Half-Life: Blue Shift

Sierra has kept Half-Life on countless hard drives by publishing the excellent multiplayer Counter-Strike modification, but Half-Life was originally all about the single-player game--the sci-fi action story of research assistant Gordon Freeman. The first Half-Life expansion pack, Opposing Force, concentrated on the military Special Ops side of the same story, and featured Colonel Adrian Shepherd. The new Half-Life: Blue Shift episode highlights security guard Barney Calhoun's adventure during Black Mesa's extradimensional catastrophe. Like Adrian, Barney encounters much the same creatures as his predecessor, but in different situations and locales than you've seen before, some located as far away from Black Mesa as you can get. Unlike Opposing Force, Blue Shift doesn't feature any new weapons or monsters; oddly, it doesn't even feature the new creatures introduced in Opposing Force.

With Blue Shift, you get Barney's adventures, a new high-definition graphics pack that dramatically improves the look of the weapons and characters in all Half-Life games, and the entire Opposing Force expansion pack (there's also a rebate for those who already own Opposing Force). It's obviously geared toward fans that bought the Counter-Strike online package and want to see why the single-player Half-Life is hailed as the best action game ever. Even though the technology is fundamentally three years old, Blue Shift proves the Half-Life series is still about tension, story, horrible monsters (both human and alien), and fantastic combat in a sci-fi setting. Want more Half-Life? Get Blue Shift. --Bob Andrews

Pros:

• A new Half-Life episode starring Barney!
• Also comes with the complete Opposing Force expansion
• The high-definition weapons and creature graphics look great
• High-definition pack improves the look of all Half-Life episodes

• The graphics engine is three years old, and level geometry does not compare to modern games
• The new episode is awfully short