It serves as a short interlude in the game with reminders of events from the original Half-Life.
Having arrived at the Lambda complex, Adrian Shephard sees Gordon Freeman teleported to Xen.
Shephard is also forced to travel through Xen to find a way out of the Lambda complex.
- This chapter takes place at the same time as the Half-Life chapters Lambda Core and Xen.
- A Chumtoad is hidden in a vent towards the beginning.
- If you run quick enough, you can follow Freeman through the portal, but you will end up falling to your death in Xen and get the message that you were eliminated to prevent creating a paradox. Also, when entering to Xen, this title will appear “C4A1TITLE”.
- Visit the Hazard Course.
- Sacrifice yourself to save the scientist from falling to his death.
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 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.
Has to be the shortest chapter in the history of the Half-Life series!
I was having some much fun shooting the controllers and then it went down hill as I jumped into Xen.
Gotta love watching Gordon jump into the portal.
I can’t even remember what he looks like, it’s been so long since I’ve seen him.
The whole of Xen is one huge bug!
See above!
– Visit the Hazard Course.
– Sacrifice yourself to save the scientist from falling to his death.
I’m going back now to look for the hazard course.
Not Xen again!
8 minutes
4 or 5
I kept jumping to the wrong place and once the scientist landed on me and we both died.
Shephard briefly visits Xen. I’d imagine this to be a pretty difficult jumping puzzle chapter for first-timers. Other than that, there’s the tie-in with Half-Life and Gordon too. Nothing much to say.
Playtime: 2:42
Short but sweet! This chapter is the equivalent of a cutscene as we witness Freeman’s journey into Xen. I followed him and caused a temporal paradox, presumably because as players we didn’t see Shepard during HL1.
I have heard that if you noclip during this chapter, Freeman is seen to be wearing shades! I guess it can get a little sunny in those border dimensions…
A very short chapter, but just about on par with the Xen chapter proper from Half-Life which was only a single map. While I didn’t mind any of the Xen sections in Half-Life, this one annoys me – and that’s because it’s another set of jumping puzzles, but this time you’re going up and the path up isn’t clear. So when you’re launched up from a bounce pad, if you haven’t chosen your path correctly, you’re either going to end up short or take a ton of damage by falling further than you expected. This section’s design was really poor and honestly I’m floored that it stayed the way it is throughout playtesting.
Overall this chapter is again pretty much filler – its main point is again to try and strengthen the tie between Half-Life and Opposing Force by giving you a direct intersection, when Freeman enters the portal to Xen.
I found the only worthwhile parts of this chapter to be when you get the displacer via a funny scripted sequence, and if you use the teleportation option of the displacer immediately. You again get to visit a locale from Half-Life which serves as a bit of an easter egg.
Playtime: 4 minutes
Short Xen chapter. Suddenly through the ventilation we get to the teleportation room where Freeman was sent to Xen and see him entering the teleporter. We can follow him, but if we do so, we’ll be teleported into empty space and fall to our death. Before falling, we can kill Freeman with rocket launcher, but that won’t change anything.
It is certainly good to find out what happened with the teleportation chamber after Freeman’s leave. We see destruction and fight Alien Controllers.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=95774097
The bridge falls and the portal opens. We enter it and see very picturesque Xen place.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=95774281
Halfway through it we encounter a scientist with displacement device. Unfortunately, he was teleported too high and didn’t survive the fall. Right mouse button teleports us. This time we will appear in the training course, and it’s nice to get to observation room where the trainees are not allowed to be. I’d like to see what’s behind this room’s doors, but they are locked and there’s a portal which leads back to Xen.
The jumps are very hard, but eventually we reach the portal. Beams and stones fly around it, they are nice additional details. This portal takes us back to Black Mesa, to Crush Depth chapter.
Playtime: 9 minutes
General
Very short chapter where you visit Xen.
For those who like Xen it can be not enough, but the new weapon you find there give you the ability to switch between the worlds! At this first occasion to use it, what a pleasure to visit Black Mesa Hazard Course!
This chapter is one of those which ask you to move very well, sure you have a good keybinding ?
Poll
Yes! I rarely dislike Xen phases while playing mods
Challenges
Visit the Hazard Course. OK, that easy.
Sacrifice yourself to save the scientist from falling to his death. No, I don’t want!
Deaths
None
Caught my eyes
What’s those sparks? Looks like energy spheres of HL2.
Chumtoad?! I never noticed that!
Playtime
4 minutes, including following Freeman.
French Let’s Play
I so missed this fact. I obviously managed to get the weapon, but…I have played Op4 so many times, how on earth did I miss this?? (And how do I make it work on myself as Shephard?)
Displacer alt fire (uses 60 ammo) will teleport you, usually to Xen. If you’re in Xen, it’ll teleport you to Black Mesa. Beware, using it in some places will just get you killed so it’s a good idea to quicksave before doing it.
I’ve tried it a few times now since posting that, but I was only 30+ mins from the last boss fight so am going to have to go and play with this some more. Thanks though, I still can’t believe I’ve played all these years without knowing this!
DOH!!!
…slaps head……(repeatedly.)
While the scene with the Xen portal cross-over is pretty cool, it is very strange to see Gordon acting without your control. I also think that the brief Xen excursion was pretty pointless and jarring.
Playtime: 4 minutes
Xen.
The Chumtoad Lives!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=105329989
Not really a bug, but the Door texture to the teleporter room is really stretched.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=105329954
Really feels otherworldly yet soothing at the same time.
It was ok I guess.
Visit the Hazard Course.
I love how confused the Slaves are by the hologram.
Sacrifice yourself to save the scientist from falling to his death.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=105330025
Oh dear.
1 minute (Holy Shit!)
5 Minutes or Less
I am very sorry for posting late, and I do NOT have problems with my youtube again. It’s just that I have a lot of work to do for school these days and also my friends always want me to play wc3 with them (if you want to play with us just add me on steam, BBmap). I have already played all the chapters whose topics have been released, I just don’t have time to edit and upload the vids. I’ll try to catch up when I get some time
It seems that our first contact with xen HAS to be in a short level. I managed to do this one faster than hl1’s XEN, in less than 40 seconds 😀
This chapter is pretty cool, since it’s the first encounter with gordon freeman, and the first crossover that makes clear WHEN we are in the original game’s timeline. The radio broadcast Freeman heard COULD have been a rediffusion of the one we witnessed, but this can’t be any different than at the same time gordon teleported. Then we see some pretty deceiving xen level in my opinion, just floating islands, trampolines and our new gun. visiting the hazard course is pretty cool on the other hand.
Challenges:
– Visit the Hazard Course.
I know how to, but it’s pointless since it just consumes ammo and may hurt you and you get nothing good from it except the cool sighting. It is actually not canon with decay since when we reach that place in decay some of the “tunnels” have fallen over, and I seriously doubt someone took the time to repair them since then (in Decay we see that place right after the resonance cascade)
– Sacrifice yourself to save the scientist from falling to his death.
Even if I did, it wouldn’t have saved him, and even if it did, he would just stand there and do nothing. I’m way more useful than him 😀
Five words or less review:
Jump, Jump, Jump, done.
Deaths:
Except by following gordon or falling in outer-space, It’s pretty impossible to die. I didn’t
Playtime:
39 seconds 375 milliseconds
What hazard course?!
I guess I totally failed at getting any of the challenges in this chapter..
Playtime: 7 minutes