Half-Life: Opposing Force

Half-Life: Opposing Force (dt .: opponents force and counter-force ) is the first expansion for the computer game Half-Life and was 1999 by Valve and Gearbox issued. Although it was originally distributed as an expansion for Half-Life, it can now be purchased as a standalone game on Steam.

action

The game does not continue the storyline, rather it runs parallel to the events of Half-Life. While Gordon Freeman rushes through Black Mesa, Corporal Adrian Shephard and a team are sent there to take down the scientist. However, the transport machine is shot at and crashes. Shephard has to fight his way through Black Mesa by himself, not only being stopped by extraterrestrial beings, but also by the Black Ops . These were sent to not only cover up what was going on at Black Mesa, but also to take out the Marines who were involved. In the final battle, Shephard kills a huge insect alien and finds himself on board a helicopter facing the G-Man. He explains that the government continued to order Shephard's death, but was then changed by the G-Man. Ultimately, Shephard is imprisoned, which, as the G-Man points out, "is a solution not to complain about compared to the other options available."

Game sections

Intro: Shephard is with a number of other soldiers in a helicopter that is supposed to take them to Black Mesa, where they are supposed to take out Gordon Freeman. However, the helicopter comes under fire and crashes, with Shephard being the only survivor of the disaster, but passing out.
Welcome to Black Mesa: Shephard regains consciousness in a room at Black Mesa in the presence of a scientist and initially struggles through the facility without weapons, where he repeatedly meets colleagues who have mutated into zombies. Eventually he arrives at a train that he gets on.
We are pulling out (we are pulling out): Shephard fights his way to the surface, where he is ordered to retreat. But before he can get to the landing site, the gate is closed by the G-Man in front of him and he is locked in.
Missing in Action: Shephard has to fight his way through Black Mesa and comes to the surface again through the collapsed office of Gordon Freeman.
Friendly Fire (Under Fire): Here Shephard meets a special unit of the military, the Black Ops. These have the order to kill all survivors, aliens and even the remaining soldiers. Shephard and a few colleagues fight their way through the Black Ops.
We Are Not Alone (We Are Not Alone): Shephard gets to the core of the Lambda Laboratories and just sees Gordon Freeman step through the portal. Shephard himself is moved to Xen by a portal ball, but can get back through another portal after a short time.
Crush Depth: Back in Black Mesa, he ends up in an underwater facility, where scientists examine Xen beings, which resemble the terrestrial ichthyosaurs . A scientist teleported to an observation station in a basin in front of a few runners in the facility, which Shephard retrieves to have a locked door opened. He goes on through the ventilation shafts and can swim to the surface through a pool after he has eliminated two ichthyosaurs swimming there.
Vicarious Reality (Dangerous Reality): Shephard fights his way through the Black-Mesa Research Facility - BIODOME COMPLEX and gets a new weapon here, which he finds through a hologram recorded by a scientist. It is a barnacle put on the arm , with which one can cross gorges, which is often important later.
Pit Worm's Nest (wormhole): Shephard through the shaft ends in a plant where the Pit Worm ( pit worm ) has its nest. With the activation of Gearbox and Valve he succeeds in killing the animal in acid and pulling out a bridge that drives him to the other side of the facility.
Foxtrot Uniform (Foxtrot Uniform): After some climbing he comes outside, where the Black Ops attack him again. After crossing an arsenal and a maze , a Gargantua has to be killed together with the military. When he dies, a hole is torn in the ground and Shephard is able to penetrate further through a sewer located below the ground.
The Package: Shephard has to cross a military base, where he gets support from his colleagues again. From a security guard who is hiding in a shaft, he learns that the Black Ops have a bomb that they want to detonate to destroy the facility. Shephard is able to defuse them and through another security guard gets access to an area that served the Black Ops as a test facility. Shortly afterwards, however, Shephard can observe through a window how the G-Man activates the bomb again.
Worlds Collide: Shephard descends via an elevator, where he has to defend himself against aliens and black ops in a huge storage room. He finds a security guard who is hiding in an armory and takes an elevator down to a room in the research facility, where a portal has apparently been opened and a huge creature has emerged from it. Shephard has to use lasers to temporarily burn out the creature's eyes, whereupon the animal opens the middle of its body, into which it can fire. After repeating this process several times, the being dies and Shephard is transported away.
Conclusion: Shephard finds himself in one of the helicopters and there is also the mysterious G-Man, who tells him that he admired Shephard's success and that he had therefore voted for his clients to keep him alive. However, since there are always problems with eyewitnesses, it is best if Shephard is brought to a place where he can no longer cause damage and no one does him any more harm. The G-Man disappears into a transport sphere and Shephard finds himself in the dark, unable to move. He is in custody.

Innovations

game

The game includes new tactical options: It is now possible to climb up ropes or swing from one rope to the next. In addition, cooperation with other soldiers is often necessary in order to e.g. B. to launch a joint attack or to have a pioneer weld a locked door open. You can often find paramedics who offer not only support with the pistol but also healing of wounds.

There are also new types of alien enemies. In contrast to Half-Life itself, this time the human opponents were not replaced by robots in the German version.

weapons

In addition, there are a number of new weapons: Instead of the crowbar you now have a knife and a pipe wrench, the revolver gives way to a Desert Eagle with laser sight for better aiming. Completely new to military weapons are the sniper rifle and a heavy machine gun.

There is also now a weapon that can create portal bullets, which - similar to how the Nihilanth used this at the end of Half-Life - can be hurled at the enemy so that he is transported to Xen. Alternatively, you can send yourself to the place where you can get back to the starting point through a portal after collecting some equipment, but this costs over half the energy of the weapon. The weapon is particularly suitable to target larger opponents, such as B. the ichthyosaurs to turn off.

There are also three new alien weapons in the game. One of them is a living being that has to be fed fruit so that it can fire off acid. With a barnacle, which otherwise hangs lurking on the ceiling, you can stick to organic material and pull it up. Similar to the hivehand from Half-Life, there is again an alien weapon that charges itself and this time shoots with lightning.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the game was created by Chris Jensen and was later reused in the US version of Blue Shift, where it was re-released in one pack together with Opposing Force.

Scientific Proof - 00:15
Orbit - 00:46
Name - 1:50
Lists - 00:15
Fright - 01:02
Storm - 1:36
Trample - 01:16
Bust - 1:47
The Beginning - 02:03
Lost in Thought - 01:19

Danger Rises - 1:11 am
Soothing Antagonist - 1:25
Run - 00:51
Open the Valve - 01:22
Tunnel - 1:24 am
Chamber - 1:32
Maze - 00:57
Alien Forces - 1:14 am
Planet - 01:30

Others

The name Opposing Force , like Blue Shift, is ambiguous and an allusion to a physical phenomenon. Opposing force alludes to Newton's third law , where the opposing force is called "opposing force" in English.
The training section in the game is based on the film Full Metal Jacket , some expressions from the local Sergeant Hartman have been adopted.
In the third part of the game you can hear a member of the security guards talking to one of the scientists. Shortly before these two are killed by an alien, the sentence "Have you seen the new IG-88?" IG-88 is an assassin droids series from Star Wars .
In one room there is a picture of Gordon Freeman with the text “Employee of the month”.
To defeat the Pit Worm, Shephard must activate the Gearbox and Valve - a nod to the two companies that were involved in Opposing Force. Valve is activated via a valve called Steam, which is probably not an allusion to the company's own download portal, as Steam appeared many years after Opposing Force.
In the level “We are not alone” you can find a chumtoad. The Chumtoad was originally intended to be a weapon but was not adopted. To find it, you have to shoot a ventilation shaft. This is located above the door to the Lambda core, where you can see Gordon Freeman being teleported to Xen. There is also a chumtoad in Barney's locker (at Blue Shift). To find this one simply has to get all the ammunition from the shooting range and shoot at the box in Barney's locker until the pistol is empty. A chumtoad appears.

Web links

Half Life: Opposing Force at MobyGames (English)
Opposing Force on Steam