Blue Shift is no match for the Opposing Force.

Ok, so that was sort of dumb. Luckily, as far as I know, none of you out there immediately get it and have to rely on me to explain. But I should have chosen a different headline, methinks.

So way back two weeks ago I bought Blue Shift/Opposing Force on the way back from Washington. For all of seven dollars it wasn't a bad deal, until we got home and Dad's computer decided that it didn't like it and thus wouldn't install it. I'm beginning to wonder if it's self-evolved or something... It played Half Life 2, which my computer (two years younger) wouldn't. But it wouldn't play these older games... Oh well.

The important thing is that my computer did. And Opposing Force definately lives up to the Half Life name. Though I'm going to have to run through Blue Shift again to make sure of my opinion. They each take place around the Black Mesa incident, but from different aspects of the story. In Half Life, you play this 20 year old MIT graduate in the advanced materials lab of this super top secret government facility. You have the most dangerous job because you're actually in the experiment, complete with plenty of radiation. Luckily for you, you have this radiation suit that keeps you more than adequately protected. Experiment goes crazy, scientists die, aliens invade, scientists die and you're sent to find help from the surface. Thus an adventure is born.

In Blue Shift, you get to be one of the guards during this incident. You're coming on shortly before the advanced materials experiment, but the base is already in severe disorder. You're late, equipment all over the base is malfunctioning, and you have to help nail things down and put them back in order. Eventually, the experiment happens and now your job is trying to keep as many of the scientists alive as possible, while simultaneously escaping yourself. You see more and different parts of the base and you do eventually escape.

In Opposing Force, you get to be one of the bad guys. No, you're not an alien. Gordon Freeman (you in Half Life & HL2) actually had to fight through a mess of Special Forces and Black Ops. Turns out that whoever is in charge of that aspect in the government was scared spitless about what was going down and ordered all Black Mesa personell, as well as anything else that's alive, executed. In Opposing Force, you come back as one of the special forces. You're flying in an Osprey, part of a fleet of who knows how many marines when you're attacked by some sort of enemy fighter. You get shot down, and are eventually rescued by Black Mesa personel. After that, you keep trying to regroup with your men, which evidently have gotten their collective asses kicked and are pulling out. Eventually you find out that not only is Black Ops there too, they're trying to kill YOU. So now their here to mop up you AND everything you were supposed to be doing. You fight through plenty of enemies and find places where the Black Mesa facility was studying the aliens. This is important to me because I had a feeling that some of the scientists in Half Life knew more than they should about something that's just now happening. At one point, very near the end. You find out that Black Ops has a nuclear warhead armed and are trying to destroy the base. You of course, disarm it. But this part, I didn't catch before. See, one of the trademarks for the Half Life series is this guy in a suit that is running around at the most convenient/inconvenient times. He's always just out of reach, and quite visable. Some times he helps, but he actually re-arms the nuke after you disarmed it. And worse yet, he always seems to taunt you...

So you go into the depths of the base only to have to fight the big bad boss of every first person shooter. Once that's done "the G-man" (that's actually what the grunts call him, no one knows his name, but they figure he's some form of government type because of the suit and tellin' everyone what to do. I've been thinking that he has to be working for something different. It's hard to say, he's not always bad, he just does what he thinks is necessary.) takes you on an Osprey and then tells you a little bit of what's going on. During the course of which the nuke goes off. He then does the same thing that he did to you in Half Life as Gordon Freeman and keeps you for future use. This is one of the things that's so mysterious. In Half Life, after you "win" he offers you a job. If you refuse, he puts you smack dab in the middle of a horde of aliens without your weapons. If you accept, which you basically have to, he tells you that he'll call on you when you're once again needed for something and you essentially black out. Similar thing happens in HL2. I've actually come to hate the guy...

I hope against hope that there will be a HL3, and that it will do a bit about explaining about this mysterious character. Essentially he's collecting warriors for some reason. At the end of HL2 it basically becomes apparent that you are his warrior, let out in times of trouble to aid a fight at a particular time. It's a real mystery.