Opposing Force/Blue Shift/Decay: Your view of the caNon.

Half-Life Series
#1

So people I was wondering what everyone thought on Blue Shift, OP4 and Decay in regards to the Half-Life series as a whole. We all know it didn’t factor into Valves plans and isn’t ‘officially’ canon, but what do YOU think?

Do you think they both try to add far too much that doesn’t fit in your eyes?

Does it all fit in perfectly?

Do you want to see a return of the add-ons new elements?

How so? In HL-3? Their own episodes?

Do you not care?

Personally I’ve always considered them to be canon, and see no reason why they couldn’t be. I think it would actually bolster the depth of the Freeman story arc to consider these canon, and also give Valve more options to explore in the future, both in regards to story and gameplay.

CANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNON BALL! Had to.

#2

I would like to see official OF2 title by Gearbox.

(I knew there are OF2 mod dammit)

#3

I would like to see a game (By Gearbox) that once more puts the players into Barney’s shoes in the Half-Life 2 universe; preferably right after the events of Episode 1.

#4

They’re not
/thread

#5

I’d like to see Gearbox buckle down and stop doing 4 ok projects at once and instead maybe have 2 really good ones.

Seriously, they’re spreading thin.

#6

Personally, to me, OP4, BS, and Decay are canon and always will be.

#7

It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about the subject, Marc Laidlaw said they have no plans for any of the gearbox crap so it means nothing. Like it never happened. If you like the games, play them but there will be nothing more of them, no story, hints or anything else like that. Only semi repetitive fanboy forum post rehashing wether it is canon or not, despite direct quotes from the story author that say exactly what he thinks.

#8

The only thing they really ‘add’ is Race X, other than that it’s just more of the same.

No. Race X doesn’t really fit in at all story-wise, considering that they’re not related to the combine & their goals were the same. It’s just redundant. Not to mention “Race X” is just a terrible name.

No. Nothing of any value was added at all.

I don’t think any of it ever needs to be referenced again.

If it were up to me, I’d make Half-Life 2: Opposing Force, where you’d play as Shepherd, who’s now a combine soldier during the events of HL2 & Episode 1, where you have to fight off the resistance. It ends with you going into the citadel to send off the transmission packet & dying in the ensuing explosion, not to be rescued at the last minute by G-man.

#9

Regardless of whether it’s officially cannon or not (yes, I know, it’s not), I think the events in Opposing Force are very well thought-out and fit extremely nicely with HL1. I love how the two games overlap, yet Opposing Force continues beyond where HL1 ends, making a smooth transition between the HL1 world and the post-HL1 world, specifically Race X.

The Race X aliens were incredibly well-designed and I really love them, except for the Voltigore (is that how you write it?), I hated those big annoying horse-hippo-antlion hybrids. I didn’t like the idea Black Ops honestly since it doesn’t make sense (why not send in a third squad to silence the Black Ops? Or a fourth, etc…), but I see how the grunts needed another human enemy to make things balanced…

As for Blue Shift, nothing really happened that alters anything (no new enemies and no interesting events, other than Barney escaping). I didn’t really enjoy the game, I especially hated the Dr. Rosenberg crap and collecting those stupid batteries.

I love the idea of playing through the eyes of someone else, re-living the same events from a different perspective.

As for HL2, I can’t imagine playing as a Combine soldier, since they don’t really seem to have a story, though someone could make an interesting mod with that idea… Nor can I imagine playing as Alyx, since she’s almost always with Gordon. The only imaginable alternative story could be Barney, and what happens with him while he’s away from Gordon, or a citizen, but damn, those guys are boring…

I personally would love to see Race X in HL2, oh, and I would also love to see the regular Xen aliens in HL2, while we’re at it. Where the hell did those go?? I mean seriously, why did Valve ditch the Houndeye, Bullsquid, Gargantua, Tentacle, and all the rest (and the Vortiguants, who are no longer enemies), for just 30 different kinds of zombies? I mean the zombies are amazing, but the rest was as well…

#10

Who cares if it’s officially canon. At least the Bs/Op4/Decay storylines even made sense.
I like the Resonance Cascade scenes.

#11

I like the expansion packs but the only thing I have a problem with is Race X. There isn’t much story behind them, I mean where did they come from?

Place X?

BA-DUM CRASH!

#12

I sort of figured Valve ditched all those enemies to try to create a more “mature” sort of feel for HL2. They replaced colorful monsters with bland human-like enemies(striders aside)…and zombies of course, because in 2004, and even today, people just can’t seem to get enough of zombies. IMO, there’s clearly plenty of room for improvement and creative potential for HL3/EP3.

#13

Blue shift, much like Episode One, captured that sense of urgency and mass panic.
Anything related to Blue Shift is something id like to see.

#14

I liked opfor and blue shift a lot actually.

Screw canon, I just thought it was cool how they intertwined the different parts of the game, like following freeman as he jumps through the portal, or seeing him dragged off.

But Blue shift was way too short.

#15

I felt Decay was.

#16

Never played decay

#17

Neither have I but I’m planning on playing the Source remake whenever (if ever) it comes out.

#18

I would like this. I mainly just want to know what happened to Barney after EP1. Did he take a different route and go to another rebel base? Or did he get sent somewhere else after White Forest? I highly doubt he went to help Mossman, unless her group was just a scouting party, and Barney was leading their reinforcements. Then again, none of the rebels knew Judith found anything, why send reinforcements to a mobile search team that you haven’t heard anything from?

As far as the Gearbox expansions go: I’ve never played Decay, I’d be interested in playing through it once, but eh, I haven’t been motivated enough to get it and find someone to play it with. OP4 had new weapons that were pretty decent. The Barnacle made no sense, but the rest were pretty fun. Blue Shift was short and rather boring since it had nothing really new. I’m kinda glad that Valve left them out of the canon aside from a few important points. I don’t feel much attachment to Shep, so wouldn’t really care either way if he came back or not.

#19

I think what they really wanted to do was reuse as little HL1 content as they could get away with. The headcrab & zombie are too iconic to ditch. They would have brought back the Ichthyosaur, but there wasn’t any place to put him that would have been worthwhile. The Vortigaunts were tied to the Combine in terms of plot & could serve as walking armor dispensers. Barnacles were still useful for restricting player movement & could interact with the physics props. And the leeches restricted player movement in the water. Nothing else really ‘needed’ to be brought back. Most developers don’t really like bringing back old things unless they’re somehow now able to do something with them that they never could have before. Not to say we don’t all get nostalgic at times.

#20

If you have the original HL there is a PC port of Decay, you can play on your own and I think you can play it online too.

I’ve always felt Race X could be put into canon. There is no reason there couldn’t of been another group of aliens on Xen, albeit a smaller group. They could well of been fighting a losing battle against the Nihilanths forces on Xen, and thus turned to Earth as an escape once the Nihilanth became preoccupied with Freeman on Xen.

I also like how they are similar to the way the Nihilanth works, yet obviously so different. They seem to me to be a race of bioengineered weapons, creating bioengineered weapons, perhaps with a hive mind. I like to think the Voltigore is what came of experiments with Vortigaunts.

Personally I’d like to see Shephard come back into the story. Bring out 3 episodes with him setting up certain events, whilst also solidifying the orginal add-ons as canon.

On another note. Why does everyone wanna see gearbox do these expansions?

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