Should I play Blue Shift and Opposing Force before Half-life 2?

[OyajiBR☕]

I wish I'd played Half-life 1 when I was a child, it's ahead 1998. And Black Mesa is the proof that fan games are awesome, best remake ever! I was starting Half-life 2 and I already like Barney and Alyx, but it seems I missed Barney's and a military's expansions in HL1. Should I play them before truly starting HL2?

[Milkey-Wilkey]

they are complitelly optional. OpFor is a cool addon to play on itself but in terms of story it gives nothing to HL2. For BS, even though Barney is a protagonist in this one it can be safely skipped. Events of both expansions are barely ever mentioned in HL2 if at all

[OyajiBR☕]

Originally posted by Milkey-Wilkey:

they are complitelly optional. OpFor is a cool addon to play on itself but in terms of story it gives nothing to HL2. For BS, even though Barney is a protagonist in this one it can be safely skipped. Events of both expansions are barely ever mentioned in HL2 if at all

Thank you. I'll play them (and Decay, I just found) another time, then. Back to HL2.

[Snark]

Blue Shift is nothing to write home about, Opposing Force is an expansion that is a must play imo, peak HL.

[OyajiBR☕]

Are Decay and Caged canon stories too although they're free mods?

[Milkey-Wilkey]

They're all non-canon, including opfor and bs. Decay isn't a "free" mod, it was a part of the HL PS2 port but was later back ported to pc by modders. BS is actually the same, it was originally to be a console exclusive but was canceled and later ported and released officially on PC. The same goes for HD models. All of the above, including console ports was developed by Gearbox software and not Valve.
As for the Caged it's just a mod, simple as that. no connection to the priginal game.

Funny enough, the actual free multiplayer mods that was distributed with HL and that could be downloaded for free from the internet became separate paid games when steam launched. And I mean Counter-Strike, Team Fortress Classic, Ricochet, Deathmatch classic and Day of Defeat

[OyajiBR☕]

Well, we don't need to pay to play Decay, so it's free, right? Cool to know that it was brought from PS2. I wish Tomb Raider 8 expansions were brought from X360... Anyway, Blue Shift, Opposing Forces and Decay, all were made before Half-life 2 and have their importance, predecessors to what we call DLCs nowadays.

[Cat]

OF is too crazy and has nothing to do with HL2 story (not even gonomes appear). BS shows how Barney escape and it isn't too over the top like OF. Decay is great too if you have a partner to play with. Note that all of the Gearbox expansion are not referred in HL2 nor canon as HL2 was made without those expansion taken into consideration.

[DayDay]

Originally posted by Watchatchá:

I wish I'd played Half-life 1 when I was a child, it's ahead 1998. And Black Mesa is the proof that fan games are awesome, best remake ever! I was starting Half-life 2 and I already like Barney and Alyx, but it seems I missed Barney's and a military's expansions in HL1. Should I play them before truly starting HL2?

Playing Blue-Shift and Opposing would be a good addition to play on knowing what happens during the Black Mesa Incident from different perspectives.

In Blue-Shift, you play as Barney Calhoun who is, you know, Gordon's best friend that shares a story of his on how he survives and escapes Black Mesa.

Opposing Force gives a more ground-breaking story on the Black Mesa Incident during the events of Half-Life and what happens to Black Mesa eventually.

I definitely say it's worth playing it before Half-Life 2 & its episodes.

[Seymour Skinner]

You don't have to but they're fun. Especially Opposing Force. It's short but maybe harder than Half-Life on hard. IMO

[Snark]

Normies can't handle the awesomeness of Opposing Force.

[Cat]

Originally posted by Snark:

Normies can't handle the awesomeness of Blue Shift and Decay.

Fixed ^^

[OyajiBR☕]

I'm playing HL2, I'll buy HL1 expansions on the next sale. I killed the helicopter boss at the river, now I landed somewhere and I'll continue later. So far I'm loving it. If I hadn't played BM I wouldn't understand well why those "cyclops" are friendly, Xen in BM is really legendary. The only thing I don't like in HL2 is that it's too easy and I'm not great at FPS.

[edgeisbad]

if you liked hl1, theres no reason not to. Blue shift is a bit boring but Opposing force is good

[OyajiBR☕]

Oh, I will! Half-life already is on my top 3 best FPS games of my life. The others are Deus Ex (1 and Human Revolution, forget the rest) and Metro trilogy, And special mention to Terminator Resistance for being the true sequel and conclusion to T1 and T2.

[Cryiox]

HL1 has 3 expansions. Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Decay.

Opposing Force is better than HL1, in the same way FEAR Extraction Point is better than FEAR 1.

Blue Shift is shorter, small scale and kinda boring
Decay is even shorter, but mildly more interesting.