Half-Life: Blue Shift

If you are not familiar with the Black Mesa Facility and it’s horrific threat to humanity, you must be living under a rock in another time zone watching Jane Fonda play Barbarella.  Half-Life has reached legendary proportions in the gaming industry.  Known for its gut wrenching action, and intelligent story pacing, this game has topped many gamers best of lists for the past couple of years.  Blue Shift is the latest offering available to keep the title burning the midnight oil on everyone’s hard drive.  While the MOD community has injected Half-Life with much of it’s staying power, lets not forget that the original game was an incredible experience.  HL was a satisfying experience of gaming goodness rivaled by few other titles in recent memory.  System Shock 2 and Deus Ex are the only games within the last two years that have outshined HL in my opinion.  The original provided moments of sheer freight late at night, and adrenal pumping fire fights against hell-bent commando’s out for blood.  Gordon Freeman fought through hell in Half-Life, and Opposing Force allowed gamers to play as one of the military specialists during the same time frame as Gordon’s escape.  In Blue Shift we get to play through that fateful time frame yet again as security guard B. Calhoun. 

Calhoun must survive through classic Half-life peril by fighting off bloodthirsty aliens and the military kill squad specialists sent in to neutralize everything in site.  You’ll feel right at home from the onset of that familiar tram ride that delivers you to work.  There are a handful of continuity treasures that hardcore fans will love and appreciate.  These little niblets are scattered throughout like golden Easter eggs for the player to find.  The graphics appear dated until you install the Half-Life HD Pack, which is included on the disc.  This pack enhances all the Half-Life episodes including the original.  The award winning Opposing Force is included with Blue Shift, and it is not necessary to have the original game installed on your PC to play.  How does Blue Shift itself live up to the legend?  Well there are mixed results here.  The game is excellent with all the ferocious gun blasting, ass kicking, alien killing, military grunt shooting action you’d expect.  What’s the catch you ask?  This sucker is short.

Blue Shift can be beaten in two days of diligent alien ass kicking.  While I was on the BS community page, one hardcore HL gamer said he beat it in less than three hours.  Now lets keep in mind that you get Blue Shift, Opposing Force and the HD Pack.  This is a bang for the buck, but some fans will be disappointed with the shortness of the game.  However if you do have a high-end system you will really dig the eye candy that the high definition package offers.  Characters are provided with cool graphically updated skins, and well… more character, and spicier dialogue.  As usual the sound is excellent, and control is just as it should be.  Unfortunately this episode does not shed any new light on the secretive situation that went terribly wrong at Black Mesa.  It is an excellent romp in a beloved world we have all grown to love.  Blue Shift ends too quickly and abruptly to satisfy all Half-Life fans.  You will hunger for more once you complete this episode.  Bottom Line is, although it is flawed this game still kicks major ass with steel tipped boot.    

Install: Easy
There is nothing to the install process.  It is recommended that you have updated drivers for your 3D accelerator, especially for the HD package.

Gameplay: 9
A fast paced, action packed thrill ride that will leave you begging for more.  Controls are just as they should be.  This title is just plain fun.

Graphics: 8.5 
Without the HD Pack, the graphics look dated.  Once you install the HD Pack the engine greatly improves.

Sound: 9
Play this one loud and at night in the dark baby!

Difficulty: 7.5
Although level design is still interesting and intelligent, I found this episode to be much less challenging than the original.

Concept: 7
I am personally ready for a sequel that takes place somewhere other than the Black Mesa Facility.  Time to move on already don’t you think?

Multiplayer: 8
Team play, deathmatch and capture the flag are all here, as you’d expect.  If you can, you should also check out the excellent Day of Defeat, and the They Hunger series.  Both are great contributions to the Half-Life universe.

Overall: 9
This is a must for all Half-life fans.  If you are the one person who has not played HL yet, Blue Shift is a great opportunity to introduce yourself to an incredible game that has revolutionized the FPS genre.