Half-Life: Opposing Force

I would like to thank Valve for making these games for us. Games like Portal (1-2), Team Fortress (OG-2), and the game (which the third might never come out) Half-life (1-2-Alyx-etc).

97 / 10. Extremely fun, more fun than the last game. Only 9.7 because of the multiple game crashes at the ending boss fight

Half-Life: Opposing Force is the best expansion for Half-Life. This game doesn't just give a new story but new features, weapons and mechanics as well! It keeps an interesting story and experiments with the gold source engine really well!

Sadly alongside Blue Shift this game still contains the gold source problems seen before the 25th update of Half-Life which can be annoying if came across and the boss seemed more easier than I expected, though I have no problem with that.

Overall this game does great at expanding on Half-Life and I highly recommend if you want more Half-Life or a really fun shooter!

Link to game review (if I do one) here: TBA

-DrSeaDevil

Really good game honestly, I prefer it over the original Half-Life, but Half-Life is still the better game overall.

Pretty good, but some enemies are just plain out unfair. (Specifically the Race-X fellows). And sometimes the weapons like the shotgun just doesn't.. work? Eitherway, 8/10 expansion pack, though the bosses are underwhelming.

Pretty Good dlc for half life 1

new guns new enemies they added new gameplay elements to spice up going through black mesa 2nd or 3rd

shock trooper can be annoying even on easy but other then that skip blue shift just play this one and if you want a fresh og half life 1 sometimes better i just wish there was more zen in this dlc thou

7.5/10

Opposing Force is one of the best expansion pack ever made and it gives me a full metal jacket vibes

I wish Steam had the option to make a neutral review, because it's not that I hate the game it just feels very iffy. I see a lot of people glazing Opposing Force and I just can't get myself to even remotely like the game. It has weird bugs, strange level design, and annoying enemies. I can barely find any redeeming qualities about it other than you get to ally yourself with HECU soldiers and fight more Black Ops soldiers. The weapons are... whatever. They're reskinned Half Life 1 guns, which I usually wouldn't care about if it weren't for the fact that I see people also glazing Opposing Force's guns. 6/10

gearbox making the last few chapters: lets just throw in as many shock troopers and voltigores as possible

Fine, but game throws at you too many enemies at once, who can soak up your ammo like a sponge, while your resource is very limited.
And final boss really bugged

Felt really well playing in black mesa with different POV. It has a different charm in itself I just don.t know how to describe this in words(maybe because my english is bad)you definitely need to play this once if you are a fan of Half Life

This is like an entire separate game. I can't believe they squeezed so much content into a side project. Blue shift definitely feels like subpar DLC. but this is almost a sequel. Complete with new enemies and bosses. I wish the guy in this game was more significant to the Half-Life timeline, but a self-contained story is okay. seeing Gordon Freeman form another perspective is really cool. At times, it does feel like this is obnoxiously difficult, but nothing saves couldn't force me through. also, some really bad audio moments. There's also the typical Half-Life awkwardness. I still recommend this one, just get ready for something intense, you will be pushed pretty far.

Really fun to play as the ironically "opposing force" of half life. The ending boss fight was decent for the most part, but the combat in the other chapters were fantastic. The vortigoures (idk how you spell that) are a great mini boss fight when you encounter them. Overall, this is a great game, I highly suggest you play it.

TLDR: don't play this game. just don't. (even if you got it for free)

Don't play this game if you've played any other half life game. (and if you haven't, also don't play this game.) this is a garbage game undeserving of the half life name and franchise.
initially i thought this just wasn't valve quality but no it's just genuinely bad. in the first parts of the game it's just unintuitive puzzles and buggy mechanics that don't work half the time, basically softlocking you when you think you've tried literally everything(you have, but you gotta do it like 3 or 4 times for it to actually work), and in the latter parts of the game almost none of the enemy encounters or boss fights are fun. none of the new enemies are fun to fight and the boss fights are generally terrible design and the ones that don't feel like ripping out your hair are just budget remakes of half life 1 bossfights, such as the tentacle monster from blast pit.
the game also deviates from the standard half life arsenal, taking away/nerfing a lot of the good weapons from the perfectly balanced(mostly, negligible in comparison) kits gordon carries around so that you end up with a ton of incredibly situational weapons, several weapons that are almost always out of ammo and you end up using the same two guns for the whole game(shotgun for close range and the machine gun for anything else).
the game also lacks any music but i feel like i've complained enough about my experience playing this absolute mountain of shit of a game to convince at least one of you not to buy/play it and subject yourself to the same torture i had to go through.

literally the only reason to play this game is for the lore, and for that you can just watch some youtube videos. not like this game is very lore-packed anyway, besides things that are introduced in hl1, there are like 5 important moments in this game, and not nearly as much lore as you will find in any one of the games from half life 1 to half life 2: epsiode 2.
i went into this game with big expectations (given how insanely overhyped this game is in the half life fandom and how prominent it is in half life memes) and after 8 hours of misery i ended up practically forcing myself to finish it, even if it required going into godmode every once in a while. i still didn't finish it because it feels like eating exclusively cardboard for every meal and waiting for it to finally start tasting good.
a game that costs real money being this bad with less than a third of the game being actually fun is unreal, especially considering this was supposed to be a dlc on a valve game. the fact that this game was released in 1999 is not an excuse either considering that hl1, quake, TLoZ, and a whole bunch of other great games were released before then.

End of rant.

It's a bit more forgiving than base Half-Life, and personally well-rounded for the most part. The larger and slightly different arsenal, definitely set the tone.

I do have some issues. For instance, Black-Ops felt more abused than they were in the original, (probably because they couldn't just use HECUs, rotfl!!!) The boss is underwhelming to say the least. It didn't feel like a challenge at all, plus the enemy spawning after each hit the poss takes, felt like an excuse for a distraction, rather than something being integrated with the boss fight. (From what I've read online, Pichford can't make an interesting boss, so take that as you will, lol!) And although they weren't any issue for me, ropes were made sloppily, and definitely could've been more refined, or entirely replaced considering this was made in GoldSrc. I can't really complain about them much, as they do add in to the US Marine aspect.

If you want more GoldSrc Half-Life, it's worth your time.



Unrelated to gameplay, (slight spoilers): Honestly, the canonicity of this expansion being up in the air somewhat bothers me. The dialogue from the NPCs, reinforced the feeling of the Black Mesa Incident. And the idea of Shephard himself: Being a lost HECU Solider, still being able to overcome all odds, and practically being a more brute Gordon Freeman, is just interesting to me.

Hopefully the G-Man employs him one day. :P

Has a lot of bugs, Adrian always gets stuck to the floor after travelling on an elevator, after which you have no other choice but to load a previous save. But all in all, it's a good game.

Opposing Force is undoubtedly an underrated gem , The way that Gearbox expanded the plot and offered players a new perspective on the Black Mesa incident was excellent , not only that but they also introduced new weapons and enemies which added a lot to the gameplay.

This is the best Half-Life expansion, with a variety of new weapons and enemies, it stands out better then Half-Life Blue Shift which had bad level design and now new content. But Opposing Force is freaking good. I recommend this before Blue Shift, but play Half-Life 1 first.

It good found it more enjoyable than half life 1 probably beacuse i was playing on easy mode

The gameplay is similar to Half-Life, with a few extra gameplay mechanics. If you like Half-Life, you will most likely appreciate this as well.

got a fatal error after i beat the final boss, so i couldnt see the end screen

> be me
> grunt in HECU, get deployed to Black Mesa
> told it's cleanup duty, ez clap
> aliens start phasing in from freaky hell dimension
> scientists throwing wrenches at me
> get eaten by sentient barnacle on the ceiling
> somehow still alive
> find a wrench, become the janitor of fate
> see things no paycheck can justify
> no one gets paid, no one gets out
> 10/10 would get PTSD again
> play Opposing Force
> it's like Half-Life, but with more *oof* and less Freeman
> recommend it, poor soldiers didn’t get paid enough for this
> classic expansion, aged like irradiated wine

🦀 Shephard still MIA 🦀

Played this back in 1999 and it was awesome. I enjoyed this expansion more than the original game. Just wish it was a little longer.

Несправедливо сложно. Да, я понимаю что играл на сложной, и игра старая, а раньше игры были хардкорными, но, когда тебя с 5 хп, без патрон, выставляют против пятерых огромных чертил которые требуют 4 магазина из пулемёта что-бы убить их - это дичь сраная. Серьезно. Я за главу насчитываю по 2-3 станции зарядки здоровья. Это неадекватно

For sure one of my most fav dlcs, absolute gold of old video game media and for its time period out sanding, creative fps, the arsenal was soo good they replaced some useless and not that good weapons from first one and even brought new ones amazing will replay it many times till waiting for remake lol.
Adrian Shephard the doom guy in making. "I was told this is gona be a baby sitting job."

Great "dlc"
A lot of new weapons and enemies, another "different perspective" but where there's actually a lot of new cool things

An enjoyable standalone expansion of Half-Life where you play as one of the soldiers storming the Black Mesa complex to suppress the alien breakout.

While gameplay length may be on the shorter side of things in comparison to the main game (took me about 4 hours to beat), the content here is still interesting.

We get new aliens to fight against, which are colloquially referred to as "Race X". Plus a few new weapons to expand our arsenal sandbox. The Wrench and Shock Roach being two standout weapons to me personally (its fun gibbing bodies with the wrench).

Although there are some gripes I have with the game. The new mechanics implemented and showcased during the training course feels underutilized. Commanding other soldiers during important parts of the story happens about twice in the game, with their duration being quite short. The solution to beat the final boss was a bit obtuse too. I had to look up walkthrough to make sure if I was actually damaging it or not.

Still a fun action-packed romp through the Black Mesa Incident as one of the US Marine antagonists (Though the character we play as doesn't actually do anything bad as our fellow soldiers). Half-Life modders even got some extra content to work with too!

It's alright, not my thing. I'll still play it because I haven't finished it yet, but it's pretty similar to the original game. I get some people like it more than the original game, but not me. I prefer the original only slightly, but the training level/tutorial is better, I'll give it that.

Absolute thing of beauty.

6.2 hrs - I think I might be nearing the end but it has been such a blast and unique experience. It is just as good as Half-Life. Super interesting as well/

7.3 hrs - finished. It's been great. From the very training to the final boss. Super worth playing/

Once again, I totally recommend playing on max. difficulty which is HARD. Only then you will take advantage of every weapon and appreciate swift gameplay. It is not too hard, really fair and a little bit challenging but it makes you think and use all of your assets/ Loved it/

This game is really incredible 10/10 story, 10/10 multiplayer when it was active, fun custom maps tons of secrets, best half life imo

Takes a bit of time to cook, but amazing game in the end.

If you played and enjoyed the original Half Life - and you should on both counts - then set aside 4 or 5 hours for this fun expansion. You get some great new weapons, critters, and a tight story from a different perspective. Far superior to Blue Shift, but play 'em all and enjoy a groundbreaking, top-tier classic action shooter from 20+ years ago.

Dá para zerar em uma tarde. Há detalhes interessantes para quem é fã da saga Half-Life.

Very good DLC where you play as the military and your main objective is to kill the main character Gordon Freeman from Half Life 1

The Weaker of the Two Half Life Expansions

While I thoroughly enjoyed Half-Life 1 (or rather, Black Mesa) and Blue Shift, Opposing Force wasn't really up to snuff, in my opinion. The gameplay was the same as in HL1 and HL:BS, though it felt significantly more difficult. There weren't as many puzzles, and the ones that were present were often frustratingly unintuitive. The level design was also confusing at times, forcing you to backtrack randomly or leading you in one direction only to bring you to a dead end. The story lacks any meaningful narrative and only really gets interesting at the very end, leaving you with a well-written ending that feels almost a little too similar to that of the main game. The game also features one of the most annoying bosses I have fought in a while and a not-insignificant number of bugs. I got stuck in elevators or on ropes frequently and had to noclip out to continue.

The AI companions, which are one of the most interesting parts of this game, tend to either refuse to follow you and just stand around or die within the first five seconds of any firefight. I assume this is intended by the developers, and it makes sense in theory, but it gets stale after you meet the sixth group of soldiers who keel over at the first sign of enemy contact.

Overall, I still recommend playing it at least once while going through the Half Life series, but I would probably skip this game on future replays.

Я даже не помню чтобы играл хотя-бы 2 часа и наверное даже игру не начал проходить но рекомендую🤪

Adds new enemies, weapons and mechanics. essential for any half life fan.
such a good DLC that it might as well be a standalone half-life game

Played this game on hard mode and it starts out just fine. but the later chapters in the game just start to feel unfair. To the point i'd have to savescum certain areas just to save some health. I get it I'm on hard mode and it shouldn't make me feel like an unstoppable force but I'm a damn Military Corporal. why am i constantly barely scraping by with about 6 bullets to my name in every gun. Not to mention they constantly spam the most tanky enemies in the most annoying spots. Half life 1 is a boring and ugly mess that people need to stop putting on this high pedestal.

So your telling me the military's idea of "containing" the situation is to gun me and my fellow scientists down like madmen?
Why can't we approach this in a more civilised way while chatting over some coffee and doughnuts?

Opposing Force is a top tier expansion pack. The gameplay, story, worldbuilding, atmosphere ect. are just as good as the base game, which is saying a lot. Playing the game as a different person with a very different perspective during the same time frame and general location of the base game is a great idea for an expansion pack and is all around a fun well executed experience. The length of it is appropriate for an expansion, i don't remember exactly how long it took me the 2 or 3 times I've played it through, maybe 40% the length of the base game. It's currently 5 USD on the steam store (not a sale) so its certainly long enough to justify that.

If you enjoyed Half-Life you're missing out not playing this.

And if you didn't enjoy Half-Life you probably aren't reading this.

Half-Life: Opposing Force is probably the most fun Half-Life game I have ever played. The new mechanics, the soldiers as allies, it's all just amazing, the levels are super hard at times, but very enjoyable. And don't even get me started on the boot camp level! It's probably the best tutorial in a video game at the time. Maybe even now!

A classic first-person shooter developed by Gearbox Software (who would later be best known for their Borderlands franchise) in 1999, this is a spin-off to one of the most iconic FPS games of all time,, Half-Life.

Opposing Force provides an alternative account of the incident at Black Mesa and includes a variety of weapons both familiar and new, and is a companion to the Half-Life franchise that is often overlooked, but provides a well-rounded experience that adds to the narrative started in the original Half-Life.

The game is also simple to run on most 2000's, 2010's and 2020's computers and will not be an issue for older or more mobile-focused hardware (such as laptops) whilst still maintaining a steady gaming experience that rarely suffers from graphical bugs (at least in my experience, that is.) Opposing Force has a modern control scheme that will be easily accessible and understandable to both new and veteran gamers alike.

Is a really good extension for the original half life game, it feels like its own game and has unique weapons, recommended!

A side story which takes place at the same time as Half Life, but from a different perspective.
Same style of gameplay as Half Life but with new kinds of weapons and enemy types.

Besides the OG Half life, this might be one of the best expansions for the for the goldsrc Half life games, the new weapon's are fun to use, The new alien faction are, i'll be honest kinda annoying, but can be fun to play, the new parts of Black Mesa we get to see are also a nice add-on and add more to the world, and yea, its a good game, what more can i say?

Awesome game! A look at the same story from the eyes of a different character. It has a some new weapons and game mechanics that weren't present in original Half-Life. A mustplay, if you love Half-Life!

I'll try to spare what is already said about this. but Opposing Force shows more of Black Mesa (👍), shows more of the HECU (👍), gives you more weapons (👍), introduces more soldier variants (👍), however despite these good parts there is bad,
difficult enemy spam (👎), deafening portions (👎), TOO SHORT (👎), pushing and pulling items glitch not fixed (not game breaking but mildly annoying 👎)


overall, 5/10 for just the things i mentioned but when you figure in the good stuff i didnt mention and the bad stuff i didnt mention it becomes a 9.5/10

You are playing as Adrian Shephard, a US marine deployed to Black Mesa during the incindent. A really neat campaign. Also I really like the military inspired music.

I like this game! It's pretty short, but compared to Half-Life 1, it's miles better, mostly because the puzzles are more understandable. The game itself isn't hard, but if you choose the hard difficulty, you'll always have a finger on the quicksave button. The enemies aren’t very forgiving, so to speak...

Pretty good game, adds new guns, enemies and some new mechanics on top of the original. Follows a different character during the events of half-life and gives a different perspective on the story. Overall decent length and a good expansion to play after completing the main game.