Race X

[NeptuneUK]

ive played opposing force alot, but i never quite caught on to race X

can anyone explain to me thier origin and how they came to be?

 

[Brian Damage]

There's not much that's really known about them. They seem to be more militant than the other intelligent aliens (vortigaunts, grunts and controllers), and they also fight the others when they come into conact with them.

THe main types are the Shocktroopers (the bluish one-eyed dudes), which appear to be the only intelligent ones, the Pit Drones (the weird things that shoot spines at you), which act like attack dogs, and the Voltigores (the huge lumbering plasma-throwing things), which seem to be an sort of organic tank.

Also seen are the Shockroaches (the weapons of the Shocktroopers), baby Shocktroopers (one of which Shepherd uses as a weapon), the Pit Worm (the huge one-eyed worm thing) and the Gene Worm (the enormous thing that looked a bit like the tentacles from HL).

 

[Asknoone]

Thye suck

 

[NeptuneUK]

what a very productive, well thought out, reasonable, backed-up response

 

[NeptuneUK]

thanks brian damage, it seems no-one actually knows anything about them except from observation then.

 

[Ch1cKeN]

Anyone notice that they are almost never in the same room with other xen creatures?

 

[NeptuneUK]

they appear to attack the xen creatures. they seem to be enemies, and superior ones at that

 

[Asknoone]

I just think they are a poorly concieved idea on gearbox's behalf

 

[NeptuneUK]

as i feared

 

[Yuri]

Erm, I actually thought that Race X was a pretty awesome addition to the Half Life story. And that Opposing Force was one of the best singleplayer games of all time. Yep.

Anyways, I've heard from someone *cough* Snowball *cough* that Race X is from another dimension and were only using the Xen "rifts" (portal thingymagiggyness) or whatever to invade Earth as well. For some reason. They were fun to shoot and blow up, too.

Oh well, that is why they call is "Rumors & Speculation," eh?

 

[NeptuneUK]

OF is indeed, a superb singleplayer experience

 

[Brian Damage]

The expansions were supervised by VALVe and Marc laidlaw, and were based on things that VALVe originally wanted to have in HL but was never able to implement in time (like ropes), IIRC.

I dunno why some people have this strange dislike of Race-X and Adrian Shepherd. They just make the story even more interesting...

 

[DoctorGordon]

Shepherd's decent, bah to Race-X though

 

[Asknoone]

I think the game, opposing force is exellent, the gameplay is great but the addition of race x was completely unnescesary and ruins the whole thing.


I really cannot see the need to implement another alien race into the mix. Xen was fine for me, it fit in perfectly so why add another alien race, i find that so stupid. To me it ruined the feel of half life, but each to his own.

I also hated some of the pathetic weapons they threw into the mix, the barnalce gun... :| The worst idea ever.

Then that stupid squid thing that chucks apples...and dont forget that Worm boss...i thought it was an ok boss battles in its own right (although it was just gearbox trying thier dab hand at making another blast pit scenario) but it looked as if it actually belonged in that enviroment, like something from a sci fi movie on another planet where the dam thing lived.....

Shepard...i dont see whats interesting about shepard.

Blue Shift was a fine expansion, gearbox somehow managed to create something spectacular there, in my opinion, i loved eveyr minute of it.

 

[UndeadScottsman]

I just think they are a poorly concieved idea on gearbox's behalf

Not poorly concieved; just poorly implemented. There was supposed to be a larger backstory behind Race-X. From what we learned in interviews prior to it's release, Race-X is a teleportation capable alien species who notice the massive teleportation going on at Black Mesa and go to investigate (Which is why they abduct that scientist in that one scene.. They were also supposed to abduct Xen aliens as well, but that didn't make it into the game) They were to be at war, or in conflict with the Xen aliens, which to me is cool, because it shows that not everything out there is working for the Xen aliens.

Some things I didn't like about Race-X is how it was just another hodge-podge of critters, instead of a unified race. (It would have been much cooler, IMO, if the Pit Drones, Voltigore's and the Geneworm were all similar in appearance to the Pit Worm and Shock Troopers). Also, the fact that there's no motive established for race-x within the game itself is kind of a downer. Which means Race-X failed at it's primary purpose: To be a group of new monsters with a logicial reason as to why Gordon never encountered them during Half-Life.

Oh well; Op4 was still a riot, IMO.

 

[Absinthe]

I liked Race X a lot. They were cool to fight and they made the HL universe more interesting.

Somebody said that the Barnacle gun sucked. They also said Blue Shift was amazing.

With those two things, he completely destroyed his credibility in my eyes.

 

[joshsmog]

Yeah, OpFor was the probably the best out of the 3 in my opinion. The ending could have been better though. I can't wait till opfor levels are put in Sven Coop, that will be a blast to play.

 

[NeptuneUK]

opfor added the weapon that valve horrendously missed out... the sniper rifle

 

[Asknoone]

There was soemthing about blue shift i liked, it was far to short, but i found it really enjoyable and despite some average reviews i just cant help but like it.

 

[The Monkey]

Race-X were NOT from Xen, but from a planet in the same nebulosa. There is more information on a page witch I dont know that adress to, but it "acts" like if everything in HL acctaully happend. Anyone knows it?

 

[westie]

I preferd playing Half life with opposing force weapons, which is much more fun.

 

[Yuri]

They also said Blue Shift was amazing.

Blue Shift wasn't terrible, it was rather dissappointing but I thought it was a rather good game. I hated how I bought it... although I did get Opposing Force with it which made everything better.

But the Barnacle gun must have been the corniest idea ever, but still was awesome and damn fun to do

 

[chimpmunk]

Race X went to black mesa to get their larva back (the spore guns) wich were brought back by scientists from a trip to a less known and accessible dimension (let's call it planet X) so, the aliens from planet X come to earth to get their babies back (shocktroopers larva as it seems) and got caught in the middle of the fight. Since they are a military race, they probably try to establish some kind of colony or what not on earth (remember the gene worm they tried to warp in?) they failed tough.
That's the way i see it.

 

[kush]

Y'know, i never realised how awesome Steam was until i read this thread and though 'Sounds like i should get round to playing OpFor, shame i don't have it... but wait!' And Steam saved the day.

 

[omni]

Nothing new to add, but I want say "thanks" to those who did post information. I too was confused about Race X and its connection to the rest of the HL plot, this thread has made things more clear.

Kudos.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Race-X were NOT from Xen, but from a planet in the same nebulosa. There is more information on a page witch I dont know that adress to, but it "acts" like if everything in HL acctaully happend. Anyone knows it?

That site, if it's the one I think you mean, does do a good job of explaining things, but it's also about 30% fan fiction.

From what I've seen, Race X are almost definitely from a distant part of Xen. I believe it is the part of Xen with the huge microbes in the sky.

 

[GuNzABlaZiN]

Xen was a dimentional border world, when the scientists "accidently" opened the portal, BMRF was flooded with Xen wildlife and some intelligent Xen lifeforms. When the military got to BMRF, fire teams were sent to take control of Xen (after the Nihilianth fell). Shortly after Gordon left for Xen, Race-X appeared.

There are many indicators that Xen was under Race-X control or atleast under the control of a stronger force (the shackles on the "slaves" and the scars on the Nihilianth's stomach suggest this). Race-X saw how easily the humans had conquered Xen and for whatever reason decided to invade Earth.

The Earth in HL2 is most likely under Race-X control.

 

[Brian Damage]

I recall that a lot of the complaints I've heard about Blue Shift were that it was too short, it didn't introduce any new weapons, and didn't have any new enemies and bosses... I liked it, but it wasn't in the same league as HL or OP4, IMHO. The HD pack provided a bit of value, though.

I certainly hope that a bit more of the Race-X backstory is revealed in HL2...

 

[Ecthe|ioN]

HL2 will probably reveal a lot of more information about the Race-X. Op4 was a fun addition IMO. Blueshift was entertaining enough, and I enjoyed all 40 minutes of it.

I bet HL2 will beat BS though

 

[Asknoone]

I believe Valve have dealt accordinly to race x

 

[Demon Wraith]

HL2 will probably reveal a lot of more information about the Race-X. Op4 was a fun addition IMO. Blueshift was entertaining enough, and I enjoyed all 40 minutes of it.

I bet HL2 will beat BS though

I'd bet good money that we barely even hear reference to Race-X if anything about them appears at all. They where a wholly useless addition to Half-life, but Gearbox needed some new enemies to throw in.

I found OpFor to be more tedious than "fun." I'm there to kill aliens, not babysit a bunch of grunts who are too stupid not to rush the giant alien and get themselves killed. Besides, being a trained military soldier ruins one of the best parts of Half-life.

 

[NeptuneUK]

yeah, they arent the sort of people who screw up storywise. seeing as everything fits together in HL

 

[venomous]

Doesn´t the Geneworm look like a giant mutated Xen-Tentacle with eyes?

 

[mashed]

I'm pretty sure I remember a description that says they're from xen, but did not appear until after the portal was opened that Freeman jumped into in the lambda core. Might have read that in the planethalflife.com overviews... not sure.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

I'm pretty sure I remember a description that says they're from xen, but did not appear until after the portal was opened that Freeman jumped into in the lambda core. Might have read that in the planethalflife.com overviews... not sure.

Well, I dunno where that info's from, but they definitely showed up before Gordon left. Shephard's first encounters with the pit drones and the shock troopers both happened before he saw Gordon jump into the portal.

 

[el Chi]

what a very productive, well thought out, reasonable, backed-up response

Yeah but he was right, they do suck. Except for the Pit Drones.
I believe they were from another parallel dimension, but not Xen.
They used the portals created by the resonance cascade to come to Earth but only really got control of them after Gordon destroyed Nihilanth (note how you only saw one whilst the Xen aliens were still about)

 

[NeLi]

Opforce was a great expansion pack...One of the best actually.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Well, I dunno where that info's from, but they definitely showed up before Gordon left. Shephard's first encounters with the pit drones and the shock troopers both happened before he saw Gordon jump into the portal.

Yeah, i think the story goes, the Xen creatures turned up first, Then towards the end RaceX wanted in on the action, probably doing what the humans were doing, so started to appear, if Gordon had gone back the way he'd come, he'd have probably seen them appearing near the center of where everything took off and preparing to attack.


I wonder what happened to the scientists/humans RaceX captured. Wonder if they'll turn up in HL2?

 

[el Chi]

Wonder if they'll turn up in HL2?

I hope not, they were rubbish.

 

[Brian Damage]

Yes, I think we know that's your opinion by now, el Chi. Care to state why you think they were rubbish?