Half-Life: Blue Shift
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| Half-Life: Blue Shift | |
| Missing image Half-Life_Blue_Shift_box.jpg Image:Half-Life Blue Shift box.jpg | |
| Developer(s) | Gearbox Software |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Release date(s) | June 12, 2001 |
| Genre | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) |
| Platform(s) | Windows, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast (unofficial) |
Half-Life: Blue Shift is the second expansion pack for the first-person shooter computer game Half-Life, developed by Gearbox Software and released on June 12, 2001. Like Gearbox's other expansion packs, Opposing Force and Decay, Blue Shift returns to the setting and timeline of the original story, but with a different player character: the ubiquitous Black Mesa security guard Barney Calhoun. As Barney, the player attempts to escape the alien invasion caused by the resonance cascade and the ensuing military cover-up.
Overview
The Blue Shift package offers the "Half-Life High-Definition Pack" as an option at the time of install. The pack includes updated 3-dimensional character, weapon and item models, often increasing the polygon count 10-fold over the 1998 originals. The U.S. Blue Shift release includes the full version of Opposing Force, but the international edition has multiplayer-only OpFor.
Blue Shift started out first as a part of the Half-Life Dreamcast port. Due to Sega pulling the plug on the Dreamcast, this version was cancelled (although the Dreamcast Half-Life port has since been leaked onto the Internet, with both Half-Life and Blue Shift fully playable). Gearbox then turned the project into a standalone product; unlike Opposing Force, it does not require the original Half-Life.
Although fans of Half-Life were eager to play more of their beloved game, many complained that Blue Shift did not measure up to the high standards set by the Opposing Force expansion. Blue Shift reviews were very poor in comparison to other games in the series.
Unlike the other PC versions of Half-Life, Blue Shift is not available through Valve's Steam system. Valve explained that Gearbox customized the Half-Life engine for Blue Shift, which resulted in it being incompatible with Steam. However, the "Half-Life HD Pack" can be manually installed in the Steam versions of Half-Life and Opposing Force.
Plot
Barney Calhoun, a low-ranking security guard in Black Mesa, is responsible for maintaining security in a cavernous underground sector of the facility. At the time of the resonance cascade, Calhoun is trapped in an elevator with two scientists. He wakes up at the bottom of the lift shaft, and soon finds himself fighting through the facility's underground areas to reach the surface and escape. Calhoun rescues some scientists who have been locked in railway cars in Black Mesa's freight yards. One of the scientists, Dr. Rosenberg (who is also a character in Decay), advises Calhoun that the entire facility is surrounded by Marines. The only way to escape, Rosenberg explains, is to use an old prototype of the Lambda Complex teleporter; if it works, they can reach an obscure entrance to Black Mesa which (hopefully) has been overlooked by the Marines.
The remainder of the game takes place in an abandoned, walled-up sector of the base originally built for research of the first teleporter device. Calhoun, Rosenberg, and two other scientists try to restart the prototype teleporter. Calhoun is briefly teleported to a ruined human research camp on Xen to operate a triangulation device. Upon his return, Calhoun fights off Marines and aliens while the three scientists teleport out of the facility. Calhoun experiences a brief malfunction while teleporting: he is quickly "zapped" through different locations across Black Mesa and is imbued with a green glow. Finally, he returns safely to the remote facility entrance where he and the three scientists escape in a Black Mesa car.
At several points during Blue Shift, Calhoun almost meets the protagonist of Half-Life, Gordon Freeman: he is waiting in front of a door as the train carrying Freeman goes by, and later, Calhoun is just seconds behind Dr. Freeman teleporting away.
Blue Shift is the shortest game in the Half-Life series, with all the events taking place immediately after the resonance cascade. Blue Shift is also arguably the most disturbing — as most of the events take place on the surface in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the player sees first-hand the panic of the Black Mesa personnel as they desperately try to flee the facility by any means necessary. It is interesting to note that aside from the PlayStation-only Decay, Blue Shift is arguably the only HL1-based game with a "happy ending". At the end of Half-Life, Gordon Freeman is essentially forced to work for the sinister G-Man, and Opposing Force's Adrian Shephard is mysteriously "detained". In Blue Shift, however, Barney and his three scientist companions escape Black Mesa. At least two of these scientists, Dr. Isaac Kleiner and Dr. Eli Vance, escape unharmed; in Half-Life 2, Kleiner, Vance and Calhoun form the bedrock of the resistance movement in City 17.
External links
- Sierra's Blue Shift site (http://games.sierra.com/games/hl-blueshift/)
- GameRankings.com: Blue Shift (http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/475304.asp)
- Installing the Half-Life High Definition Pack for Steam (http://xenomorph.net/misc/half_life_hd_pack.php)