The cupcake version of Half-Life.
Play as Barney Calhoun and show United States Marines, Black Ops Ninjas, and inter-dimensional mutants that real badasses wear ties and make $26,000 a year.

You get to play as a mute security guard who wrecks havoc upon firearms specialists and aliens from an alternative dimension with a crowbar, and owes a mute theoretical physicist a pint.

Blue shift is, practically, any decrease in wavelength. Oh, wait, it is also the expansion pack (the 2nd one) for the critically acclaimed game Half Life! And this one was also developed by Gearbox. Interestingly, it came more than a year after Opposing Force, the 1st expansion pack, and while that one packed a punch, Blue Shift did not really offer anything new.

So, there is no real new content here: no new weapons, enemies or new music. But! It is Half Life! And also, you control Barney! The security officer who was bashing the door when you were riding the train with Gordon in the base game.

And this is why I liked in Opposing Force, as well. How the new protagonist's story was connected to that of Gordon. You could see a familiar locale in the distance (when in the helicopter in the beginning) or the aforementioned example of the security guard.

In any case, while Blue Shift did not really offer anything new (graphics-wise it came with a neat high-res texture pack, though), it offered the same cool atmosphere we loved Half Life for.

Blue Shift is a short but all the more entertaining ride! Highly recommended to all Half Life fans!

Go to work,they said,it will be fun,they said. 10/10

If you would like to see the world of Half Life as one of those pathetic security guards that help you open a door and then you just murder them with a crowbar, play this!

It's just like playing Half Life, but with less story. I played it just because I want to know every little detail in Half Life, and I must say it is probably the worst Half Life game (But all Half Life games are amazing, so this one is amazing too).

Yeah, buy it.. or just get it in the Half Life Complete Pack.

This game is just awesome. I think it could use a source version like black mesa source, but the old graphics remind us that graphics dont make it better, gameplay does.For example, Half life changes, different levels, puzzles, all kinds. Call of Duty, on the other hand is just the same thing over and over again with just new graphics. I still enjoy Call of Duty ghosts every now and then, (Well, who wouldnt?) but Half life Blue shift is a great example of a real game. So if you like puzzle shooters, Isolation games, and fun times, BUY IT

How to make Black Mesa a better workplace : Give the fat policeman his donut or he will shoot you!

You should really only play this if you like Half-Life. You play as Barney, one of the disposable security guards that you killed for their ammo after they were of no use to you in Half-Life's single player. The campaign is short; it took me about 3 hours to complete. There is no multiplayer, there are no new weapons, no new enemies, and only a handful of new characters. This is like Opposing Force in that it's a new perspective on Half-Life's story, but that's it.

Recommended only if you like Half-Life's story.
7/10

This game is short and sweet. It retells the early parts of Half-Life's story from a different perspective. This game is more Half-Life with extra story elements; do not expect anything more.

If one plans on playing both expansions, play this one first. Otherwise, one may feel underwhelmed by this game after playing Opposing Force.

I always get the weirdest shifts...

You get to play as a security guard whose normal routine of patrolling turns into alien fighting and shooting army units. The dude in this also appears in the later on HL2 games. Recommended to anyone who likes fps shooters. 10/10

a game where you play as a black mesa security guard. who is also barney calhoun.....11/10

Half-Life: Blue Shift gives the player a different view in someone else's eyes in the Black Mesa Research Facility incident. It was interesting to see what this character saw what happened during the craziness of the incident. Anywho it was quick, short and sweet but a really cool side-story game! Play this game if you're interested in a Half Life game with a different character view!

This game is still playable, even after being shadowed by many newer, prettier games. It remains a classic and the best expansion to one of the greatest games ever, Half-Life.

Good addon for the best First Person Shooter ever!

Half-Life: Blue Shift... I REALLY want to go in-depth with this game, people... but it's just too short to say much about it... so... I'll try...

Blue Shift is another expansion pack for Half-Life 1. Much like it's predecassor, you take the view of Barney Calhoun, a security officer working in Black Mesa and a personal friend to Gordon Freeman. Here's the thing that probably many people wondered in their Christmas of 2001. Opening the game up from the box, popping it into their brand-new Windows XP computer, and watching the opening sequence, and noticing something different... the outstanding graphics for the time. Seriously, as far as I know, this game is only famous for two things, Barney appearing as a major character in Half-Life 2, 3 years later, and the graphics in this game for 2001, as Opposed, *ahem*, opposed to Opposing Force and the original Half-Life. If you had essentially the i7 type of computer of back then, and were one of the cool kids already with a GameCube, PS2, and original Xbox in your possesion, you were amazed with the visuals of Blue Shift. But, I'm sorry to say... that's really is almost the only reason this game is... well... was known. The story is about as basic as it can get.

Barney Calhoun is doing duty as a security officer in the Black Mesa Research Facility and going down an elevator when, shock, the facility experiences a Resonance Cascade caused by Gordon Freeman submitting a Xen(ian) crystal in a test chamber for analysis, causing confused alien species to enter Black Mesa and vaporise all the remaining employees at every turn (satisfying) and your goal is to, you guessed it, escape the facility with the few surviving scientists guiding your way to a possible exit, while killing all the aliens that you can kill. Eventually, though, Barney is able to teleport himself at the surface of the facility, along with Dr. Rosenberg, shortly after witnessing a montage of the events Gordon Freeman faced. He supposedly drives away along with a few scientists in an SUV to safety, away from Black Mesa.

Pros: Graphics and animations were innovative for the time. The game also served as the basis for Barney's purpose in the next Half-Life game, Half-Life 2, and did it fairly well.

Cons: Game felt EXTREMELY short and, personally, I just didn't find Dr. Rosenberg very interesting. Only took me about 2 hours to beat, and 4 more just to TRY Hard difficulty and to see if it made a difference, but just felt like the first Half-Life game on Normal. Speaking of which... the Easy mode of Half-Life: Blue Shift is just about the most boring excuse of a Half-Life game I've ever seen. I'm sorry, but I don't find the constant, constant, CONSTANT health packs, ammo, suit health, and health machines ALL over the friggin place to be like a Half-Life game. To be honest, HARD mode seems to have this down... it makes the health packs, etc. give you LESS health, suit health, etc. But in Easy mode... I think I had a harder time playing the 2nd stage of Portal 1. Also... no G-Man.

Overall, it's a passable Half-Life game. It still has the dark humor as the other titles, and the story, while short, still felt like a good distraction from time to time. Only play Blue Shift if you're EXTRA curious about the story of Barney Calhoun. Wanna know how short the game is? Writing this review took longer than the game itself, lol.

7.0/10

Ok, i guess it has come to this, I've played Blue shift for some time....
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Its ok..

i played the game and then i got stuck but it was fun while it lasted

Used a steel barrel as det cord. 10/10 would Magyver again

Game Rating: B+
Pros
-An expansion that builds onto the original Half-Life
-Play as a security guard during the events of the first title
-Once again provides quaility shooting segments and puzzles that fit in with the first Half-Life

Cons
-Outdated graphics might make some people turn away