Half-Life 2
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🛒 Buy it on Steam (via Browser | Steam client*)
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Supported OS: Windows • macOS • Linux + SteamOS (See system requirements)
Chromebook ready: Unknown / TBD
Steam Deck status: Verified - More info on ProtonDB
Also available from the following other storefronts or websites:
Google Play ( NVIDIA Shield only)
▶ Launch it now*
*Steam required, click here to download Steam.
About Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 (abbreviated as HL2) 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.
Half-Life 2 was later ported for the Original Xbox console in 2005, as well as for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2007, bundled under The Orange Box.
The game has considerable number of physics puzzles which aren't that common in games like Doom, Call of Duty and Halo. Even Half-Life has less puzzles.
Content
- Half-Life 2 maps (
hl2
) - Source shared (
hl2
) - Source 2013 Singleplayer engine branch
RTX version
A ray-traced version of Half-Life 2 is currently under development by Orbifold Studios, and promoted by Nvidia, using Nvidia's RTX Remix tool.
This version aims to remaster the entire game with new RTX lighting, RTX reflections, PBR textures, and a lot more without changing the core gameplay, similar to Portal with RTX.
Chapters
Half-Life 2 Chapters | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Point Insertion d1_trainstation_01 |
"A Red Letter Day" d1_trainstation_05 |
Route Kanal d1_canals_01 |
Water Hazard d1_canals_06 |
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Black Mesa East d1_eli_01 |
"We Don't Go To Ravenholm..." d1_town_01 |
Highway 17 d2_coast_01 |
Sandtraps d2_coast_09 |
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Nova Prospekt d2_prison_02 |
Entanglement d2_prison_06 |
Anticitizen One d3_c17_02 |
"Follow Freeman!" d3_c17_09 |
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Our Benefactors d3_citadel_01 |
Dark Energy d3_breen_01 |
Credits
These are the official credits for "Half-Life 2" as released in October 2004:
Voices:
Voice Casting:
Voice Recording:
Voice recording scheduling and logistics:
Translations:
Crack Legal Team:
Thanks to the following for the use of their faces:
Special thanks to everyone at:
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Notes
Dr. Gordon Freeman can collect wooden planks after destroying wooden boxes. This is unlike Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.
Limitations/Bugs
- For more Half-Life 2 bugs, see this GitHub page.
This section only list various bugs that are commonly encountered.
☐ Unresolved bugs
This issue is not affected in previous version of the game (which use older engines), and is fixed in Half-Life 2: Update.
☑ Resolved bugs
Fixed in Source 2013 since 2022's Steam Deck update of Half-Life 2.
Other limitations
This also meant that support for running Half-Life 2 on Windows 9x/ME/2000 have been also dropped.
Technical notes
- In Source 2006 version of the game, being underwater at d1_canals_01, or in some area on that same map can cause performance drop. Fixed in 2010 with engine update ( Source 2009).
- 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.
System Requirements
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Note:As of February 15, 2024, the Steam Client no longer supported 32-bit games and/or macOS 10.14 or lower. Additionally, with the release of macOS 10.15 Catalina, Apple has dropped 32-bit support for all programs and games.
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Note:The system requirements for Half-Life 2 on Linux are unofficial, based off Windows/Mac info, as well as other Source games that support Linux, such as Portal 2.
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See also
External links
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