Half-Life 2 celebrates 20th anniversary with surprise remake

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.

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.

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.

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.