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Half-Life Expansion Pack: Opposing Force

Half-Life Expansion Pack: Opposing Force

List Price: $19.99
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Nothing can match Half-Life, but this is a worthy try.
Review: Although significantly shorter, with worse weapon-pacing, a lot less story and a lot of inconsistancy, Opposing Force manages to still satisfy through great gameplay and innovative new aliens.

No game will ever come close to the unmitigated brilliance that was Sierra's 1998 release Half-Life, so expecting a mission pack to come even close may have hurt public opinion for this game. Not helping matters is the fact that for about the same cost you get a far shorter game. Additionally, the weapons are all apprehended too quickly and a lot of the plot (which dissapears all too quickly) meshes with the original game.

In Op4 you are Adrian Shephard, a corporal sent in to eliminate all traces of the debacle at Black Mesa. However, shortly before reaching the LZ your helicopter is shot down by weird creatures and you are separated from your squadmates. The military has realized it's in over its head and pulls back, but you are left behind, trying to stay alive with other remnant forces.
Despite all the negative reasons i have listed above and the anti-climatic, seemingly rushed ending, this is still a very fun game. It keeps some weapons and adds innovative new ones. It keeps almost all the old aliens and adds brilliant new ones, and action sequences that are difficult and entertaining.

I would reccomend that anyone new to the Half-Life family purchase and enjoy the original first, but this is still a worthy game and highly reccomended to any Half-Life devotee. 6.5/10

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great but needed more levels
Review: Great but needed more levels and more weapons would not hurt, other than that I thought that it was a good addition to Half-Life, I still think Half Life the first part was much better and exciting than this one, also I thought this one was too easy to finish. Interent game play was not to exciting, I did not like it. Deathmatch was not great, half life deathmatch was much better. The new weapons were really cool, I liked that.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A worthy follow-up, but a little inconsistent.
Review: Half-Life is the best action game ever. No one who has played that game could ever argue otherwise. So how could anyone other than the original design team possibly follow the success and originality of such a classic piece of software? Well, fortunately for gamers hungry for more Half-Life, Gearbox has done a damn good job...though not without flaws. Where to begin, hmmm...

Even though it may seem insignificant, the boot camp (in place of the hazard couse of the original HL) is a whole lot of fun. There are angry drill sergents, privates doing push-ups, even refrences to "Full Metal Jacket"! It's much more interesting than the hazard course. (Just for fun, shoot the drill sergent on the sniper section to see what happens).

Meanwhile, the single player game is excellent. In fact, it's probably the second best single player experience on the PC next to the original Half-Life. New weapons like the Desert Eagle .357, the odd teleporter gun, the multiple alien weapons, and my personal favorite, the SAW machine gun, all add a new dimension to combat.

Some of the old monsters from the original game are a bit underused, but it's probably to make room for the new ones. Some are annoying while others are absolute bastards.

The levels themselves are very cool, ranging from outdoor desert areas to the typical underground hallways, all with great architecture and that overall polish that made the original so special.

So why not five stars? Well, the biggest reason is that there isn't much overall innovation when held up to the original. It doesn't really expand on any gameplay concepts, it merely copies most of the design from the first game. For instance, remember the tentacles that were so powerful that they required a puzzle to kill them (the test-firing of the rocket)? Well, there's another level just similar to it, only with a different monster and a different puzzle. Consider, however, this game probably took half the development time as Half-Life, so there may not have been time to make it longer or add anything significant gameplay-wise.

The other problem I have is with minor inconsistencies with the story, which could have easily been fixed. The grunts in Half-Life were ruthless, if somewhat unwilling (which what made them such great characters) when killing innocent scientists. Here, however, the scientists will help you out by opening doors and such, and generally reacting to you with a friendly, helpful disposition. Also, the addition of "Black Ops" soldiers seems a bit far-fetched, even in a sci-fi story. They have ALSO been sent in by the government, and yet they will attack you? Seems a little strange. But hey, at least there's not much of Xen to be found here!

Flaws aside, it is an excellent expansion pack that will provide many hours of fun. It comes with my unresrved recommendation.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Half-Life: Opposing Force
Review: Half-Life: Opposing Force is the expansion pack for Half Life, But not by the creators of the orginal game Valve but by another company called Gearbox. To install this game you must have the orginal game half life installed on your system. You don't play Gorden Freeman here, You play Adrian Shephard a 22 year old marine sent to the black mesa to deal with the aliens and Gordon Freeman, He and his men crash into the black mesa and they are rescued by the scientists, Now he must fight his way out of the black mesa with the help of other marines, But unfortunatly the aliens are not the only ones he needs to deal with, The goverment has sent black dressed assasins to kill all the marine's, He needs to deal with them too, You could see gorden freeman too. The Level design is good but nothing compared to the superlative half-life level design which has an infinte replay value. While half-life started and ended on a tram, Opposing Force starts and ends on a helicopter with the same ending.

Opposing Force is built on the same quake2 half-life engine, Almost everything from the main menu is the same as half life, There are many new weapons but not any cool weapon like the crossbow, Even the crowbar is not here. The Grenade is looks much smaller here, Maybe Gorden freeman has small hands or maybe Adrian has large hands. Many new monstors but none like Gronarch. Many new charecters but i did not like the new security gaurd, The one who opens the door to let Shephard out in the first level. Compared to HL the game is quite short and linear, The load times are quite longer and the story is quite unbelivable and some sences are very silly. The puzzles are good but most of them are inspired from the orginal game, In one level you need to kill a monstor the same way you kill the tentecles In the HL level "Blast Pit". I did not like all the silly jokes too (No aliens were harmed during the creation of this game), Gearbox this is supposed to be an expansion pack for half life not Quake. Just like thief you need to climb ropes too, But climbing and swinging ropes is quite badly done and not as easy as thief. Opposing Force is not an awful game, It is a very good game and a must for half life fans, But it lacks the great story, superb gameplay, great puzzles, level design, superb action and orginality that made half life so great. It does not live up to the expectations it created as the half life expansion pack.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very fun! Very exiting! Very Short.
Review: Half-Life: Opposing Force is the greatest half-life add-on ever made. I actually had more fun playing this game then I did Half-Life. Actually, I truly think that Half-Life and Opposing Force are both equally fun. The story line is exellent and you feel like you are playing a horrific action movie. The only thing I did not like was the fact that it was very short. And there is no super jump like in Half-Life. Overall, it is an exellent game. If compared to the alien movies, it is like Aliens. I hiley recommend this game if you enjoyed Half-Life.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Better than the first?
Review: Half-Life:Opposing Force takes place as your charecter being Adrian Sheperd.Arian is a Corporal in the army and is being trained for a mission.That mission leads him back to where Gordan Freeman was,yet not in the same places.During the game you once again see the G-man that just appears somwhere and stands there clamly atching,then walks away.Half-Life:Opposing Force goes to the places Gordan wasn't.You do not fight on Xen anymore,butyou stay back on Earth and experiance what happend while Gordan was gone.As the coporal,you command a squad of soldiers,but you dont just start off with them.You have to find your friends for no apperant reason.And the so called "Improved AI" i found nowhere.During one point in the game you ahve a medic and and enginer.the enginer opens a door and there is a drone gun waiting.Suddenly he runs straight for the drone gun without shooting or anything yelling "We're gonna kick your ass!".At that point he falls down dead because he has just been pumped full of lead.Enemy AI isn't better at all.When you die,and die again,and again ,and again you begin to notice patterns in EVERY move the enemy takes.I got his game for Christmas,and beat it the same day in 4 hours using the meduim difficulty mode.That is how short the game is.Half-life:Oppossing Force isn't a dissapointment though.It's a very good game that should satisfy anyone that like Half-Life.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Can this be played on Windows XP system?
Review: Hi have any of you tried to play the game on windows XP? Does it work? Any special modifications needed to system to play on windows XP? Any advice on system issues with windows XP and the opposing force?
Any problems playing online through a LAN connection with windows XP? If so, how did you correct them? We can't seem to get a server connection with Blue shift version of opposing force. Can you help?
Thanks for your feed back!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Half-Life rulez!
Review: Hi,

Im a geman boy and in my oppinion Half-Life&CS and Opposingforce are the best games ever.I am 15 years old and I like this games. But in Germany it is difficult to become this games because the US. Versions are censored in Germany!... But I have connections!

Back to game, I really like it to play as a soldier in OF! New enemies and weapons great!

CU

the Iron Cross

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: almost as good as the first one
Review: Hi, ok..........this game is AMZING! BUT, there are a few minor flaws... where to begin...... the storyline. it doesnt work as well as the first one, let me explain: in the first one, you are the employee of the month, you are part of a very important cientifical dicovery(yes, it did go wrong, but that in its self is important) and you are a highly qualified cientist. on the other hand, in ¨op force¨ you are an army bloke, who in the training area is STILL recieving training(not that it has anything to do with the game, but it is a point to mention) and is absolutly NO ONE. you are being trained for a ¨hopefully-it-wont-happen¨ type mision, needles to say, ¨it¨ does happen. there are varius other points like that not worth mentioning, but i must say, in the first edition, you realy did have that ¨YYYYEEEEEESSSSSS¨ feeling when you did a realy realy hard bit. also, something i realy dont understand is that in the first eddition, the army were against every one, including the black comandos, BUT, in op force, the police help you!!?? oh well...... one last thing, it is not half as scary as the first eddition. All that said, it is a very good game, it did only take three weeks for me to complete, and the end boss was realy pathetic, but, it is an amazing game and a worthy investment for the people who have completed HALF-LIFE! last thing, i do NOT recomend getting(or at least starting) this game untill you have completed the first eddition, you will get a lot more out of it, and undestand it a lot more if you do it in that order............i hope you enjoy the game as much as i did!!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: What the Original Should Have Been
Review: HL: Opposing Force is everything the original Half-Life should have been. An FPS with a cooler hero, cooler weapons and somewhat less-annoying puzzles.

The fact that you can guide other privates into battle (not to mention boss them around) is a nice addittion although the AI dissapoints a bit.

In short, I liked most of everything about this game: from the opening sequence to the laser-aim pistol to the infrared vision (analogous to that found in Alien vs. Predator) to the new abilities the hero boasts.

Valve has made up for the (often) boring Half-Life, whose only pro was the custom game option (such as this one).

Worth the investment.


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