- HALF LIFE BLUE SHIFT BARNEY HOW TO
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- HALF LIFE BLUE SHIFT BARNEY PS2
I kept looking around the walls, trying to guess what would explode at any minute, as a little movie of Gordon inching closer to disaster played in my head. You’ll be perched on the edge of your seat waiting for IT to happen. The entire time you’ll know that catastrophe awaits, with no clues as to precisely when. Everyone, everyone, will make a loaded comment about how you’d better prepare for “a long day.” The suspense here is actually fairly delicious. Green, I get them confused) on a security monitor, shuttling THE CRYSTAL. You’ll note that more than a few systems are on the fritz today. There are no enemies yet, just foreshadowing and scene-setting.
HALF LIFE BLUE SHIFT BARNEY HOW TO
The introductory sequence mirrors the one in the first game, as you take the train to the guard station, grab your equipment, and head out to rescue some scientists who can’t figure out how to press the elevator’s “down” button. Now that I’ve just kneecapped any interest you might have had, let’s at least look at what Blue Shift does right.Īs said, you’re a mid-level security guard for Black Mesa, and you’re just starting your shift on THAT DAY. I can understand why you wouldn’t want to play directly as one of the throwaway guards from the first game (complete with a lanky Gordon Freeman model you have to lead around and open a gate for, or somesuch) but I would think at the very least there could be a scripted event or two from Half-Life that you could trigger or have explained by Barney’s actions in Blue Shift. Overlaps with the original do occur, but rarely, and never on the level you’d hope for, or expect.
So there’s the first caveat – instead of a companion piece, the events in Blue Shift happen off on their own, and Barney Calhoun is the guy from this game only because it doesn’t matter. The important parts were already covered in Half-Life what tries to pass as expounded detail here is just babbling pseudo-science. You do get a slightly extended explanation of the “resonance cascade” and the importance of the border world, as well as a look at some of the early equipment testing both (not as interesting as it sounds), but nothing that’s critical information or a startling revelation. If it’s 2006, and you just played Half-Life 2, Blue Shift would be appealing because of the implicit promise to explain Barney Calhoun. If it’s 2001, and you’re waiting for Half-Life 2, Blue Shift would be appealing because of the implicit promise to round out the first game with backstory that will be referenced in the sequel. I start with laying all this out because the promise of expanding upon the Half-Life storyline is the major reason to play Blue Shift. It’s why they all looked the same, and going back to say that all along this Barney is the one that helped Gordon out (which he never actually does in Blue Shift) is completely pulling a George Lucas.
Originally, “Barney” was just the name for all the guards in HL1, as in “Barney Fife” from Mayberry. Barney Calhoun here barely meets Gordon in the course of the game, his actions have no impact on the events at Black Mesa, and his adventures here don’t play into HL2 whatsoever. He exists in the timeline, but he doesn’t do anything of significance. But as far as being a story that needs to be told? Nuh-uh. To Gearbox’s credit, this game does fit seamlessly into the first Half-Life, giving Barney Calhoun a clear place in that timeline. The stories could have easily been tied together, but Valve didn’t share any sequel notes they may have had with Gearbox, and they pretty obviously didn’t give a rip about the events in Blue Shift. For some reason, I had the impression that key characters from HL2 had escaped from Black Mesa with Barney, and those events were chronicled in Blue Shift. Now, at the risk of a few minor spoilers, I will first admit that when the bug bit me to replay Blue Shift, I remembered it having more bearing on the continued Half-Life story than it actually does. The uninteresting person here is one Barney Calhoun: security guard extraordinaire, and Gordon Freeman’s BFF in Half-Life 2. The star characters are literally on the fringe of Half-Life‘s core narrative, which results in uninspired side stories about uninteresting people.
HALF LIFE BLUE SHIFT BARNEY PS2
For Blue Shift and Decay (the exclusive added value for the PS2 port), the idea wears pretty thin. However, it also unwittingly set a devious precedent: the story of the downfall of Black Mesa could go on forever, so long as you retold it from a different angle each time.
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It was a neat twist, and while you never actually played the bad guy per se, it did offer the series a closure that first game lacked (read: KA-BOOM!). I liked its first expansion, Opposing Force. Hell, I don’t know anyone who didn’t like Half-Life.
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