Half-Life: Opposing Force

Reviewed by Mike Suskie (June 08, 2008)

My least-favorite segment of Half-Life was the journey through the border world Xen at the end, only because the human factor had been taken out of the equation, and battling the far less intelligent alien grunts got old after a while. Much of Opposing Force more or less feels like that entire sequence, only set in the Black Mesa facility itself. The good news is that the action is kept fairly interesting throughout thanks to some new (tougher) alien baddies to fight (whom I later learned are not from Xen, but from… uh, somewhere else). The game is simply never as exciting or action-packed as the original often was.

Reviewed by bigcj34 (December 06, 2008)

1998’s Half-life was seen by many as revolutionary to the FPS genre from its atmospheric feel, the first person presentation of the story and it’s astounding gameplay. Since then, dozens of mods spawned from its engine such as Counter-Strike, plus expansions like this and 2001’s Blue Shift. Half-Life: Opposing Force intervenes with the original HL’s plot, playing the role of US Marine Corporal Adrian Shepherd. As part of the Black Mesa clean-up crew, you must s...