Can you believe that it has been 20 years since Half-Life 2 was released? Where does the time go?
Considered one of the best games ever made and a seminal title in the FPS genre, Half-Life 2 is constantly celebrated, but now it reaches a huge milestone, we have more reason than ever.
Courtesy of Orbifold Studios, Half-Life 2 is being overhauled by a mod that brings the visuals up to an RTX standard with ray tracing and dynamic lighting.
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Half-Life 2 RTX is essentially a mod that completely changes the way the game looks.
Take a look at it in action below.
As Orbifold Studios begins to tinker with the game, it’s clear they don’t want to touch the physics or story, because the game is a masterclass in both.
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What they seem to be achieving is a sense of polishing the game to meet modern standards of PC play.
The project brings together three teams who were each working on their own Half-Life 2 remake.
One was VR driven, another was focusing on one section of the original game within the engine of Half-Life: Alyx, and the third was doing a kind of ‘alternate reality’ take on the game.
The teams, however, decided to come together to work on this project which brings modern technology such as path-tracing to the game, making it look like it has just been unveiled for the first time.
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The team says they “still want to capture that sense of awe” from the original release and they fundamentally don’t want to “make it into a different game”.
And it looks stunning. With new textures, lighting that casts stark and bold shadows, it recreates the world and setting of the original game in a startling new look.
You can add Half-Life 2 RTX to your Steam wishlist and get ready to have your mind blown by the work the team has put into this project.