Hey all, I’m new to the board but I’ve been an avid HL player since '99. I found out about this mod and was drawn to it immediately and really appreciated what they were trying to do with one of the greatest games ever made. I feel that they can make such a game even greater and I’m looking forward to it’s release very much.
That being said, I loved Opposing Force. I remember waiting as a 13 year old for it to be released very impatiently. I remember the PC Gamer preview on it, it seemed that being a Marine in the game was going to add a whole other dimension of gameplay to Half-Life. I don’t remember the exact wording but they mentioned that the player would have the ability to call in back up, call in air support, use the radio for whatever, and there was going to be a lot of squad action, I wasn’t expecting it to be another lone-ranger solo storyline; I was really anticipating the player to go in there and simply just crush and destroy everything in his/her path as we saw the Marines in the 1st Half-Life doing.
I loved Opposing Force, but after playing it I was disappointed. Although there was a little bit more squad combat, it wasn’t what I was hoping for. With that, I set out back in those days to try and start up a recreation of what Opposing Force SHOULD’VE been like. It was fail (as a 14/15 year old knowing nothing about putting a mod together you would expect that), however it still even now seems like it would be a great thing to try and tackle. That is where most of my appreciation for Black Mesa Source comes from, because I’ve seen what they’ve done with the original, and it looks to me that they could do the same with Opposing Force.
Now I know Black Mesa Source is all about re-making the original, whilst mine is pretty much completely rewriting it; there’s no doubt in my mind that says this wouldn’t be 10x cooler. What I am pretty much suggesting is that Opposing Force should be remade much more towards the way of which PC Gamer previewed it… You, Adrian Shephard, go into Black Mesa and are a part of a Marine squad; you have missions and objectives you have to complete (namely kill every person working for black mesa, mainly Freeman and other elusive field scientists, as well as hunt down groups of aliens roaming the facility), with all the aforementioned tools and capabilities at your disposal. I don’t mind the solo-single player story, and I think in some instances that should remain, however I’d love for some more NPC/Player interaction and content.
My idea actually expanded the content and perspective of Half-Life in many different ways. I intended to have 3 groups of perspective to play from: Marines, Black Ops (If anyone ever remembers a long defunct single player half-life mod “Black Ops”?), and a special Marine detatchment I made up called Surgical Strike Squads (basically elite Marines who are on par and counter the Black Ops, making for some really great NPC vs. NPC action.).
Each perspective featured several characters with different stories/locations/roles to play through as well, from machine gunner or sniper marines, to female assasins or elite black ops, to the simply bad ass tactical masters from the SSS; every character covering a different peice of the puzzle in the Half-Life storyline, making it more and more interesting.
All of this being aided by the addition of each groups selection of new conventional weaponry for a better variety, to make everything more interesting. Not to mention, there were a lot of ideas I had for this mod (as well as other projects I thought up) that I still to this day (10 years later) have not seen implemented in any first person shooter yet, which would enrich the gameplay and quality of the mod.
I know it’s an eye-full of ideas, but if anyone else had any recollection of the particular article in PC Gamer I’m referring to, I was hoping that anyone who may in fact remember it, would clearly understand what my main source of inspiration for this was. Anyhow, I’m done rambling about that. Let me know what you guys think about remaking the original Opposing Force.
