It's weird how much better Blue Shift is than Opposing Forces, and I think a good element about it is that I just really like the scrappy nature of how Half-Life feels that this nailed. Like, in terms of characters, Barney is just some security dude whose priority is just to help the people out, and it makes more sense to me that he would be a scrappy individual to make puzzles work and such. It just works a lot better, and especially because this doesn't overstay it's welcome at all. It's short, sweet, and to the point, and is a fun look at the events of Half-Life... in the eyes of someone else.
On the topic of puzzles, they're way more engaging here and require a lot more sort of thinking with it, and I wasn't ever frustrated by them, but more of a "oh WOW!" in a good way! Like connecting a barrel to complete a line to blow up a door? Fuck that's awesome! It's also a way more interactive game and kinda has a lot more of that feeling of player control, even if it is just scripted sequences and do A to get to B so you can do C, but it just feels so much better to me.
Because Barney is also just a security guard, the amount of weapons he gets is so refreshingly small, and only from sources that he just finds. You barely get more than the 5 slots that the HUD gives you and even then, it's only like 2 weapons per slot, thank god.
Overall it's just really cool I think lol
Barney Calhoun for life!