Gearbox's first Half-Life expansion pack is a very, very worthy companion to the main game. As far as I've read, this was the first expansion pack to win a Game of the Year award - if you're still not sold I'll be giving you some reasons why below.

Gearbox let their imagination run wild in a way that they didn't do with Blue Shift - in fact, this game is so much better than Blue Shift I now think Blue Shift is actually worse than I did before, for unlearning so much of what made this game exciting. Opposing Force treats you to a wealth of new content, including sound and music on par with the original, fearsome new aliens which you witness setting up colonies in the facility, and intriguing new weapons (including a kind of grappling hook which is sadly underutilised). The reasonably long and well-paced story takes you through original areas which you could completely believe exist in Black Mesa, while occasionally weaving you back into the path Freeman originally took for some quick fan service. There's also a hilarious reworking of the boring old Training Room, which deserves a 90% rating on its own. On top of that Gearbox serves up some very bold choices such as rope physics and squad gameplay - your team mates aren't shy about accidentally shooting you, and the rope swings are painfully juddery, but these generally don't impede your gameplay and are used sparingly enough to feel novel throughout the game. Points for ambition!

As in Blue Shift Gearbox demonstrate that they are excellent at making the game feel like Half-Life when they want to, but Opposing Force veers into other genres too. The squad sections can feel like a quick round of Counter-Strike, and Gearbox imitate Half-Life's survival horror style segments reasonably well without removing your weapons, by giving you big, tough, powerful monsters in a pitch black tunnel to level the playing field (and you).

The game suffers a bit with its final boss - you can sit behind a corner and heal infinitely and it won't be able to attack you, so you can beat the boss at your own pace. After a large explosion it fades away, and then you leave too. It doesn't feel like a great payoff, but then neither did Half-Life's final boss. Opposing Force sometimes matches the quality of Half-Life too well... but for the novelty the rest of the game introduces, while not treading on the original story, if you enjoyed Half-Life you'd be mad not to play this too.

Gearbox's first Half-Life expansion pack is a very, very worthy companion to the main game. As far as I've read, this was the first expansion pack to win a Game of the Year award - if you're still not sold I'll be giving you some reasons why below. Gearbox let their imagination run wild in a way that they didn't do with Blue Shift - in fact, this game is so much better than Blue Shift I now think Blue Shift is actually worse than I did before, for unlearning so much of what made this game exciting. Opposing Force treats you to a wealth of new content, including sound and music on par with the original, fearsome new aliens which you witness setting up colonies in the facility, and intriguing new weapons (including a kind of grappling hook which is sadly underutilised). The reasonably long and well-paced story takes you through original areas which you could completely believe exist in Black Mesa, while occasionally weaving you back into the path Freeman originally took for some quick fan service. There's also a hilarious reworking of the boring old Training Room, which deserves a 90% rating on its own. On top of that Gearbox serves up some very bold choices such as rope physics and squad gameplay - your team mates aren't shy about accidentally shooting you, and the rope swings are painfully juddery, but these generally don't impede your gameplay and are used sparingly enough to feel novel throughout the game. Points for ambition! As in Blue Shift Gearbox demonstrate that they are excellent at making the game feel like Half-Life when they want to, but Opposing Force veers into other genres too. The squad sections can feel like a quick round of Counter-Strike, and Gearbox imitate Half-Life's survival horror style segments reasonably well without removing your weapons, by giving you big, tough, powerful monsters in a pitch black tunnel to level the playing field (and you). The game suffers a bit with its final boss - you can sit behind a corner and heal infinitely and it won't be able to attack you, so you can beat the boss at your own pace. After a large explosion it fades away, and then you leave too. It doesn't feel like a great payoff, but then neither did Half-Life's final boss. Opposing Force sometimes matches the quality of Half-Life too well... but for the novelty the rest of the game introduces, while not treading on the original story, if you enjoyed Half-Life you'd be mad not to play this too.