably classified your videns as a psychological hazard from the spike in hospital cases your videos brought. Anyways, Lma head out, and *not* >:) enjoy reading this.
I think the aimlessness of opposing force’s story kinda shows how scary the situation in black mesa is to any outsider. Opposing Force is like Corporal Shephard’s really shit day where he ended up getting caught up in government coverups and aliens. Also weird people in suits
Since Shephard woke up when HECU pretty much failed to covered up the incident and are now retreating, the storyline is somewhat understandsable with the confusion and pretty much no clear objective
Theres a pretty weird reason Blue Shift was the way it was, since Blue Shift was originally made for the Dreamcast port of Half Life. But due to that being canceled extremely late in development for some reason, Blue Shift was sold as its own expansion pack. It explains its short playtime and lack of new content, the team could only use content already ported to the Dreamcast. Any new content was only easy things like model swaps or a handful of sounds. So for a little side game meant to be bundled with a pretty sizable game, Blue shift is great, but as it's own expansion pack? Doesn't hold up too well when compared to the big green man
In my opinion blue shift is underrated, i like it more because you can feel the loneliness, at least in the first chapters, the few allies we encounter die. Along the way At least that's my opinion
Also the game has only one bad section (Xen maze), Op4 on the other hand has quite a few bad sections. Also Blue Shift had easily the best Xen (not counting Black Mesa) with Half-Life's being extremely rushed and confusing, and Op4's being a glorified broom closet there wasn't really any competition.
It's nice, yeah, that being said, I felt more lonely and stuff in Opposing Forces. Idk what it was exactly, but the areas felt different to Half-Life or Blue Shift. It truly felt that unlike for Gordon and Barney, it was a place I did not know. The whole thing was like a maze rather than a facility with sectors in it divided. It kept feeling like I was trying to escape while only ending up deeper into the belly of the beast. Idk, whenever something gets me feeling like I'm on that unending journey I can't escape from no matter how hard I try, I can't help but love it in a weird way
I've no idea why but the joke with Gordon changing his in game settings in Zen just caught me so off guard I laughed for a minute straight .. cause he just stands there .. menacingly
For some reason I find it interesting how Barney and Shephard weren't in action at the same time. Like Shephard woke up only after Gordon was ambushed and Barney has escaped.
I can conclude that Opposing Force focused more on gameplay and engaging while Blue Shift focused on the story and characters. Both were good on their own and I love them both alongside Decay. The entire expansion was fun for me and they all had corss-paths with HL1 in which was the best thing for me, seeing what happened on another side of the facility at the same time
Barney in Blue shift may be muted to the player, but technically he’s not. Because when you meet rosenburg, obviously he wouldn’t know that his friend Harold would’ve told him to find rosenburg. So it’s basically true that Barney does talk. Plus if we’re playing as the original Barney Calhoun, yes he does talk. The player just never hears him talk.
@@michal7137 when did this happens? Not once in HL1 Gordon have an actual conversations, he just kinda listen to instructions, for the npc to follow you, Gordon could use sign languange, or just nod his head
I honestly liked the improvements to the ai in OP4. your Allie’s no long stand around when The enemies start shooting you and enemies actually react to their Allies being killed. Not to mention the addition of Otis and his 5,000 clones. He’s the best expansion character that was added. “You just think it’s all about you.”
I really liked Blue Shift more, I think. There was something I really enjoyed about spending time before the Resonance Cascade event, just being a normal security guard mucking around doing your duties at the facility. I think the word I'm looking for might be "Immersion". It was really cool seeing the facility from a guards POV.
Believe it or not, Blue Shift is the first half-life game I played, and still my favorite of all of them to this day. Something about its pure simplicity is what I love.
Most contemporary reviews of these two expansions seemed to indicate that Opposing Force was likely an even better game than the original Half-Life, but it was significantly less groundbreaking since they were simply building upon work that Valve had already done. Also, by the time Blue Shift came out in 2001 the engine was extremely dated, and most reviewers just saw it as a rehashing of HL1 without all the cool additions that OF brought to the table, which explains the mixed reactions. It was basically no better than a lot of free mods, of which there were many quality ones by this point in time (They Hunger for instance)
Always loved how the expansion packs were named after physics terms. Blueshifting is referring to how decreases in light wavelengths often show as more blue colors to human eyes. Opposing force is a military term, but could easily be recontextualized to be referring to Newton's third law. And decay is, well, radioactive decay.
0:09 There are THREE expansion packs for Half-Life 1: Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Decay, which was a PS2 exclusive and it's been released on PC as mod on modDB a few years ago
Opposing Force's "plot" is quite genius actually. You were sent to BMRF without any intel, your orders were supposed to be given at the first LZ you touch down on. The order to basically kill everyone. Knowing that most young grunts would've refused such a job, the USMC deliberately left the truth untold. So yeah "We gotta save our OWN asses!" like one of the grunts said. Ironically, kinda similar what´s happening with the Russian troops in Ukraine right now. Most of them were either in the middle of their conscription or were called back from reserve to this "big training exercise" - and given the order to basically cross the border and kill. I heard the same happened in Chechnya and Georgia, young conscripts were sent for the big "final war" exercise at the end of their conscription. Yet they arrived in a foreign country - to a real fucking war.
What are you on? In Russian military everyone knew that they would go and fight against Neo Nazi regime in Ukraine. All of them are contractors with 2+ years experience. 176.000 troops. The only fuck up was that some fool from one region of Russia, did send those young guys who need to serve mandatory 1 year in the army before they decide if they want to serve or do something else. But that dude is in jail right now 🤷🏼♂️
@@sebastiankulche the HD pack is not underrated... it's just plain bad (except for the shotgun sounds only which you can easily replace the sd sounds with)
Blue Shift is a comfy sunday afternoon type of game. Short, fun, doesn't feel too different or out of place. Opposing Force is good but it feels like fitting a square peg in a round hole sometimes. It tried to do too much and the new mechanics/story suffered. I'm that weird guy that prefers Blue Shift.
Opposing Force is one of those games that really drags. The level design is so damn cramped. The new alien enemies also dont seem to belong to the Half Life franchise. And it has some of the most gimmicky arsenal i ever seen in a game. OF at times feels more like its making its own thing rather to being part of the series. I really respect Gearbox for making Blue Shift, Decay and Half Life 1 2001 port for the PS2, which all of them feels like they build more things into the OG engine without feeling our of place, Half Life PS2 in particular is arguably the most impressive game in the engine, but i cannot forgive the waste of potential it was OF.
Blue Shift is objectively better in many ways, including the best Xen section in the entire franchise. It also doesn't overstay its welcome. Opposing Force is cool, but it really wastes the opportunity to fully utilize the team based gameplay it made and instead of experiencing the HECU vs Xenians, you mostly fought Black Ops by the time you got a group of soldiers under your command, turning it into a generic feeling shooter where it's human vs human.
I literally had to redo the entire thing on easy because of how hard it was on normal. The black ops are so much more aggressive in opposing force. But something that gave me the most trouble (even on easy) is definitely the shock troopers and the voltigores. I remember on one section of the game I was toughing it out with 2 hp while fighting those things so I had to play tactically for a solid 15 minutes and every health pack I found was near useless because my health would be drained back down to what it was before in seconds. Though looking back on it, the difficulty of opposing force is probably one of my favorite parts about it.
@@aexonity The Voltigores are gnarly. Do you use the portal gun on them. It gets rid of them in one shot but sometimes it's hard to hit them if they're moving sideways.
@@aexonity It took me a while to figure it out. I had a tough time on the first run. Also that section at the end "Worlds Collide" That chapter is insane.
@@aexonity I played Half life on hard the first time... Did you know the female black ops can go invisible on hard mode? I was pretty mad then I found out they didn't on other difficulties
I was way more invested in the story/plot of Opposing Force. After playing as a black mesa employee for so long, I wanted to see the other side. And the fact that the entire experience is chaos and you have no idea wtf is going on, is entirely relevant to the actual position Shepherd is in. I didnt need a separate story/plot to get me engaged, this is black mesa during the incident, shits going down and its time to get out all over again. And the ending with Shepherd becoming one of Gmans agents i shat my pants as a kid playing that. I fully expect Shepherd to show up during a cutscene in HL3. I've been betting money on it for years.
I like how in both games you can see references of the other games, like how in the place where the HECU soldiers were tossing bodies into the drainedge system in Blue Shift, they say something along the lines of ''Since Shepherds squad messed up, blah blah blah.'' Also the fact that you can see Gordon walking around in both makes it better too.
You said the Opposing Force didn't have a story because it's always confusing from the start already. From my personal take, the confusing part is actually the main story. You (Adrian) a marine who were sent to a huge facility running some experiment that went wrong, your osprey got shot down without you knowing the orders. You woke up in the later of the day, a lot of HECUs started to evacuated, where as Gordon is already in the warzone on his way through the Lambda Core. Everything is very confusing, you tried to find your way out yet it's futile. The distant gunshots slowly started to fade out as everyone abandoned the place or just dead. You slowly aware about the situation; killing every witnessers of Resonance Cascade. You were torn, whether to follow the orders or just ignore them. You (Adrian) then were like "just f--k it", pick up the pipewrench, side and protect every Black Mesa staffs that you encountered and accompany some of left-behind HECU troops that are still remain there. In the end, just like Gordon; you volunteer yourself to destroy Gene worm. But unlike Gordon, you were left alone in the void and become a forgotten soldier. I wish there's modders out there who could create a mod where the protagonist is the BM scientist, didn't wear HEV (Like Echoes), but still alive on the second half of Black Mesa warzone phase, where Race X started to infiltrated Black Mesa, the protagonist encounter certain HECU that were left behind, but they turn out decide to cooperate with you to fight Race X and Black Ops during your way out. Sorry for writing some long-ass stuffs.
>Blue Shift is more of the same Half-Life, the main change in the mechanics is that you don't use battery, instead you use armor like in many other classic FPS. >Opposing Force meanwhile is more action-focused compared to the main game: Your weapons are more orthodox in their roles(Long range rifle, machinegun, grenade launcher, etc), the enemies you face are more standard in their design and behaviour(Race X and Black Ops) and more importantly, many times you are not fighting alone but instead you have a squad to help you. In other words, if Blue Shift is about "Shoot and think" like in Half-Life, Opposing Force is about "Shoot first, never ask" like in Duke Nukem.
All i can add to the conversation is that people wrongly call Shepard a "forgotten hero" while all he did is just care about himself and survive, leaving many of his fellow marines behind (which is ironic since he got left behind too) Until some random security guard tells him to go down and kill a big monster, which didnt matter anyways if he suceeded because of the nuke. Barney on the other hand, combining his strenght with Rosenberg's brain, actually escapes and saved himself and 3 other people.
@@PoProstuBoniacz yeah, but with Gordon in the original Half-Life it's a bit different. You can certainly see Gordon starting as a selfish guy trying to escape because after all, he's just a scientist, he has no reason to be fighting armies, then when he's literally called to go to Xen and save the world, he goes, that's what turns him into a hero, that he had no business doing any of that but he did. He could have given the suit to someone from security or anyone else but he didn't, he went to Xen and killed the Nihilanth. Shepard is a trained soldier and one of the best we're told, there's no reason for him to be leaving other soldiers behind and using them just when it's convenient for him. You can argue that Shepard also turns into a hero, but his journey is far less heroic than Gordon's because he doesn't start from the bottom like Gordon does, he starts from the top, goes to the bottom and kind of climbs back up at the end. Anyway, you can argue Shepard was done dirty in his story due to the limitations of the engine and how you couldn't quite carry the NPCs around, but with better storytelling a lot could have been reframed.
Hell of a review of the two most famous Half-Life add-ons! Well done man, crack sense of humor and intelligent commentary the whole way through! And, great captures of all the games to punctuate your commentary
I love rewatching your videos! I have to literally pause them sometimes because your quick-witted, satirical commentary keeps making me laugh too hard to focus; well done!
Imagine if Blue Shift just had you walking around Black Mesa doing normal security guard stuff for several hours, then Gordon arrives on the tram and the credits roll.
1:44 it taked two years because on these two years Gearbox software have been working on an SEGA Dreamcast port, but at the last minute they cancelled it because the Dreamcast died and its not on the stores anymore. Blue Shift was going to be an expancion for the Dreamcast port but because Gearbox cancelled it they realesed it on the PC. This is the story of how Blue Shift hited shelfs
I played through both Last year and I really enjoyed Opposing Force. I think it is one of the best expansions ever made. I won't say Blue Shift is bad, but I felt disappointed playing it. Felt more like a short level pack than a proper expansion. I get that it was originally a bonus unlockable for the cancelled Dreamcast port of Half Life 1, but they could've added more to justify releasing it seperatly. Hard to believe I once liked Gearbox. Then Aliens Colonial Marines happened and I learned the truth about them and greasy Randy.
I really like Blue-Shift a lot, as a game in the Half-Life universe, but more of an indie game kind, with really special cosy atmosphere, with loads of little hidden gems, funny details and (self)irony. I believe it is indeed quite an unusual experience for most of the players to try the role of a low-profile simple security--guy, quite likely with not so many ambitions, finding himself suddenly in the middle of huge events, making his way out and manning-up to save others. And as a red line through the whole story - arrogant scientists looking down at security guys and Barney as well, as useless low-lifes (starting with all those comments from the scientists about security guys before cascade, and starting with the big surprise from Dr. Rosenberg "Oh, Calhoun, you´re alive?!" in the very final scene... the mfckers been teleporting him around to save their asses without expecting him to survive as well in the end, just to do all the crappy and dangerous job. Opposing Force is really cool too, but Blue Shift is a short live lived
Fun fact. Blue Shift was a DLC for the dreamcast port of HL1. But that didn't come out, and since Gearbox didn't even release the actual half life 1 pc dlc they wanted to make (something called hostile takeover) they had to make something. So they dropped BS
I imagine grunt looking at gordon like "..." Then gordon shoots him because he's the guy on the cover , screams medic because the engine has that thing , and then goes on with life
I like OP4 a lot but here are my major criticisms: the climax is terrible, action set-pieces lack build-up, squadmates are almost useless but thats mostly a level design problem, barnacle is underused, OP4 arsenal should have taken the place of the vanilla arsenal completely.
I think blue shift is better because of the way the story fits in with the main plot of HL1, and the ending made more sense since the boss fight at the end of opposing force felt kinda forced (no pun intended). It's like they went "At this point the player has been playing for 2 hours, lets just make them fight a tough alien and end the game there". I still enjoyed Opposing force, but I would still say I prefer Blue Shift.
gordon when you are playing: bhopping shooting every "zombies" he sees. gordon in storyline: getting dragged by 2 army soldiers without doing anything. this is how games work
@@LamWarp You're right. I may have not expressed myself well. Race X's dimension is a dimension refered to as "something beyond Xen". Thus, they labeled it as "X", and its inhabitants as "Race X".
You can argue over whether Blue Shift or Opposing Force is better all you want. The real hot take is saying that Azure Sheep is better than Blue Shift or the Blue Shift we should’ve gotten.
I just loved the soldiers. Fighting them, be them, team-up with them, their weapons, their camouflage-nets, boxes, radar-equipment, tanks. I just loved the soldiers.
I totally understand why people like Opposing Force more than they like Blue Shift, but I personally like Blue Shift better. I think the difference for me is this, as a game, Opposing Force has an edge because of content, as part of Half-Life's lore, Blue Shift just fits better. The story in Opposing Force isn't really good. Shepard is mostly just doing things without direction and is constantly finding "allies" and just leaving them behind. I wasn't fond of the new aliens and they don't play a role in Half-Life's later chapters. Opposing Force plays no role in the larger Half-Life universe and even as a standalone story, it isn't that great (it's a fun game though). Basically, everything in Opposing Force can be considered canon or non canon and it makes no difference in Half-Life 2 and on. Blue Shift on the other hand tells the story of a character that's seen in the intro of the main game, works well as part of the story and Barney goes to play a larger role in the larger Half-Life story. Even if you wanted to argue that it's "not the same Barney" or whatever, it works well as a standalone adventure of a guard just trying to save himself and the few others he can in the way, and that fits with the original and doesn't interfere with the story so it doesn't need retconning. If you like Half-Life as a series telling a story, Blue Shift is just more integral to that story than Opposing Force is. That's my personal take on the two.
I mean, the army basically doesn't exist in HL2 so it's understandable why Opposing Force isn't that important lore-wise. The reason why Shepard barely knew where to go is *probably* because he doesn't know the facility as well as Gordon or Barney.
When I was really young, I played half life on my brother's computer and I remember an ending where you are with a bunch of soldiers and you're trying to launch a nuke through a giant portal door. Enemies keep coming out of it as you hold for the scientist in some inaccessible room work the nuke. He gets killed by a teleporting alien and then you have to launch the nuke yourself. I think you have to close the door after launching the nuke or you die too, but it was so long ago. You could even go through the portal into xen. Anyways, anyone able to help me figure out what that was called? I can't find any footage and I know I am not crazy.
i just finished playing opposing force and now somewhere in the middle of blue shift so i will finish watching your video when i finish the game to not spoil it for myself:D really nice content though especially i like ur humor, was quite surprised to see such a low amount of subs btw i found your vid in my recs feed
Personally I prefer blue shift because it’s basically just more Half Life, because I personally don’t like the new mechanics in opposing force very much. Also blue shift is shorter and has better pacing.
Blue Shift also adds HD models. :) Personally, while I like the concept of OP4, I much prefer Blue Shift, as it has at least some semblance of a storyline + you get to see parts of original story from Barney's POV. :)
And what about opposing force and he storyline? you can also see parts of the original story in opposing force, hsve you forgotten you literally see freeman before he runs to the portal to xen? Aside from the radio lines about forgetting about freeman, which can be heard through the pov of the soldier talking now.
Actually, Gearbox approached valve about making an expansion, not the other way around! And valve was on board from the start but pitchford ended up having to convince their publisher Sierra. Unwatchable video!
blue shift is definitely more solid and polished experience and it is friendly to half-life canon, but opfor is really fun to play even after 5th playthrough and it doesn't have long and boring dialogue, so latter is my favorite expansion
Are you serious? This had got to be the worst comparison in existence. You missed 2 million things this time because you're brain dead by the looks of it. Literally look at any other comparison and just copy them because it'll be 100 times better than this pile of garbage. Like, man, the history part was all wrong. Did you even take history class? You probably wasted your time with Fortnite or some other related trash. And while I could make a normal comment with legitimate criticism, I'm just gonna act like a 5 year old and roast you. First, your 22 thousand subscribers probably don't care about you. Heck, you probably even paid them to suscribe to you. TH-cam probably secretly hid your channel because it was physically breaking their servers. That would explain the 0 views you get per year. Also, damn, your "humor" causes headaches when watching for more than 3 seconds. OSHA probably classified your videns as a psychological hazard from the spike in hospital cases your videos brought. Anyways, Lma head out, and *not* >:) enjoy reading this.
This would explain the 12 subs you have
💀
Average half life "lore master"
Ладно
Почему американцы такие токсики.
I think the aimlessness of opposing force’s story kinda shows how scary the situation in black mesa is to any outsider. Opposing Force is like Corporal Shephard’s really shit day where he ended up getting caught up in government coverups and aliens.
Also weird people in suits
[[cue X-Files theme]]
It's Canon that none of the soldiers actually knew why they were there. So it's really fitting in universe honestly lol
"Also weird people in suits"
I know it means Gordon Freeman, but it could also mean furries😅
"A grunt that's just as anti-social as Gordon Freeman."
It's impressive how both silent guys meet each other
I mean, Adrian *can* talk, we just can't hear him
lol ukranian flag
@@jebise6656 what the hell is actually wrong with it bruh
@@jebise6656 lol russian
@@dradonie lol dradon
The beginning of blue shift is really memorable for me. Role-playing as a security guard in black mesa was pretty immersive
Since Shephard woke up when HECU pretty much failed to covered up the incident and are now retreating, the storyline is somewhat understandsable with the confusion and pretty much no clear objective
Theres a pretty weird reason Blue Shift was the way it was, since Blue Shift was originally made for the Dreamcast port of Half Life. But due to that being canceled extremely late in development for some reason, Blue Shift was sold as its own expansion pack. It explains its short playtime and lack of new content, the team could only use content already ported to the Dreamcast. Any new content was only easy things like model swaps or a handful of sounds. So for a little side game meant to be bundled with a pretty sizable game, Blue shift is great, but as it's own expansion pack? Doesn't hold up too well when compared to the big green man
Opposing foce vs blue shift rap ?
the dreamcast port was cancelled because the dreamcast was already dead
@@mcballas7288 please no
@@cleaverenjoyer you can summarize this by saying the dreamcast died before it was even launched
@@cleaverenjoyer ah, I see, thank you! I always just assumed it was because of the really long loading times
Actually, OpFor weapons are not replacements, but added as new weapons. You just don't get some of the main game weapons in the story.
True. You still can get the original weapons by using "impulse 101" console command.
@@humanbeing418 Or in multiplayer. But most of the time, the OP4 weapons are superior.
@@mehmettekeli5706 op4+*
In my opinion blue shift is underrated, i like it more because you can feel the loneliness, at least in the first chapters, the few allies we encounter die. Along the way
At least that's my opinion
Also the game has only one bad section (Xen maze), Op4 on the other hand has quite a few bad sections. Also Blue Shift had easily the best Xen (not counting Black Mesa) with Half-Life's being extremely rushed and confusing, and Op4's being a glorified broom closet there wasn't really any competition.
It's nice, yeah, that being said, I felt more lonely and stuff in Opposing Forces. Idk what it was exactly, but the areas felt different to Half-Life or Blue Shift. It truly felt that unlike for Gordon and Barney, it was a place I did not know. The whole thing was like a maze rather than a facility with sectors in it divided. It kept feeling like I was trying to escape while only ending up deeper into the belly of the beast. Idk, whenever something gets me feeling like I'm on that unending journey I can't escape from no matter how hard I try, I can't help but love it in a weird way
@@wta1518 I'd say Blue Shift has the best Xen overall. Black Mesa's is alright but honestly my least favorite or second least favorite
@@Freelancer837 Interesting.
No offense but the levels are kinda underrated and emo
Opposing force is just better. I like green.
What
I like green because it's useful for green screen.
Blue shift is just better. I like blue.
@@happywojak opposimg force is good and weapon blue sihft ez so i piay opposing foce
@@happywojak Half-Life is just better. I like orange.
I've no idea why but the joke with Gordon changing his in game settings in Zen just caught me so off guard I laughed for a minute straight .. cause he just stands there .. menacingly
Bro, ur pfp made me think tht I had a scratch on my screen
This content is not wholesome 100 chungus Keanu. Make Hudson content my slime
For some reason I find it interesting how Barney and Shephard weren't in action at the same time. Like Shephard woke up only after Gordon was ambushed and Barney has escaped.
I can conclude that Opposing Force focused more on gameplay and engaging while Blue Shift focused on the story and characters. Both were good on their own and I love them both alongside Decay. The entire expansion was fun for me and they all had corss-paths with HL1 in which was the best thing for me, seeing what happened on another side of the facility at the same time
Have you seen this? th-cam.com/video/ua3mPlTa9Ds/w-d-xo.html
Barney in Blue shift may be muted to the player, but technically he’s not. Because when you meet rosenburg, obviously he wouldn’t know that his friend Harold would’ve told him to find rosenburg. So it’s basically true that Barney does talk. Plus if we’re playing as the original Barney Calhoun, yes he does talk. The player just never hears him talk.
With That Logic Aidran Shephard In Opposing Force Is Not Muted
@@okanbadalov7348 exactly
@@okanbadalov7348yes, in bootcamp, he tells his name to the drill sergeant, you just didn't hear him
Gordon freeman also talk, we just dont hear him
@@michal7137 when did this happens? Not once in HL1 Gordon have an actual conversations, he just kinda listen to instructions, for the npc to follow you, Gordon could use sign languange, or just nod his head
I enjoy the simplicity of blue shift.
same
That's a great way of putting it.
Ong 🚬🗿
That's about all you get with it anyway.
After playing and not liking Opposing Force, I played Blue Shift and was like "now THIS is a Half-Life game!"
I honestly liked the improvements to the ai in OP4. your Allie’s no long stand around when
The enemies start shooting you and enemies actually react to their Allies being killed. Not to mention the addition of Otis and his 5,000 clones. He’s the best expansion character that was added.
“You just think it’s all about you.”
"Hmmm, candy!"
Ny god, imagine army of otis clones....
3:25 nah the floor broke from the sheer weight of Adrian's thicc thighs
I really liked Blue Shift more, I think. There was something I really enjoyed about spending time before the Resonance Cascade event, just being a normal security guard mucking around doing your duties at the facility. I think the word I'm looking for might be "Immersion". It was really cool seeing the facility from a guards POV.
Wow that is a name I havent seen for a while.
I agree
Believe it or not, Blue Shift is the first half-life game I played, and still my favorite of all of them to this day. Something about its pure simplicity is what I love.
There are dozens of us!!! DOZENS!!!!!
Just a FYI for you, black Mesa: blue shift is a thing and also a good thing. If you like blue shift you should give it a go.
@@temptempy7955 is it on steam?
@@Blucario90 It is a mod for Black Mesa. I highly recommend it, pal!
9:06 Look Gordon! Ropes! We can use these for large pits.
Hello! Gordon
"There are 2 expansion packs for Half-life"
Half-life Decay: *sobbing*
uplink?
@@Eps1Lon55 that's a demo tho
ohk
half life lost coast: *sobs as well*
@Japanese Army soldier its a mod, isnt it?
Most contemporary reviews of these two expansions seemed to indicate that Opposing Force was likely an even better game than the original Half-Life, but it was significantly less groundbreaking since they were simply building upon work that Valve had already done. Also, by the time Blue Shift came out in 2001 the engine was extremely dated, and most reviewers just saw it as a rehashing of HL1 without all the cool additions that OF brought to the table, which explains the mixed reactions. It was basically no better than a lot of free mods, of which there were many quality ones by this point in time (They Hunger for instance)
Always loved how the expansion packs were named after physics terms. Blueshifting is referring to how decreases in light wavelengths often show as more blue colors to human eyes. Opposing force is a military term, but could easily be recontextualized to be referring to Newton's third law. And decay is, well, radioactive decay.
And half-life is also a scientific term.
and then Uplink is a telecommunications term...
0:09 There are THREE expansion packs for Half-Life 1: Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Decay, which was a PS2 exclusive and it's been released on PC as mod on modDB a few years ago
i love half life decay, its a very novel concept, kind of like synergy and sven co-op, even if BS and OF are probably better
Opposing Force's "plot" is quite genius actually. You were sent to BMRF without any intel, your orders were supposed to be given at the first LZ you touch down on. The order to basically kill everyone. Knowing that most young grunts would've refused such a job, the USMC deliberately left the truth untold. So yeah "We gotta save our OWN asses!" like one of the grunts said.
Ironically, kinda similar what´s happening with the Russian troops in Ukraine right now. Most of them were either in the middle of their conscription or were called back from reserve to this "big training exercise" - and given the order to basically cross the border and kill. I heard the same happened in Chechnya and Georgia, young conscripts were sent for the big "final war" exercise at the end of their conscription. Yet they arrived in a foreign country - to a real fucking war.
What are you on? In Russian military everyone knew that they would go and fight against Neo Nazi regime in Ukraine. All of them are contractors with 2+ years experience. 176.000 troops. The only fuck up was that some fool from one region of Russia, did send those young guys who need to serve mandatory 1 year in the army before they decide if they want to serve or do something else. But that dude is in jail right now 🤷🏼♂️
To be fair, Blue-Shift was a mini addon meant to be bundled with the cancelled Dreamcast port.
That's why it doesn't add new weapons or enemies.
It doesnt needed it when it has superior level design and the so underrated HD pack.
But do we actually need those new weapons from the Opposing Force in Blue Shift?
...
@@Madanbek_The_Dragon_Lover I think they'd be nice. Giving Barney his own unique melee weapon and the barnacle gun would be great.
@@sebastiankulche the HD pack is not underrated... it's just plain bad (except for the shotgun sounds only which you can easily replace the sd sounds with)
@@randomtexanguy9563 Is ok to be wrong.
Blue Shift is a comfy sunday afternoon type of game. Short, fun, doesn't feel too different or out of place. Opposing Force is good but it feels like fitting a square peg in a round hole sometimes. It tried to do too much and the new mechanics/story suffered. I'm that weird guy that prefers Blue Shift.
"Sometimes less is more"- blue shift fan
Opposing Force is one of those games that really drags. The level design is so damn cramped. The new alien enemies also dont seem to belong to the Half Life franchise. And it has some of the most gimmicky arsenal i ever seen in a game. OF at times feels more like its making its own thing rather to being part of the series. I really respect Gearbox for making Blue Shift, Decay and Half Life 1 2001 port for the PS2, which all of them feels like they build more things into the OG engine without feeling our of place, Half Life PS2 in particular is arguably the most impressive game in the engine, but i cannot forgive the waste of potential it was OF.
Me too. It felt AAA quality. Plus Valve took a lot of ideas from BS to HL2+episodes
Blue Shift is objectively better in many ways, including the best Xen section in the entire franchise. It also doesn't overstay its welcome.
Opposing Force is cool, but it really wastes the opportunity to fully utilize the team based gameplay it made and instead of experiencing the HECU vs Xenians, you mostly fought Black Ops by the time you got a group of soldiers under your command, turning it into a generic feeling shooter where it's human vs human.
@@StudioMod You decided to speak facts.
"You're watching someone talk about these games like you haven't already played both of them."
Well, I haven't played either of them, so...
Opposing force is so damn good. So many sick weapons and cool new enemies. It's hard though. For how short it is it really packs a punch.
I literally had to redo the entire thing on easy because of how hard it was on normal. The black ops are so much more aggressive in opposing force. But something that gave me the most trouble (even on easy) is definitely the shock troopers and the voltigores. I remember on one section of the game I was toughing it out with 2 hp while fighting those things so I had to play tactically for a solid 15 minutes and every health pack I found was near useless because my health would be drained back down to what it was before in seconds.
Though looking back on it, the difficulty of opposing force is probably one of my favorite parts about it.
@@aexonity The Voltigores are gnarly. Do you use the portal gun on them. It gets rid of them in one shot but sometimes it's hard to hit them if they're moving sideways.
@@gordonneverdies Yeah I learned that it’s good to use the displacer cannon against them
@@aexonity It took me a while to figure it out. I had a tough time on the first run. Also that section at the end "Worlds Collide" That chapter is insane.
@@aexonity I played Half life on hard the first time... Did you know the female black ops can go invisible on hard mode? I was pretty mad then I found out they didn't on other difficulties
I was way more invested in the story/plot of Opposing Force. After playing as a black mesa employee for so long, I wanted to see the other side.
And the fact that the entire experience is chaos and you have no idea wtf is going on, is entirely relevant to the actual position Shepherd is in. I didnt need a separate story/plot to get me engaged, this is black mesa during the incident, shits going down and its time to get out all over again. And the ending with Shepherd becoming one of Gmans agents i shat my pants as a kid playing that.
I fully expect Shepherd to show up during a cutscene in HL3. I've been betting money on it for years.
"you keep shooting some more of those things with bad posture"
me: *adjusts posture*
It’s wild how HL2 still looks so good in 2022. They really designed the shit out of those textures to age well.
I like how in both games you can see references of the other games, like how in the place where the HECU soldiers were tossing bodies into the drainedge system in Blue Shift, they say something along the lines of ''Since Shepherds squad messed up, blah blah blah.'' Also the fact that you can see Gordon walking around in both makes it better too.
4:17 made me laugh so much
I'd forgotten that those two expansions existed, just like HL: Decay. Nice video, you have improved a lot in editing.
2:55
“I don't care what universe you're from that's gotta hurt!”
*r/PrequelMemes*
You said the Opposing Force didn't have a story because it's always confusing from the start already. From my personal take, the confusing part is actually the main story. You (Adrian) a marine who were sent to a huge facility running some experiment that went wrong, your osprey got shot down without you knowing the orders. You woke up in the later of the day, a lot of HECUs started to evacuated, where as Gordon is already in the warzone on his way through the Lambda Core. Everything is very confusing, you tried to find your way out yet it's futile. The distant gunshots slowly started to fade out as everyone abandoned the place or just dead. You slowly aware about the situation; killing every witnessers of Resonance Cascade. You were torn, whether to follow the orders or just ignore them. You (Adrian) then were like "just f--k it", pick up the pipewrench, side and protect every Black Mesa staffs that you encountered and accompany some of left-behind HECU troops that are still remain there. In the end, just like Gordon; you volunteer yourself to destroy Gene worm. But unlike Gordon, you were left alone in the void and become a forgotten soldier.
I wish there's modders out there who could create a mod where the protagonist is the BM scientist, didn't wear HEV (Like Echoes), but still alive on the second half of Black Mesa warzone phase, where Race X started to infiltrated Black Mesa, the protagonist encounter certain HECU that were left behind, but they turn out decide to cooperate with you to fight Race X and Black Ops during your way out. Sorry for writing some long-ass stuffs.
4:46 was Adrian really forgotten ever since? Half-Life 2 Episode 4 is still exists even if it's unreleased/unfinished..
>Blue Shift is more of the same Half-Life, the main change in the mechanics is that you don't use battery, instead you use armor like in many other classic FPS.
>Opposing Force meanwhile is more action-focused compared to the main game: Your weapons are more orthodox in their roles(Long range rifle, machinegun, grenade launcher, etc), the enemies you face are more standard in their design and behaviour(Race X and Black Ops) and more importantly, many times you are not fighting alone but instead you have a squad to help you.
In other words, if Blue Shift is about "Shoot and think" like in Half-Life, Opposing Force is about "Shoot first, never ask" like in Duke Nukem.
All i can add to the conversation is that people wrongly call Shepard a "forgotten hero" while all he did is just care about himself and survive, leaving many of his fellow marines behind (which is ironic since he got left behind too)
Until some random security guard tells him to go down and kill a big monster, which didnt matter anyways if he suceeded because of the nuke.
Barney on the other hand, combining his strenght with Rosenberg's brain, actually escapes and saved himself and 3 other people.
Bruh literally as Gordon you can also left many scientists
@@PoProstuBoniacz yeah, but with Gordon in the original Half-Life it's a bit different. You can certainly see Gordon starting as a selfish guy trying to escape because after all, he's just a scientist, he has no reason to be fighting armies, then when he's literally called to go to Xen and save the world, he goes, that's what turns him into a hero, that he had no business doing any of that but he did. He could have given the suit to someone from security or anyone else but he didn't, he went to Xen and killed the Nihilanth.
Shepard is a trained soldier and one of the best we're told, there's no reason for him to be leaving other soldiers behind and using them just when it's convenient for him. You can argue that Shepard also turns into a hero, but his journey is far less heroic than Gordon's because he doesn't start from the bottom like Gordon does, he starts from the top, goes to the bottom and kind of climbs back up at the end.
Anyway, you can argue Shepard was done dirty in his story due to the limitations of the engine and how you couldn't quite carry the NPCs around, but with better storytelling a lot could have been reframed.
maybe those soldiers should have learned how to climb ladders
I wouldn't say Shepard leaving his fellow marines behind, more like his marines can't or doesn't want to proceed at certain areas
how does shepard "leave his fellow marines behind?" i think you're looking way into the partner system limitations.
Now this made me want to play it again. Very good explaining
Hell of a review of the two most famous Half-Life add-ons! Well done man, crack sense of humor and intelligent commentary the whole way through! And, great captures of all the games to punctuate your commentary
To be honest, I dont know why, but I like Blue Shift more than Op. Force. And with its fan remake coming around.... cant wait.
blue shift sucks IN MY OPINION,i think that opp force is better
@@drsnakhenry653 half life alyx scks IN MY OPINION*
I love rewatching your videos! I have to literally pause them sometimes because your quick-witted, satirical commentary keeps making me laugh too hard to focus; well done!
3:06 Why those subtitles above the V-22 Osprey were so funny?😂😆
To be fair, shephard has a mask that makes noise muffled 3:45
8:47 this looks like the place gordon teleported to during the resonance cascade
Imagine if Blue Shift just had you walking around Black Mesa doing normal security guard stuff for several hours, then Gordon arrives on the tram and the credits roll.
1:44 it taked two years because on these two years Gearbox software have been working on an SEGA Dreamcast port, but at the last minute they cancelled it because the Dreamcast died and its not on the stores anymore. Blue Shift was going to be an expancion for the Dreamcast port but because Gearbox cancelled it they realesed it on the PC. This is the story of how Blue Shift hited shelfs
6:53 i love how you left after you said "Where you see gordon being dragged, and the end" like Barney Calhoun got stuck there and died
after playing both i like blue shift more, it feels more like a half life game than opposing force.
I really enjoyed this video i didn’t even realise how fast that 10 minute passed, subscribed :)
I played through both Last year and I really enjoyed Opposing Force. I think it is one of the best expansions ever made.
I won't say Blue Shift is bad, but I felt disappointed playing it. Felt more like a short level pack than a proper expansion. I get that it was originally a bonus unlockable for the cancelled Dreamcast port of Half Life 1, but they could've added more to justify releasing it seperatly.
Hard to believe I once liked Gearbox. Then Aliens Colonial Marines happened and I learned the truth about them and greasy Randy.
no i definitely see why this video took so long. the editing is great and i love this very much
I really like Blue-Shift a lot, as a game in the Half-Life universe, but more of an indie game kind, with really special cosy atmosphere, with loads of little hidden gems, funny details and (self)irony. I believe it is indeed quite an unusual experience for most of the players to try the role of a low-profile simple security--guy, quite likely with not so many ambitions, finding himself suddenly in the middle of huge events, making his way out and manning-up to save others. And as a red line through the whole story - arrogant scientists looking down at security guys and Barney as well, as useless low-lifes (starting with all those comments from the scientists about security guys before cascade, and starting with the big surprise from Dr. Rosenberg "Oh, Calhoun, you´re alive?!" in the very final scene... the mfckers been teleporting him around to save their asses without expecting him to survive as well in the end, just to do all the crappy and dangerous job. Opposing Force is really cool too, but Blue Shift is a short live lived
Half life opposing forces vs blue shift
Blue shift: lore on how barney survive
Opposing forces: Nothing.
Fun fact. Blue Shift was a DLC for the dreamcast port of HL1. But that didn't come out, and since Gearbox didn't even release the actual half life 1 pc dlc they wanted to make (something called hostile takeover) they had to make something. So they dropped BS
I downloaded a sample of your voice and will play it to put my kid to sleep. Thanks
bad posture aliens would be another great name for the game
I imagine grunt looking at gordon like "..."
Then gordon shoots him because he's the guy on the cover , screams medic because the engine has that thing , and then goes on with life
I like OP4 a lot but here are my major criticisms: the climax is terrible, action set-pieces lack build-up, squadmates are almost useless but thats mostly a level design problem, barnacle is underused, OP4 arsenal should have taken the place of the vanilla arsenal completely.
No joke just found ur channel and fell in love whit it man. Keep up this good work
Anybody who's been replaying Half Life series again, will be disappointed that there is still no Episode 3
I can't get enough of your talk, I love TH-cam algorithm. New fav channel.
imo i liked blue shift better due to the level design and it made me play more aggressively unlike the other games
I love that he calls the G-Man: "The suit man."
I think blue shift is better because of the way the story fits in with the main plot of HL1, and the ending made more sense since the boss fight at the end of opposing force felt kinda forced (no pun intended). It's like they went "At this point the player has been playing for 2 hours, lets just make them fight a tough alien and end the game there". I still enjoyed Opposing force, but I would still say I prefer Blue Shift.
gordon when you are playing: bhopping shooting every "zombies" he sees.
gordon in storyline: getting dragged by 2 army soldiers without doing anything.
this is how games work
4:23 Race X, not Xen.
You got a like and a sub, btw.
Xen is the dimension. Race X is a species.
@@LamWarp You're right. I may have not expressed myself well. Race X's dimension is a dimension refered to as "something beyond Xen". Thus, they labeled it as "X", and its inhabitants as "Race X".
That was amusing comparison, appreciated
You can argue over whether Blue Shift or Opposing Force is better all you want. The real hot take is saying that Azure Sheep is better than Blue Shift or the Blue Shift we should’ve gotten.
I love how he called houndeye a dog
1:04 today I learned that gearbox was founded in my city
2:48 that dude really roasted his friend in the most primitive way possible XD
Petition to get a friend for Lamwarp so he can play Decay
I think the confusion and nondirection is itself a story element. I think it has its own place.
I just loved the soldiers. Fighting them, be them, team-up with them, their weapons, their camouflage-nets, boxes, radar-equipment, tanks. I just loved the soldiers.
Good video! Enjoyed this comparison. I played both, but still enjoyed watching this.
I totally understand why people like Opposing Force more than they like Blue Shift, but I personally like Blue Shift better. I think the difference for me is this, as a game, Opposing Force has an edge because of content, as part of Half-Life's lore, Blue Shift just fits better.
The story in Opposing Force isn't really good. Shepard is mostly just doing things without direction and is constantly finding "allies" and just leaving them behind. I wasn't fond of the new aliens and they don't play a role in Half-Life's later chapters. Opposing Force plays no role in the larger Half-Life universe and even as a standalone story, it isn't that great (it's a fun game though). Basically, everything in Opposing Force can be considered canon or non canon and it makes no difference in Half-Life 2 and on.
Blue Shift on the other hand tells the story of a character that's seen in the intro of the main game, works well as part of the story and Barney goes to play a larger role in the larger Half-Life story. Even if you wanted to argue that it's "not the same Barney" or whatever, it works well as a standalone adventure of a guard just trying to save himself and the few others he can in the way, and that fits with the original and doesn't interfere with the story so it doesn't need retconning. If you like Half-Life as a series telling a story, Blue Shift is just more integral to that story than Opposing Force is.
That's my personal take on the two.
I mean, the army basically doesn't exist in HL2 so it's understandable why Opposing Force isn't that important lore-wise. The reason why Shepard barely knew where to go is *probably* because he doesn't know the facility as well as Gordon or Barney.
i did not expect to see the funniest half life explained video today . when i clicked on this video . the silent protagonist jokes get me every time .
The best half life youtuber that ever existed
SCP Containment Breach: Chaos Insurgency *vs* SCP Containment Breach: Nine Tailed Fox
I love both games even uplink, tbh I’m a fan of the entire series. It’s my childhood in a nutshell
"And yet, another Year pass by and Boom! The PS2 port and Decay was Released! Even though, Dreamcast Failed and Unreleased their port."
When I was really young, I played half life on my brother's computer and I remember an ending where you are with a bunch of soldiers and you're trying to launch a nuke through a giant portal door. Enemies keep coming out of it as you hold for the scientist in some inaccessible room work the nuke. He gets killed by a teleporting alien and then you have to launch the nuke yourself. I think you have to close the door after launching the nuke or you die too, but it was so long ago. You could even go through the portal into xen. Anyways, anyone able to help me figure out what that was called? I can't find any footage and I know I am not crazy.
i just finished playing opposing force and now somewhere in the middle of blue shift so i will finish watching your video when i finish the game to not spoil it for myself:D really nice content though especially i like ur humor, was quite surprised to see such a low amount of subs
btw i found your vid in my recs feed
Personally I prefer blue shift because it’s basically just more Half Life, because I personally don’t like the new mechanics in opposing force very much. Also blue shift is shorter and has better pacing.
Bro one of the scene is exactly what i see in my dream yesterday.
And then you have the two people asking about Decay
"it's 1999 and you're Valve and it's a success, hooray."
Blue Shift also adds HD models. :) Personally, while I like the concept of OP4, I much prefer Blue Shift, as it has at least some semblance of a storyline + you get to see parts of original story from Barney's POV. :)
I always hated those hd Models, because it doesn't make. Better textures by changes some weapons entirely.
And what about opposing force and he storyline?
you can also see parts of the original story in opposing force, hsve you forgotten you literally see freeman before he runs to the portal to xen?
Aside from the radio lines about forgetting about freeman, which can be heard through the pov of the soldier talking now.
This video has cool details and jokes.
Very nice!
Actually, Gearbox approached valve about making an expansion, not the other way around! And valve was on board from the start but pitchford ended up having to convince their publisher Sierra. Unwatchable video!
And then there is Half-Life: Decay
blue shift is definitely more solid and polished experience and it is friendly to half-life canon, but opfor is really fun to play even after 5th playthrough and it doesn't have long and boring dialogue, so latter is my favorite expansion
now all we need is Half-Life: Decay review and playthrough
This is top tier content 👌
orange man, green dog, blue dinosaur, and magenta forever alones. The Half-Life 1 anthology as I remember it.
8:33 it's a shockroach from a cockroach!
I have not played half-life but i enjoy watching people play it
there is new Opposing force remake called Operation: Black Mesa