Half-Life: Blue Shift Review

Blue-Shift is AWESOME....Thats how this review will begin and end....Through this game I found myself stunned. Its like re-living Half-Life all over again. Except that you are.

Blue-Shift puts you in the shoes of ordinary Barney Calhoune. A Black Mesa Security Guard who even himself doesnt quite know what his job is. Quite the ordinary day he thought, until scientists use the yada yada yada yada yada..(should have already played Half-Life)

The history of Blue-Shift was that Blue-Shift started out as an extra for the DREAMCAST version of Half-Life. But soon after the DC version of Half-Life was scrapped, Blue-Shift was thrown on the backburner...So we thought..... Now we have the joy of playing it on our beloved PCs since the folks at Sierra, Valve, and Gearbox love their PC gaming children so much, that they ported it to the PC, along with a few other goodies.

Blue-Shift comes with the Awesome Half-Life High Definition Pack. This pack upgrades all the Characters and Weapons to High Res Quality. Now be warned..the HD pack does not upgrade textures and other stuff....It simply makes the Characters look like the PS version of Half-Life. The weapons on the other hand, are totally redone..The once small looking Machine Gun, now is transformed into a beautiful M16. The shotgun doesnt look so whimpy anymore as it now is Big and highly detailed...Its beautiful...Another good thing about the HD pack is that, it upgrades all the MAIN Half-Life games to High Definition quality. (Blue-Shift, Half-Life, and Opposing force) It truely makes it feel like a totally different game. I recommend that you dont play any of the games without the Half-Life HD pack. But wait I did say Goodie(s) right? Well If you want to expierence Opposing Force but dont have it, your in luck! Opposing Force comes with Blue-Shift to make one sweet package!

Theres is really no technical stuff to discuss about this game. Everything is Identical to Half-Life, and if you hate Half-Life, well then...I hate you....

Blue Shift scores high points with me. The High Definition Pack really makes the game Beautiful, while the linking of the stories, is pure genious. I highly recomend Blue-Shift to everyone. The only gripe about it, (if you can even call it a gripe) is that Blue-Shift is short..really short..Probabaly could beat it in about 4-5 hours. But understand, that its short because it was originally an extra for the DC version of Half-Life. But I can forgive Sierra for it. This game is Definitly worth the 10 bucks I paid for it. After all....Its the cousin to Half-Life.

The Good:

• Uses the same great Half-Life Engine we all love

• The High Definition Pack rocks for upgrading the outdated graphics

• A storyline that drives even deeper into the Half-Life saga.


The Bad:

• No Specially Designed Multiplayer

• Is a Stand-Alone, which creates problems when trying to organize in your Half-Life directory.

• Very Short


The Hilarious:

• The Music that runs off the Blue-Shift CD. It kicks in at the worst times, and resembles circus music.