Half-Life 2 turned 20: Valve gave away on Steam, released a huge update and a documentary about the development of the game

Valve has decided to celebrate the anniversary of Half-Life 2 on a grand scale. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the cult shooter, a distribution of its full version has started on Steam – the promotion will end on November 18. But the pleasant surprises don’t end there.

Image source: Valve

The full version of Half-Life 2 now includes two expansion packs (Episode One and Episode Two), as well as the Lost Coast level. Access to all additional content is organized directly from the main menu. After completing the first expansion, the game will immediately send the player to the second.

The updated version of Half-Life 2 has added a mode with comments from the developers – the original team of shooter authors was assembled specifically to record 3.5 hours of replicas.

In the overlay of the new game recording mode, unique gameplay markers and phases have appeared, and full support for the Steam Workshop has also been implemented.

In a fresh note on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2, it is reported that Valve’s level designers studied every map of the shooter, correcting long-standing errors with lighting and the absence of some objects. The list of main changes is as follows:

• Fixed holes in map geometry and sudden appearances and disappearances of objects.
• Half-Life 2’s lighting has been adjusted to work better with HDR while maintaining the original atmosphere.
• Thanks to the update to the radial fog, the horizon line is much smoother and cleaner.
• Higher resolution light maps have been added to all corners of the game.
• Removed the green glow and returned the reflected shine to G-man’s eyes at the beginning of the game – just like in the original version.
• Fixed missing grass sprites and some models.
• The original Half-Life 2 added the ability to choose between original or custom blood and fire effects.
• A new level of model quality has been added to the graphics settings.
• Added bicubically smoothed shadows when selecting very high shader detail.

On the occasion of the anniversary of the cult project, a two-hour documentary about its creation was released – it even demonstrates gameplay developments for Episode Three.

Old videos about the early stages of creation appeared on the studio’s official YouTube channel, about which the game’s authors responded as follows: “We dug up old demos from the hard drives of ancient computers scattered around the office, and are presenting them to you in the form of high-quality videos.”

Finally, Valve is going to release an expanded edition of the book Half-Life Raising the Bar, dedicated to the development of the shooter, in 2025. The updated version of the collection (the original was released in 2004) will complete the story about the history of the development of Half-Life 2. Gamers will find previously unpublished concept art about the creation of the first and second episodes, as well as ideas and experiments for the third episode.

Half-Life 2 was released on November 16, 2004 on PC; the Episode One and Episode Two expansions went on sale in 2006 and 2007, respectively.