Half Life: Blue Shift - The Last Barney | Trav Guy Review 

Blow your nose, idiot

I like the idea that G-Man, a near godlike entity, just says "ah crap he left black mesa guess I can't hire him"

Blue Shift just fuels how underrated Barney is as a character. to go through (about half) of the Black mesa incident with a helmet and vest, no fancy power vest/armour, survive the 7 hour ware and 20 years of Combine occupation to meet Gordon again and lead the resistance. Chad of a Lad

Man this Kleiner guy seems interesting, I hope he gets more fleshed out more on the sequal

I’m still waiting for Half-Life: Otis

"Looks a bit shit" A really annoying Black Mesa employee

I like how Barney walks around with his sidearm unholstered through the whole prologue and nobody says anything

I like having to see a different perspective in the incident, like finding out how some of the scientists escaped. But there wasn't much to make itself different from the original.

12:10 I've watched so much Civvie 11 that when I hear the word Civvie I think of him

I believe "Out of Range" refers to Calhoun being out of range of the nuclear blast, not being out of Gman's range

i have online school... or this. yeah this is better.

I was playing half life 2 the other day and i got to the part where Barney gives you the Crowbar and i remember that Barney has a crowbar in Blue shift and he ends up escaping with it. Something i never even thought about before.

Oh shit it’s borgon fierman (This line had me laughing)

The guy at 10:17 is actually supposed to have his arms come off, but for some reason when the models are supposed to be swapped/called in, they actually don’t exist, they either forgot to make the models, or put them in, I believe the non hd models do work in this scene however

11:25 - you can turn off the steam. There are two valves. The second one is down the ladder near the steam. There is also shotgun down there if I remeber correctly.

I always thought Blue Shift was a good half-life experience even if it didn't really add much or improve the formula with anything interesting and not having the best puzzles. I do however feel that its story was a bit more consice and clear cut than OP4 because of characters like Rosenberg and the obvious goals of escaping black mesa that's communicated early on. Rosenberg was the first named scientist we saw aswell and probably half-lifes first real character that wasn't a player avatar so there's that. OP4 added alot of stuff that was never iterated upon even if it was cool, like seeing the X-world aliens fighting Xen ones would have been cool but instead they just replaced them for the majority of the game. Even if it gave us a ton of cool new weapons and stuff OP4 story especially was all over the place after you get left behind. There's no real sense of direction like with Blue Shift or Half Life, even if the latter changes it's storygoals as you progress.

You already know I don't like Blue Shift that much, but I do appreciate you sticking up for it. It doesn't get a lot of love in the Half-Life community, and while I vastly prefer OP4 to this, I can still see elements where BS shines. It's just that for me, BS trips over itself too much on weird design choices and puzzles that aren't intuitive (that wire puzzle especially sucks). But it's still Half-Life so it gets my seal of approval because I'm shallow like that

"Too many Headcrab Jambalyas" lmao - 8:30

I work as s Security Guard, just like Barney. Except my job isn’t nearly as… Well… Violent. I just sit in a guard shack between 8 PM to 4 AM and inspect trucks. Only similarity is that some of the workers at the plant I work at treat the guards like shit too.

Made by Gearbo... Oh, HI RANDY!!!

To this day...........we are still waiting for the opposing force review

Dr Kleiner only exists to introduce Lamar in HL2, change my mind

3:55 If you count Blue Shift as "canon", then they are Imo the same person. Because in Blue Shift Barney escapes with Bennett and Simmons in that SUV and Barney may picked up a crowbar, but it definitely wasn't one Gordon "lost" (ignoring the fact that G-Man took all of Gordon's weapons anyway). Either way Barney says in Half Life 2 that Gordon dropped the Crowbar back in Black Mesa.

HLA references Blue Shift, so since Laidlaw retired, The Expansions are more so cannon now and there is a theory Colette may have appeared in HLA via a character we only briefly see and hear.

I think it fits the timeline that blue shift is smaller and less unique than the other games. After all, Barney pretty much leaves the facility at a time where Gordon is just at the half way point. The military is just arriving and the Aliens havn't yet sent their big guns in either. Meanwhile Gordon leaves for Xen, before the "thid wave" of Aliens pops up, leaving only Shephard to deal with them.

Hey guys I just thought you should know that there’s this scientist in the vents...

Fun Fact: If you check the security surveillance camera that shows Gordon walking through the corridor past one of the other scientists enough times, there's actually a hidden Easter egg where you will see one of the two scientists standing and talking nearby each other in the hallway dancing very briefly.

I love Blue Shift. It's the best set off official HL1 maps. The deserted old labs are absolutely beautiful. Too bad it's so short and none of the ending team characters return in the sequel (which always pissed me off).

Please do Opposing Force, this content is so entertaining I must see more.

It is canon that if that one ray didn’t target Shepard’s heli out of probably 30 helicopters opposing force would be a cleaning simulator (you throw bodies down pits while dangerous aliens constantly attack you.)

I really like the way Marc Laidlaw treats canon. It’s something that each fan can come up with a satisfying conclusion on and Laidlaw just wants to write a cool contained story that may or may not have anything to do with other parts of the universe. That’s up to us and I like that.

I know I’m gonna get crucified for saying this, but I honestly like blue shift more than opposing force

A friendly reminder that not only did Barney escape Black MEsa, but he also survived the 7 hour war, survived years of Combine rule and managed to infiltrate the Combine. The man is a legend.

Mark sums it up to “while some other employees may have escaped such as Barney he doesn’t have to escape as shown in the game” so pretty much the people are cannon the way they escape is up to us to decide

Decent video, could've done with a bit more praise for Half Life Blue Shift

*"I GOT DRESSED TODAY"* -That Trav Guy

That little Valve theme gag almost made me choke on my drink, hilarious

Personally, I love the HD Shotgun sound. So goddamn crunchy and satisfying, even moreso than the original one.

Pro half life blue shift when

the thumbnail is so good, ive been staring at it for 34 min straight. for real tho this vid is really good!

This guy’s content is really good I’m surprised that a big creator hasn’t recognized him yet, tbh He needs to review cracklife next

Ross Scott voice: Gordon Freeman Travguy voice: Barney Favorite line: "Happy fuckin' new year."

"his name is also a reference to the Andy Griffith show like Barney" OMG! WHY DID I NEVER REALIZE THIS? OF COURSE FATMAN OTIS IS A REFERENCE TO DRUNK FATMAN OTIS! AND OF COURSE GUN WEILDING SOUTHERN BARNEY IS A REFERENCE TO GUN WEILDING DEPUTY BARNEY!

The way he escaped in a flurry of explosions was beautiful

I like how the OLD teleporter to Xen is a lot smaller than the newer one from HL1. Usually with technology, it's the other way around: new things are smaller :P

Blue Shift had a very wholesome ending.

"The expansion began production under the title of 'Guard Duty' " Did you put the voice of the Opfor engineer on purpose? "Guard duty, eh?" Look at 10:24 , you're not supposed to see that zombie without widescreen. I got so scared as a kid when i had that HD zombie when i turned around that i uninstalled it and came back months later.

I like the lore building of the old facility and the temporary stations set up on Xen, cuz the ones in Black Mesa are too fucking much. Black Mesa and it’s team was constantly fighting for funding but in The updated game all their shit is state of the art and the facilities on Xen are way too elaborate

“You’ve got something in your eye!” “I got dressed today!” “They didn’t even rip you apart. Did you fall down on purpose?!” Killing it!🤣

the idea of barney asking for gordon whenever he can is so funny to me i love it

Who else is still waiting for his review on Half-Life 2 lol?

Or actually... maybe Duke 3D next? I would LOVE to see it!

Technically Blue Shift takes place before Opposing force since it begins at the same time as the "Anomalous materials" chapter or rather, a few minutes before the resonance cascade. Opposing Force begins a few hours before the "Surface Tension" chapter.

I always like BS more than OF , BS really felt more half life than half life 2 did.

Great video! Blue Shift was always my favorite out of the two expansion packs. Really sucks how the soundtrack is the same as op4. But yeah, good game, good video

Personal headcannon: Barney ONLY ever became a guard because he was such an alien conspiracy nut, and the Resonance Cascade was basically a dream come true for him

19:50 This game is so short I thought the teleporter would fail me and I'll continue on Black Mesa.

"and you could they really shaped my opinion of these games" More like they "shifted" your opinion.

as always amazing videos! seeing your summation of this really makes me want to go try the game for my self. I never could get in to half life series. Maybe thats because i started with HL2... hope you can keep the awesome vids comming!

i feel you about the order of playing the expansion packs! i did so the same way

Wheres Opposing Force damn it,,,,,,,

I think the HD models work with opposing force because the military have stronger weapons but not with. Blueshift because guards do not carry giant fucking shotguns

For like the hole thing he told everybody about the dude in the vent

I swear to god, Trav is the perfect mixture of humor and reviewing. He easily rivals Scott the Woz.

I know BS doesn't do anything terribly new or exciting, but I like that it's just a nice condensed Half Life experience.

That Shepard guy sure sounds important hopefully he makes a more detailed appearance in the sequel of opposing force

Blue Shift doesn't know what it wants to be. It tries to be an expansion pack that requires you to play the original to understand, but it also wants to be standalone. It leaves some monsters without introduction, but introduces the Marines as enemies for some reason? It also has a lot less content than Opposing Force - not even a multiplayer mode. I prefer Opposing Force to Blue Shift for that reason. Gotta admit, though: For being a GoldSrc game, Blue Shift really looks good. Especially with the tortured development.

It's so lovely to see Blue Shift get some love sometime, I prefer Blue Shift over OP4, I really like the story telling of BS, that follows a group of scientist, trying to work a teleporter out so they can have a chznce to leave. I especially like Xen here. OP4 story telling goes all over the place unlike Half Life 1 that had some moment where you'd get some exposition on what is going on, OP4 just leads you to places without a real goal. OP4 did had some nice exploration level, even if they felt so out of place to have a level where you didn't have to shoot anything, it was a nice twist.

Considering how I and a lot of other people play the main game, I wouldn't be surprised if this Barney _was_ the last one.

You know I was just thinking about it, like how Opposing Force added the Combat Knife as a reskinned crowbar, wouldn't it make more sense for Barney's crowbar to be a police baton? Be it either a regular one or the stereotypical tonfa styled one? Granted I know this was technically made BEFORE Opposing Force where they got the idea to try & make the campaign fit the setting and character you play as rather than just feel like a collection of levels for the base game, but I think it would be more fitting in a future version of Blue Shift (should it get a rework mod or maybe an official update) that someone at least make a cosmetic mod for it, granted that then brings the question up of "Why didn't any of the other security guards (be it a Barney or Otis) use them?" but it could maybe give another reason to go through and add a new angle to Half Life 1 in any future fan made or official remakes. It honestly would make even more sense considering you start the campaign proper out of the crashed elevator by getting a crowbar next to a dead Barney, the reskin would make it reasonable to assume the one you pick up was his, or maybe yours, like it fell out of the elevator after it crashed. Plus it just all generally makes more logical sense that a basic security force would have at least one melee weapon along with a ranged one. Unless someone already thought of that and has made said mod and I'm just unaware of it. Also as far as the "I owe you a beer" line for Barney's canonicity in Half Life 2, you could technically tie it into the thing he mentions before about racing Gordan through the vents, maybe it was a case of "the loser buys the winner one" to make an easy implication canon reason?

idk I like all the games and DLC ( of course some are better than others but they are all golden games ). but I have to say opposing force was better . it goes Hl, Hl 2 , opposing force , hl2 ep 1/2 , alxy ,blue shift .

As far as the DLC goes imo, Blueshift has better story but Opposing force has better combat gameplay. Neither OF or BS is better than HL:1 overall though.

5:28 Hold on, he says "Blue Shift" ?! 1000% sure that I forgot he say it. WIth knowing that Blue Shift missed a big opportunity to reuse some of Opfor's assets, but I still love it. I felt connected to the characters and one of them. seeing Rosengerg talking to me, working with a group of scientists to escape together, the kind of feeling of being lost in Black Mesa with no clear path, the pre-disaster maps, the story ...

I’m pretty sure it’s canon that Barney and Calhoun are the same person, both characters are called Barney Calhoun, and I don’t think there can be two Barney’s, and the other security guards aren’t called Barney, barney is there NPC name, since originally Barney was just the name of the security guard model before he became an actual character, and the name was based on Barney fife (same thing for Otis), and every other source state that they are the same person, so I pretty sure it’s confirmed that the two are the same.

For the Steam room the steam should be shut off with a valve it will swap places in theory maybe your game didn't work quite right.

I've gotta check this out, I've only heard negatives about this installment... Thanks for the video!

I'd say first but I'm not a moron so I'll say its a good video

Where opposing force video ????????

13:28 excuse me, are you telling me that There is a rocket launcher in Blue Shift and I completely missed it when I played it?

Race X wouldnt have shown up timeline wise anyway at that point so i see no issue with race x not being in it

I'm the kind of weird guy that like Blue Shift more than Opposing Force.

I wouldn't mind guarding some Dunkin Donuts with coffee right about now....

I find it hilarious that you called Doom 3 a half life rip off, because honestly whenever I look at the story of Half-Life I've always seen it as heavily inspired, if not a rip off of Doom.

15:45 Thats a fucking JonTron outtake if ever I heard one.

make a rewiew of the elder scroll's games and fallout one pleaseeee

@5:02 -- that schedule is.... interesting... I've never seen it before?

20:52 this makes me wonder, maybe gman only gets permission for a specific area and time frame which is why he leaves Gordon alone for episode 1, cuz he doesn't have the paperwork to visit him, during episode 2 he managed to get the permit A38 from his employers which now allows him to visit Gordon briefly

I like the xen part in this game because of the chumtoad’s lair

Maybe shooting grenades at the teleporter wasn't a good idea

You can turn off the steam, the valve for the upper steam is on a lower level.

For Half-Life trains are the same as the jails in The Elder Scrolls series

But you have to agree, the HD crowbar looks better than the og.

You, are very underrated.

Barney calhoun is canon because in gmod he have his full name

It was fun to see someone actually enjoy Blue Shift since it usually doesn’t get much love. And I totally agree, seeing old Black Mesa was awesome. I love stuff like that. Great video!

hearing john st john in goldsrc era compression is so jarring

That 'not flamable box' make me laugh

G-Man was there for Ottis. Not Barney. Prove me wrong.

Dr.Kleiner deserves his own DLC. Some body needs to make Dr.Kleiner a DLC.

3:34 I always played Half Life like Doom....