HL-OPFOR [old review found]

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dosraider
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HL-OPFOR [old review found]

Post by dosraider »

The more I dig in my archieves, the more I find.... you're warned.

Half-Life : Opposing Force

An agreable surprise this OpFor. Released as a sequel, it's in fact an addon with some extra's. The Team Fortress is a included neat multiplayer addon, but I will review the single player game here. I call it addon because you can't play it without the first Half-Life installed. For an addon it's surprisingly fully featured, with an original storyline. If you have an earlier version of Half-life it will update it. The high-res graphic pack is not included, you need Blue Shift for that, or do some net-hunting. The graphics without the high res update are good, but are better with the update. The game runs under Xp without problems, no flaws.

The story is about US Marines, who are send in to clean up the situation created by the scientists in the Black Mesa. As the creatures from Xen are getting control over the research facility your job is to take it back. That's the plan, begins good but as all plans it go wrong very soon, your plane is taken down, here you are, a soldier alone (or almost) in a hostile environment. Who are you ? Corporal Shepard, US Marines special forces.

The fact that you are a soldier and not a soft scientist will show troughout the game when you find your armement, much better and heavier than the armement Gordon Freeman was carrying. A neat heavy .357 desert eagle equiped with laser visor, a M242 machine gun and a powerfull sniperrifle, some more alien weird armement. Enough to do something that really hurt those creatures and your human opposants. Also a big nasty knife and a heavy pipe wrench.

You will visit several places Gordon has been, but with a different angle of approach, and in different circumstances. Before leaping to Xen you will even witness his own jump to this strange world. Several new kinds of creatures will get in your way, some really nasty ones. The most dangerous enemies however are your own kind. The black ops, send in to clean up the cleaners, means you and your friends. They are fast, deathly and ruthless.

You will need the help of some other soldiers, a medic, and most important an engineer who can open doors with his torch. Without the engineer you can't go on in the game, so keep this guy in good health. The guardians can also open some doors and grant you access into armories and goodies. The interaction between yourself and those grunts isn't always very clear, sometimes they react strange, but you get the hang of it, eventually.

The storyline is pretty straight, with really good levels, many good fights, lots of déja vue, places you will recognise from HL but not entirely the same. All the puzzles, if they can be considered as puzzles, are straight. If you must hang on or climb onto electrical wires who are under tension, somewhere nearby you will find a way to cut the power. Closed doors can or be opened or a way around is findable. There are no strange,weird puzzles a la Tombraider here.

Is it all good then ? No, as usual. There is one thing that has bothered me, the final boss. Why they had to put this one in, I really don't know. It is a endgame boss as seen in the PS games, you need to shoot him several times from two places, jumping, climbing on his left and rightside to get a shot at him wit a kind of a fixed lasergun. No tactics, no nothing here. Hit this creature enough times and he goes down. Needles and boring fight. Worthless ending, shame.

My personal quote for this HL sequel: B+


Publisher : Sierra On-Line, Inc.
Developer : Gearbox Software LLC
Windows
Release : 1999


Your fellow soldiers
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Crashed chopter under tension
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Robotics in action
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Nasty sounddogs
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Engineer in action, the obligatory sigaret in his mouth
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Argh, that hurts, I be back ...
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Your hardest enemies: the black ops.
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Big Bad worm
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An old friend ...
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Big Bad gun
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Black ops chopter
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Worthless endgame boss
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wardrich wrote:The contrasts in personalities will deliver some SERIOUS lulz. I can't wait.
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