History VideoGame / HalfLifeBlueShift

* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: In the early spilled acid room of "Duty Calls," there's a locked gate that has to be blown open by climbing up to a vent in order to shoot at the explosive barrels behind said gate to blow it open. If you go about wasting all your pistol ammo before the explosive barrels are destroyed, you end up softlocking yourself, which is pretty much impossible to do as the storage room right before going up into vent has two pistol magazines.

** If the player destroys the wall hiding the elevator to the portal chamber ''before'' Dr. Rosenberg leads you back to it, you will soon realize that he will have a different line-of-dialogue regarding the fact that Calhoun has already found the hidden elevator instead of the normal dialogue to destroy the wall.

In March 2021, Black Mesa: Blue Shift, a comprehensive Fan Remake that recreates the entire game in the Source engine, had its first chapter released. As of August 2021, two playable chapters have been released so far.

* JusttrainWrong: Besides the typical Black Mesa monorails there are also a few conventional platform cars on standard tracks which are just a flat texture on the ground. Many of the cars are carrying containers but in real life containers are loaded on dedicadet cars. Two of the cars are just stuck together with no clearance between them so you can't even see if there's a coupler between them. The cars are hardly wider than the rail gauge except a single platform car carrying a tank which[[note]]the car[[/note]] in turn is too wide to pass through the relatively narrow tunnels. There is a single yard with a turntable but the turntable can herdly contain a single car so it would require at least two switchers on different tracks[[note]]one to push it on to the turntable and another to tug it off[[/note]] but there is only one. Not that it matters much since none of the tracks seem to lead anywhere.

* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: The ending smacks of this, as the G-Man seems ''embarrassed'' that Calhoun and Rosenberg escaped. Probably having been too busy keeping tabs on Gordon and Shephard's progress.

* DonutMessWithACop: The fat security guard in the firing range is seen trying to reach for his holstered gun while holding a donut with the closer hand. Later, a scientist tells another guard "Shouldn't you be off guarding some coffee and donuts?"

* ActionSurvivor: Barney Calhoun, especially when compared to Gordon. Both men spend a lot of their time trying not to get killed by the aliens and the [=HECU=] forces but where as Gordon becomes an ActionHero, Barney's story is all about getting out of Black Mesa alive and not having to risk his life for extra reasons outside of his control. Calhoun also ultimately faces significantly less opposition than Freeman or Shephard, mostly only facing Xen wildlife, Vortigaunts, and Marines, with only about 4 Alien Grunts and 6 Controllers ever crossing his path.

* BossBattle: Averted, as this is the only ''Half-Life'' game without any boss fights. The game doesn't even have a FinalBoss, with 2 houndeyes and a squad of Marines being your only opposition during the final sequence in which you power up the teleporter to escape Black Mesa.

* ActionSurvivor: Barney Calhoun, especially when compared to Gordon. Both men spend a lot of their time trying not to get killed by the aliens and the [=HECU=] forces but where as Gordon becomes an ActionHero, Barney's story is all about getting out of Black Mesa alive and not having to risk his life for extra reasons outside of his control. Calhoun also ultimately faces significantly less opposition than Freeman or Shephard, mostly only facing Xen wildlife, Vortigaunts, and Marines, with only about 4 Alien Grunts and 4 Controllers ever crossing his path.

* DroughtLevelOfDoom: Xen can be this, as there are no armor pickups anywhere (which makes sense, as the HEV-wearing expedition teams would have had no reason to bring any, since there's no reason for a security guard to be on Xen) and ammo is relatively spaced apart. On the plus side, the healing pools provide infinite health regenerate. Going in with full armor and ammo is very helpful.

Compared with its predecessor ''VideoGame/HalfLifeOpposingForce'', ''Blue Shift'' is considerably stripped back in terms of content, lacking many of the weapons and enemies from the original game. ''Blue Shift'' was the first game in the franchise to have a significant NPC helping the player during the game, and the game came with a free High Definition pack that upgraded the models to the source game. Barney would later go on to become a major supporting character in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2''.

* ActionSurvivor: Barney Calhoun, especially when compared to Gordon. Both men spend a lot of their time trying not to get killed by the aliens and the [=HECU=] forces but where as Gordon becomes an ActionHero, Barney's story is all about getting out of Black Mesa alive and not having to risk his life for extra reasons outside of his control.

* BossBattle: Averted, as this is the only ''Half-Life'' game without any boss fights. The game doesn't even have a FinalBoss.

* PoweredArmor: For once, averted. Unlike the Black Mesa Science Team or the HECU, who are provided the HEV Suit and PCV for use in Hazardous Environments, the Black Mesa Security Team is only provided conventional helmet and body armor. While it does protect its user from gunfire, explosives, and some environmental hazards, it becomes worn out over time and cannot be recharged. Instead, the only way to get armor back is to pick up a new vest and helmet.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The whole plot of the game following the Resonance Cascade. Calhoun and later Rosenberg realize that the extent of the disaster is too much for them to handle, and they decide, with help from other surviving scientists, to just get out of Black Mesa entirely and let the Lambda Team and Freeman deal with the mess instead.

* [[DonutMessWithACop Donut Mess with a Security Guard]]: The fat security guard in the firing range is seen trying to reach for his holstered gun while holding a donut with the closer hand. Later, a scientist tells another guard "Shouldn't you be off guarding some coffee and donuts?"

* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: The ending smacks of this, as the G-Man seems ''embarrassed'' that Calhoun and Rosenberg escaped.