Valve is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2 with a celebration that includes a brand new two-hour documentary, a developer commentary update and more.
The studio updated fans about the festivities on its website today and unveiled a gift basket full of goodies for fans new and old. While it’s not quite the Half-Life 3 announcement fans have been waiting twenty years for, it’s still more than enough to ease the wait.
Topping the list of announcements is a two-hour making-of video from the Secret Tape team behind the Half-Life 1 documentary. Valve says die-hard fans can Start watching the Half-Life 2 documentary today for a behind-the-scenes look at how the studio dealt with a lack of funding, hacking, building the Steam PC store, and more. It’s an in-depth look behind the scenes at a pivotal moment in gaming history, but the celebrations don’t stop there.
Half-Life 2 owners can now also enjoy a new update that adds everything from extra content to smoothed out wrinkles. This includes access to the original expansions Episode One and Episode Two, which are bundled into the base experience at no additional cost. Valve adds that it has reassembled the original Half-Life 2 team to provide commentary tracks for the entire game.
Steam Workshop support and Steam game recordings are just two additional bonuses added to celebrate Half-Life 2’s 20th anniversary, with even more bonuses coming in the form of general tweaks and fixes. Some of the changes in the update include rebalanced lighting, a cleaner horizon, new graphics settings for things like blood and fire effects, and an overhaul of aim assist.
“Every map in Half-Life 2 has been reviewed by Valve level designers to fix long-standing bugs, restore content and features lost to time, and improve the quality of a number of things such as light map resolution and fog, to improve,” the studio explains.
If you’re interested in Half-Life 2 and want to check out the 20th anniversary update, you’re in luck; Valve has made the game available for free until November 18. That means you get the full sequel experience, including the two expansions, for free – as long as you click that download button in the coming days.
Half-Life 2 has long been hailed as one of Valve’s best projects and one of the most important video games ever made. In our original reviewwe called it a “great” and gave it a 9.7/10. Fans have been studying every detail of the first-person sequel since its release on November 16, 2004, and once the 20th Anniversary Update is live, there will be even more to discover. While it’s true that Half-Life 3 is still not confirmed to be in the works, the goodies revealed today should help with the wait for a sequel to actually be revealed. There’s also the VR exclusive Half-Life: Alyx, which we featured a 10/10.
To learn more about the world of Half-Life, read more Nvidia’s upcoming Half-Life 2 RTX remaster. The company has been released yesterday a trailer for the project to help celebrate the 20th anniversary and reveal how the team is creating something that stays true to the original vision while giving it a fresh coat of paint.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor at IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets like The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
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