Half Life Opposing Force Gameplay

[Liliane Hubright]

Half-Life 2 is an excellent tech showcase, but it definitely feels a bit like a tech demo at times. A lack of cutscenes also mean that the story has to be told through scripted exposition dumps where you can't do anything but walk around and listen, which turns the game into an absolute slog on repeat playthroughs. The enemy AI is incredibly basic as well, with most enemies walking into the barrel of your gun.

The first game by contrast holds up a lot better by virtue of its impressive tech being worked into the gameplay more effectively. Half-Life's enemy AI is dynamic and complex, and still remains impressive to this day. It creates a fun and interesting gameplay dynamic on top of being impressive.

This is subjective, but I also much prefer the first game's plot, with the military and alien forces not only fighting you but also each other. It's more interesting than just the humanoid alien bad guys of Half-Life 2.

Apparently I'm the minority, but Half-Life 2 for sure. I've gone back and replayed HL2 + episodes far more than I've returned to the original. I just prefer the combat, the art style (love that dystopian, European cityscape), and the general feel of everything. The airboat level gets a bit old, but the game is full of great setpieces and sequences, and I prefer the emphasis on being outdoors.

This is an interesting point. I love the "midcentury European city invaded by dieselpunk-esque science fiction techonlogy" aesthetic too, but it's hard to take it in isolation because of just how much it's been used outside of Half-Life 2. I've been playing custom Garry's Mod maps for so long (longer even than Half-Life 2 itself) that the aesthetic feels almost less like Half-Life and more like Garry's Mod.

I've definitely played Half-Life 2 a lot more often. However, I do have a specially reserved soft spot for Opposing Force which is the best classic Half-Life expansion in my humble opinion. Mind you, I'd like to throw in a wildcard: Black Mesa, by far my absolute favourite HL-related entry. Takes everything great about the original Half-Life and makes it bigger, bolder and better than ever. I absolutely love it.

Does HL1 have more weapon and enemy variety? Yes, but it's much less consistent in its quality and it suffers the boomer shooter "there are no real characters except for the player character" syndrome, even though it has more story than something like Quake or classic Doom. The gunplay has also aged pretty terribly, and there's also the obvious thorn in the game's side that is Xen. I respect it for what it did for the FPS genre and it's still a fine game, but I'll stick with Black Mesa whenever I want to relive it.

HL2, by comparison, has a world I enjoy a lot more. Even from the first chapter you can see how dire the situation has gotten since HL1 and what you're up against. The gunplay is more satisfying, I actually do like the vehicle segments, and I find the cast of characters incredibly enjoyable. It's more memorable for me than HL1 and I've put a lot more hours into it as a result.

There is one thing HL1 does better, though; you're forced to get more creative with your arsenal because Gordon isn't a roided up space marine. He's a 30 year old theoretical physicist and he can't tank bullets like Ranger or the Doom Marine can. HL2 also does this but a lot of combat encounters are more direct and Gordon can take a bit more punishment, so it's more downplayed for a lot of the game.

I don't understand why people love HL2 so much. It is boring as hell. I played the main game and the first half of the episode 1 and couldn't keep myself finishing the game... TWICE! Source engine feels so good, the story is intriguing but the gameplay is meh.

I don't understand why people love HL2 so much. It is boring as hell. I played the main game and the first half of the episode 1 and couldn't keep myself finishing the game... TWICE! The source engine feels so good, the story is intriguing but the gameplay is meh.

Same here... took me months to finish HL2, it's just such a drag. People like to say the game has no cutscenes and how that's a plus, but it practically does, with all those sections where you're just walking around, listening to the dialogue and waiting for NPCs to be done with whatever they're doing, and thing is, you can't even skip it, so it's worse than an actual cutscene.

Half-Life 1 on the other hand, other than the beginning, the ending (if you can consider those cutscenes in the same vein of HL2's as mentioned above), and that one part where you're dragged unconscious by the HECU, has pretty much none. It's an immersive experience, beginning to end. Whilst it is still a very flawed game, it is much more unique and colorful in style than HL2's realistic one. The weapons sound pure 80s, the gunplay is overall better, and the HECU have personality and are way smarter than the Combine. Only thing HL2 has over HL1 is story, which I don't care for. The expansions for HL1 break the balls of HL2's episodes, putting you in the shoes of both the bad guys and black mesa guards, which is something you rarely experience in games. I do dislike the heavy scripting and strictly linear progression, though.

I'm actually going for HL1, mainly because it was faster paced which makes it easier to jump into, and because Opposing Force. But it's either that or the Episodes for me, the faster pacing makes them quite a bit more replayable than base HL2.

But overall I think I will go with Half Life 1 and its expansions. There are parts in base Half Life 2 that are too dragged (the boat part for example) and Episode 1 has a chapter called "Lowlife" (that chapter where everything is pitch dark) which I didn't enjoy at all.

I've tried to play HL1 and it's a seriously outdated jank fest with some really sub-par level designs. I know that's a really unpopular opinion but since I didn't grow up in the 90's (albeit I DID play several 90's games in my childhood) I personally think HL1 just hasn't aged well. Blue Shfit and Opposiing force do at least improve on the base game somewhat fro ma gameplay perspective.

Than again HL2 is not that much better with some really unfair moments in terms of difficulty (hello Nova Prospekt and that god damn train) and both of the episodes were a snore-fest to say the least in some parts. (the Zombines were a cool addition though.)

They're both great games. Very atmospheric and pitch-perfect gunplay.

I'd say that HL1 just about beats HL2, with the massive selection of mods being the tie-breaker. HL2's modding scene never felt as big or as rich as the previous instalment.

Calhoun's journey starts in a Sector G lift with a couple of stroppy scientists complaining about his workrate. It's during this journey into the depths of Black Mesa that Freeman and his collaborators cause the infamous resonance cascade scenario which plunges the facility into all out conflict. Calhoun faces plenty of interesting puzzles in his attempts to escape, starting with some cunning lift/box placing platform antics and moving on to scripted sequences that depend on destructible scenery and the marine insertion force. In all, it's nothing Opposing Force didn't do, but there are some nice touches here and there, and the interaction with scientists (and the need to keep them alive) is a much higher priority. With Counter-Strike behind us though, you have to wonder why a lot of Blue Shift has come out the way it has. Gearbox clearly learnt a few lessons - for example you get new high definition models - but they haven't realised that the sort of "drop them if you can" real life style of play is what people want. When I picked up the first M16 dropped by a marine and ploughed into his assembled comrades, I immediately jump into CS mode. The marines look like Terrorist guerrillas anyway, so I dropped to my knees and aimed in short bursts at the upper torso of each aggressor, one by one. Bang bang, oh look I'm dead. Why? Because I didn't put 100 bullets in their heads! It doesn't really surprise me that the default loadout is something like 150 rounds of ammunition and how high the M16's rate of fire is - you have to put half a clip at least into each of the marines, and aiming for the weak points doesn't make any difference. The head, the foot, the midriff, you can shoot anywhere, it still takes a while for them to flinch, and they make no attempts to get under cover either. With a bit of tender loving care from the programmers, these marines could have been ducking in and out of cover, poking their heads up over crates and chucking grenades into your cubby hole, or at the very least firing while moving.

Valve Corporation, AKA Valve Software, is well known by us retro gamers for one of the best game titles ever created, Half-life, way back in 1998. Half-Life was Valve's first game, a First-person Shooter (FPS) with elements of the horror genre. The game won over 50 Game of the Year awards and its gameplay influenced First-person shooter games/titles, setting the trend for years to come. Half-Life has since been regarded as one of the greatest games of all time, even above Valves other top selling titles - Portal, Counter-strike, Pay for Defeat, Team Fortress, Dota series and Left 4 Dead, another AAA title.

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