Half-Life: Blue Shift

After failing to transfer Half-Life to Mac and struggling to transfer the game to PS2, Gearbox worked on a unique expansion to attach to the ill-fated Dreamcast port. Eventually transferred to PC, Blue Shift put the player in the shoes of the infamous cop character in Half-Life, Barney. It's still hard to tell if all the Barneys in Half-Life were just a technologically-limited attempt at conveying a consistent character, but Blue Shift implies he took his own path and made it to the end. Whatever.

Many hate on this late, late expansion due to it offering less of the good stuff with more of the bad, but it's still Half-Life and there are some great moments. The puzzles are a bit heavy-handed, the end is a bit uneventful, and the lack of anything new is a disappointment. Either way, you have a couple memorable moments and the solid action of the original.

Overall, Gearbox's two expansions (they had a third co-op one for PS2, Decay, which I never played) displayed Half-Life at its best and worst. Opposing Force displayed the innovation and pace of the original, by offering breakthrough NPC teammates and a good narrative. Blue Shift was Half-Life at its most mundane, an above average shooter with some platforming and puzzles -- a very good game in itself, however.

The Brothers in Arms series was inspired by the experimentation the team pulled off in these expansions. The use of A.I. teammates, strategy, and strong narrative are displayed all over their future efforts. A line between the original classic and Gearbox's future games, these two expansions helped progress the genre rather then just rehash a year old game that everyone liked. That's more than what most expansion even attempt to do, nevermind what they actually achieve.