Half-Life - Blue Shift (PC)

Released in 2001, Blue Shift is the second official expansion pack to the award winning first person shooter Half Life, placing you once again within the bowels of the Black Mesa Research Facility fighting off hordes of aliens as well as US Marines sent in to cover the whole thing up, but this time casting you in the role of a facility security guard, ake 'Barney Calhoun' from the original game. As before, the levels are beautifully designed and varied whilst the gameplay is the usual mix of tense battles and inventive puzzles, and to be honest it feels little different from the original, especially considering that not only are there no new weapons or enemies ...  Read the complete review

Blue Shift is the second expansion pack to one of the most important first person shooters of all time, Half-Life. For those unfamiliar with Half-Life, here's a review bashed out by yours truly :) http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/pc-game/half-life/1208092/ Once again, the player is hurled into the chaos of the Black Mesa Incident and its subsequent government coverup, but this time, the player assumes the role of everyone's favourite security guard, Barney Calhoun. Barney spends most of the game looking for a specific new, major NPC character, Dr. Rosenberg, in order to aid several Black Mesa Scientists to escape from the facility using some old ...  Read the complete review

Plenty of people have slagged off Half-Life:Blue Shift,calling it a commercial rip-off and cash-in. These people might be right, the RRP£ is a bit high when you find out how short this add-on really is, but I find it enjoyable and interesting. I also bought it second hand for £8 so I didn't feel "ripped-off". Blue Shift was originally an extra level for the PC->Dreamcast conversion. I bought a Dreamcast to play Half-Life, as I couldn't see myself spending £1000 on a PC. As time passed, the Dreamcast version slipped further into development hell. Eventually, it was canned which is a real shame as gold discs about floating about the development ...  Read the complete review

Half Life was, and still is, one of the best games ever. Very original, a great story, well paced, realistic, decent multiplayer, fair graphics and sound etc etc... So it's natural that it should spawn a cash-in or two. Add-on packs are notoriously poor - Opposing Force was better than the average add-on, but far from the original's excellence. So it was with great hesitation that I bought Blue Shift. While I was pleased with it, i was also disappointed. Half Life is now, unfortunately, a spent slug. Blue Shift is a new episode for Half Life, but this time is also a stand-alone game. After playing a scientist-come-hero in the first game, a ...  Read the complete review

Blue Shift is the third (but standalone!) episode set in the Half life universe, with Half-Life being the first, Opposing Force (OpForce) being the second and Blue Shift the third. All the action in these games takes place around the Black Mesa top-secret research facility, hidden deep underground somewhere in New Mexico, America, and in a strange alien world, referred to as Xen. Again, written by Gearbox (who did the excellent OpForce add-on) and produced by Valve (who did the original game) this completes what seems to be a trilogy before they announce Half-Life 2. In the first game, you played as the main protagonist – Gordon Freeman, a scientist who ...  Read the complete review