Gleichschritt

When you think of the first Half-Life , everyone probably remembers the story, the wow moments and the graphics. What is quickly forgotten, however, are the addons. Yes, Half-Life had two expansion packs; three if you count the multiplayer expansion Half-Life: Decay for the PS2.

Opposing Force was released at the end of 1999 and tells the story of the events in the Black Mesa research facility from the perspective of the marine Adrian Shephard. He and his team are supposed to put a stop to the alien plague; we already know how this worked out from the main game. Blue Shift came out two years later and, in addition to improved textures, featured a mini-short campaign in which we take on the role of security guard Barney. Although this adds a third dimension to the story of Half-Life , the changes in perspective didn't really sink in (at least for me).

Meanwhile, the fact that I uncharacteristically squeeze both games into one section has little to do with laziness. In fact, this work saving is due to developer Gearbox Software itself, as it not only dispensed with an original soundtrack, but simply used the score from Opposing Force for the second addon - at least for the PC version. The Dreamcast version used a mixture of tracks from the addon and the main game instead.

For the composition of Opposing Force composer Kelly Bailey was replaced by Chris Jensen. In 19 tracks, he shows us how generic shooters can sound and serves us accent-free MIDI music whose average track length barely reaches the 1.5-minute mark. Ambient pieces such as The Beginning / Temple of Limbo, Lost in Thought / Wastes of Limbo or Danger Rises are, as expected, irrelevant, whether due to reduction or repetition - it just doesn't appeal to me.

In its exciting moments (Storm, Alien Forces, Bust / Race from Doom, Chamber / The Ticking Timebomb, Tunnel) the score does sound like a mix of military meets Portal. The music is motivating, march-like and constantly drives us forward with the rhythm of an alarm or a beat. It's a classic retro shooter quality that may seem quite generic, but fits the game well.

After 23 highlight-lacking minutes, however, it's already over again. The score of the add-on (or add-ons) is therefore not a total failure, but Blue Shift and Opposing Force cannot match the music of the main game either.