Half-Life: Opposing Force

I can write dozens and dozens of paragraphs about the mods that came from the original Half-Life (and why surprisingly few came from its sequel), but the expansion packs that the game brought issue enough typing space for now. Gearbox Software, now bringing us the excellent BorderlandsBorderlands series, took over Valve's baby and expanded it with the 98' expansion, Opposing Force, and the late 01' expansion, Half-Life: Blue Shift. Valve is a company who put out a demo for Half-Life that was it's own unique standalone experience, supported mod communities, and eventually developed its own online delivery system that is single-handedly saving the PC. It should come as no surprise that the expansions of Half-Life are among the finest ever made, even if it had more to do with another developer.

Opposing Force captures everything wonderful about Half-Life -- and, no, I'm not just talking about the core mechanics and world. Unlike Blue Shift, Gearbox crafted an expansion that offered new mechanics, storytelling, and scenarios. It wasn't a completely original experience, but for an expansion pack it offered an imagination and craft rarely seen in these marketplace-afterthoughts. Opposing Force might be 10% more narrative heavy, but it changes the experience when you know you are a soldier hunting down Gordon Freeman. It's the purest form of fan service, by giving the fans what they want but from an entirely new perspective. The new weapons, enemies, and environments were a step-down in quality but were much appreciated, nonetheless. It's hard to separate this expansion from memories of Half-Life, for all the right reasons.

This dlc does something no other dlc I’ve ever played has done; it manages to be superior to the base game it came from as I vastly prefer this over half life.

The reason for this is simple, it got rid of all of the pointless filler from the main game whilst retaining all of its strengths. You're only in xen for a little while, suggesting that even back then, fans weren't happy with the alien planet which valve took note of. The premise of this game is ingenious as true to its title, our hero is now from the military faction that was sent to assassinate Gordon freeman and his associates, meaning we have a different perspective on what's going on during the events of the main game. Of course, it doesn't take long for our hero to realise he's on the wrong side of history as he eventually teams up with the scientists he's meant to kill in order to stop the alien invasion, this makes this game necessary for filling in the blanks that the second half life game left had this not come out before that game. I also appreciate how despite being an expansion pack, there's tons of new content here in this game including a different tutorial level and overall mechanics involving how our hero fights his enemies. There's a ton of new weapons, new enemies and even different locations which makes me wonder if this was even built on the same engine as the base game.

It's a solid expansion to a game I feel is a bit rough around the edges, hopefully this gets more attention because it certainly deserves it.

boring lots of the time and a lot of tedious sections since i played on hard mode and when everything takes 100 bullets but they only have to shoot you for like 3 seconds before you die. Auto aim for enemies is a problem tbh since i can peak for about 0.5 seconds before i get shot.

just play hl1 or 2 its much more fun

Dare I say it nearly trumps the original, nearly. Opposing force gets my vote for best expansion of all time, and its complete flip of perspective from the bespectacled, silent lab tech turned action survivalist to one of the mean green marines sent to liquidate the infamous facilities staff, is somewhat refreshing but I can definitely see that that is where you take the charm out of Half-Life in general. Gordon Freeman was an unconventional protaganist in that he was a nerdy scientist and not a proffesionally trained soilder, here inverting that premise should steel some of the magic away from the narrative but I do think it is a fun inversion at least, just to see how the other side was dealing with the all out hell the facility suffers through. Truth be told Adrian Shephard isnt the strongest of protags but perfectly fills the shoes of a hapless and nameless G.I. battling hordes of inter-dimensional aliens.

One of the few major complaints I do have with the game is unfortunately the shoehorning of "Race X" aliens into what is undoubtedly a crowded enough roster. I commend Gearbox enough for being creative enough to give us a completely different enemy to fight but for a game that takes place literally on the heels of Gordon's race to defeat the primary antagonists, the suspension of disbelief is easily broken in some of the levels that overlap greatly with the main Gordon Freeman story. Plus I really dont find them to be all that interesting to fight. As much as that sounds like a detriment to the overall game, I really think the level design and gameplay is still top tier and arguably rivals the first in a lot of ways. The Expanded weapons roster is also very welcome and plowing through hordes with an M249 has never been more satisfying. Whoever is making the Black Mesa unreal engine port, I hope they get around to remaking this. It needs it.

I can't shake the fact that this was marketed as a game where you are the antagonist force from the base game. The expectation is that your team likely would have a solid set of missions - including to snuff out witnesses of the event - that you would attempt to execute before shit hits the fan. On the contrary, the game starts with your platoon having no knowledge of the mission, and shit hitting the fan before you even get control of your character. When you come to, you're in the same position as Freeman - attempting to find some evacuation point from the facility while aliens roam the grounds. More of the same is good, but some potential was missed here.

In Half-Life, you see militaristic cruelty towards the scientists in the facility, but here you are merely given indirect, anecdotal stories from scientists of other soldiers who have harassed them. You are not ever given orders to execute them, because your squad never received orders, and despite you being outranked by everyone you meet, they are under your command because you're the protagonist, or something. Only one event of soldier-scientist interaction do you actually see in person, and it's simply the scientist being (aggressively) held in a room to await evac. I cannot understate this - by the end of the game, Corporal Adrian Shepherd is even less aware of the military's influence on the situation than Freeman was.

You are subject to battles with black ops agents and Xen aliens, same as Freeman. You have no more knowledge of the interior design of Black Mesa than Freeman did, despite working for the military that employs them. You crawl through the same vents, use most of the same weaponry, and solve similar long-form puzzles - including the Pit Worm section which is almost exactly the same as the Tentacle Pit. I don't think anybody wanted an expansion whose sole selling point was a new character perspective to be a watered down version of the base game.

About halfway through the sewer section, I found myself asking if Shepherd has any unique advantages over Freeman, and the only answer I could muster was the occasional companionship of other soldiers, whose AI I personally found fairly frustrating to reign in. This isn't exactly Brothers in Arms, and their actual utility is drastically overstated in the tutorial. You'll hang onto a small group of soldiers for 20 minutes at the most, with 5 of those being futile attempts to get them to follow you. You also have the unique pleasure of occasionally having to utilize the worst rope physics of all time to cross a chasm. Great.

Despite all of this, nothing can take away from the fact that the original Half-Life was a masterpiece, and being able to experience more of it makes this recommended by default. Even though Shepherd knows almost nothing at all about what's going on, he is subject to interesting treatment from the G-Man, and he sees a side of the story that is unique in the Race X invasion (which was very hard for me to distinguish as a separate event from the Resonance Cascade, but we'll roll with it). The industrial-horror elements and tone are mostly preserved. On some very basic level, this is new content, and you get to see even more of the experimental weirdness in the facility.

Half-Life: Opposing Force is absolutely a Half-Life game, and one worth playing simply to experience more of the magic that is the Black Mesa facility, but the opportunities Gearbox Software had to offer a truly unique perspective on the events of the base game were mostly squandered to preserve an acclaimed gameplay loop. For that, its lack of ambition makes it a less memorable experience.

It offered a different perspective of the Black Mesa incident, this time from the militarist point of view. Unfortunatly, its nowhere as good as the original Half Life. There are new weapons and enemies, but these are not nearly as enjoyable gameplaywise. The shooting is not as nearly satisfying, and the enemies tend to be bullet sponges. But worst of all is the level design. Whilst the first built tension through horror like moments, this one rellies on way too many platforming and puzzle sections that are simply a drag to play through. I was hoping that this expansion would be more action focused but instead it is a step down in everysingle way.