missing anything?

[digitalfire]

I've played HL1 a few times through, but i've never played Blue shift or opposing force. do you think its a good idea to buy HL2 without playing these first? I'm not sure if i'll be able to follow the story line or if i'll be saying "HUH?" at every corner. Obviously, none of you have played HL2, so give me your opinion on this. either that, or you could give like a 3 sentence summary that tells all the really important stuff that happed in those add-ons.

 

[dkelly]

I'd play through them, they're both pretty good.
Though quite short.

 

[KagePrototype]

I think Opposing Force is actually better than Half-Life, so yes, I recommend you play that through. Blue Shift, if you can get really cheap, I recommend as well, it's a nice little diversion.

 

[simon]

I think Opposing Force is actually better than Half-Life, so yes, I recommend you play that through. Blue Shift, if you can get really cheap, I recommend as well, it's a nice little diversion.

haha ...?

 

[affen]

You don't really need to play Opposing Force and Blue Shift to follow the HL² storyline (of course you need to play HL), but it adds some extra information to the HL story since you play the game from a different point of view (that is, marine and Barney).

 

[DarkSonic]

Opposing Force is alright, but health is ridiculously scarce. I played through the game with an average of around 20 health. Blue Shift...don't even get me started on that game. Only thing it's good for is the graphics update...

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Blue shift rocks! play it! As for opfor, it's okay, nice game, mainly due to otis. I love that guy.

 

[Feath]

Blue Shift is great if you are interested in the actual story. It explains how they found Xen and stuff. It's class from a story point of view.

 

[digitalfire]

well, i have $0 because its all going into a new PC, so maybe someone could post a link to something that tells the storylines of those 2 games...?

 

[DarkSonic]

No storyline really. You remember that guard banging on the door at the begining of HL? That's the guy you play in Blue Shift. Blue shift ends around the middle of Half Life, because you see Gordon being dragged away by the guards. Opposing Force....I don't really remember.

 

[kalayq]

once you buy hl2, you can legally download from steam a copy of hl1 and op4.

 

[Yellonet]

Buying HL2 is always a good idea, but you wouldn't be let down if you played Opposing Force and Blue Shift.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

well, i have $0 because its all going into a new PC, so maybe someone could post a link to something that tells the storylines of those 2 games...?

Oh why bother.





Big big, major gargantuan spoiler ahead, do not read, spoiler ahead! Spoiler ahead! You have been warned!

Spoiler

Opposing force:
Cpl Adrian Shephar, a member of a special containment unit sent in to "contain" BMRF, is shot down and rescued by a scientist, he then tries to reach the surface and fails due to the G-man who's motives remain unclear. He joins up with more marines and they fight their way through the complex. They encounter several member of Race-X, a new species presumably from a location much like Xen. After quite a while of combating aliens and black ops, shepard reaches a garage where he stops two black ops from activating a nuclear bomb, which is then re-activated by the g-man who's motives remain unclear. Then Shephard finally destroyes a big bad-assed boss alien and is transported to an osprey and held captive there by the g-man who gives a little speech, and then nukes BMRF. He then leaves you, floating in space of some sort.
His motives remain unclear.

Blue Shift: Barney Calhoun, a simple securit guard is sent to fix a lift, when something goes wrong. When he wakes up, he sees to houndeyes munching on a guard. He fights his way up to surface only to discover it's SNAFU, FUBAR and fecked up in every way, the base is under military control. He goes to find a Dr Rosenburg, who leads him to an old pre-Lambda sector teleportation prototyp, where the first trips to Xen took place. He and Walter and Simmons teleport you to Xen where you activate a sort of targeting system. When you return the device needs a new battery so you kill a bunch of soldiers and get a fresh one and then there's an exciting climax involving a button, a teleporter, an empty room and soldiers. You teleport to safety just in time to see Freeman gettting dragged down a hallways by two marines and then you and the good doctors get the hell outta there in a hotwire jeep.

Correct me if I forgot anything boys.

 

[affen]

Wow, reading those spoilers, I hardly remember anything of OF and BS

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Oh yeah... I forgot about that function on this forum... sorry.

 

[Demon Wraith]

If you have a legitimate copy of Half-life, you should be fine for getting Opposing Force through Steam.

 

[skumbuzzul]

I was just thinking about this yesterday. In all reality hl1 didn't have much of a story. Maybe aside from a few key events. Resonance Cascade. Military. Zen. Nihilanth. I mean to say the way the game was wrote and played out didn't really leave you anything to follow. First thing being first. You meet Barney right off the train. Then but two seconds later you leave him beheind not one but two heavily locked doors. Only to see him at the security desk. Not to mention the other 3 scientist models. Between Kleiner, Vance, Dark Haired Guy, and Einstein Guy.
The game doesn't really go any where with a deep inter-weaved plot. So really HL2 just borrows from the story boards. But then elaborates on them. So I wouldn't say you're missing anything unless valve decide to throw some nostalgic hl1 references/jokes in somewhere. You can basically pick hl2 up and run with it.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

But it's not the same Barney... duhhh...

 

[hi_ted]

Opposing Force is about the same length as Half-Life. The gameplay is kept fresh with new weapons and being able to meet some of your buddies to help with battle.
Blue Shift is one of the shortest expansion packs I've played. First time I played it, I finished it in a little under 5 hours. Now, I can probably do it in 1 hour.

 

[h00dlum]

Opposing Force is really good..equal to HL imo. And it tells the HL stry from a grunts point of view...