Half-Life 2

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Half-Life 2

Developer(s)

Valve Corporation

Publisher(s)

Sierra Entertainment (retail)
Valve Corporation

Series

Half-Life series

Release date(s)

November 16, 2004

Windows:
November 16, 2004
Xbox:
November 15, 2005
Xbox 360:
October 10, 2007
PlayStation 3:
December 11, 2007
macOS:
May 26, 2010
Linux:
May 9, 2013
Android
May 12, 2014

Genre

First-person shooter

Mode(s)

Single-player

Platform(s)

Windows, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Android (Nvidia Shield), macOS, Linux

Engine

Source

Steam AppID

220

Written in

C++

Mod support

Yes (custom folder and sourcemods)

SDK

Source SDK

System requirements

Win 7 or later
1.7 GHz and/or Dual-core
1 GB RAM
6.5 GB disk space
Nvidia GeForce FX 5700
ATI Radeon 9500
with 128 MB VRAM

For details, see below

Distribution

Retail, Steam

Official website

Links

Previous game

Next game

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

Half-Life 2: Episode One (chronologically)

"Welcome. Welcome to City 17. You have chosen, or been chosen, to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers."

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 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 fewer puzzles.

Content

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

RTX version

Main article: Half-Life 2 RTX

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 RTX.

Chapters

Half-Life 2 Chapters
Point Insertion `d1_trainstation_01`	"A Red Letter Day" `d1_trainstation_05`	Route Kanal `d1_canals_01`	Water Hazard `d1_canals_06`
Black Mesa East `d1_eli_01`	"We Don't Go To Ravenholm..." `d1_town_01`	Highway 17 `d2_coast_01`	Sandtraps `d2_coast_09`
Nova Prospekt `d2_prison_02`	Entanglement `d2_prison_06`	Anticitizen One `d3_c17_02`	"Follow Freeman!" `d3_c17_09`
Our Benefactors `d3_citadel_01`	Dark Energy `d3_breen_01`

NPCs

Main article: Category:Half-Life 2 NPCs

Credits

Main article: Half-Life 2 Credits

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

Limitations/Bugs

For more Half-Life 2 bugs, see this GitHub page.

This section only list various bugs that are commonly encountered.

☐ Unresolved bugs

The current version of Half-Life 2 in Steam lacks LDR lighting on multiple game levels (starting from d1_eli_01 until the end of Nova Prospekt). 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). Because of this, HDR is required to play the game.
This issue is not affected in previous version of the game (which use older engines and are compiled in LDR only), and is fixed in Half-Life 2: Update.

☑ Resolved bugs

There was a bug with the Dropship's gun that was unable to turn, this makes the Sandtraps chapter much easier.^[1] Presents since console release on X360/PS3 (remains unfixed) and since 2010 engine update on PC.
Fixed in the current Steam version since 2022's the Steam Deck update of Half-Life 2. Some third-party mods may or may not include this fix; this page details how to fix it in your mod.

Other limitations

Important:The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

As of May 26, 2010, the branch of Source under which Half-Life 2 originally ran Source 2006 no longer exists on Steam, and subsequently replaced by the updated Source 2007 (which later was upgraded again to Source 2013. Some 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.

Technical notes

In the 2006 version of the game, being underwater at d1_canals_01, or in some area on that same map can cause performance drop. Fixed since 2010 with the engine update.
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 the 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

Windows (Old Engine):

OS: Windows 98 / ME, 2000, XP or later
CPU: 1.2 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
Disk space: 4.5 GB
Direct3D 9.0 compatible video card (with atleast DirectX 7.0 compatibility level or higher)

Windows (New Engine):

OS: Windows 7 or later
CPU:1.7 GHz and/or Dual-core
RAM:1GB RAM
Disk space: 6.5 GB (15GB+ recommended)
Nvidia GeForce FX 5700, ATI Radeon 9500 (with 128MB VRAM)
Direct3D 9.0 compatible video card (with atleast DirectX 8.0 compatibility level or higher)
Other: New Engine requires HDR to be enabled (due to this issue)

Note:The Steam version is no longer compatible with XP and Vista^[confirm] since the latest Steam Deck update.
User using these OS can downgrade to previous version of the game by using the previous beta branch. But please note that this older branch does not include all the bug fixes that were introduced with Steam Deck update.

OS X:

OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.3 (up to 10.14.6)
CPU: 2.0 GHz and/or Dual-core
RAM: 1 GB
Storage: 6.5 GB (15GB+ recommended)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8xxx series, ATI Radeon X1600, Intel HD Graphics 3000
OpenGL 2.1 compatible
Audio: OpenAL compatible
Other: HDR is required to be enabled (see above)

Note:Mac version are no longer supported after macOS Catalina (10.15), due to this game only have 32-bit binaries. Valve later removed macOS binaries in June 12, 2024.
User can manually build Intel 64-bit/Apple Silicon version of HL2 by following this guide.

Linux:

OS: Ubuntu 12.04, SteamOS 1.0 or later
Other Linux distros supported.
CPU: 2.0 GHz and/or Dual-core
RAM: 1 GB
Storage: 6.5 GB (15GB+ recommended)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8xxx series, ATI Radeon X1600, Intel HD Graphics 3000
OpenGL 2.1 compatible
Audio: OpenAL compatible
Other: HDR is required to be enabled (see above)