Somehow better than the base game, Half-Life: Opposing Force is the first expansion made for Half-Life. As you can probably tell from the name of the expansion, you play as the Opposing Force, or rather, initially sent to “silence” Black Mesa, only to get stranded and tangled into the whole mess.
Half-Life: Opposing Force has a lot of stuff that you’d probably wish from an expansion. It features new cool weapons, enemies and mechanics, and it nicely intertwines with original’s story events. I found the level design to be FAR less egregious than the original Half-Life, I actually found some enjoyment in this expansion and overall can recount little BS (then again, I am a serial save-scummer). It’s not perfect of course, some mechanics are kind of underutilized, I thought the ropes would be about as janky as the ladders, but there isn’t much rope climbing to be found in this campaign. You also have two instances where you lead a mechanic teammate to unlock a path forward, and these also double as pace breaks, as sawing the door off takes a lot of time. The teammates aren’t that useful in combat, especially since they’re awfully sensitive to friendly fire. Even slightly tickling them with a corner of the grenade explosion hitbox will make them shoot you, though it’s kind of subtle, as they may face you and only occasionally shoot.
There are a couple level parts I didn’t like. The first one is this overdramatic room with electricity that destroys chunks of the ground. First, it’s just waiting, second, you have to figure out that you just need to stand in this corner and wait for the climb to the top to open. I think this section could’ve been handled more elegantly. Second, is this part. As you can notice, I’m low on health. Generally, while this expansion is challenging for sure, I didn’t find it to be super frustrating. Well, this section sure is, as there are multiple enemies that can shoot you with little wiggle room, so picking them off can be an exercise of frustration. Lastly, how is this wire solid? Again, I think there could’ve been a more sensible solution on crossing to the other side.
Some of the issues from the base game do remain. It doesn’t fix physics, but there aren’t many irritating platforming sections. Ladders on the other hand are still bastards. There are instances where you climb DOWN a ladder from a ledge to progress, as opposed to up, and it just doesn’t work. Did the testers not notice how easy it is to just run off the platform instead of naturally starting climbing the ladder? Remember, the air control is poor, so it can be difficult to go back and catch the ladder.
Otherwise, I don’t have many issues with Half-Life: Opposing Force. For an expansion, it’s really good, and even surpasses the main game in terms of design (for me anyway). The level design is good, the new weapons are all cool, and there’s a lot to be excited about in this venture. Also, you can pet one of the “weapon” creatures in an idle animation, so this expansion instantly gets a 15 out of 5.
Half-Life: Opposing Force has a lot of stuff that you’d probably wish from an expansion. It features new cool weapons, enemies and mechanics, and it nicely intertwines with original’s story events. I found the level design to be FAR less egregious than the original Half-Life, I actually found some enjoyment in this expansion and overall can recount little BS (then again, I am a serial save-scummer). It’s not perfect of course, some mechanics are kind of underutilized, I thought the ropes would be about as janky as the ladders, but there isn’t much rope climbing to be found in this campaign. You also have two instances where you lead a mechanic teammate to unlock a path forward, and these also double as pace breaks, as sawing the door off takes a lot of time. The teammates aren’t that useful in combat, especially since they’re awfully sensitive to friendly fire. Even slightly tickling them with a corner of the grenade explosion hitbox will make them shoot you, though it’s kind of subtle, as they may face you and only occasionally shoot.
There are a couple level parts I didn’t like. The first one is this overdramatic room with electricity that destroys chunks of the ground. First, it’s just waiting, second, you have to figure out that you just need to stand in this corner and wait for the climb to the top to open. I think this section could’ve been handled more elegantly. Second, is this part. As you can notice, I’m low on health. Generally, while this expansion is challenging for sure, I didn’t find it to be super frustrating. Well, this section sure is, as there are multiple enemies that can shoot you with little wiggle room, so picking them off can be an exercise of frustration. Lastly, how is this wire solid? Again, I think there could’ve been a more sensible solution on crossing to the other side.
Some of the issues from the base game do remain. It doesn’t fix physics, but there aren’t many irritating platforming sections. Ladders on the other hand are still bastards. There are instances where you climb DOWN a ladder from a ledge to progress, as opposed to up, and it just doesn’t work. Did the testers not notice how easy it is to just run off the platform instead of naturally starting climbing the ladder? Remember, the air control is poor, so it can be difficult to go back and catch the ladder.
Otherwise, I don’t have many issues with Half-Life: Opposing Force. For an expansion, it’s really good, and even surpasses the main game in terms of design (for me anyway). The level design is good, the new weapons are all cool, and there’s a lot to be excited about in this venture. Also, you can pet one of the “weapon” creatures in an idle animation, so this expansion instantly gets a 15 out of 5.