Barney Calhoun and Rosenberg reach an older part of the Black Mesa Research Facility where a disused teleporter system is being reassembled by scientists.
To make the teleporter completely operational, Calhoun is forced to travel to Xen and activate a device to allow teleportation to happen. Notable in the older part of the facility are older-looking models of health and HEV chargers and the use of hand scanners instead of retina scanners for identification.
The remainder of the game takes place in an abandoned, walled-up sector of the base originally built for research of the first teleporter device. Calhoun, Rosenberg, and two other scientists (Walter Bennet and Simmons) try to restart the prototype teleporter.
Calhoun is briefly teleported to a ruined human research camp on Xen to operate a triangulation device.
The name of this chapter comes from physical term focal point. In optics, a focal point is the point at which initially collimated rays of light meet after passing through a convex lens or reflecting from a concave mirror.
Some of these challenges may be mutually exclusive
- Find the Chumtoad Nest.
- Find an invisible floor.
- Get on top of the crystal.
- Find all 10 of the dead HEV scientists’ ammo packs (Good luck!)
None for this chapter – sorry.
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 1024 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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This post is part of the The Replay Experience Experiment event. This is a chance to replay all the Half-Life games and discuss them based on our experiences since we first played them.
All text taken from the CombineOverWiki, a fan-supported, editable wiki covering the Half-Life series of games.
On the left is a complete text walkthrough for Half-Life: Blue Shift.
It has been written by Stanley E. Dunigan and updated with all the tricks and tips from PlanetPhillip.Com readers.
It is in PDF format, meaning you can open it directly in modern browsers or download it and print it.
(Left-click to open and right-click to save)
You can purchase Half-Life: Blue Shift directly through Steam and could be playing in within moments, depending on your internet connection.
Well, I quite enjoyed this level and at least there wasn’t too many difficult jumps or anything. This felt like some sort of filler or obligation but of course it does have a wek story link that could be used to claim it’s not a filler.
I felt Gearbox did a pretty good job of making it feel like Xen but still giving the player something new.
None. I just kept going until I found the way out. I might go back and explore other tunnels, but I suspect they all lead to the same palce eventually.
– Find the Chumtoad Nest.
– Find an invisible floor.
– Get on top of the crystal.
– Find all 10 of the dead HEV scientists” ammo packs (Good luck!)
Seriously! I suck at these challenges.
Xen almost seemed friendly!
28 minutes
1 Can’t remember where but I was pretty upset about it!
Focal point gets us on xen, and it’s pretty awesome. I think I like this xen better than half-life’s or opposing force’s because it’s more based on exploring than combat. the combats are just to make sure people don’t rush by too fast (oh the irony) and to make it not too easy. We run around randomly and eventually find the crystal and turn it on (or something). then we rush back while being shot at by everything and try to survive until the portal. pretty easy overall.
Challenges:
– Find the Chumtoad Nest.
Underwater after hittinf the wall numerous times. if you get too close to the “main chumtoad” they will all vanish.
– Find an invisible floor.
You can see me jumping on it to attempt skipping a decent part of the level at 3:05. I actually failed this because I also encountered an invisible wall (more irony)
– Get on top of the crystal.
It’s not that hard, but you have to get on it before going on the ground, or you’d need insane skills to get back up (i think)
– Find all 10 of the dead HEV scientists’ ammo packs (Good luck!)
well, maybe, didn’t count xD
Fives words or less review:
Xen can be awesome too
Deaths:
none 😀
Playtime:
6 minutes 37 seconds 583 milliseconds
This chapter was surprisingly non-linear, or at least they did a good job of making it feel that way at points. As mentioned above there is a good opportunity for exploration which I really like. It didn’t seem too much like filler to me – you could describe most of Blue Shift like that as there isn’t much that’s actually “new”.
I thought the battle once you reached the crystal was pretty anticlimactic, especially since you just run away from it after a while. The way you return to Black Mesa was pretty random too. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have another teleportation device rather than a floating thingy with disembodied voices? Still, I thought the whole Xen segment was pretty nice, and I don’t mind the occasional jumping puzzle!
Nope.
I died a couple of times from trying to Kamikaze the battles instead of taking them seriously. Also the cloudy void of doom.
Playtime: About 30 minutes.
A really good xen area that isn’t limited to jumping puzzles and asteroid-looking areas. I really like the river valley area in particular. There is appropriate difficulty ramp up starting from houndeyes and headcrabs up to the final area with controllers and grunts.
Challenges:
– Find the Chumtoad Nest.
It’s in the wiki, anyone can know where it is
– Find an invisible floor.
no idea
– Get on top of the crystal.
which one
– Find all 10 of the dead HEV scientists’ ammo packs
They are really well hidden. There’s one in particular I don’t think anyone will find, that is next to a teleport ball
Playtime: 13’25”
I think I found it in my video, I actually didn’t know exactly where to go so I jumped to the nearest “exit” only to realise it wasn’t one. I don’t think it slowed me down though.
Indeed you MUST be very fast to found this one
yep ya gotta be FAST, but can you collect all 10?
pretty sure I would be able to do it if I wanted to, but I’m not here to collect 3477328 bullets/shells/grenades/etc that I won’t use xD
Gotta be fast, or just a brute willing to sacrifice health to get there with a grenade jump. It might be possible with a perfect regular jump as well but I didn’t feel like trying it over and over.
The first time I played this level I really enjoyed it and today it still a pleasure!
Regarding to Gordon’s trip on Xen, the place where Calhoun is set is very different, wild and virgin of civilization. So Barney only encounter “animals” species of Xen fauna, until his presence is noticed by more intelligent creatures.
Of course Barney must explore before reach his goal. The labyrinth part is very well made, with no good or bad path, so you ask yourself if you’re on the “right” way. Better, it incite you to replay the chapter to see more and more.
I also noticed the crystal device; two buttons, two dials and it’s done. Simple but smart.
Finally I only regret the absence of long jump module which was not enough used previously in my mind. Fortunately it’s not essential.
A few time, preferring replay the whole game.
-Find the Chumtoad Nest. Some times ago by accident.
-Find an invisible floor.
-Get on top of the crystal.
-Find all 10 of the dead HEV scientists’ ammo packs (Good luck!) Find 8!
Hey, there two suns there!
16 minutes
There are actually 11 ammo packs (which I call ammo canisters) in the “Focal Point” chapter, plus one more in the “Power Struggle” chapter, for a total of 12 in the entire game. If you want to know where they all are, check my walkthrough on GameFAQs, which is linked to directly in the main post’s “Walkthrough” section.
Actually a decent rendition of Xen that we see here. I have one major problem with it: the opening sections feel like vent shafts. I kind of like the looping design that encourages exploration although it can also frustrate players. I did really like the later Xen areas, like the river and the deep reservoirs. I found a good chunk of the ammo packs but probably not all.
I do think the first third or so of this chapter could be tightened up a bit, but otherwise it serves as a new look at Xen, without too many jumping puzzles. The combat is decent, although I think Gearbox could have made the focus emitter segment into a decent setpiece battle – for example, if aliens were teleporting in while you were fiddling with the dials. Missed opportunity, I think.
In all, I don’t see this chapter as filler material. It shows you a new side of Xen while being relatively slow-paced and light on combat, giving you a chance to explore and see the sights as it were.
Playtime: 27 minutes (several deaths, lots of waiting in health pools)
Besides the maze part, which was pretty bad, this was actually a really good chapter, but that’s probably because I’m a sucker for Xen.
– The scene where the Alien Ship breaks the Tower
– I know a lot of people would probably hate it, but I liked the Jumping Puzzle
– The part with the crystal would be cool, but you didn’t have to actually kill any of the enemies
– The rock falling on the Slave was pretty hilarious
I did reload a lot, but not to explore. I did it a lot at the maze part because the walking speed while crouched is really slow and going back after finding a dead end seemed like a chore.
– Find the Chumtoad Nest.
Almost died getting there, but I did it.
– Find an invisible floor.
Saw this in Kaito’s video and I tried to do it, but I couldn’t get on it.
– Get on top of the crystal.
Was pretty easy. You just needed to jump from the ledge.
– Find all 10 of the dead HEV scientists’ ammo packs.
Yes.
Playtime:
34 minutes
5 words or less:
Barney Visits Xen.
My images for this chapter: http://imgur.com/a/ALM6K
Now that Valve has completely f*&ked up the HL1 series by forcing you to use the HD pack, now is a better time then ever to use Blue Shift Unlocked, which let’s you play Blue Shift with the Blue HUD and lets you play with the LD models (although you can use the Fixed HD pack with it if you want):
http://old.hl-improvement.com/downloads.php
http://www.fileplanet.com/167145/160000/fileinfo/Half-Life—High-Definition-Pack-for-Steam
Find the Chumtoad Nest. Nope
Find an invisible floor. Nope
Get on top of the crystal. Yep
Find all 10 of the dead HEV scientists’ ammo packs (Good luck!) NINE omg
Playtime: 26 minutes
so, i have been replaying along and there have been a few times that i have wanted to stop and explore a bit- noclip around- and that command doesnt seem to work. notarget does, was there a steam change that messed up the ~ commands?
Since this isn’t a modern Source game, you need to do some fiddling around first. The console should still open with your ~ key, but then you’ll have to hit,
sv_cheats 1
like normal.
SAVE THE GAME.
RELOAD the game. THEN open your console again and do noclip or whatever else.
It’s possible but unlikely that the creators of the mod itself disabled that feature specifically but more than likely it’s just that Goldsource game console requires a save and load between activating your sv cheats and actually using them.
well ty , i’ll give this a try while waiting for hl3…. op4 vs bs its on