Unpopular opinion thread? I think Blue Shift is better than

Blue Shift wasn't designed as an expansion, it was originally a third campaign in the Dreamcast / PS2 version along with Decay I think.

I see your point. But I think it comes down to Enemy/Weapon diversity vs. Level design. I'd also add game length because it is a very significant difference right there.

I can't offer an unbiased opinion because Blue Shift was the first Half-Life game I played. I love the game. Dearly. From the bottom of my heart. I've loved Opposing Force and I've loved Half-Life (which of course turned to be my favourite), but Blue Shift is like my first love who did nothing wrong and yet it could only give so much.

A bit more objectively, I'd say I enjoyed Opposing Force more on the long run. The new weapons are really fun to play with. Race X are actually rather boring by the end of the game, but dammit Shock Troopers can kick your ass in Hard. The diverse soldiers you can team up with is also quite interesting and it adds a little something. Not that meaningful considering the AI (advanced as it was for its time) but still it was a nice touch. The really underwhelming part was the final boss fight. Unnecessary is what I'd call it. Although the final scene with G-Man makes up for it.

Blue Shift is, on the other hand, a reduced Half-Life experince in every way. Game length, enemy-weapon diversity, story, etc. All are reduced to bare bones and a little less, I'd say. As you've mentioned Blue Shift has interesting level design. The whole railway stages are pretty intense. I remember as a kid I had a save file right before entering the first railway station in the open and I would play those stages over and over again.

I think I could make a point of Blue Shift being too little butter over too little bread, and Opposing Force having almost the same amount of bread as Half-Life but spread with margerine and sugar. Not quite the same as bread and butter, but still good on its own.

Also as a final note Blue Shift comes with the High Definition pack that I tend to prefer over the vanilla Half-Life. I know, I may be crazy but I grew up with it, sue me.

>>3205338
You think right.

They both had the trappings of the entire HL series -- linear style-over-substance setpiece-based FPS where you go from one little designed section to overcome to another.

Incredible how people will deride Halo as being a horrible, derivative shooter but put fucking Half-Life on a pedestal.

>>3205413
I dunno. I always heard people talk about the world Halo was set in, or the sudden change to duel wielding in Halo 2.
Half Life seems like kind of a product of the times; most shooters available were arena styled or contained little plot directly displayed to the player. The shooting was something everyone knew how to do already and was a second thought compared to the actual new things the game had to offer. Half Life 2 is a different story about phyiscs in games and such, but that's not /vr/ so meh.

>>3205413
incredible trolling

>>3205489
Ordinary is the word I'd use...

>>3205413
..ya hear faggot?!

>>3205489
not really, they're both super linear shooters with varied weapons/enemies

>>3205317
blue shift's not bad if brief but better than opposing force? I don't think so. All the extra content created for the expansion alone, the different character and weapon set, the crazier enemies, the allies, and the gun/portals that warp you to a whole different dimension make it probably the best fps expansion I've ever played. Desert eagle with laser sight is still my favourite pistol in an FPS to this day.