Introduction

Developer: Gearbox
Publisher: Sierra
Opposing Force official page: http://www.sierrastudios.com/games/opposingforce/
Expected Release: Fall 1999

Turning the Tables

Everyone knows the story of Half-Life. You played Gordon Freeman, a scientist at the Black Mesa Research facility - you were trapped after that cataclysmic accident, and squads of commandos were sent in to exterminate you. Now imagine playing the commandos sent in to silence the staff! That's the premise of Opposing Force, the official Half-Life expansion pack coming from Gearbox. You'll wield tons of new weapons and see parts of the Black Mesa facility you never saw in the original Half-Life, but the story remains consistent with the original; only now you'll be able to see it through different eyes. Check out the interview we conducted with Gearbox's Landon Montgomery. Questions from Firingsquad are in bold, while Landon's answers are in normal text.

The M-249 SAW I presume

Questions!

Thresh's Firingsquad: What can you tell us about the AI in Opp For? Will you ever be able to communicate with some of your fellow soldiers and coordinate attacks, etc?

Landon Montgomery: The AI in OpFor is essentially the AI you found in HL, but tweaked to fit the particular characters you now encounter. For example, the squad based AI you came across in the form of enemy soldiers in HL has been carried over to not only your own squad mates as they work with you, but to the Shock Troopers as they work together to put a halt to your progress. It's very cool to see your squad of soldiers working together as unit against an equally intelligent pack of Shock Troopers or Voltigores.

We have this little test map to demonstrate the squad interaction and on one side of this crate filled room you find a pack of Shock Troopers. In the opposite corner of the same side, you find a pack of Voltigores. You occupy the other side with a small squad of soldiers and a medic. You can just imagine the war the ensues.

You'll be able to command your fellow soldiers in much the same manner you did with the original friendly NPCs in HL. You can gather a squad of several soldiers together and have them follow you into combat. Once in the heat of things, they react independently in their firefights with the medic healing those in need as he's able to.

Take down that chopper

FS: What sorts of new weapons can we expect to see in the game?

LM: We have 9 new weapons, which is just unheard of in most traditional add-on packs. They range from the melee attack of the new pipe wrench, complete with a secondary overhanded wind-up swing that dramatically increases the damage dealt, to the Desert Eagle with its laser sighted, incredibly accurate secondary firing mode. The M-249 SAW is the perfect weapon for serious mowdown when the need arises and we have a nice selection of exotic weapons that we're keeping secret for right now but it's safe to say that people will be thrilled with their new arsenal of weaponry.

FS: Are you going to stick with the net code already in Half-Life or will that be tweaked somewhat to improve online play?

LM:The networking code in OpFor will be the most current networking code available to us from Valve at the time of our release.