Half-life: Opposing Force

Entirely new addon episode for Half-Life. In Half-Life, you play the role of Gordon, a scientist who has to escape from the alien-infested Black Mesa research facility and save the world from aliens. In Opposing Force, you play the role of Sherman, a marine who is sent into Black Mesa to kill Gordon before he can tell the world what's happened.

Opposing Force even surpasses Half-Life in terms of coolness. The story is simply amazing. Best story of any game I've ever played. And the gameplay is even more amazing...it's almost like being inside a movie. The character AI seems to have been improved even more from Half-Life as well. I highly recommend this game.

Also Known As: Ventilation shaft hunter 3D

You spend lots of time crawling around in dark ventilation shafts, into business offices and such that have no entrance besides the ventilation pipes.
"Could you give me directions to your office?"
"Sure, just smash the vent pipe entrance with your crowbar, crawl through to vent pipe 2, which is your second left, climb up the vent pipe ladder, drop down two flights of vent pipes, crawl past the random spinning blade in the vent shaft, turn off the power so you can continue through vent shaft intersection 23, then my office is the third vent shaft on the right"

Yeah.
And not to mention, they even have the ingenuity to re-texture and repackage the original Half-Life game and paste their name on it.
"Oh whats this? I have to go turn on some switches elsewhere in the level to kill the huge monster in the center room? NEVER DONE THAT ONE BEFORE!"

Also features a chargeable wrench. Thats right. The longer you hold the thing over your shoulder the more damage it does. I gotta get me one of those..
Not to mention the incredibly intelligent AI. Watch as your helpful allies stand in your way while you're being shot at, trip alarms, run into your line of sight, and generally work their hardest to get everyone involved killed.
Also, they're ingenious AI prevents them from doing things like stepping up a quarter inch.
"No thanks, only immaculate flat surfaces for me. Im a green beret, stepping up onto the rail car is out of my range of ability"

What good do I have to say about this game? The new monster models they added were done well. Or at least they didn't totally suck.

Then again, Im a bit cynical towards the flood of me-to first person shooters out there.
The sad thing is, this game really is in the top ten or so single player first person shooters. Not to say this game is good, but that its competition is that bad

Half-Life: Opposing Force was released in 1999 by Gearbox Software as the first official expansion pack for Valve Software's hit Half-Life. It adds several new weapons and a few new monsters to the existing game, as well as a single player game roughly 60% the length of the original.

In the original Half-Life, you play Gordon Freeman, a scientist in the Black Mesa Research Facility attempting to survive after an incident that caused hostile aliens to teleport across a dimensional barrier, yadda yadda yadda. Also involved are government controlled marines who have orders to kill everyone, even you.

In Opposing Force, you play as a marine named Corporal Adrian Shepard. The game starts with you getting shot down over the facility and getting cut off from the rest of your squad. Wild hijinks ensue, aliens are killed, and a shady group of government controlled special ops commandos start shooting at you.

Often abbreviated as "Op4", this game also adds some new multiplayer options to Half-Life. All the new weapons are available, of course, as is a new capture the flag mode pitting the BMRF crew against the marines.

If you don't have this game and do decide to get it, do yourself a favor and get Half-Life: Blue Shift, which comes with this as a sort of bonus. I think it's about the same price, it doesn't require the original Half-Life, and it also has the high-definition pack, which really improves the quality of many of the models in the game.

wonko: If this is the best story of any game you've played, then you obviously haven't played many games. Like, er, any RPG ever made.

ukyoCE: The wrench doesn't really charge as such. You just hold secondary fire down for a bit, and it does more damage as compared to the primary fire, which just swings it. Also, the AI is pretty smart, just not when it comes to dealing with the terrain. When it comes to shooting, grenading, or pummeling you, it knows its stuff. But yes, your allies are dumb as bricks.