OP4 is imo THE best expansion to a game ever created.
It adds more to the gameplay and story unlike any other, whilst imo not diluting anything in the original.
The only scientist we see who is in the custody of the military is that ONE scientist. He could well of worked in Anomalous Materials and by this time the military really DID want Freeman. Shit had hit the fan MAJORLY and the top brass really were starting to worry about the incidents longer lasting effects. Any information on how to stop it would of been imperative at this point, Freeman, from their point of view would be the key.
Sorry? Are we supposed to love it for it’s awesome menu? It’s training mission? It’s green hud? Soundtrack?
All of which WERE awesome anyway. Honestly, talk about jumping on the bandwagon.
I never really liked OP4. By the time I was half-way through I was hoping for it to end soon. Not to say I thought it was bad, but I didn’t really enjoy it all that much either.
Blue Shift, on the other hand, I thought was pretty good. It’s basically just more of the same old HL, which is exactly why it works, IMO.
Yeah, I loved Blue Shift more than OP4. It was fun, had good fights, and used everything in default HL well. They even added completely new environments, like the trainyards, with little or no new textures.
Yes because everyone in the military follows orders exactly as directed and will shoot anyone on site. That isn’t the best argument to make. I liked the different direction and the diversity. With the fact that it was an expansion pack, they had to add new content (new enemies, new guns) otherwise it wouldn’t be much of an expansion.
I see bshift and opforce as a sort of ripple effect due to the initial impact of Half Life, and the remakes are also just a ripple effect that started with Black Mesa…
Come to think of it, EP1 and EP2 are a ripple effect after Half Life 2 (thats why the 3rd ripple aint coming, it’s gonna be a new impact with HL3)
that said, I would treat them just as I treated the original expansions, I would be happy to play them because it’s extra half life gameplay, and I always hunger for half life
Then leave some space in ur stomach as I’m pretty sure it’s coming “soon”
Also Operation Black Mesa features: “Immerse scenes that make you really feel for the employees of the Facility” sounds like there might be some “good HECU vs bad HECU” subplot expanded.
I know it sounds funny, but Shephard wasn’t told the specifics of the mission, thus had no idea about being “the bad guy”
But I hope they will make sure there are some “trust” scenes, like BM staff being scared of you/refusing to help “one of them”
I actually Believe the Episodes exist only because VALVe got pressured to work overtime for A more complete and groundbreaking Half-Life 2 after their Old development was ‘leaked’ in ~2003.
Half-Life 2 was originally meant to be rather extensive, even in comparison to how long it is now. But even after finishing polishing the product, the team had copious amounts of extra content to work off of.
I see no Episode 3 in sight because I believe that VALVe’s finally depleted through their left over concepts and content.
And that’s why it got cancelled, they were too keen about the past, so rather than creating new things, they found themselves recycling a lot.
Even if the plot would have been interesting with unknowns to explore, the locations were meant to be just a cut content from the leak.
My theory at least, if I was them, I’d distance HL3 from HL2 as the original is from the second… but fans be complaining about concluding the “story arc”
But it makes me think that REALLY everything past EP2 was scrapped, thus instead of “venture to Borealis, avenge Eli and steal Aperture Technology” it’s gonna be: “Alyx cries, G-man pulls out Gordon again to some other timeline/place”
I would like to see Gordon in a future where everyone is dead in the Earth, he stays for a whiile but when manages to teleport to the Combine headquarters or whatever they have and blow them in their own planet with help of vortigaunts. That would be nice.
How about staying on the topic instead of creating another EP3/HL3 speculation thread?
What does it add to the story? It didn’t add a damn thing. As for gameplay all it added were npcs that behaved like little more than reskins of existing ones & extra weapons that were mostly redundant.
Level design? How it expanded upon the plot? (and it didn’t) Could anybody honestly say they liked Opposing force better if it just reused the same weapons & npcs HL1 had? Because that always seems to be the #1 complaint about Blue Shift. “Not enough stuff.”
I didn’t much like OP4’s SP, too many confusing puzzles, but I really like the DM.
Blue Shift was better than OP4 imo, because it has much more of a Half-Life “feel” to it, also with same with Decay, it also had more of a Half-Life “feel” to it, OP4 didn’t really feel much like Half-Life to me.
Blue Shift was basically Half-Life with Barney, Opposing Force feels different because it’s the universe through the eyes of one HECU that wasn’t informed of operation details.
Kinda like the mods of playing a Combine in HL2 arc, it is meant to be different.
It added depth to the story. Depth to Black Mesa itself and more of what was actually going on there. So in a sense, more to the story.
Also, I don’t like OP4 BETTER than HL. I do however think it is the perfect compliment to it. I like them about the same, give or take for different reasons. I’d disagree about the enemies added, I’d say they changed around existing ideas enough to keep it fresh. Sure you could make comparisons between shock troops and HECU, or Gonarch and Vorts, but I wouldn’t say the gameplay is all that similar when dealing with them, especially in regard to being able to combine the new additions to create more varied combat.
As for level design, this is where I must completely disagree. In some cases I find OP4 to surpass the level design of the original. Areas like the biodome, the crush depth section, and areas on the surface are some of the best in the series.
As for weapons, I’d disagree completely again. Desert Eagle added to the python, the wrench to the crowbar, sniper to the crossbow. Adding in the shock rifle and the barnacle, you’ve got a very welcome upgrade to the arsenal. If anything the new additions made the OLD weapons redundant.
I’d personally say the problem with blue shift was its length, otherwise it’s one of the most consistent entries.
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.
