Half-Life: Blue Shift (PC)

Half-Life: Blue Shift is the second of a number of expansions to Half-Life where you take control of ordinary, unsuspecting, beer-offering security guard and later recurring character Barney Calhoun.

It was originally designed for the Dreamcast version of Half-Life, but due to its cancellation, was later released as a standalone expansion.

Sub-Pages#

Prototype Info Prerelease Info

Leftovers From Other Games#

Half-Life Leftovers#

All of the art, code, and sounds from the original game is in Blue Shift, most of it unused. This also includes content that was unused in the original game, such as the cut enemies.

Counter-Strike 1.6 Leftovers#

In the GameUI.dll file, there are remnants of Counter-Strike's UI code, such as the bomb countdown, money, etc. There's a lot more text relating to Counter-Strike in the GameUI.dll file.

Unused Weapons#

Gluon Gun, Tau Cannon, Crossbow, Laser Trip Mine#

All of the models for the Crossbow, Tau Cannon, Gluon Gun, and Laser Trip Mine exist in the game's files. Interestingly, all of their first person models except for the Tau Cannon have Barney's hands on them instead of Gordon's.

Multiplayer .357 Revolver#

The multiplayer version of the .357 Magnum Revolver is in the game, but cannot be used because Blue Shift can only be played in single player.

Suppressed Pistol#

The cut suppressor for the Pistol from the original game makes one last hurrah in Blue Shift. It has the same issues that it did in Half-Life: Opposing Force, as it uses the same animations and model from the expansion.

Unused Animations#

To do: Replace with gifs!

Dead Security Guard#

The off-duty Security Guard model seen throughout the game has several unused animations. Some of these are used in the cut intro for the cancelled Dreamcast port of the original game.

HEV Gordon Freeman#

Gordon's got some MIA animations.

Scientist Gordon Freeman#

Scientist Gordon has some unused animations, with most of them running for his life like an idiot.

Unused Graphics#

Early Name#

640logos.spr contains an early name for the game: Half-Life: Guard Duty.

Captivation Digital Laboratories Logo#

640logos.spr also contains a logo for Captivation Digital Laboratories, one of the developers for the Dreamcast port of the original game. Since Blue Shift was originally intended to be included with the Dreamcast port, it's not a surprise their logo appears.

HUD Guy Icons#

Sprites showing the guy in the HUD swimming, climbing, and crouching can be found. These are leftovers from the Dreamcast version of the game, where the HUD guy would change how he appears to show that the player is doing a certain action, such as climbing.

TESTIFY!#

A graphic showing level designer Rob Heironimus that appears in this game and a few other early Gearbox games with "TESTIFY" underneath him can be found in BARNEY.WAD.

Happy Face#

The hidden happy face found in the original game's HUD textures is back!

Unused Sounds#

Like the base game, the file "sound/sentences.txt" contains a list of sentences allowing the game to easily call a sound, or string of sounds, which are used for "speaking" entities. This includes both unused sentences and unused sound files without an associated sentence.

HEV#

While the HEV Suit itself isn't obtained, its functionality is still needed for the HUD and other aspects of the game to work. All of its associated sentences, including unused lines, are still present, although they have been all dummied out with a blank sound file ("common/null") to completely silence it.

Security Guard#

Duty Calls#

Power Struggle#

Scientist#

Most of these sounds are alternate takes on existing lines said by other actors' characters (the Security Guard and Dr. Rosenberg) in the final game, but said by the Scientist's actor instead.

Duty Calls#

Captive Freight#

Power Struggle#

Hologram Barney#

Unused Lines#

Obsoleted Senteces#

An oddity also present in the original, a variety of voice lines for the Hazard Course remain in the sentence directory, but their contents were moved instead to be played directly through the map, leaving them unused.

Revisional Differences#

To do: Upload a screenshot of the WON version's console menu.

Menu#

Just like Half-Life and Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift underwent the exact same changes to the menu layout, which removed the descriptions for each option and the "Blue Shift" subtitle underneath the Half-Life logo.

Pre-Steam versions (1.0.0.0 to 1.0.0.1)	Current Steam release

Console#

Like in the Steam versions of Half-Life and Half-Life: Opposing Force, the console was changed from dropping down when activated in the WON versions, to having its own window.

Pre-Steam versions (1.0.0.0 to 1.0.0.1)	Current Steam release

HUD#

Initially, the HUD in the Steam version was incorrectly colored the same as in Half-Life, unlike the WON version; this was corrected in an beta update issued on April 4, 2013.³

Initial Steam release (August 24, 2005 to April 1, 2013)	Pre-Steam versions; Steam beta from April 4, 2013 to current Steam release

Icon#

The WON versions of Half-Life: Blue Shift have an icon reminiscent of Half-Life and Half-Life: Opposing Force's respective icons, but in blue; the Steam version replaced this with a black lambda over a blue background.

Pre-Steam versions (1.0.0.0 to 1.0.0.1)	Current Steam release

Build Date#

The build date for the original retail version (1.0.0.0) can be found in the disc's file "version.txt".

Sierra On-Line
1.0.0.0
71199
04-20-01

References#