Remember Half Life? Yeah, that survival horror and FPS hybrid? Was wicked badass and cool? Remember it had 2 expansions? Neither do I. Recently your kindly reviewer here had the misfortune luck to come across the Valve Complete Pack online, in it was just about every game Valve has ever made including more obscure titles such as Day of Defeat and Ricochet. I already had Half Life Source so I was really supprised to see that the pack included not only a copy of the original Half Life, bugs and all, but also Blue Shift and

Opposing Force. I had NO idea these existed before hand, I swear.

It's clear that Valve has improved over the years. Why? Becuase both Blue Shift and Opposing Force were..well...not very good. Blue Shift was bassicaly a few more Half Life maps to dick around in with the exception that you are playing as Barney, who's Barney? That guard who keeps offering you beers (also appearing in Half Life 2). I assumed Opposing Force was gonna be good myself, it included new weapons such as a Deagle and a Portal Gun, how awesome is that? Sure it's no Appeture Science gun but hey. Opposing Force also includes new enemies..and this is where my first problem begins, they're not new, I swear they're copies from somewhere.

Like that thing, what is that? It looks like the wierd twin of a Zergling from Starcraft. And yes, fuck crowbars, a WRENCH is where it's at! But that's just the tip of the suckberg. Other copes include a white, tall Vortigaunt and Gohma, yes, fucking Gohma (OoT Gohma I believe). Shephard appears to be alot less manly when not wearing N7 armor since you will die again and again and again and again and again! Mostly because he's alot more fragile than Gordon and even Barney! Yes, the security guard with the Glock has more stamina than the trained soldier.

It's not helped that the gameplay is glitched to buggery aswell. Some lifts stop half way and won't move, some move but they kill you etc. I found 2 that REALLY pissed me off and almostad me rage quit. The first one was right after that blood annoying sewer level (Yes, a sewer level) where you have to make your way past a mirriad of aliens with almost-instant-kill attacks. I ended up with on 26 hp remaining and no shields so as you can imagine I took it slow, I noticed some Black Ops goons up the top of some stairs, killed one of them no problem but the next one is what pissed me off. He stood, there, looking right at me, I unloaded a full SMG clip into him, he took one step AND EXPLODED. I SWEAR THERE WAS NO GRENADE OR ANY TYPE OF EXPLOSIVE THERE, HOW DID HE EXPLODE? The seccond glitch I found I actualy encountered a few times, when your squad randomly opens fire on you for no reason. I swear, I'd be running down a corridor, turn around and my squad would all shoot at me! Did I mention that the aim is off to? Yeah, sometimes when aiming the targeting reticule will jump about all over the place and hit everything BUT the enemy.

Now, for all my complaints Opposing Force does have a good side..sorta.  It does add in a few new weapons like the Deagle, the heavy machine gun and a portal gun. Yes, no longer is the portal gun used for solving puzzles now you can fire it at your enemies and instand kill yourself randomly, this is why GLaDOS went nuts, the bloody incompitence of the portal gun makers. Aswell as the almighty wrench you're also given a combat knife, why? I have no idea but it does open boxes faster than the wrench so it's all good. Aswell as new human weapons we also get the Blue Vortigaunts electric gun, an alien grenade launcher and a barnacle grapple gun. These are pretty cool but the electric gun causes me some grief, mostly because after you get your first one you work out pretty fast is has infinate ammo, which is fine except from any point onwards if you see another one on the floor IT WILL TRY TO KILL YOU!

All in all, Opposing Force isn't bad per-se, but it just feels rushed to me. The glitches, game play issues and enemy types all could have been fixed given a few more months work if you ask me. Will we see Shephard again? Maybe, who right?  He's gotta go kill the reapers first.

Final Score: 2/5

By: Wittyreviewer