OpFor contains plenty of new material to spice up an already highly-anticipated return to Black Mesa...
That extra tenth of a point comes from the elation I felt when I first returned to the familiar blood-spattered hallways, labs, silos, and craggy vistas of Black Mesa. The protagonist, Adrian Shephard, arrives at the facility shortly after the unforeseen consequences of Gordon Freeman’s visit to the Anomalous Materials test chamber take effect. Following a cinematic crash landing and brief introduction to the new horrors in store – the headcrab zombies are evolving into big, asthmatic, loogie-spewing beasts, an entirely new set of critters is muscling in on the Xenian invasion, and a Black Ops unit is on the scene to clean up the cleaners – OpFor’s action returns to form with well-scripted events around every corner and plenty of pitched battles. Although the top-notch enemy AI programmed into Half-Life was certainly commendable, I always had a bit of trouble keeping the Barneys and scientists tight on my heels when trying to lead them around. Friendlies would often stop in their tracks if I ran ahead of them through a doorway or turned a corner, so I got used to leaving them behind. The members of the four-man squads found in OpFor were just as likely to lapse into navel-gazing if I moved out of their line of sight, but I never had to lead them very far to find some pretty hectic battles. I especially enjoyed the three-way slam between the alien shock troopers, Black Ops assassins, and my own crew toward the end of the Foxtrot Uniform chapter. Overall, however, functioning as a group was a primitive affair when compared to the self-directed actions of the computer-controlled compatriots found in more recent titles like Call of Duty.
One of my absolute favorite aspects of the entire HL series is the look and feel of each game’s weaponry, particularly the laser-sighted Desert Eagle that is unique to Shephard’s kit. The symbiotic relationship that Shephard forms with OpFor’s organic arsenal is expanded and enhanced well beyond the Snarks and Hivehand in the original. As much as I enjoyed dispensing the nasty little cyclopean scuttlebugs in HL, I recall using them on only one or two occasions in OpFor. I had better luck with the creepy but fascinating Shockroach that was all-too happy to join my team after I vaporized its original alien host. Like the equally-grody but less-effective Hivehand, the ‘roach generates its own ammo supply that works well against humans, so the spiny little fellow quickly became my go-to choice for one-on-one encounters. The detached barnacle was good for chomping smaller creatures -- like Headcrabs or Houndeyes -- into mush, but the weapon’s real treat was in its utilization as a grappling hook. Finally, the friendly, purring catfish-meets-salamander Spore Launcher wasn’t just cute enough to cuddle, it was also one of the most effective weapons in the game.
The fine folks at Gearbox did a fantastic job with the second entry in the esteemed Half-Life series. The inter-dimensional clash that unfolds throughout the massive and sprawling Black Mesa complex is fertile ground for a number of excellent survival stories, as the various homemade mods released for Half-Life can attest, but Shephard’s story was by far the most interesting and creative. Adrian’s return as a renegade member of HL2’s Combine troops would fit brilliantly into the episodic sequels for that game.