Half-life blue shift download zip

Overview

Those of you who have played the original Half-Life probably remember the intro tram ride. An atmospheric scene, your tram quietly rode through the Black Mesa complex, on the way to the Anomalous Materials Laboratories. On the way, you saw a lone security guard stranded on a ledge, desperately trying to get into a locked door. In Half-Life: Blue Shift, you play that man, one Barney Calhoun, security guard on the Blue shift, section 3 on the Black Mesa security force. Trained as a basic security and maintenance officer, you’re expected to pick up the slack and keep Black Mesa safe and clean.

Half-Life: Blue Shift gives you the chance to play out the events from the original Half-Life from the perspective of a lonely security guard. Creatures from Xen (the alien dimension that caused all the trouble to begin with) abound, and nearly all of them want to eat you. Along the way you’ll see elements that made the other games so entertaining, and occasionally cross paths with characters from Half-Life and Opposing Force, the Half-Life expansion pack. Armed with a few new weapons and a fresh perspective on the game, you’ll see what it really means to be a ‘Barney.’ Gearbox, the company that developed Blue Shift, was also responsible for the popular Opposing Force expansion pack, wherein you take the role of a soldier trying to survive the chaos of the Xen Incident.

As an added bonus, Blue Shift comes with two extra items. The first is the high-definition pack; an add-on for Half-Life that allows it to take advantage of newer video cards, with new, highly detailed textures and skins. Although the pack is free for download from Valve, the makers of Half-Life, it is still convenient to have a copy on CD. Along with the high-definition pack is a full copy of the Opposing Force add-on, the first expansion pack made by Gearbox. If you don’t have a copy of Opposing Force, the Blue Shift CD takes care of all your troubles.

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

Much like other add-on packs, Half-Life gameplay isn’t improved or even changed by the Blue Shift expansion pack. I’d like to take a moment to say that this is usually the most disappointing thing about expansion packs, something I’d like to see remedied. Gearbox has managed to produce an engaging, detailed storyline yet again (see Opposing Force for more details), but hasn’t added anything new to the basic Half-Life engine itself. If we could see a new style of tactics, vehicles, or perhaps just a modular weapon system, it would add months to the life of this PC classic. With the Half-Life engine becoming eclipsed by newer, sleeker next generation FPS games, a slight change from the norm could help revitalize this game.

Don’t get me wrong. All the gameplay you know and love is still there. It just gets a little old now that the second expansion pack for Half-Life is out. Blue Shift is fun to play and adds a lot in the way of the single player storyline. You’ve got a few new weapons and the way the storyline plays out is as entertaining as ever. Sadly though, even with Opposing Force included, there isn’t much reason to purchase Blue Shift unless you’re a really big fan of the original storyline. Without a more engaging gameplay style or any innovation (aside from the High Definition pack), I don’t see Blue Shift as being a strong expansion.

System Requirements

Requires: Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME, 32MB RAM, 2x CD-ROM Drive, Windows Compatible Soundcard, Pentium or AMD K6/2 233+, 400MB HD Space, SVGA High Color (16-bit) Display, 32-bit ISP with 28.8+ modem or LAN (for net games).

Reviewed On: Windows 98SE, 512MB RAM, AMD Athlon 100mhz, Creative Soundblaster Live!, Geforce 2 MX.

Bottom Line

All in all, if you don’t already own a copy of Opposing Force, I’d recommend purchasing Blue Shift. The lower cost and added value make the game a steal, and give you much more than the few hours of gameplay you’ll get from Half-Life. If you’ve already got Opposing Force, I’d be hesitant to get Blue Shift unless you really, really enjoy the Half-Life single player storyline. If Blue Shift were more than an additional story, it might deserve better, but as is, I’m ranking it at 72.

Download Half-Life: Blue Shift

PC

System requirements:

• PC compatible
• Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP

Half-Life: Blue Shift is an expansion pack for Valve Software's science fiction first-person shooter video game Half-Life. The game was developed by Gearbox Software with Valve Corporation and published by Sierra On-Line on June 12, 2001. Blue Shift is the second expansion for Half-Life, originally intended as part of a Dreamcast version of the original game. Although the Dreamcast port was later cancelled, the PC version continued development and was released as a standalone product. The game was released on Steam on August 24, 2005.

As with Gearbox's previous expansion pack Opposing Force, Blue Shift returns to the setting and events of the original game, but portrays the story through the eyes of another person. The protagonist in Blue Shift is a security guard, Barney Calhoun, employed by the Black Mesa Research Facility. After a scientific mishap causes Black Mesa to be invaded by aliens, Calhoun must fight his way to safety. The game received mostly positive reception. Many reviewers were critical of the short length of the game and the lack of new content, although the inclusion of a High Definition pack that upgraded the models and textures in both Blue Shift and the preceding Half-Life games was praised.

Gameplay

As an expansion pack for Half-Life, Blue Shift is a first-person shooter. The overall gameplay of Blue Shift does not significantly differ from that of Half-Life: players are required to navigate through the game's levels, fight hostile non-player characters and solve a variety of puzzles to advance. The game continues Half-Life's methods of an unbroken narrative. The player sees everything through the first person perspective of the protagonist and remains in control of the player character for almost all of the game. Story events are conveyed through the use of scripted sequences rather than cut scenes. Progress through the game's world is continuous; although the game is divided up into chapters, the only significant pauses are when the game needs to load the next part of an environment.

The player battles through the game alone, but is occasionally assisted by friendly non-player characters. Security guards and scientists will occasionally help the player in reaching new areas and convey relevant plot information. Blue Shift also includes a substantial section dedicated to keeping a major character in the story safe from enemy characters, and escorting him to a specific location. A selection of enemies from Half-Life populate the game, including alien creatures such as headcrabs and Vortigaunts. The player also encounters human opponents in the form of a detachment of US Marines who have been sent to eliminate the alien threat and silence any witnesses. Blue Shift does not elaborate on the storyline in Opposing Force, the preceding expansion pack, and no enemy characters or weapons introduced in it appear in the game. The player is instead given access to a limited selection of Half-Life's original weaponry.