Opposing Force: Missing in Action

9th October 2012

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The Replay Experience Experiment: Half-Life: Opposing Force: Missing in Action

Details Adrian Shephard’s continued journey through Black Mesa in search of both his comrades and an alternative escape route after being abandoned at the extraction point.

After travelling through a zombie-infested blast furnace, Shephard meets several other Marines from his company who have also been left behind.

He joins forces with them as they try to escape from the facility.

Trivia
The Poll


Challenges
  • Find the grunt who died in the air vents (with AR grenades).
  • Find the RPG launcher in this chapter.
Saves

HARD [64KB]

Screenshots

Click on the thumbnails below to open a 1024 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.

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The Replay Experience Experiment

This post is part of the The Replay Experience Experiment 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.

Hat Tip

The trivia text taken from the CombineOverWiki, a fan-supported, editable wiki covering the Half-Life series of games.

Walkthrough
A Complete Half-Life: Opposing Force Walkthrough

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)

Do Not Own This Game?

You can purchase Half-Life: Opposing Force directly through Steam and could be playing in within moments, depending on your internet connection.

Categories (?)
Games Opposing Force

12 Comments

  1. PlanetPhillip
    Summary

    A great combination of exploring, puzzles and action for me. If somebody had released this as a mini-mod I would have thoroughly enjoyed it. As part of something larger it works just as well.

    Each chapter so far has been a cleanly defined microcosm of a mod. Balanced objectives, story snippets, new content and the subtle feeling of greater things to come.

    Points of Interest

    I really liked the underground section, seen in images 24, 25 and 26. It felt exactly the kind of place they would have in a facility like BM. The new enemies seen in this chapter were very well planned. Just faster enough to catch you if you don’t move immediately but not too dangerous.

    G-man Sightings

    Can’t say I saw him in this chapter. Did you?

    Bugs or Errors

    One of the grunts wouldn’t go into the elevator and I had to push him. Talking of the elevators, don’t you think it was strange that to access the huge elevator we had to go through a regular door? I suppose other floors could have had larger access but it just felt a bit strange.

    The Poll

    I believe I am an accomplished rope climber, although in real life I probably couldn’t get more than a few metres off the ground.

    Challenges

    – Find the grunt who died in the air vents (with AR grenades).
    – Find the RPG launcher in this chapter.

    5 Words or Less Review

    Everything in one beautiful package!

    PlayTime

    28 minutes

    Deaths

    0
    Yay!

    Reply
  2. 2muchvideogames

    A gloomy chapter in which Shephard is forced to traverse hazardous underground sections of Black Mesa. Enemies include steampipes, giant fans and lines of fireballs. The creepy atmosphere of this underground section is perfect for introducing the Gonome, which are “advanced” headcrab zombies with an imposing presence.

    The second part, a garage overrun by pit drones, also sets a frightening atmosphere as you see this lone grunt come crawling out as he utters that ‘they” will kill everyone. Despite the unfortunate turn of events, this chapter ends with a bit of hope when Shephard enters an elevator with two squadmates as they attempt to find a way out.

    Playtime: 10:38

    Reply
  3. EmoLevelDesigner

    This chapter is an interesting obstacle course through various environments: pipeworks, furnaces, ventilations, offices. Often a path is blocked, and we have to find a way around.

    At first we encounter Xen growth, headcrabs and zombies, it’s fun to gib them with heavy wrench. The “next stage of zombie mutation” is also present. The journey around the fans is thrilling, especially when we have to go between them.

    A trademark puzzle is solved by us here – to open the way, we have to look at the warning sign.

    Then we appear in the nice underground passage with pipes and then in the big cavern. The environments are pleasing to look at.

    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93048012
    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93048086

    We see small monsters above the ceiling. Very soon we’ll fight them.

    The elevator scene reminds of the Office Complex, but it has two steps here: we need to remove voltage from the wire before climbing it.

    The offices are heavily barricaded due to invasion, so we have to crawl through vents or go under the floor. At one point there will be very hard grenade throw.

    Finally, two soldiers blow the door and we meet them. The engineer destroyed the broken door and entered the elevator, but I had to push another soldier very hard to get him into the lift. Glitch.

    Overall, it’s interesting and various obstacle course.

    Playtime: 26 minutes

    Reply
  4. TWIN SUNS

    During my playthough, I somehow managed to completely miss the on-screen chapter title pop-up so I thought this whole chapter was part of “We Are Pulling Out”!

    To me, the area where you have to obstruct the test flame seems a bit too similar to HL1’s obstructing the laser. In this same area I experienced the Gonome’s charge attack for the first time ever which startled me a bit.

    Also you fight a Race X alien for the first time, Pit Drones.

    At the end of the chapter I couldn’t for the life of me get the solider to follow me into the elevator so I left him to his probable fate.

    Playtime: 16 minutes

    Reply
  5. Olrick

    General

    In this chapter Shephard is alone for a while. He must get across air vent and very dangerous areas. Of course he has been trained for extremes conditions but that was a wonderful dream compare to that.
    During escape to big and useless incinerators Shephard notice that Xen materials are invading the complex, even in concrete, and meet the ultimate evolution of Zombies.
    After fighting several Race X representer he finally reach a “Office Complex” area where he found two Marines in same situations than himself.

    Poll

    Answered accomplished. How can you be an expert with those ropes ?

    Challenges

    Find the grunt who died in the air vents (with AR grenades). Fail
    Find the RPG launcher in this chapter. OK, miss it if you hate crates

    Deaths

    One for fun !

    Caught my eyes

    About my death; Immortal Engineer at the end !

    Playtime

    22 minutes

    French Let’s Play

    Reply
  6. Unq

    Unlike the previous chapter which I saw as mostly filler – and mainly to connect Op4 with Half-Life – Missing in Action is where Gearbox really started to stretch their legs and broaden Opposing Force. Not only do we first get to fight Race X, but the numerous puzzles included in this chapter are a little more in depth than what we faced in Half-Life.

    Again in line with Half-Life, we get to see the pit drones running above us before actually facing them. We don’t get to see the gonome before facing off with one, but the scientist at the beginning of Op4 did hint at “the next stage of mutation.”

    What I really liked about this chapter were the puzzles. Yes, the explosive crate puzzle is similar to blocking the laser shield in Questionable Ethics, but it’s a little different spin on things. The other crate puzzle, where you have to use the same little crate to make 3 or 4 jumps, is a clever sequence that wasn’t seen in Half-Life.

    And of course we’ve shut off power switches before in Half-Life, but here it’s to un-electrify a cable so that we can climb the elevator shaft. Again, a nice spin on puzzles we’ve seen before that makes things a little different.

    In all, a nice meaty chapter that really starts to give Opposing Force a feel of its own rather than just being more Half-Life.

    Playtime: 21 minutes

    Reply
  7. MisterAddy

    I enjoyed being back in the depths of Black Mesa for this chapter, especially the first half in which we are alone in a more dilapidated industrial area.

    I thought the design of the puzzles in this chapter was great, especially the one where you have to keep moving the box along with you to get past various barricades. This is the first chapter so far that I have really enjoyed playing.

    There isn’t much in the way of story in this chapter, but we do get introduced to two new enemies. Firstly, there is the advanced zombie – the gonome. Maybe it’s just me but it seems really similar to the Bullsquid in terms of its attacks and the tactics you need to use against it. The other enemy is some kind of charging alien, but we didn’t see much of it this chapter. I don’t think any of Gearbox’s enemies are as fun or unique as those from Half-Life.

    Finally, we meet up with some friendly marines to assist us. I like the idea of having a squad, but in practise they are quite a pain due to their jerky movements. Also, what’s the deal with some of their random dialogue? “I have a bad feeling about our mission…” Stating the obvious a little?

    Reply
  8. Kaito Kid

    There is something wrong with your comment feature Phillip, I don’t know about others but that’s at least the fifth time that I try to post this review, and every time it says it worked but it doesn’t appear for me. I’m afraid it might actually show up for others and I’m spamming because it’s warning me about duplicate comments when I comment exactly the same thing, so I’m changing a word or two every time.

    Missing in action is actually a pretty cool chapter, we get to start it right after being prevented from leaving black mesa, and we need to fight our way (again) through vents and sewers. We eventually stumble upon some deep underground rooms with weird overpowered fire that can kill anyone almost instantly, and I actually almost got killed by it. I freaked out a lot later when a gonome blocked my way near the explosives and I had only 8 hp, but I survived somehow. I then lost 6 hp because of the drop and then freaked out again for the headcrab in the vent entrance, but I dodged him anyway. Then we get told to leave the place by an (almost) dead marine. We encounter and fight our first race X aliens, the pit drones. They’re virtually the opposite of alien slaves, because their ranged attack does close to no damage but they are super powerful in melee combat. Anyway a nice deagle shot in the face and they die. Then I had planned a grenade jump to avoid all the trouble of turning off the power and climbing the cable, but I reached the shaft without even being close to the hp I needed, so I went the long way around. Then we get in some offices, and meet the very first “companion cube” ever seen in a game. I actually managed one step out of three without the cube, but the last vent is also possible to enter without the cube, but it requires precise jumping from the barricade and it’s very hard. Again, I came very close to dying by the crates and got lucky to survive, I guess this game doesn’t want me to die 😀
    Then some allies help us reaching an elevator, but I always wondered “why the fuck would you guys wait for me to talk through the radio to get out of this room? I guess the maintenance door wasn’t the only thing they were blowing….

    Challenges:
    – Find the grunt who died in the air vents (with AR grenades).
    Nope, didn’t have time
    – Find the RPG launcher in this chapter.
    I know where it is, but again it isn’t needed and I don’t have time to lose

    Five words or less review:
    What doesn’t kill makes stronger (i guess)

    Deaths:
    Nope, but it was really just luck this time

    Playtime:
    4 minutes 49 seconds 333 milliseconds

    Reply
    1. Unq

      Nothing wrong with the comment system – any comment with a link/URL in it is automatically held for moderation.

      Reply
      1. Kaito Kid

        I know this, pretty much every comment I made here during the last 4 months contained a link, and usually it just shows “this comment is awaiting moderation” over it until phillip (or maybe there are moderators that can do it) moderates it. Now it just didn’t show up at all, and I had to start by posting a very short comment (test) and then edit it into my real comment for it to work. maybe I’m doing something wrong, but it’s not as it was before.

        Reply
  9. Dr. Amazing
    MISSING IN ACTION

    A decent chapter that kind of feels like filler

    Points of Interest

    The trash can that bobs in and out of the water gives a nice faux physics effect.
    The crushed car is a pretty cool detail that could easily be overlooked.
    The introduction to the Gonome is pretty dumb (he’s just standing there).
    The introduction to the Pit Drone however is great when it builds up tension with their footsteps in the vents.
    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=101807743
    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=101807799

    Bugs and Glitches

    One of the vents had a misaligned texture.
    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=101807701

    Music

    http://youtu.be/oC6e8lxsUAY
    Has a genuine feel of dread to it and sends chills through my body.

    Poll

    This is kind of a dumb poll. Phillip probably was having a hard time thinking of a poll so he came up with this.

    Challenges

    Find the grunt who died in the air vents (with AR grenades).
    Didn’t find him.
    Find the RPG launcher in this chapter.
    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=105307962

    Misc.

    The scientist getting electrocuted always gets a laugh out of me.
    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=101807901
    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=105308136

    Playtime

    13 minutes

    5 Words or Less

    The hell is that noise?

    Reply
  10. Ade

    The moment I jumped down but looked back and saw that hidden vent place I knew that’s where the grunt with 2 smg nades was. I also got the rpg, all right, n hurt myself with it since the autoswitch is on by default..

    This might have had a bit of an eyecandy but felt a bit of a filler for me, nothing big really happened and the only new thing is the rope mechanic but before getting to that it got me scratchin my head a bit (both times!) as I didn’t consider de-electrified cables as ropes, but it does add a new dimension to the game, placing them where ladders can’t be placed and getting out of places you couldn’t normally escape of otherwise.

    Playtime: 38 minutes >_<

    Reply

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