Key Takeaways
- Half-Life fans are remaking Opposing Force, the 1999 Gearbox spin-off.
- It’s similar in scope and style to Black Mesa, but is a wholly original project not connected to Crowbar Collective.
Black Mesa finally finished development in 2020 after over a decade, but the community isn’t done with the classic games just yet. Only yesterday, a small team of hobbyist developers announced an Opposing Force remake.
Dubbed FUBAR, the project is a reimagining of the 1999 Gearbox spin-off, led by Amicus who you may also know as the co-lead of Raising the Bar: Redux. The project has only been in development for three months, but they have already made huge progress on the infirmary, elevator, and canyon maps.
Opposing Force follows HECU grunt Adrian Shepard as they crash land into Black Mesa during the Resonance Cascade.
In designing the initial areas of the game, I knew we’d need to set our levels apart from those in the original, iterating on them while retaining the core of what made them memorable,” project co-lead Jane Thrace explained.
She adds that there’s more character interaction and exploration within these early levels, as the team has expanded on some of the key set pieces and puzzles (such as the laser/mirror section). To this end, the infirmary has even been split into two distinct maps.
FUBAR Is Not Connected To Black Mesa
While this remake is similar in scope and style to Black Mesa, reimagining and expanding on the facility in the Source engine to make it feel more realistic and lived in, it isn’t connected to Crowbar Collective’s work. In fact, the team is even designing their own models and props.
That’s a lot of work, to put it lightly. Opposing Force is the largest of the Gearbox expansions, taking on average around six hours to beat (half of Half-Life’s runtime). It also adds new weapons, such as the wrench (which you can see in the inaugral update video), combat knife, Barnacle Grapple, Desert Eagle, Displacer Cannon, sniper rifle, Shock Roach, and Spore Launcher. That’s not to mention the night vision goggles.
The strides made so far are incredibly impressive, and as always with Half-Life fans, the passion is infectious. But right now, FUBAR only has a small team, and projects like this are built on the back of volunteers, so if you want to lend a hand, make sure to check out their Discord.
