How many halves of a life does this game have? Review

How many halves of a life does this game have?

Like good defense attorneys, developers Valve and Gearbox (the teams behind

Sierra Studio’s infamous Half-Life series) have

looked at the little “incident” at Black Mesa Labs from every conceivable angle.

The first incarnation, Half-Life, took players through the experience

as a scientist caught in the middle of an experiment gone wrong. Next came Opposing

Force, which put players in the boots of a soldier going in to obliterate

all evidence of said incident. Now comes Blue Shift, the latest angle

on the same story.

Blue Shift puts you in the shabby clothes of Black Mesa security guard

Barney Calhoun and walks you through his experience of the events that day.

The opening scene mirrors that of the original HL as you enter Black

Mesa on a tram. However, this time you’re on the opposite end of the facility.

Barney’s day seems to be cruising along just fine until a great power surge

stops the elevator, followed by an explosion that sends it dropping like a penny

thrown from the Empire State building. Then, as if a careening elevator isn’t

enough to spoil a perfectly fine day, aliens start appearing out of thin air

and killing everyone in sight. Bummer!

You might think that this redundant approach to a storyline would result in

the same game time and time again. Fear not, as Blue Shift offers more

than the original HL. The difficulty has been upped – obstacles are not

nearly as straightforward and require a little bit of cunning to push your way

through. Some left me snickering to myself after half an hour looking for a

switch that didn’t exist; I just needed to use a different route than what seemed

obvious. Gearbox has actually managed to bring a new feel to a seemingly familiar

game.

To keep things fresh, the graphics have been updated a bit. The polygon count

for models has doubled, really rounding out faces, shoulders and that big ugly

hump on the aliens’ backs, all while running at blazing framerates. The new

High Definition models animate smoother than before. The textures and lighting

also look good.

But while the game looks better than Half-Life did before the 1.1.0.6

patch, the engine does nothing new or revolutionary and comes off as fairly

dated. Don’t expect any amazing solar effects or vast open areas with incredible

viewing distances.

Also unaccounted for are any new enemies or creatures. I suppose since the

game takes place at the same time as the other games, a ton of new creatures

would be a little out of place. Still, we’ve all been here and done this before,

and some new scenery would really have helped.

The

AI must have been next in line behind the scarecrow while he was getting brains

from the great Oz, because now they’re smart enough to work as a team and surround

you, making this single player adventure fairly challenging. In fact, if you

chase them, they run, and if you run, they chase you. Sound simple enough, but

you really don’t find that kind of thinking much in first-person shooters. Thank

god for all of those hours invested in Counter-strike

(I knew they would pay off sooner or later).

With every Blue Shift disk comes the latest HL patch (1.1.0.6),

so no more waiting for that annoying download. There’s also a High Definition

update that will upgrade your other HL games (both Half-Life and

Opposing Force) to the new and improved

HD models. What’s that? You don’t have any other HL games to update?

Well, don’t worry little buddy, your friend Barney Calhoun has you covered,

because you also get full versions of Opposing Force and the multiplayer

Team Fortress Classic. So three games for the price of one.

However, none of this stuff is very new. If you’re a first-person shooter fan,

you’ve likely played at least one of the many incarnations of Half-Life

so far. Blue Shift is a solid package, for sure, but it really doesn’t

offer enough fresh material for the Half-Life veteran who’s already played

plenty of TFC.

But with the new challenges, updates and inclusion of Op Force, Blue

Shift is a decent bundle. And ringing in at a decent $30, it won’t wipe

out the wallet. Just don’t expect this new experience to be all that new.