Opposing Force is the first expansion pack of the two that were released for Half-Life on PC. Both expansions were developed by Gearbox and got support from Valve. When I first found out that the expansion packs for Half-Life were developed by Gearbox I was quite amazed. Around that time, there was a lot of drama surrounding Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens: Colonial Marines, so I was amazed that in the past Gearbox had the honor to make expansions for a game classic like Half-Life.

In this expansion you experience the story of Half-Life from the perspective of a soldier. You are going to Black Mesa, and your aircraft crashes. You wake up and don't know what is really going on and what the mission is.

The game itself is pretty hard for me to curate, because it all just feels and plays the same as the original game. (With the expansion having half the length of the original game.) The new features are some different weapons and enemies, both of which are creatively implemented. The only new feature that I didn't think was all that well executed was the nightvision goggles. They looked cool at first, but they sadly only really work in short distance.

This expansion takes place in Black Mesa for the most part, not much time is spent in alien dimensions. At the beginning, I had the feeling that the weapons were a little bit more balanced than in the original game. Because I found myself using the shotgun more often. Still there are some new weapons that I almost never used.

What I found special about Opposing Force is that I could see that Gearbox added some more humor in the expansion than what there was in the original Half-Life itself. I still have to say that the story in my opinion didn't really add too much to what we already knew from Half-Life, but it is still fun to see it from their perspective.

The nitpick I have though is that the thing I loved about Half-Life is that there never really was a moment of standing still where you are forced to listen to someone. Opposing Force had that happen twice, sadly. This was pretty annoying when I died a few times at one of those points. (I recommend quick saving directly after you are done waiting)

Throughout the expansions there were some nice references and they shared the same moments with the original Half-Life timeline.

The gameplay is the same mixture of shooting and exploration, just like in the original. The beginning first felt a little dull but then the game started to pick up. I especially liked the shooting at some parts, even though I hated one of the new alien enemies who in my opinion was just really annoying, an enemy which requires too much ammo to take down and does too much damage.

Opposing Force might not be as good as Half-Life, but in my opinion it is still worth to play it if you want to have more of the same Half-Life gameplay.

Reviews of the other Half-Life games:
Half-Life
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Half-Life 2

Opposing Force is the first expansion pack of the two that were released for Half-Life on PC. Both expansions were developed by Gearbox and got support from Valve. When I first found out that the expansion packs for Half-Life were developed by Gearbox I was quite amazed. Around that time, there was a lot of drama surrounding Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens: Colonial Marines, so I was amazed that in the past Gearbox had the honor to make expansions for a game classic like Half-Life. In this expansion you experience the story of Half-Life from the perspective of a soldier. You are going to Black Mesa, and your aircraft crashes. You wake up and don't know what is really going on and what the mission is. The game itself is pretty hard for me to curate, because it all just feels and plays the same as the original game. (With the expansion having half the length of the original game.) The new features are some different weapons and enemies, both of which are creatively implemented. The only new feature that I didn't think was all that well executed was the nightvision goggles. They looked cool at first, but they sadly only really work in short distance. This expansion takes place in Black Mesa for the most part, not much time is spent in alien dimensions. At the beginning, I had the feeling that the weapons were a little bit more balanced than in the original game. Because I found myself using the shotgun more often. Still there are some new weapons that I almost never used. What I found special about Opposing Force is that I could see that Gearbox added some more humor in the expansion than what there was in the original Half-Life itself. I still have to say that the story in my opinion didn't really add too much to what we already knew from Half-Life, but it is still fun to see it from their perspective. The nitpick I have though is that the thing I loved about Half-Life is that there never really was a moment of standing still where you are forced to listen to someone. Opposing Force had that happen twice, sadly. This was pretty annoying when I died a few times at one of those points. (I recommend quick saving directly after you are done waiting) Throughout the expansions there were some nice references and they shared the same moments with the original Half-Life timeline. The gameplay is the same mixture of shooting and exploration, just like in the original. The beginning first felt a little dull but then the game started to pick up. I especially liked the shooting at some parts, even though I hated one of the new alien enemies who in my opinion was just really annoying, an enemy which requires too much ammo to take down and does too much damage. Opposing Force might not be as good as Half-Life, but in my opinion it is still worth to play it if you want to have more of the same Half-Life gameplay. Reviews of the other Half-Life games: [url=http://steamproxy.com/id/TrottoirManagerNL/recommended/70/]Half-Life[/url] [url=http://steamproxy.com/id/TrottoirManagerNL/recommended/130/]Half-Life: Blue Shift[/url] [url=http://steamproxy.com/id/TrottoirManagerNL/recommended/220/]Half-Life 2[/url]