Calling it an ‘expansion’ pack is an insult. And to those Black Ops – Foxtrot Uniform.
Graphics 8
Sounds 8
Value 7
Tilt 9
Expansion packs normally are for the die-hard fans. That is: those who want more of the original title plus a little extra to get the momentum going. So naturally I'll take extra precautions when playing expansion packs as an unpleasant one can alter the mood for the original game. However the reverse can also be true.
Half Life: Opposing Force in this case is neither the above. It’s not just a little more nor overrides the original. Opposing Force can be looked at as another grand single player chapter in the Half Life universe therefore calling it an ‘expansion’ pack is an insult. Again Gear Box brought to the gaming market innovation and placed a new meaning to the word ‘expansion’.
The events of Opposing Force take place roughly about ¾ the way from Half Life. You play the role of Corporal Adrian Shepard and your task is to hunt down and eliminate Gordon Freeman. For me, I normally try and guess as to how can you play a foe for the hero of the first game? After all, the marines did have many battles with the fiends of Xen and encountered Gordon himself. Well, the folks at Gear Box made this experience just as enjoyable and intense as the first by fighting the critters of Xen (and introduced new ones like the dreaded Shock Troopers) and another group called ‘Black Operatives’. These gals made a brief appearance in Half Life however in Opposing Force, they are a definite force to be reckoned with. Handle with extreme caution.
As with typical expansion packs, expect new weaponry. However as I have mentioned before, this is not your typical expansion pack as most of the weaponry are new and exclusive to Opposing Force. Ranging from the powerful Desert Eagle (with laser sighting) to the M-249 SAW Light Machine Gun, sniper rifle and those wonderful inventive experimental weapons (mum’s the word – no gonna say what they are) made this game ever so attractive.
On a weaker side, the style of game play feels similar to Half Life. It’s not to say it’s going to bore you as there will be plenty of fire fights, fragile environments and the like, however the puzzles seems familiar. At times once I examined some dreaded indestructible foe only to realise the feeling of Déjà vu as I recall a similar incident in Half Life. That said, there usually will be an additional twist to overcome those puzzles that requires the usage of those ‘experimental’ weapons. And naturally the G-Man makes his appearance when you least expected so keep your eyes open (he even makes an appearance during the training grounds).
There are improvements in Opposing Force. The concept of controlling your squad is a cool idea indeed. There will be times that requires the engineer to knocked down sealed doors or that ever so valuable medic healing your wounds and of course extra grunt power. All this is controlled by the ‘use’ key for simplicity however your squad are not the brightest bunch so use them wisely.
The graphics for Opposing Force made little improvements to the original Half Life. Even though still visually appealing however it’s starting to show its age. Games like Unreal Tournament and the new Quake Engine Quake 3 are now the darlings of the beauty pageant, it’s a shame to see that Opposing Force still using the Quake 2 engine.
Sound wise is the same however it’s still robust and aggressive as ever since last year. There are more voices added (mainly for the squads) and additional short bursts of the musical scores. Those scores are few and far between however hit the correct tempo when needed. It’s a shame that they didn’t ulitise this more often. The environmental sounds are just as hostile with loud explosions and the like and what’s really impressive were the echoes of running feet from the Black Ops as they draw near you yet still remain in their hiding places only to suddenly flank you.
As far as expansion packs goes, it’s rather long and approximately it maybe half as long as Half Life. Considering the intensity of some of the missions makes the game feels a little longer than expected as you constantly trying to search for cover to avoid the bombardment. That said it took me close to the ten hours mark. There is that typical easy, medium and hard difficulty however playing on medium will definitely challenge even the seasoned FPS players due to the cleverness of the AI and the brittle surroundings.
I will admit, it was initially hard to imagine playing an expansion pack that did not involved the main character (in this case Gordon Freeman) however playing one of his adversaries the Marines. I always trying to imagine what will be the game play like being the enemy trying to hunt down Gordon and making sense will be a daunting task indeed. However the Gear Box think tank done the impossible and produced a fast-paced action FPS even though it feel like more of the same but different; but don't let that deter the enthusiasm. Go and play Opposing Force and welcome back to that death trap called Black Mesa.