Half-Life: Blue Shift is the second expansion pack for the first-person shooter computer game Half-Life, developed by Gearbox Software and released on June 12, 2001. Like Opposing Force and Decay, Blue Shift returns to the setting and timeline of the original story, but with a different player character: the ubiquitous Black Mesa security guard, Barney Calhoun. As Barney, the player attempts to escape the alien invasion caused by the resonance cascade and the ensuing military coverup.
Overview
The Blue Shift package features the "Half-Life High-Definition Pack" as an option at the time of install. The pack includes updated 3-dimensional character, weapon and item models, often increasing the polygon count 10-fold over the 1998 originals. The U.S. Blue Shift release includes the full version of Opposing Force, but the international edition has multiplayer-only OpFor.
Blue Shift started out first as a part of the Half-Life Dreamcast port. Due to Sega pulling the plug on the Dreamcast, this version was cancelled (although the Dreamcast Half-Life port has since been leaked onto the Internet, with both Half-Life and Blue Shift fully-playable). Gearbox then turned the project into a standalone product; unlike Opposing Force, it does not require the original Half-Life.
Although fans of Half-Life were eager to play more of their beloved game, many were disappointed by the fact that Blue Shift did not measure up to the high standards that the Opposing Force expansion had set. Blue Shift reviews were very poor in comparison to other games in the series.
Unlike the other PC versions of Half-Life, Blue Shift is not available through Valve's Steam system. Valve explained that Gearbox customized the Half-Life engine for Blue Shift, which resulted in it being incompatible with Steam. However, the "Half-Life HD Pack" can be manually installed in the Steam versions of Half-Life and Opposing Force.
Plot
Barney Calhoun is a low-ranking security guard in Black Mesa, who at the time of the "incident" is responsible for granting access to scientists. As the incident occurs Calhoun finds himself attacked by aliens, and must fight to survive. In the course of the mission Calhoun meets Dr. Rosenberg, a high-ranking scientist who also appears in Decay, and together they must help a number of scientists escape the Mesa. At several points during Blue Shift Calhoun almost meets the protagonist of Half-Life, Gordon Freeman: he is waiting in front of a door as the train carrying Freeman goes by, and later on Calhoun is just seconds behind Dr. Freeman teleporting away.
It is interesting to note that aside from the PlayStation-only Decay, Blue Shift is arguably the only HL1-based game with a "happy ending". In Half-Life, Gordon Freeman is essentially forced to work with the G-Man and Opposing Force's Adrian Shephard is mysteriously detained. In Blue Shift, however, Barney and his scientist companions escape Black Mesa.
At least two of the facility's science personnel, Dr. Isaac Kleiner and Dr. Eli Vance, escape the battle. In Half-Life 2, Kleiner, Vance and Calhoun form the bedrock of the resistance movement in City 17.
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