The training chapter of Opposing Force. Adrian Shephard is bumped to the top of the Advanced Training list.
Shephard and his comrades are trained by Dwight T. Barnes, Marine Drill Instructor, in Santego Military Base, Arizona.
He works his way through the training exercises overlooked by Drill Instructor Sharpe until he is ready for the field.
Easter egg: in the dormitory where the level starts, each trunk bears the name of a Gearbox employee, such as Randy Pitchford, Stephen Bahl, Rob Heironimus, David Mertz, Landon Montgomery, Patrick Deupree, John Faulkenbury, etc., mirroring the Easter egg from Half-Life in the locker rooms of the Sector C of Black Mesa.
Other Easter egg: the room right below Shephard’s dormitory exists but can only be accessed by noclipping. Inside can be found an Easter egg, consisting in initials and a date (“DMM 1999”). “DMM” is the signature of Santego Military Base’s designer, David Mertz, Gearbox employee. “1999” is the release date for Opposing Force.
The challenges below have been set by 2muchvideogames
- Find all 7 MP soldiers.
- Avoid taking steam damage.
- Get across the final pit in the rope course without using the ropes.
There are no saves available for the Boot Camp.
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 summer 2012 event. This is a chance to replay all the Half-Life games and discuss them based on our experiences since we first played them.
The trivia 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: Opposing Force.
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: Opposing Force directly through Steam and could be playing in within moments, depending on your internet connection.
I really enjoyed this training area, much more than the Hazard Course of HL1. I think the vocie acting is perfect, as is the script.
It’s such a simple set of areas but besides teaching you the new aspects of the game, it’s actually fun to play. I always wanted to run a BootCampVille for OF, just to see what people would come up with!
Well, besides the standard stuff you get to climb ropes, jump from rope to rope and use a sniper rifle. You feel as though you are being rushed all the time, but of course you ahve complete control over the speed.
Yes, once you exit to the outdoor compound. He is on the right at one of the command centre windows, talking to a soldier.
I got stuck between a door and a wall and had to restart! Completely my fault, I suppose. See image 05.
Yes, twice, actually.
Find all 7 MP soldiers
Avoid taking steam damage.
Get across the final pit in the rope course without using the ropes.
Eating Danger and Crapping Victory
27 minutes
2, Kinda, after I shot the dril instructor.
In Opposing Force we’re going to see Black Mesa from soldier’s point of view. Boot camp introduces us to this role. We see how people are turned into killing machines we saw in Half-Life.
We wake up, and instructor says that our name has mysteriously appeared at the top of Advanced Training list, so we go there. From the beginning the talent of Opposing Force team is noticed: they used Half-Life textures to create atmospheric barracks. Lights” hum is a nice touch.
We exit the building and see the first wow-moment – stunning architecture of the Training Centre. In the building to the right we see the source of aforementioned mystery – G-man through the window. We can explore the area, but everything is locked, so we have to go to the training.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/emoleveldesigner/screenshot/559824352466802754
We’re introduced to Power Combat Vest, which is a “local HEV”, new types of recharges. Our vest’s capabilities are demonstrated to us, as we get shot, going through hazardous environments and darkness.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/emoleveldesigner/screenshot/559824352466805866
Outdoor training area is designed to aid the atmosphere, and also demonstrate and teach us new gameplay mechanic – the rope. Then – weapon training which shows pistol with laser sight and sniper rifle. And last area teaches us how to command our squad.
The design provides nice variety at first but becomes monotonous after the shooting range. Then it just repeats indoors and outdoor designs.
I did shoot the drill instructors, because their yells are so annoying! Black Mesa Hazard Course from Half-Life is a lot more pleasing to play. The pistol instructor lacks the death animation. The sniper instructor don’t, so killing him was satisfying.
Overall, the episode succeeds in teaching the player and creating the atmosphere different from Half-Life’s training course.
Playtime: 20 minutes.
Anyone else toggles iron sight and night vision on and off just for their sounds? 😀
I do like the sound of the night vision – that’s true.
You know how somebody made a music video with the sounds from Half-Life 2? Well, somebody should do that with HL, OF and BS.
brilliant!
Ahem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE0ZQFqq77c
“Fascinating! I never suspected such things could be.”
“As you can see, you are not dead!”
I don’t think I have played the Assault Course to the end before, as I was surprised by some of the elements. It’s interesting to see how the developers have changed this mission compared to the Hazard Course, and I think the soldiers are a lot better than the bizarre “holodeck” effect in HL.
Boot Camp does a good job of setting up both how OF will be similar and different to the main game. The training camp is cool, but I thought it was lazy that the skybox was the same as Black Mesa. The introduction of the G-Man is well handled, introducing the story of the game without being necessary for players who prefer to skip this level.
Surprisingly I found several bugs: the second rope got me stuck in the floor so I had to load an autosave and the pistol targets didn’t seem to trigger properly. I don’t know if this was just due to it being the Steam version though.
This map(s) also reminded me of elements I hate in Opposing Force, such as the horrible night vision effect and the buggy squad AI. Hopefully I won’t be annoyed by these too much this time!
Oh my.
I do believe that this is my favorite game of all time.
Perfect mix of combat, puzzles and awesome and crazy weapons.
This training course is great at teaching you the new mechanics of the game and I like it more than the HL1 training course.
A Camera that follows you.
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560950252381137882/2D0968910DBFBEF7988CFFC4C27C7208589EE212/1024×769.resizedimage
At the part with the leaky vent, it looks like the water is defying gravity and going from the ground up to the vent. Also, the fake shotgun sprite where you have to trade in your Deagle look terrible.
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560950252381134754/19F57FC0F1638323ECF7AD608CEA772036BAA432/1024×769.resizedimage
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560950252381127308/C292073DCB39C94794E0AF131B711392738B7AB5/1024×769.resizedimage
I got the first 2 challenges. I was never good at bunnyhopping.
Playtime: 16 minutes (Felt much shorter than that)
5 words or less:
Instructor Barnes is Duke Nukem (Seriously, he is)
I also noticed the water dripping upwards, but I just thought it’s something similar to the bike effect, like when it goes faster, you think you see it go the other way around.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagon-wheel_effect
5 words review:
Like a 90’s action film.
And that sums it up to me: the drill instructor giving you a hard time, the bad ass marines that you end up commanding.
Weapons felt nice, the rope was a cool new addition.
Full Metal Jacket – toned down
The first time I played through the boot camp in opposing force, I was blown away. Literally. I stood up during the live fire exercise. I remember the Drill Instructors comforting words as I lay, dying on the range.
“Keep your ass down, or it WILL be blown off.”
It was a Hell of a way to kick off the game and it will remain in my heart for years to come. 🙂
Yeah, I stood up too, just to see if the shooters followed me.
Just an FYI on the rope-swinging. There are very few parts in the game where you have to do any actual swinging back and forth on a rope or rope-like cable, and only one part where you have to swing from one rope to another. And for me, at least, they were *much* easier than the rope-swinging exercise in Boot Camp. So if you’re new to the game and are worried about the rope-swinging after going through Boot Camp, then relax — you’ll do fine.
This is an amazing game for me since I love military stuff and this “hazard course” just blew me away. I even started the game after it and could barely stop playing in order to follow Phillip’s pace chapter by chapter.
Somehow I think I played this before or a mod that had this as a training room, but then again it could be just the custom stuff that was used in mods, like the armor vest, the weapons and such. Was really glad to see the iron sight again and just had a blast toggling it on/off, night vision also, just for the sounds. I had a bug in the first shooting range, where you need to activate the sight to shoot accurate, well for me it was the other way around when I first played it. But this time it played ok. I also shot a drill instructor just for the heck of it cus was so used to shooting ‘live stock” and not dead targets and the consequences were dead on.
Sad to say I only got 1 out of the 3 challenges. I only found 6 of the MP soldiers as they all came in pairs, where’s the last one?.. 2nd challenge isn’t so hard but not that obvious and easy to pull off, either. And third ofc can’t be done by non-bhoppers which is a shame.
Thanks again to Phillip for the game and for this opportunity. Looking forward to playing the next chapters and soon!
Playtime: 20 minutes.
5 Words or Less Review: Holy sheep shit!
Unlike Half Life’s Hazard Course, Opposing Force’s Boot Camp defiantly seems to fit canon taking place during Shephard’s training.
Playtime: 20 minutes
As Urby mentioned, the opening to this chapter definitely channels Full Metal Jacket from the outset. “You know what comes from Texas, don’t ya?”
It’s a nice homage and a nice setting up of the situation. Otherwise, this chapter is mostly pragmatic, in that it teaches you things you need to know for the game – some of the new weapons, use of ropes, and your squad.
I don’t have too much to say. This chapter was enjoyable and sets the military theme nicely. The Gman appearance was a nice touch.
Playtime: 16 minutes
Opposing Force — Boot Camp.
Hadn’t played this in many years and was surprised by how fresh it felt!
Good voice acting made for a very nice training experience, until the ropes appeared!
It took me three attempts to clear the double rope section, but back in 1999, it took me so long I think I may have resorted to a crafty “noclip”!
The sniper range was a major highlight; so much fun I just had to have a few more goes!
Gameplay was easy, except the rope swinging and a certain ladder, and I spotted the G-man.
No glitches but the ladder-grab was twitchy and I died on my first climb, sorry, fall down from the rope tower.
Found the MP’s of seven, avoided the steam but used the ropes to clear the final pit.
5-word review.
“What’s With Those Fracking Ropes“!
Playtime: somewhere around the 15 minute mark.
Deaths. Once due to ladder mishap!
Another late vid, and a pretty boring one too.
Unlike Hazard Course, this one doesn’t allow any skips, so my playthrough is more than 10 minutes (O_o)
I tried to stay entertaining during long waiting sequences by doing random stuf that I’m not supposed to do, but I failed many of the tricks because it’s been a pretty long time since I played Opposing Force. I’ll probably have trouble with tricks for the entire game, so please don’t complain about me being slower, I’ll never be as fast as in hl1 from now on.
I always thought Boot camp was a well made training course. Unlike the hazard course, which I really think is not realistic because what scientist must be trained in firing an automatic weapon? I understand it’s for the purpose of teaching us how to play the game, but it’s not realistic.
Boot camp IS realistic since we go through a marine training, that is harder and more dangerous than the hazard course.
I really just hate the ropes. This is the only thing I hate in opposing force, because the models are glitched, the engine is not powerful enough to handle a rope’s physics correctly (so it’s glitchy) and they look nothing like a real rope.
It also took me a few tries to understand what’s going on at the beginning, since I’m not a native english and this guy speaks very fast.
Also you will notice that at the beginning of my vid, I move slowly toward the door and don’t even aim correctly. That’s because I used a glitch to be able to move right at the start, but my screen was still dark. I didn’t see a think, and when vision came back, I started moving for real. When playing back the demo, it seems as if I had perfect vision for this whole time, when it was not the case.
Since I played this (and recorded) long ago, I don’t remember all of my thoughts at that time, so that’s all for my review.
Challenges:
-Find all 7 MP soldiers
I really doubt it because if I recall correctly, there are two near a osprey outside.
-Avoid taking steam damage.
No, I took some. but it was faster.
-Get across the final pit in the rope course without using the ropes.
Lol I didn’t even know this was a challenge, I just did that because for whatever reason the rope physics don’t work on my new computer, so I can’t swing from a rope. Don’t worry, I know ways to go through the entire game without swinging from any rope, and that won’t affect speed.
I just found this way around the ropes while looking for a way to get past this pit without swinging, and that would probably be used in a speedrun since it’s faster.
5 words or less review:
Too freakin long boring level
deaths
lol it’s almost impossible to die in this chapter. just if you don’t duck AND are too slow at the live fire exercise or you shoot an instructor.
Playtime:
10 minutes 49 seconds 125 milliseconds