Half-Life: Blue Shift Review
Played on PC
Developed by Gearbox Software
Released 12th June 2001
Gearbox Software is best known for its self-developed shooter efforts of 'Borderlands', 'Duke Nukem' and 'Brothers in Arms'. But, in the beginning, the studio would find itself developing ports and DLCs for other studios. Their first project was the DLC to Valve's critically acclaimed 'Half-Life: Opposing Force', a story of the army's coverup efforts parallel to the base game's narrative. Soon after this, a port of 'Half-Life' for the Dreamcast would enter production and Gearbox Software was tasked with creating yet another add-on to accompany the port and its updated model and texture packs. After a couple of delays, 'Blue Shift' would ship to Windows alongside the High Definition pack (which could be applied to the base game and the 'Opposing Force' DLC) meanwhile the Dreamcast port would proceed to get cancelled. Other than the PS2 port-exclusive, multiplayer-only 'Decay', this would end up being the last piece of 'Half-Life' that fans would get before 'Half-Life 2's release and while it is good, there is much to be desired with this supposed conclusion to the first game's narrative, and its parallel storytelling.
Story
'Blue Shift' is quite formulaic with how it approaches its story, but it follows the blueprints well enough to make for an engaging 3-hour experience. Just like 'Opposing Force', 'Blue Shift's narrative runs parallel to the base game's events of the Xen invasion, the military cover-up and Freeman's other shenanigans, with the main difference being that you play from the perspective of one of the facility's guards as they witness everything unravel. By this point, while it was cool to see the protagonist interact with the same environment and situations we saw in the base game and 'Opposing Force', this structure has become stale. It was obvious we were going to have to face the military, it was obvious that we were going to get transported to the land of Xen temporarily, and it was obvious that we were going to see the insignificant parallels between each storyline. Does this ruin the game? No, it still serves up an enjoyable tale that, while it feels like a sidequest due to its scale, continues to provide incredible feats of environmental storytelling and moments of deep intrigue, despite being a step down from its predecessors.
Gameplay
While 'Opposing Force' brought upon the best qualities of the base game, making firefights more engaging via new enemies, weapons and the consistently excellent level design, 'Blue Shift' does the opposite by limiting every aspect of it. The cut-down roster of enemies only includes the introductory Xen and Army from the base game. The arsenal is also limited in this regard as it never expands past the shooter standard of a pistol, shotgun and assault rifle. This was quite disappointing given the versatility that the previous expansion provided. The excuse for this DLC being shorter isn't a valid one either as 'Opposing Force' was only 1-2 hours longer but had nearly the same number of weapons and enemies as the base game which is double its length. The core gameplay loop is still fantastic with smooth firing and intricate level design, it's just a shame that 'Blue Shift' didn't receive as much creative love as before. The puzzles here are still as great as they were 3 years prior, give or take a couple of confusing solutions like pushing a metal barrel to act as the circuit for a TNT wire. However, the biggest change between the DLCs is how the night vision goggles get replaced with the flashlight which operates weirdly as it only highlights where your mouse is specifically pointing rather than setting up a lit-up cone vision. The age of this title does make it seem like it would be unplayable, but just like the base game, it holds up well to the standard of first-person shooters set nowadays.
Characters
It's not too different from the other 2 'Half-Life' experiences; there isn't a strong enough character presence to validate a criticism or scoring. The only difference here is that the G-Man doesn't appear anywhere, which is probably as enigmatic as if he were to.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere is fine. The visuals continue to thrive off of that low-poly texture of a research facility gone wrong, with strong ambient lighting from flashing red alarms or broken lights. The game is mostly contained within the research facility so the wide open spaces that otherwise felt void and barren in 'Opposing Force' aren't here to reduce the optical impressiveness, instead, the outside segments are within trainyards that are as detailed and polished as the interiors. The soundtrack, unfortunately, isn't all that exciting. The OST is simply a reuse from 'Opposing Force', and while the quality hasn't gone down, it's a shame that there wasn't an effort to create music tailored to the 'Blue Shift' experience, making it lack a fragment of its identity.
Story - 7/10
Gameplay - 7.5/10
Atmosphere - 7.5/10
GOOD
It's more 'Half-Life' with less substance.
