Half-Life 2

This article is about the PC & Mac version of Half-Life 2. For more information about the Original Xbox version, see Half-Life 2 (Xbox).

For more information about the Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3 version of Half-Life 2, included on The Orange Box, see The Orange Box (Console).

Half-Life 2 defines a new benchmark in gaming with startling realism and responsiveness. Powered by then-new Source technology, Half-Life 2 features the most sophisticated in-game characters ever witnessed, advanced AI, stunning graphics and physical gameplay. This was the first game requiring installation of Steam when it came out back in 2004.

Half-Life 2 is the sequel to the 1998 Half-Life. A sequel to Half-Life 2 was released in 2006, titled Half-Life 2: Episode One. A virtual reality prequel was released in 2020, titled Half-Life: Alyx.

It is also available for the Original Xbox console, as well Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as part of the console version of The Orange Box.

The game has considerable number of physics puzzles which aren't that common in games like  Quake (series),  Unreal (video game series),  Doom (franchise),  Call of Duty,  Tom Clancy's and  Halo (franchise). Even Half-Life has less puzzles.

Limitations/Bugs

Warning:As of May 26 2010, the branch of Source under which Half-Life 2 originally ran (/) no longer exists on Steam. Very, very old mods which base themselves directly on the game (as opposed to Source SDK Base) are unlikely to work any more!.
This also meant that support for running Half-Life 2 on Windows 9x/ME/2000 have been also dropped.

Warning:When Valve ported Half-Life 2 to Source 2013 during transition to SteamPipe, Valve forgot to compile some of the maps with LDR lighting added. This means that if HDR is disabled (by selecting None or Bloom only in HDR settings), mat_fullbright will be set to 1, disabling lighting and making everything bright and flat (relevant GitHub issue).
This issue is not affected in previous version of the game (which uses older engines).

Content

• Half-Life 2 maps (hl2)
• Source shared (hl2)
• Source 2013 Singleplayer engine branch

Chapters

1. Point Insertion - only 66.8% Steam users completed it
2. "A Red Letter Day" - only 66.2% Steam users got there
3. Route Kanal
4. Water Hazard - only 52.6% Steam users got there
5. Black Mesa East
6. "We Don't Go To Ravenholm..."
7. Highway 17
8. Sandtraps
9. Nova Prospekt
10. Entanglement
11. Anticitizen One
12. "Follow Freeman!"
13. Our Benefactors
14. Dark Energy

Credits

Main article:  Half-Life 2 Credits

These are the official credits for "Half-Life 2" as released in October 2004: Viktor Antonov Ted Backman Kelly Bailey Jeff Ballinger Matt Bamberger Aaron Barber Yahn Bernier Ken Birdwell Derrick Birum Chris Bokitch Steve Bond Matt Boone Charlie Brown Julie Caldwell Dario Casali Yvan Charpentier Jess Cliffe John Cook Greg Coomer Kellie Cosner Scott Dalton Kerry Davis Jason Deakins Ariel Diaz Quintin Doroquez Martha Draves Laura Dubuk Mike Dunkle Mike Dussault Rick Ellis Dhabih Eng Miles Estes Adrian Finol Bill Fletcher Moby Francke Pat Goodwin Chris Green Chris Grinstead John Guthrie Leslie Hall Damarcus Holbrook Tim Holt Brian Jacobson Erik Johnson Jakob Jungels Iikka Keranen Eric Kirchmer Marc Laidlaw Jeff Lane Tom Leonard Doug Lombardi Randy Lundeen Scott Lynch Ido Magal Gary McTaggart John Morello II Bryn Moslow Gabe Newell Tri Nguyen Jake Nicholson Martin Otten Kristen Perry Bay Raitt Alfred Reynolds Dave Riller Danika Rogers David Sawyer Aaron Seeler Nick Shaffner Taylor Sherman Eric Smith David Speyrer Jay Stelly Jeremy Stone Mikel Thompson Kelly Thornton Carl Uhlman Bill Van Buren KayLee Vogt Robin Walker Josh Weier Doug Wood Matt T. Wood Matt Wright Voices: Robert Guillaume - Dr. Eli Vance Robert Culp - Dr. Wallace Breen Lou Gossett, Jr. - Vortigaunt Michelle Forbes - Dr. Judith Mossman Merle Dandridge - Alyx Vance Mike Shapiro - Barney Calhoun Mike Shapiro - Gman Harry S. Robins - Dr. Isaac Kleiner Jim French - Father Grigori John Patrick Lowrie - Citizens\Misc. characters Mary Kae Irvin - Citizens\Misc. characters Ellen McLain - Overwatch Voice Casting: Shana Landsburg\Teri Fiddleman Voice Recording: Pure Audio, Seattle, WA LA Studios, LA, CA Voice recording scheduling and logistics: Pat Cockburn, Pure Audio Translations: SDL Crack Legal Team: Liam Lavery Jason Holtman Karl Quackenbush Kristen Boraas Kevin Rosenfield Alan Bruggeman Dennis Tessier Thanks to the following for the use of their faces: Jamil Mullen Art Min Larry 'The Count' Heard Ted Cohrt Roger Guay Frank Sheldon Travis Dunlop Daniel Dociu Van Crowder Joey Paresa Chau Luu Kim Harris-Jones Michael S. Smith Joe Cairo Naomi Cotton Sandro Consi Lakeetra Gilbert Erdin Grcic Kanisha Speyrer Warren Slough Special thanks to everyone at: Alienware ATI Dell Falcon Northwest Havok SOFTIMAGE and Don Kemmis, SLK Technologies

Notes

Dr. Gordon Freeman can collect wooden planks after destroying wooden boxes. This is unlike Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.

Combine soldiers don't have  Ragdoll physics at d1_trainstation_04.

Dr. Gordon Freeman can't drag ragdolled Combine soldiers. Can't use.

d1_trainstation_04 may miss the lambda logo at

setpos 636.031250 -6385.287598 604.031250;setang 5.455154 61.770767 0.000000

...

Technical notes

• Being underwater at d1_canals_01 can stress some PCs...
• Although Source mods are often described as being "for Half-Life 2", they actually use Source SDK Base. SDK Base is available to anyone who owns any Valve Source game and provides all of Half-Life 2's content (except maps and vcd scenes) on a static branch of the engine.
• The Half-Life 2 Collectors Edition, which ships with Source 2004 version of the game, does not require Steam to run or update (similar to latest version), which meant that it will run on older systems with Windows 2000 and earlier.
• The 64-bit Windows version of Half-Life 2, which existed around 2005-2006, is no longer available.

See also

• Half-Life 2: Update
• Half-Life 2: Remastered
• Synergy
• Category:Source mods

External links

• ModDB profile