I’m avoiding any Half-Life 1 series “retrospectives” in order to keep the experience relatively fresh when I play the remakes. :)

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The best thing about OpFor is the potential for Shepherd’s return in a HL2 spin-off. Using that time-honoured Vortigaunt logic of what your name sounds like, he could have a pretty epic Moses-style destiny ahead of him, shepherding citizens away from danger.

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The big selling point was that they hired REAL ARCHITECTS to design the levels! This was a first, as up to that point levels had basically come from level designer’s imagination. The end result: Oni’s combat rocks, but every review criticises the boring level design.

Personally I think many old FPS games had better level design, because there was more freedom and creativity then. Levels were designed to be GOOD LEVELS first, and places second. Recent FPS games have great graphics, scale and set pieces, but so often the need for realistic level design means that you’re fighting on a flat plane all the time.

Jedi Knight had some of the best FPS levels ever, and they involved jumping on lots of big fans ;-)

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I’m not saying it’s a bad game. But even at the time I don’t remember it getting a huge amount of praise. Half Life was clearly a must buy, and every games magazine told you so. OpF got ok reviews, but nothing that said “must buy” or “best expansion ever”.

Though I’m perfectly happy to have retrospectives for non-classic games, and reading this one has made me want to check out OpF again. If only i knew where any of my CDs or CD-Keys were.

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Arathain said:
I’d never rip a game for being linear and scripted. I don’t think most people would. It’d be like ripping GTA for being too open.
It’s a silly argument. Linear, open, story-driven, player-driven… I don’t care what you do, I care how well you do it.

For the record, while I don’t have a problem with linearity – I love story-driven games – the particular form of Half Life’s linearity really bugs me. It’s so channeled. There’s never a duct you can access that you don’t have to crawl through, never a crack in the wall you don’t have to enter… there’s none of the fluff that makes a game world seem real. Everywhere you go, there’s only one way to go. Once you realize that, the sense of exploration just sort of dies, because you don’t have any choice in the matter. I never felt like I was in control of what happened in the Half Life games I’ve played, and it ended up making it seem way less interesting. Even Super Mario Bros. let you choose the high road or the low road occasionally, and gave you options for how you’d handle challenges. There is only ever ONE way forward in Half Life, Opposing Force, and Blue Shift.
They’re not bad games, but I totally consider their particular form of linear level design to be a definite weak point that mars what would be an otherwise great experience. The universe is really neat, it’s a shame the world is so shallow.
EDIT: Also, typically the payoff for linearity is a deep story. Half Life/Opposing Force/Blue Shift don’t really have that. It’s sort of a worst-of-both-worlds kinda thing.

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shutupshutupshutupSHUTUUUUUP

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