Duplicate - PC Games

With an equal balance of action and story line, you play Dr Gordon Freeman, a professor starting a new job at a black ops research facility. However, soon after you arrive, things go horribly wrong with some of the experiments. Left to your own devices in a locked down facility, you basically have to get out alive.

The game is based across one seamless level--the facility. Half Life broke the rules of the level-to-level games before it. Here you get immersed into the Half Life world. Yet it isn't just the maps that are different from what you have come to expect from this genre. The weapons aren't just strewn around as they are in Quake 3. Half Life prefers to hide them on people, lockers and testing rooms making the overall environment more realistic. But where Half Life excels is the multiplayer options.

This game has managed to create a special place in many a gamer's heart. Whether you are new to the genre or just looking for a new challenge, this game is well worth a look at. What's so great is that it's accessible to everyone. If you're new to the genre, stick with the single player missions. But if you're looking for that new challenge, get this and then download Counterstrike straight away. --Stuart Miles

Opposing Force Opposing Force returns the player to the Black Mesa facility, but tells the tale from the perspective of Colonel Adrian Shephard, one of the soldiers sent to clean up the scientists and their reality altering mess. Just as in Half Life, things quickly go badly for Colonel Shephard and his men. Ambushed by aliens, Adrian must fight his way through the ruins of the facility in an attempt to reach a helicopter extraction point.

What makes Opposing Force shine is the way it expands on the story of Half Life. Colonel Shephard passes though areas that players of Half Life are sure to recognise, and he occasionally runs into characters from the original game, including the infuriating Man in Suit. Opposing Force also introduces several new weapons, such as a sniper rifle (with scope), heavy machine gun and a .357 Magnum with a laser sight. There's even a "weapon" that is actually a common alien creature from the first game; its unique features allow it to be used as a kind of grappling hook.

Several new aliens make an appearance as well, almost all of them deadly. They exhibit the same sophisticated AI (artificial intelligence) as the monsters in Half Life, relentlessly and intelligently attacking Adrian as he makes his way through the game's impressive levels. Fortunately, Colonel Shephard's rank allows him to take command of any soldiers he encounters. Riflemen and machine gunners can be ordered to follow Adrian and provide covering fire, or assigned to guard a door or room. Engineers can cut through locked or blocked doorways, while Medics can heal the injured. Unlike Half Life's solitary "me against the world" gameplay, the addition of competent friendly forces provides a feeling of camaraderie: there's nothing like leading a squad of loyal Marines against an alien horde. --Mike Fehlauer