Half-Life: Blue Shift | 
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| From: Vivendi Universal
Category: Video Games
List Price: $14.99
Buy Used: $3.99
You Save: $11.00 (73%)
New (3) Used (14) from $3.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  142 reviews
Sales Rank: 4126
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows Nt, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows 95
ESRB: Mature
Media: CD-ROM
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows 2000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 7.8 x 1.9
Model: 71199
UPC: 020626711999
EAN: 0020626711999
ASIN: B00005BIQK
Release Date: June 13, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Half-Life is still considered the finest single-player 3-D shooter ever made, and with good reason. No other game has combined nail-biting tension, truly alien aliens, and devious artificial intelligence in as complete a package as Valve's masterpiece. Sierra has kept Half-Life on countless hard drives by publishing the excellent multiplayer Counter-Strike modification, but Half-Life was originally all about the single-player game--the sci-fi action story of research assistant Gordon Freeman. The first Half-Life expansion pack, Opposing Force, concentrated on the military Special Ops side of the same story, and featured Colonel Adrian Shepherd. The new Half-Life: Blue Shift episode highlights security guard Barney Calhoun's adventure during Black Mesa's extradimensional catastrophe. Like Adrian, Barney encounters much the same creatures as his predecessor, but in different situations and locales than you've seen before, some located as far away from Black Mesa as you can get. Unlike Opposing Force, Blue Shift doesn't feature any new weapons or monsters; oddly, it doesn't even feature the new creatures introduced in Opposing Force. With Blue Shift, you get Barney's adventures, a new high-definition graphics pack that dramatically improves the look of the weapons and characters in all Half-Life games, and the entire Opposing Force expansion pack (there's also a rebate for those who already own Opposing Force). It's obviously geared toward fans that bought the Counter-Strike online package and want to see why the single-player Half-Life is hailed as the best action game ever. Even though the technology is fundamentally three years old, Blue Shift proves the Half-Life series is still about tension, story, horrible monsters (both human and alien), and fantastic combat in a sci-fi setting. Want more Half-Life? Get Blue Shift. --Bob Andrews Pros: - A new Half-Life episode starring Barney!
- Also comes with the complete Opposing Force expansion
- The high-definition weapons and creature graphics look great
- High-definition pack improves the look of all Half-Life episodes
Cons: - The graphics engine is three years old, and level geometry does not compare to modern games
- The new episode is awfully short
Amazon.com Product Description
In Half-Life: Blue Shift, players are challenged to take on the role of the Black Mesa security guard and explore restricted areas of the mysterious government facility. As security in this top-secret government facility, you must scramble to keep the scientists and yourself alive, as you extinguish the many hostiles attempting to take you out. Half-Life: Blue Shift features Half-Life weapons and characters with new high-definition content. In 32-person multiplayer mode, you can battle opponents from around the world in Capture the Flag and other Half-Life online games. Learn more about the incidents at Black Mesa, and explore new areas of this mysterious government facility. The package includes: the Half-Life HD Pack, which automatically upgrades the weapons and characters of all the games in the Half-Life saga with new high-definition content; and Half-Life: Opposing Force (in North America), the award-winning action thriller that places you in the boots of a military specialist assigned to eliminate Gordon Freeman.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 137 more reviews...
 fun but over way to fast April 15, 2008
In this expansion to Half Life, you control a security guard for the Black Mesa Research Facility named Barney Calhoun who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Basically, you had just punched in for work when all hell breaks loose - by this I mean aliens are teleporting into Black Mesa and killing off everything in site, and soon US Marines as well as Black Op forces enter the scene looking to kill you and the civilians as well. Its up to you to find a scientist named Dr. Rosenburg and help him repair a mini-teleporter so you can escape.
If you've played Half Life or it's other expansion pack entitled Opposing Force then you know what to expect in this game: lots of puzzles and lots of action. You run around as Barney, looking through his eyes, as he clutches his weapons tights and fights his way through Black Mesa. You'll gather weapons like pistols, magnums, shotguns, assault rifles, grenades, rocket launchers, a crowbar, and others. All these will be used to fight off dog like things that send out shock-waves, Vortigaunts, tad pole like monsters that spit acid or whatever at you, and US Marines that were sent in to kill any living creature within Black Mesa.
The difficulty is a little hard, and the puzzles are a bit tricky. For example, to kill a US Marine (otherwise known as HECU Soldier) it takes like 5 shotgun blasts or 3 magnum shots, or the puzzle where you have to complete an electric circuit but the game does nothing to tell you how to solve it.... and you only find out by accidently moving a barrel in between the wires and the charge goes through the barrel.
The ending of the game was kind of lackluster, but certainly better then Opposing Force. You're helping Dr. Rosenburg and his colleauges finish charging this mini-teleporter. As you wait for the thing to charge so you may flip the switch and open the portal to leave, HECU soldiers come barging in. You fight them, open the portal and run through. You appear outside with the scientists who note that something is wrong - your glowing green. Quickly you teleport back to Xen (the alien homeworld). Then you appear back outside where you hear Rosenburg trying to figure out whats going on. Just as quickly, you appear in some sort of room and oyu see two HECU soldiers dragging an unconsious Gordon Freeman (the protagonist from Half Life) and saying things like "we should just kill him now." and so on. Then you teleport back outside and Dr. Rosenburg notes that your no longer growing green, that the scientists couldn't have done it without you, and all of you go driving off away from Black Mesa.
The only real downfall I have is the lack of action (fire fights) andhow short the game was. It was incredibly short.
Good Idea That Ends Way Too Quickly March 29, 2006
Blue Shift is an expansion pack to the original Half-Life game in which you play a security guard who is forced to fight for his life once problems arise at the facility. The idea of playing a secondary character like a security guard is a great idea and for the most part this game does that well. Your character is not presented as some superhuman guard or anything, but just an 'everyday' guy with a few years education at a community college. The problem with this game is that it is over with way to quickly and so much more could have been done with it. I must also say that the ending is very lackluster and does not live up to the spirit and challange of the gameplay. Overall, I would say that if you enjoyed the original Half-Life and want to play it from a different viewpoint, give this game a try. However, if you're just getting into the Half-Life series then I recomend that you play Half-Life first.
 *Pathetically* short March 18, 2006
I know some of the reviews here say "Of course it's short it's just an expansion!, but even still I was disappointed at how little time it takes to complete this. Don't get me wrong, while it lasts you'l be doing a lot of the stuff that made the original so good, but seriously, given that you don't get stuck for a long time at any puzzle this game can be finished in about 5 hours.
On the bright side though a couple of the puzzles are quite clever (especially one involving a dynamite plunger)
I give this 5 stars for fun, but I can't give this product too many stars overall. Such a halfhearted effort leaves a slightly sour taste in the mouth.
It lasts less than half the time the original Half-Life did. October 3, 2005
Yep, this game is that short. Half-Life was extremely long and fun. Opposing Force is the same way. But I'm quite disappointed with the way this game turned out. I love it, so don't get me wrong here, I still love each Half-Life game. But, this game comes with a thing that makes the graphics on all the Half-Life games that you own better. Here's the problem. It only affected this game, and the original. It didn't change anything about Opposing Force! So that was sort of a dud. I beat this whole game in one day. Seriously. It was a saturday, not unlike any other, when suddenly I got the urge to play my favorite first-person shooter. So I loaded up my new expansion pack of Half-Life, Blue Shift, and began. My mom had gone to the store to get some thing. Well guess what. I finished this entire game long before she even got back and she wasn't even gone that long. There's no final monster in this game, you rarely go to the alien world except to start up this machine somewhere there so the scientists can work the teleporter back on Earth, and above all else, this game is WAY TOO SHORT. I know somebody pointed out it's an expansion, so it'll naturally be short, but still. This is too short even for an expansion. This is more like a demo of a game rather than the actual one. Like on those demo discs I'm sure we've all got one of for Playstation where you play like half of a level for a particular game, then it just says something like 'to be continued', or 'coming in 2000', or something. I was expecting to see a message like that appear after Calhoun and that group of scientists escaped the facility. That's where the disappointment lies. I don't even think I died a single time in this game, either. There's always plenty of ammo, and plenty of alien scum to unload it into, but it just ends so quickly it ruins the fun.
Really Good but way too easy and short - but the H.D. Pack Rocks! 3.5 stars! August 14, 2005
When I heard that yet another expansion pack for Half-Life was about to be released, I snaffled a copy as soon as I could. And as I thought, "Half-life: Blue Shift," did not disappoint in terms of graphics, gameplay, excitement and fun. BUT the problem is that you can finish this Expansion in 5 hours on the Difficult setting! Now I live in South Africa and I payed R250 (that's about $42) for it. Then I discovered why it was/is so expensive: 1) it includes the retail version of "Opposing Force," and 2) the Half-Life High-Definition pack. So of course I went and played the entire series with the new H.D pack and it was great! So I suppose if you were buying "Blue Shift" by itself it wouldn't be worth it. BUT (again) I already had the retail version of "Opposing Force," and the return offer for "Opposing Force" was only open to Canada and the U.S.A. SO bummer for me for not being in the northern hemisphere YET AGAIN! Well, all that aside, here's my take on "Blue Shift."
In this Expansion pack you assume the role of Barney Calhoun, a Security Guard at Black Mesa. Just like Gordon Freeman, you start your day normally with the usual drudge of the auto-tram and suiting up. However, Barney and the entire Black Mesa facility are soon inexplicably thrown into a world of blood-thirsty aliens and merciless and unforgiving soldiers. And of course the only way out is to fight - you can't really fault the storyline as it follows the same type of adventure as the previous 2 installments. And there are new places to explore and different objectives (in some instances), so I guess that "Blue Shift," gets a 9/10 for the story etc.
In terms of difficulty, "Blue Shift" is actually very easy. Even on the hardest setting it's a cakewalk, and for seasoned F.P.S players and "Half-Life" fans, this game will no doubt be a walk in the park. No new enemies or weapons either (bummer!), so in terms of new weapons, "Blue Shift," gets 2/10 (because the MP5 changes to an M4 Assault Rifle when you apply the H.D. pack, so nothing really "new" I'm afraid). In terms of difficulty, it's 2/10 for Easy, 4/10 for Normal and 5/10 for Hard. Just trust me, the game is not very challenging and will most likely be a frag-fest for most gamers, and there's never a shortage of ammo (unless you're a trigger-happy freak!) so "Blue Shift," just ain't a challenge my friends.
The characters you encounter include Scientists, soldiers, and various aliens that you've probably seen a thousand times. So no points for "Blue Shift," on that level. As a Security Guard you will now need to use helmets and body armour to keep yourself safe instead of H.E.V and P.V.C chargers like Gordon Freeman and Adrian Shephard. In this way there's a new approach to protecting yourself, which is a refreshing change. You won't fight the more advanced, powerful aliens as Shephard did and you won't encounter any Desert Eagles, Sniper Rifles, S.A.W's or anything cool like that. In some ways "Blue Shift," is a regression, but nonetheless, it's still fun as hell and action is fast, realistic and furious! 10/10 for Gameplay!
Overall "Half-Life: Blue Shift," scores a comfortable 3.5/5 or 7/10 if you like. My personal advice is that if you want value for money, this probably isn't worth it. If you're looking for a real challenge, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a huge expansion pack, well, "Opposing Force" is bigger, but that's it. If you just wanna kill s***, frag, run, jump and play with the all-new H.D pack (on all Half-Life games) and are a "Half-Life" fan, then you should already have this game. I'm reluctant to just say "buy it." That's what I've found and what others have agreed upon, so you be the judge. Not bad at all, but too short, too easy and very few new features...
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