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        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><a href="../../index.html">loonygames</a><br>
          <font size="1">a <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">blue's news</a> 
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<p>URL: <a href="../2.3/shelf/index.html">http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.3/shelf/</a><br>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 3<br>
                November 24, 1999<br>
                </b>
              <b> 
                </b>
              

                <b><i>The 
                  Top Shelf:</i></b></p>
                <b><i> 
                  Half-Life: Opposing Force</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Noel &quot;HB&quot; Wade</p>
              
              

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               Take 
                one highly successful game. Extract its core technology, backdrop, 
                and feel. Add in a decent amount of new talent. Liberally sprinkle 
                in some of their new views and insights. Shape into a fairly decent 
                story. Mix thoroughly together and let simmer for a year. With 
                this recipe, is it any surprise that the result is a real taste 
                treat? Actually, while its no surprise that it&#146;s good &#150; 
                it is a mild one at just how nice <b>Half-Life: Opposing Force 
                </b>turned out!</p>
              </p>
              As you 
                probably already know, you play the role of Corporal Shepard &#150; 
                a fairly new face among the ranks of the armed services. You were 
                one of the guys sent in during<b> Half-Life</b> to find and stop 
                Freeman &#150; and make sure that no one got out alive. Of course, 
                you&#146;re not REALLY a bad guy in all of this &#150; and, thankfully, 
                you don&#146;t seem given over to the task of playing a marauding 
                soldier who goes around killing scientists at random (as the military 
                seemed to do in <b>Half-Life</b>). As with all things, disaster 
                will strike, and you find yourself in more of a desperate situation 
                &#150; where your goal is to get out alive; and escape the horrors 
                of Black Mesa (sound familiar?).</p>
              
                 
                   
                    
                  
                
                 
                   
                     <i></i></p>
                  
                
              
              Before 
                I begin talking about the game, let me point out a small detail 
                that many people might overlook. The &#147;Hazard Course&#148; 
                in the main menu has been replaced with &#147;Boot Camp&#148;. 
                I highly recommend playing that, because while some things will 
                be just like the hazard course, there are many new game-play elements 
                (and hearing the drill instructors throughout the course is hilarious. 
                &#147;Full Metal Jacket&#148; fans will smile at the references 
                and tributes paid to that movie in this area). After you&#146;re 
                done being a &#147;maggot&#148; (trainee) in what has got to be 
                the shortest boot camp a soldier has ever gone through (though 
                for the purposes of the game, its perfect), you&#146;ll be ready 
                to hop into the single player game.</p>
              </p>
              Oh, you 
                want to know about the what? The multiplayer aspect? Well, if 
                that&#146;s all you&#146;re interested in &#150; then skip to 
                the bottom of the article. Are you sure you&#146;re playing the 
                right game if you&#146;re asking me that? Let me tell you something 
                right now &#150; to skip the single-player part of this game is 
                as much a travesty (and an affront to all of the hard work that 
                the Gearbox team put in) as it is to skip the single-player portion 
                of<b> Half-Life</b> itself! This isn&#146;t just a fancy, commercial 
                mod &#150; this game truly is an extension, and a new chapter/story 
                in the<b> Half-Life </b>universe.</p>
              </p>
              Okay, 
                the single-player game then... The story starts out with a nice 
                intro. sequence that fully immerses you in that &#147;<b>Half-Life</b> 
                mood&#148;. I&#146;m not going to describe even one bit of it 
                in detail; because I don&#146;t want to spoil ANYthing &#150; 
                but I will say that right from the start, you will see (if you 
                look in the right directions at the right time) that the Gearbox 
                folks put in as many touches and locations from <b>Half-Life</b> 
                as necessary to make you believe that you really are &#147;back&#148; 
                at the Black Mesa labs. Of course, in these type of games nothing 
                ever gets good until disaster strikes &#150; and that&#146;s precisely 
                what happens. You&#146;ll be treated to a few more scenes, and 
                then you&#146;ll black out. The whole sequence is much shorter 
                than <b>Half-Life</b>&#146;s &#150; which, while revolutionary 
                for its time, does tend to get old after playing the game through 
                several times. AND, being an expansion pack, its nice to see that 
                they didn&#146;t waste any time &#150; just set up the story, 
                mood, and backgrounds; and then dump us players into the action.</p>
              
                 
                   
                    
                  
                
                 
                   
                     <i></i></p>
                  
                
              
              You&#146;ll 
                come to in a makeshift medical area; with refugee scientists trying 
                to administer first-aid (the sequence that happens as you fade 
                into consciousness is hilarious, and well done) &#150; as well 
                as check out the &#147;crab-creatures&#148;. Scientists and their 
                undying curiosity... sheesh! Anyways, just as Gordon had to get 
                his HEV suit, you&#146;ll need to grab a similar device for Shepard 
                &#150; before you can claw your way out of the Mesa. The device 
                is a little less believable than <b>Half-Life</b>&#146;s HEV suit; 
                but it works, and doesn&#146;t distract you from the game-play 
                by wondering about armor/shields. Almost immediately, you&#146;ll 
                be introduced to one of the &#147;Otis&#148; characters. He&#146;s 
                the new security guard type of character that you&#146;ll run 
                into. Even more humorous than the original Barneys, &#147;Otis&#148;es 
                will also come in handy &#150; as their Desert Eagle .357 pistol 
                is accurate and deadly (and ammo for your own Eagle pistol is 
                a little on the rare side, especially in the beginning of the 
                game). Just don&#146;t stand in front of him while he&#146;s shooting, 
                okay? He&#146;s a little trigger-happy when monsters are around.</p>
              <br>Other 
              new features include the ability to climb and swing on ropes &#150; 
              an interesting physics model that seems to work well; if not perfectly. 
              Definitely something to spice up the game-play, though, and add 
              some new-ness to the game engine (as well as open up new options 
              in multiplayer play). And, as you will learn in &#147;Boot camp&#148;, 
              you can control other soldiers - after a fashion. Grunts will follow 
              you around and shoot things &#150; a la security guards (though 
              with slightly higher effectiveness). Medics will heal you and your 
              teammates (if needed). And engineers can cut through doors for you 
              (adding a bit to the &#147;find key&#148; mentality &#150; since 
              the engineer becomes a &#147;skeleton-key&#148; as long as you have 
              him around). All in all, these don&#146;t add a ton to the game; 
              but they do keep things fresh and interesting. And to add to the 
              realism, your squad-mates will limp or run for cover when they get 
              injured. As I&#146;ve mentioned before, all of these new bits add 
              to the game; and go a long way towards keeping <b>Opposing Force 
              </b>fun and unique &#150; instead of, like most expansions, just 
              being &#147;more of the same&#148;.</p>
            
               
                 
                  
                
              
               
                 
                   <i></i></p>
                
              
            
            I'm not 
              going to talk any more about the single-player aspect. You&#146;ve 
              probably read enough to either be excited, or decide you&#146;re 
              not interested. Besides, I don&#146;t want to spoil ANY of the great 
              parts of it. I do, however, want to briefly go over the multi-player 
              aspects of <b>OpFor</b>. If you enjoyed <b>Half-Life</b> deathmatch, 
              then you&#146;ll love <b>OpFor</b>&#146;s gameplay. Many weapons 
              in <b>OpFor</b> are slightly different in the multi-player game; 
              and a few become less useful... but <b>OpFor</b> does manage to 
              be as balanced, or more so, than <b>Half-Life</b> was. While specific 
              weapons do definitely rule certain combat regimes, it continues 
              to avoid the &#147;all rocket-launcher, all the time&#148; syndrome 
              that so many FPS&#146;s fall into in deathmatch mode. The sniper 
              rifle is definitely a treat; as you don&#146;t have to zoom in (unlike 
              the crossbow) to use its deadly effects. Beware, though, as its 
              long reload time could leave you a sitting duck if you don&#146;t 
              have a backup plan! The new weapons do definitely add some twists 
              and additional choices, and my only problem with them is the BFG/teleport 
              gun. It just doesn&#146;t really seem to be useful. I&#146;m guessing 
              that Gearbox didn&#146;t want it to be dominating; but the way in 
              which it was implemented... I&#146;d rather it was left out altogether 
              &#150; but then again, I know plenty of people out there who ferociously 
              support the idea of a BFG in every game. Taken against the phenomenal 
              balancing and fun of the deathmatch, it&#146;s a pretty small issue.</p>
            
               
                 
                  
                
              
               
                 
                   <i></i></p>
                
              
            
            I'll leave 
              it to you to figure out your own strategies; but you&#146;ll have 
              plenty of places to do so &#150; they&#146;ve reworked all of the 
              original <b>Half-Life</b> maps to include the new weapons, and added 
              a few all-new deathmatch maps, too! There should be more than enough 
              to hold you over until the user community picks up on <b>OpFor</b> 
              level designing. And judging from the fun that myself and my co-workers 
              have had playing this game, you&#146;ll see plenty of servers out 
              there to hone your skills on.</p>
            </p>
            In summary, 
              <b>Opposing Force </b>manages to be a far more complete and coherent 
              expansion packs than most &#150; and, while having a short story 
              line compared to the original, ties into it nicely. Taken as an 
              add-on, it will definitely leave you thinking, &#147;there&#146;s 
              more?&#148; a couple of times. Add to that some fun, expanded deathmatch 
              play that&#146;s equal to, or above normal H-L deathmatch; and <b>OpFor</b> 
              delivers more than its money&#146;s worth &#150; Gearbox should 
              really be commended for a superb job in both the quality of the 
              work, and how well it fits into the existing <b>Half-Life</b> universe. 
              If you enjoyed <b>Half-Life</b> - get your shoes on, grab your keys, 
              and go buy this baby! </p>
            
            <i>- Noel 
              &quot;HB&quot; Wade is a regular contributor to loonygames. Basically, 
              he<br>
              just wants attention. <br>What 
              follows next, is a great adventure sprawling across many new areas 
              of Black Mesa; along with many locations from the original game. 
              But fear not, Gearbox didn&#146;t just simply re-use old <b>Half-Life</b> 
              maps here... they took areas that you only got glimpses of; or went 
              through only a part of &#150; and they expanded them into whole 
              new, unique levels. Along the way, you&#146;ll encounter many scripted 
              sequences, traps, and puzzles that all remain faithful to the feel 
              of the original game. As a side-note, you will end up in Xen on 
              a few occasions; but I believe that (thankfully) you can count that 
              number on one hand (provided you still have most of your fingers 
              intact after playing <b>Half-Life</b>). Its just enough to remind 
              you that Xen is a part of this whole mess; and you&#146;re seeing 
              stuff that not many men have ever seen &#150; but not enough to 
              drag on or get as frustrating as Xen could sometimes be in the original 
              game. Regarding Xen, I would like to take a sentence or two to explain 
              my pet peeve of this expansion: the ending (and no, you&#146;re 
              not in Xen for it this time). While being entertaining, the ending 
              just isn&#146;t as compelling as <b>Half-Life</b>&#146;s. No new 
              mysteries are really revealed; and instead of running off for further 
              unknown adventures like Freeman got to, Shepard finds himself with 
              a somewhat different fate. It's not a bad ending; but with the rest 
              of the game so faithfully stacking up against the original game, 
              this one small spot where it doesn&#146;t quite measure up is left 
              sticking out like a sore thumb.</p>
            
               
                 
                  
                
              
               
                 
                   <i></i></p>
                
              
            
            One other 
              difference from the original game (albeit a positive one) is that 
              scientists and other characters will all react to you as Shepard, 
              not Gordon; so be aware that people&#146;s attitudes towards you 
              may be a little different than in <b>Half-Life</b>. There is, however, 
              one group that doesn&#146;t change the way it acts: the assassins, 
              or &#147;Black Ops&#148; people. They&#146;re back in a big way, 
              cleaning up the base &#150; and on a mysterious mission of their 
              own. While not quite as hard as the original assassins (they won&#146;t 
              cloak as much, if at all), they will team up (like the normal soldiers 
              in the original game; but silently); and will be one of the most 
              deadly enemies you&#146;ll encounter. In fact, it's worth pointing 
              out that most of the monsters from the original game have been made 
              a little bit less tough. They still hurt; but they all seem to be 
              able to take less damage. In my opinion, this is great. It lets 
              the player be a little more gung-ho (as a soldier would be, compared 
              to Gordon Freeman); and also lets us focus more on the new monsters 
              and challenges, instead of continuously slowing us down and re-hashing 
              those &#147;same old&#148; fire-fights.</p>
            </p>
            Speaking 
              of firefights, let me cover a few of the new features and weapons 
              in <b>Opposing Force</b>. First off, the weapons: You&#146;ll pick 
              up about 9 new weapons in the course of the game; some more useful 
              than others (for a whopping total of about 20 weapons!!). All will 
              have their uses, however; and the modeling and balance for these 
              weapons are superbly done! I won&#146;t go into details too much, 
              but here&#146;s a quick list of the new weapons: </p>
            
              Pipe-wrench (with 
                a powerful &#147;over-head&#148; strike in secondary mode &#150; 
                perfect for boxes and smashing small enemies)
               Combat knife (for 
                those of us who love to hack away at enemies)
               Desert Eagle .357 
                pistol (a much more useful pistol than the revolver)
               Sniper rifle (reach 
                out and touch someone &#150; zoomed or not!)
               S.A.W. (Squad Assault 
                Weapon &#150; a machine gun, inaccurate but powerful)
               &#147;Fish gun&#148; 
                (a bio-weapon that looks like some kind of aquatic being &#150; 
                which eats and then spits out bulbous plant-nodules you&#146;ll 
                find here and there)
               &#147;Roach gun&#148; 
                (at least, that&#146;s what we call it in the office. It looks 
                like a large insect, and can rapid-fire electricity/plasma in 
                a straight line; but recharges itself like the hornet gun in <b>Half-Life</b>)
               &#147;Barnacle gun&#148; 
                (it&#146;s a hand-mounted barnacle that you can use as a grappling 
                hook in some situations; or grab enemies with and munch them to 
                death - though as a weapon, its not too useful)
               BFG (I have no idea 
                what to call this &#150; maybe &#147;teleporter gun&#148;? It 
                fires a small teleport charge that will warp out or kill any creature 
                it touches; and when it hits a hard surface, it sends out a shockwave 
                that hurts everything inside a certain radius.)
            
            <br><p>&nbsp;</p> 
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Print CGI is 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.square8.com">Square Eight</a>. Used with permission. 
  Article is &copy; 2000 its original author. All other content is &copy; 2000 
  loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. You got that??</font></i></p>
 