Valve is honoring the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2 with a celebration that includes a brand-new two-hour documentary, a developer commentary update, and more.
The studio updated fans on the festivities on its website today, revealing a gift basket full of goodies for fans new and old. While it’s not quite the Half-Life 3 announcement fans have waited two decades for, it’s still more than enough to help with the wait.
Topping the list of announcements is a two-hour making-of video from the Secret Tape team behind the Half-Life 1 documentary. Valve says die-hard fans can start watching the Half-Life 2 documentary today for a behind-the-scenes look at how the studio handled running out of money, getting hacked, building its PC storefront Steam, and more. It’s an in-depth peek behind the curtain at a pivotal moment in gaming history, but the festivities don’t stop there.
Half-Life 2 owners can also now enjoy a new update that adds everything from additional content to ironed out wrinkles. This includes access to the original Episode One and Episode Two expansions, which have been bundled into to the base experience at no additional cost. Valve adds that it reassembled the original Half-Life 2 team to provide commentary tracks for the entire game.
Steam Workshop support and Steam game recording are just two more bonuses that have been added to help celebrate Half-Life 2’s 20th anniversary, with even more included in the form of general touch-ups and fixes. Some of the update’s changes include rebalanced lighting, cleaner horizons, new graphics settings for things like blood and fire effects, and an overhaul for aim-assist.
“Every map in Half-Life 2 has been looked over by Valve level designers to fix longstanding bugs, restore content and features lost to time, and improve the quality of a few things like lightmap resolution and fog,” the studio explains.
If you’re interested in Half-Life 2 and want to check out the 20th anniversary update, you’re in luck; Valve has made the game free to own until November 18. That means you get the entire sequel experience, including its two expansions, at no cost whatsoever – as long as you click that download button in the next few days.
Half-Life 2 has long been hailed as one of Valve’s best projects and one of the most important video games ever made. In our original review, we called it a “amazing” and gave it a 9.7/10. Fans have combed over every detail of the first-person sequel since its release on November 16, 2004, and once the 20th anniversary update is live, there will be even more to uncover. While it’s true that Half-Life 3 still hasn’t been confirmed to be in the works, the goodies revealed today should help with the wait until a sequel is actually, really revealed. There’s also the VR-exclusive Half-Life: Alyx, which we gave a 10/10.
For more on the world of Half-Life, you can read about Nvidia’s upcoming Half-Life 2 RTX remaster. The company released a trailer for the project just yesterday to help celebrate the 20th anniversary, revealing how its team is creating something that stays true to the original vision while giving it a fresh coat of paint.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.