Barney Calhoun regains consciousness at the bottom of the elevator shaft to the sight of a houndeye eating the body of a fellow security guard.
The two scientists in the elevator are dead, and so Calhoun sets off through the industrial waste areas of Black Mesa to try to find help.
Along the way he gains an insight into the scope of the disaster, and sees a pair of marines dumping corpses into a sewer opening, thus discovering that the military is trying to cover up the disaster rather than evacuate surviving personnel.
- At the end of this chapter, a reference is made to previous Half-Life expansion, Opposing Force, as one of the marines grumbles “just because Shephard’s team didn’t make it, we have to do the crap jobs?”
- Although the previous chapter corresponds chronologically with Anomalous Materials in Half-Life, Barney encounters a scientist who mentions the infiltration of Black Mesa by the “HECU”, meaning that enough time has passed for the HECU to respond to the emergency. A possible reason for this jump in time is that Barney was unconscious from the fall in the elevator until at least chapter 5 in Half-Life, We’ve Got Hostiles. Since the final chapter of Blue Shift, Deliverance, corresponds with the chapter Apprehension in Half-Life, the events of Blue-Shift then most likely take place between the events of We’ve Got Hostiles and Apprehension.
Some of these challenges may be mutually exclusive
- Save Otis (requires dying)
- Get up the crates without using the lifts
- Kill a headcrab without attacking it.
- Get past the explosive barrel door without shooting the barrels.
- Get the two medkits on the broken catwalk.
- Avoid being seen by all 4 zombies.
This section is new for TREE. I will ask a few questions and see if you know the answers before you play.
- How many exploding barrels are in this chapter?
- How many live human NPCs can you see?
- What exit is the dead scientist sitting under?
Are you sure you didn’t cheat?
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.
This is the first serious level we have encountered and to be honest I actually really enjoyed it. I thought Gearbox did a good job of presenting us with puzzles and action in an environment that was familiar, yet interesting.
The amount of crates at the beginning was a little worrying and sme of the soundscape stopped too suddenly but all in all a fun chapter. There’s story telling too with the marines throwing the body of another security guard into the sludge, plus the scientist hiding earlier.
It’s hard to review these sorts of levels because it’s easy to pick holes in some things whilst remembering how old the game is and at the same time recognising how well they did other things. If a modder made a chapter like this now it would be considered pretty good.
No, I just ran around them.
Save Otis (requires dying)
I can’t even remember seeing Otis. Unless he was the one with the zombies.
Get up the crates without using the lifts
Kill a headcrab without attacking it.
This is one of the easier challenges.
Get past the explosive barrel door without shooting the barrels.
Again, this was not hard really.
Get the two medkits on the broken catwalk.
First time I thought “Thank goodness for barnacles!”
Avoid being seen by all 4 zombies.
I tried to go back and do this but my saves don’t work.
Really starting to hot up!!
22 minutes
3
Misfired when getting the extra health
Missed a jump onto a ladder
Got caught unexpectedly by a vort.
This chapter is pretty well made. Basically there’s a storage section and a canal section. Both involve pretty good combat up front without getting too difficult (appropriate for an early chapter) as well as some nice puzzles, such as the two crane thingy and the giant canal puzzle. Really cool how most of the canal puzzle takes you across several areas just to return to the first canal map to call a lift. I jumped into the water in every area to expect some secrets but found none, sadly.
The “avoid being seen by all 4 zombies” challenge requires exploiting a shortcut that some of you prolly aren’t aware of. (I didn’t know it either until I was getting thru it for TREE) Also, for the individual who came up with the first 2 challenges I would suggest you be a bit more specific where they are, like where the “crates and lifts” are etc. I’m guessing you’re referring to the Otis at the end of the chapter that gets dumped by the soldiers? Never actually tried that; it could be cool to see it.
Playtime: 12’57”
I also quite liked this level. To me, this is what Residue Processing could have been: a mostly puzzle-oriented chapter sprinkled with combat here and there. There’s really no overarching goal except to escape the canals and that’s perhaps the only thing that could be added.
I thought there was a nice mixture of puzzles and combat. The fights are against the easier Xen aliens (although slaves are not slouches on Hard!) and at least one of the puzzles is better than “find the button”. I’m interested to see how this one can be done without the lifts.
Still not sure why Gearbox littered the opening area with so many boxes, unless it was to tell Dreamcast players to always break them (BS was originally designed for the Dreamcast version of HL).
A nice sequence at the end with a distant view of topside. Otis was the one tossed down by the grunts by the way.
Playtime: 23 minutes (lots of wandering before I figured out to go all the way up on one ladder in the canal – I thought this should be a tad more obvious, perhaps as simple as better lighting).
This is where the shit hits the fan and things really get started.
One of the scientists is stuck in the elevator with his legs sticking out.
The part with the zombies fighting over the Barney was a great sequence.
The body dumping scene and the was also great.
The explosive box part was cool I guess.
If you stand on the barrels while the water is rising, the barrels won’t float.
Yes, but that’s because I’m paranoid.
Save Otis (requires dying)
He was one of the bodies being dumped, but I couldn’t get under him in time.
Get up the crates without using the lifts
I thought I could use one of the barrels, but it wasn’t high enough.
Kill a headcrab without attacking it.
I did this without even trying.
Get past the explosive barrel door without shooting the barrels.
You just have to jump from the vents and not hit the light.
Get the two medkits on the broken catwalk.
I guess barnacles can be useful.
Avoid being seen by all 4 zombies.
Not exactly sure what he meant here.
Playtime: 15 minutes
5 words or less: Red is Scary
My images for this chapter: http://imgur.com/a/B7nbF
I liked this chapter a lot, this really felt like Half-Life. Aliens, random hazards and puzzles. I also thought there were too many boxes in the first room, even a storage room should be more organized than this. the weird thing is the fact that the boxes are either empty (random garbage than vanishes when touching air) or contain only one item, most of the time a 9mm magazine. that is a huge waste of storage space. then a puzzle to get past a gate, and then some bottomless pits all the way. another puzzle with lifts, then we get in the canal for real. I skipped an enormous part of the canal by jumping out of the window, and I actually did the same thing the first time I played this game. it was after seeing Barney’s Mind that I realized that I have been doing it wrong every time, and I actually tried the right way. god it’s long. then some marines mention shephard and we realize that they are probably not very nice.
Challenges:
– Save Otis (requires dying)
I came up with that challenge, there is actually a bug in most versions of the game. if you break Otis’s fall by jumping under him, he will stop falling and sometimes stand up in mid-air. he will start speaking as if nothing happened. I don’t know if it’s possible to do that without dying, I never managed to do it. there are some versions of the game where this does not work.
No I didn’t do it in my vid
– Get up the crates without using the lifts
look at this speedrun at 5:50. this is how you do it.
It requires a decent amount of luck to complete, so I didn’t do it in my vid
– Kill a headcrab without attacking it.
I don’t think it’s possible to fail that challenge, a few headcrabs will fall drectly into the toxic stuff and die no matter what you do.
– Get past the explosive barrel door without shooting the barrels.
Yep, can’t lose time xD
– Get the two medkits on the broken catwalk.
I don’t even know where is this catwalk.
– Avoid being seen by all 4 zombies.
I guess I got this right, I skipped the entire area with the zombies
Quiz:
– How many exploding barrels are in this chapter?
there are 3 at the gate, and I don’t recall any others…
– How many live human NPCs can you see?
if we consider Otis and the security guard assaulted by zombies, I’d say 5.
– What exit is the dead scientist sitting under?
the exit we reach later? I think it was mentioned in Barney’s mind, but I don’t know if this exit has a name.
Five words or less review:
Dodge, Shoot, Solve, break stuff
Deaths:
none.
Playtime:
2 minutes 50 seconds 625 milliseconds.
In this chapter the action start. Barney must do his duty and reach an exit. A scientist who is hiding in there give him an indication for a route, but game scenario keep undefined, except usual fight for live and escape.
The action take place probably in an older part of the complex. After the warehouse full of crates, we can see old access tunnel which seems to be unused anymore, expect for more stack.
The canal areas, consisting on sewers are well designed, with many detail making mapping quality. However some path are odds like this ladder you must jump to take it.
Combat increase gradually, starting with headcrabs and houndeyes, and later with Vorts appearing anywhere. Between two battles some puzzles must be resolved to pass obstacles, nothing hard but smart.
This is the recipe for an entertaining gameplay.
Well, I killed them to avenge this poor guy.
Save Otis
Get up the crates without using the lifts
Kill a headcrab without attacking it.
Get past the explosive barrel door without shooting the barrels.
Get the two medkits on the broken catwalk.
Avoid being seen by all 4 zombies.
Those grinders are dangerous, my new explosive crate is broken now !
16 minutes
This level took a bit of remembering as you’ll see in my video but I really liked it a lot.
It basically takes you through a nice variation of underground locations and through an escalating series of encounters with different Xen creatures.
The scene where the security guard is sent over the railing by the zombies always gets me.
I managed to get past the explosive barrel door w/o shooting the barrels (only because I couldn’t get them to explode).
Total Play time: 30:26
Save Otis (requires dying) I tried to jump under him a few times but no luck
Get up the crates without using the lifts At least I didn’t need a crate AND a barrel like kaitokid 😀
Kill a headcrab without attacking it.
Get past the explosive barrel door without shooting the barrels.
Get the two medkits on the broken catwalk. Except the fall from there does damage so it’s really useless
Avoid being seen by all 4 zombies. Like Phillip, I tried to go back as soon as I saw a ladder there but no luck with the saves.
I can propose a new challenge, get 2 bullsquids to attack eachother.
Playtime: 32 m, but almost half was me trying to get the challenges which were kind of hard and not in chronological order, therefore confusing.
We start in storage rooms with a lot of boxes, clear our way from them and houndeyes who ate another Barney. “Disconnect power before attempting maintenance” says another trademark Half-Life puzzle clue. The scientist tells that the escape is through the canal, and that some people are going “to kill us all”.
Then we find our way to canal with nice design and complex layout, to finally get to another puzzle where sign is a clue, here we need to destroy the trash compactor to advance.
Save Otis (requires dying)
I thought that you need to catch him to do this challenge, but both Otises just fell right through me.
Get up the crates without using the lifts
After thorough examination of that place I came to conclusion that the only way to do this is to use console command sv_gravity.
Kill a headcrab without attacking it.
Lured it into some spilled poison.
Get past the explosive barrel door without shooting the barrels
Moved the chair to the door and used it to climb above it.
Get the two medkits on the broken catwalk.
Never saw any broken catwalk anywhere.
Avoid being seen by all 4 zombies.
It’s quickly noticeable that the only way to do this is to use ladder to the right. Some very hard jumps precede it.
Haste through storage and waste.
37 minutes
Duty Calls: Still better than Call of Duty
I guess this is what you might call a build-up chapter – now that things have got started the combat and puzzles slowly progress. I thought the puzzles were varied enough and give it some good pacing, from the alternative to the unlock-a-door puzzle right at the start to putting explosives in the trash compactor! I always find the moving lifts puzzle a bit frustrating since it’s hard to look at the platforms whilst moving the lever. I also thought that Gearbox overused the idea of aliens spawning in around and behind you once you clear an area, it seems like a cheap trick to me.
The first time I played this chapter I got stuck for a long time in the Canal section because there is no clear goal initially and lots of the catwalks look very similar.
Something about these areas has a very nice feel though, they all seem quite interesting and atmospheric, which makes the graphics seem less dated. I also thought that the scripted scenes were nice, but as the main post says, how did the military arrive so quickly?
Overall I quite enjoy the more “relaxed” segments like this, where the action is less extreme and you get a chance to explore.