

As in Opposing Force, Blue Shift shows the events of Half-Life from the perspective of a different protagonist. The player guides Freeman in an attempt to escape the facility and close the portal, ultimately traveling to Xen to do so. In Half-Life, the player takes on the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist involved in an accident that opens an inter-dimensional portal to the borderworld of Xen, allowing the alien creatures of Xen to attack the facility.

Blue Shift is set in the same location and time frame as that of Half-Life, taking place at a remote New Mexico laboratory called the Black Mesa Research Facility.
