Blue Shift was the last Half-Life game I hadn't played. Whereas Opposing Force at least had that initial hook of playing as part of the antagonist faction, Blue Shift seemingly kind of lacked that. I put it off for years and years alongside Opposing Force. When I eventually got around to playing Opposing Force, I was blown away by just how memorable and unique its gameplay and atmosphere was, especially for an expansion pack. OF did a lot to distinguish itself from the original Half-Life without straying too far, so I was really excited to see what new ideas they'd play with in Blue Shift. The fact that you get to play as Barney, an actually important character who is a scene stealer throughout Half-Life 2, was an incredibly exciting prospect given how high they had set the bar with Opposing Force.
To my disappointment, Blue Shift really doesn't seem to follow the philosophy that made Opposing Force so good. Its short length isn't so much my issue, I love short and sweet games. But this game really is such a nothingburger that actually felt like a slog at times to get through. No new weapons are introduced and all of the new mechanics are incredibly inconsequential. The body armor pickups and inability to use the HEV chargers is really cool in concept, but the game's difficulty or level design doesn't complement the concept at all. You kind of forget you're playing as a security guard really quickly, as the trademark pistol weapon quickly becomes irrelevant.
There's nothing about Barney in this game to distinguish him from Adrian or Gordon. That especially is a huge shame; Gearbox actually had a perfect opportunity to potentially break the silent protagonist formula and make it work given how talkative the security guards are in the original Half-Life, and how Valve rolled with that into Half-Life 2. Hell, the level design could've worked to differentiate Barney given how distinguished Adrian feels from Gordon despite also being a silent protagonist. Blue Shift isn't really interested in expanding on Half-Life's ideas I found, moreso just rehashing them in worse form.
What sucks is the training room and first chapter make the promise of giving a similarly fresh and interesting new perspective on the Black Mesa Incident. The lobby for the security guards and shooting range are awesome elements, and having to go and fix an elevator for some grumpy scientists is similarly really peak and unique to Barney's perspective that makes sense. As soon as you wake up from the elevator crash though, the game loses any sort of identity it really has besides maybe Dr. Rosenberg, who lacks the brimming personality and iconic delivery that most of the scientists have. Even the game's final act is weak and flaccid. As soon as it starts getting interesting with Marines busting in to intercept your escape attempt, the game's basically over. Other nods to the original Half-Life are thrown in last second with the random teleports, which honestly gave the vibe to me that the game was tired and just trying to get it over with. And that reflected on how I felt getting through Blue Shift myself.
