Half Life: Blue Shift

A Half Life is the nuclear life of an object. Simply, every Half Life of a given element will result in 50% of the original material and 50% of the non-nuclear material. So, for every Half Life, 50% of the radioactive material is decomposed. This could be in two seconds or two billion years, depending on the element. But, according to the way it works, an element never dies, it just continues to live, just weaker and weaker.

And this is exactly how I feel with Half Life: Blue Shift.

In Half Life: Blue Shift, Gearbox Software explores a smaller portion of the Half Life series- while Gordon Freeman fought the strange alien creatures and somewhat saved the world, you now take the position of security guard Barney Calhoun going to work when he experiences “The Black Mesa Incident”.



Of course, Half Life: Blue Shift rides on the original game's popularity by just ripping off everything the previous game had, from textures to models to about everything else. Frankly, Gearbox software did nothing original, 99.9% of the game being simply ported from the original Half Life. This has it's merits, such as the fact that it will be familiar to the fans of the series, but other than that, you're out of luck. Sometimes, I even felt like the maps looked the same, which is quite sad considering other second party titles using the Half Life engine did such a good job of differentiating themselves from their host engine.

But, all is not bad with Blue Shift. The game is a teensy bit harder than the original Half Life, which may provide a nice challenge to those who found Half Life easy. Enemies seem a bit smarter, the game seems a bit more demanding, and the trademark puzzles are a bit more puzzling. However, none of this really detracts from the cold hard fact that Blue Shift is Half Life with some small differences.

The story in Blue Shift really felt like it was forced. Half Life was not only known for it's phenomenal engine, but the fact that the story was something so brand new to the Doom saturated world. However, Blue Shift again fails to be creative in that it basically takes a generic storyline as an excuse to make you run and kill enemies. You never truly attach to Barney Calhoun like you did Gordon Freeman, and it's not just their positions that make the difference. More than not, I felt like I was basically running according to the arrow signs, and killing anything in my path.



Another thing that gets me about Blue Shift is the lack of variety in the game. Even though it was limited by the engine, Half Life took you into many areas and broke up the feeling of claustrophobia you developed in the tunnels of Black Mesa. However, Blue Shift primarily takes place inside hallways and big rooms, which leads me to believe Gearbox Software was being too lazy to be inventive. Sure, you see some outdoor areas, but they were few and far between, and markedly small.

So, what do I think of this game? I've made it obvious. It's mediocre. I'm glad that I got this via a package along with the original Half Life, because I honestly would have felt sold out if I had paid for this. Normal third party modification makers now do better than this in their sleep. This may be because we have more advanced programmers now. This may be because Gearbox is/was lazy. However, this game really only deserves to be on your shelf if you can somehow get it for free (For example, if you got the Silver or Gold package via STEAM, and have it by default). Other than that, don't waste your time. A bland score for a bland game.

2 star(s) out of 5

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