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Half-Life: Blue Shift
Gearbox Software brings us back to Black Mesa for another exciting Half-Life episode
By - Sal "Sluggo" Accardo
Part of the E3 Blue Shift display |
It's hard to think of another game with as many spin-off products as Half-Life. Since its original release in 1998, we've seen at least six different commercial packages related to the immensely popular action game, and more are on the way. However, only one of these packs has contained a legitimate single-player experience set back in Black Mesa. Until now, that is.
Gearbox Software -- the team responsible for Half-Life: Opposing Force -- has returned to the scene of the crime to create Half-Life: Blue Shift, an all-new single-player episode for Half-Life. As in OpFor, you'll once again live out the events at Black Mesa from a different perspective, but this time you won't be playing a scientist or a member of the military, but someone else caught in the middle - a security guard. That's right - this time through, you get to play as Barney, the hapless watchman from Half-Life, and his story promises to be an interesting one.
While at the Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, we were fortunate enough to be shown a preview of Blue Shift by David Mertz, game and level designer for Gearbox Software. David was responsible for creating OpFor's "Boot Camp" training level, the "Vicarious Reality" chapter, and some of the official OpFor CTF maps. He was pretty excited to show us the new game - it was easy to see why.
Shifting To The PC
Your day starts outside the Black Mesa facility. |
Blue Shift originally started out as new content for the Dreamcast version of Half-Life, and was only recently announced as a PC title. Interestingly, the package will be completely standalone (a la Gunman Chronicles), which means if you don't already own Half-Life (gasp!), you won't need it to play Blue Shift.
The team has built in some enhancements to the Half-Life engine for the PC version of Blue Shift. One is the new "HD" (high-definition) pack, similar to the model pack recently released for Team Fortress Classic. The pack increases the polygon count for the scientists, soldiers and other characters, and changes many of the skinned textures (like a scientist's tie or badge) to polygons as well. "We realized that since Half-Life's release, a lot of people have a lot nicer systems," explains Mertz. The effect is easily noticeable - the characters seem more alive and realistic.
You can see the high-definition models in this pic. Interesting how everything at Black Mesa always seems to be broken. |
The pack will also work with previous games, and will auto-detect and "retro-upgrade" the original Half-Life, as well as Opposing Force, if you have them on your machine, meaning you can play through both games with the new high-definition content, adding new life to the older missions. The HD pack is currently slated to be available exclusively via Blue Shift, though future patches are always a possibility.
Along with the model upgrades, the team has made some other enhancements to the game. All of the weapons have been given a facelift - some have even been changed outright - and beefier sound and weapons effects are present as well.
Fans of the original game will be happy to hear that all the original voices from Half-Life have returned to the fold for Blue Shift, with one bonus: John St. John, better known as the voice of Duke Nukem (as well the drill instructor in OpFor's Boot Camp) has lent his talent to the pack as well for the voice of a new scientist character.
Next:Story, gameplay, and other goodies...
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