‘Runs Horribly and Looks Horribly’: Half-Life 2 RTX Demo Gets ‘Mixed’ Reviews on Steam

The Half-Life 2 RTX demo released earlier this week by modders at Orbifold Studios didn’t receive the same warm reception as the original version of Valve’s legendary shooter.

Image source: Steam (=MoonShard=)

At the time of publication, the Half-Life 2 RTX demo on Steam had received almost 4,000 “mixed” user reviews, giving the project a rating of only 55%.

The main complaints from players are related to low performance (even owners of powerful GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards suffer), the demo’s appearance and its size (about 80 GB).

For example, for some, the trial edition of Half-Life 2 RTX “works disgustingly and looks disgusting.” Owners of AMD video cards do not recommend trying the demo at all.

Image source: Steam

Steam users who left positive reviews on the Half-Life 2 RTX page seemed to be playing a different game. “It looks great and runs great,” reported one gamer who encountered no technical issues.

Positive reviewers also praised Orbifold Studios’ work in rejuvenating the 20-year-old game: textures, models, particles and lighting have been updated, while the atmosphere and gameplay have been left unchanged.

Half-Life 2 RTX is the “most comprehensive graphical remaster” of Valve’s shooter yet, powered by RTX Remix. Owners of the original Half-Life 2 will get the remaster for free. There is no release date for the full version yet.