YMMV / Half-Life: Blue Shift

• Broken Base: Blue Shift introduced the Half-Life High-Definition Model Pack, which would later be included with succeeding releases of the Half-Life 1 collection's entries. Reactions toward the Pack are deeply mixed. Some welcome the higher quality models, while others either find them ugly or too far removed from the game's overall look. What both parties can agree on is that the pack doesn't encompass nearly enough of the game; only the models shown prominently throughout Blue Shift were updated. The game's weapons, however, were all reskinned, some of them becoming entirely different weapon designs aesthetically. The most contentious changes are the ones made to the submachine gun, the pistol, and the shotgun, which were updated to look and sound more imposing. Some players enjoy the empowerment behind these changes, while others find that they impede the tone that Half-Life 1 and its expansions are trying to establish, as well as seeing the louder nature of the weapons to be misleading.
• Contested Sequel: Unlike Gearbox's Opposing Force expansion, Blue Shift is often criticized for not bringing anything new to the franchise other then a new armor system for playing as a security guard, and its story turned out to be much shorter in length compared to the previous games. However, Blue Shift has more scripted sequences and set pieces, as well as tighter level design and a story that sticks closer to Valve's canon than Opposing Force earning it a small but passionate fanbase.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: A common criticism of the expansion is its length, notably shorter than Opposing Force and far shorter than the base game.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Strangely enough, Blue Shift pretty much ignores the group of people that the game is supposed to be giving the spotlight to. Other than the player character, Calhoun, the actual Black Mesa security staff does very little outside of the opening of the game before the Resonance Cascade goes off. In particular, the fat security guards—all named Otis in the files—somehow have even less importance than their older counterparts. The most that they have are cameo appearances; in many of them, they're just corpses for Calhoun to loot for supplies and the only security guard he interacts with only lives long enough to move aside before eventually dying.
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • Gearbox pretty much did away with the NPC follower mechanic with the exception of the three scientists you come across in the "Captive Freight" level (one of them being Dr. Rosenberg). In addition, with the exception of those that appear within cut-scenes, Blue Shift has a surprising lack of fellow NPC security guards. Not once does the player ever come across another Black Mesa security guard to fight alongside with. Doubly ironic in that the game does have unique lines for security guards post-resonance cascade.
  • The weapon arsenal is quite shallow in this expansion compared to the previous games.
    • Unlike the Opposing Force expansion having its own unique flair, Blue Shift doesn't offer any new weapons to play around with, and none of the weapons introduced in Opposing Force ever come into play. Not even the Desert Eagle, which security guards are seen using within Opposing Force.
    • The player never unlocks all the weapons offered by the original Half-life, which will definitely look odd when you realize that the Rocket Launcher is the only weapon unlocked from the 4th inventory slot.
    • Snark ammo only ever appears at two really easy-to-miss locations within Blue Shift to the point that some players may not even know that it's possible to obtain it within the game. They're only obtainable within the "Focal Point" level's secret Chumtoad Lair and in an out-of-the-way vent in "Power Struggle".
  • There are unique HEV charging stations with different models from the usual mold. But as Calhoun, you can't use them.

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