Development
Half-Life: Opposing Force was first announced by developer Gearbox Software on April 15, 1999. In their press release, founder Randy Pitchford stated that "our number one goal is to preserve the integrity of Half-Life and provide new experiences that expand upon the sensation of the original", and also announced that the expansion pack would allow the player to play as one of the soldiers featured in the original game. The name Opposing Force has a double meaning, referring both to the fact that the player is now one of the enemies in the original game, as well as to Newton's third law of motion. In a later interview, Pitchford stated that he believed that Valve Software offered Gearbox the chance to make a Half-Life expansion was from a wish "to focus on their future titles". In addition, Pitchford commented that Valve and Gearbox had agreed not to "severely modify" the game engine used by Half-Life and Opposing Force as it "risks breaking all of the wonderful work" that the game's custom content community was creating. Substantial information on Opposing Force's development direction, as well as new locations, characters and story were revealed at the 1999 Electronic Entertainment Expo convention. The official website for Opposing Force, hosted by publisher Sierra Studios, was put online in July 1999.
Over the course of the game's development, Gearbox acquired various outside talent to assist in designing some aspects of the game. In June 1999, Gearbox announced that the successful level designer Richard Gray would be assisting in developing the multiplayer aspects of the game. Several other designers subsequently joined the project in September 1999, with collective experience from the development of Daikatana, Quake II, Doom and Shadow Warrior. In the subsequent two months, media releases displaying a variety of screenshots were unveiled. The game was released on November 1, 1999. Gearbox later released a multiplayer update in May 2000, adding a new capture the flag mode to the game, along with various new items to accompany the new mode. Opposing Force was later released on Valve Software's Steam content delivery system. Opposing Force was also published as part of Sierra's Half-Life: Generation compilation in 2002, and as part of Valve Software and Electronic Arts' Half Life 1: Anthology on September 26, 2005.
Read more about this topic: Half-Life: Opposing Force
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