For its 20th anniversary, this cult shooter video game is entitled to a free update on Steam: it is more beautiful than ever!

Game news For its 20th anniversary, this cult shooter video game is entitled to a free update on Steam: it is more beautiful than ever!

Half-Life 2 is already celebrating its twentieth anniversary! For the occasion, Orbitfold Studios presents an improved version of the game. Thanks to the RTX Remix platform, created by NVidia in 2022, the team has enhanced the graphics of the famous FPS. Modders are also involved in the project. According to the studio behind this improved version, it is mainly modding that has kept the software alive for these twenty years.

Half-Life wanted to do everything – David Driver-Gomm, co-director of the project.

A passion project

The action game released in 2004 is as good in terms of storytelling as it is in terms of shooting experiencewhether against giant mutant spiders or bloody zombies. There's also exploration of dystopian environments and a bit of climbing on perilous metal structures. To achieve their objectives, the Orbitfold team already had a good working base. As one of the members states, Half-Life 2 was somewhat avant-garde in its time : “The expressions that the characters can make are the best that could be done at that time”.

Half-Life 2 RTX is far from being the first project on the original title. For example, a VR Mod was released in 2022, the opportunity to truly embody Gordon Freeman. The RTX project will be free for all owners of the original game and it is already possible to add it to the Steam wishlist.

Changes that can be appreciated

Even if the visuals do not yet reveal the final quality, they are nevertheless breathtaking. One of the employees of Orbitfold is pleased to have succeeded in “recapturing the horror” of certain scenes. In terms of graphics: metal objects are more realistic, the reflection of light on water and glass has been reworked, as well as the management of light sources.

We want this experience to be memorable.

By offering Half-Life 2 RTX, Orbitfold hopes to invite new players to discover this iconic title, in a better version. It remains to be seen under what conditions and in what state the game will run. An RTX version of Portal had indeed caused problems on quite a few machines. Many players reported encountering crashes and fluidity issues. As a result, Portal RTX only receives 60% positive reviews on its Steam page, while the original 2007 software has 98% positive reviews.