Half-Life News

Ambitious, unofficial Half-Life expansion wraps up a 24-year-old cliffhanger

You think of Half-Life, and you immediately think Valve. It's a series synonymous with Steam and PC gaming as a whole, but it has ventured onto other platforms, too. No, I'm not talking about Alyx (which is still a Steam-only game, despite the fact that you can play it on non-Valve headsets), this is Half-Life: Decay. This DLC for the original game was designed by Randy Pitchford and developed by Gearbox Software for the PlayStation 2 back in 2001. If you ever wanted to learn the fate of Drs. Colette Green and Gina Cross, you'll finally be able to, thanks to a new set of mods.

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Here's a mod that puts Halo's multiplayer into Half-Life, which to me feels like putting tea in your coffee

"What if we recreated this game in that engine?" is a classic modding conceit, up there with "What if Stalker was even more miserable?" and "What if this character had no clothes on?". In fact, I'm surprised it's taken 25 years for someone to stick Halo's multiplayer into Half-Life. It's the sort of harebrained scheme I would have eagerly read about on Planet Half-Life back in 2006...
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New Half-Life mod rebuilds Halo multiplayer inside Valve's original engine

The first Half-Life was a nexus point for what we consider the modern FPS. Valve's shooter presented a fully realized world, and a compelling narrative to go with it. Gordon Freeman's tram ride to Black Mesa sets the tone, while the walls of the secretive research facility tell their own stories. Then Halo comes along, which ups the ante with gigantic sandbox levels and an entire universe to decipher. We wouldn't have the shooters we do today without Half-Life and Halo. But what would happen if we smashed both games together? Now you can find out.

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This Half-Life mod remakes Valve's classic shooter to be both longer and wider, and it has radically altered my perception of the original

I've always said that my favourite chapter in Half-Life is Office Complex. In a game all about recontextualising the FPS from abstract mazes into a realistic, coherent setting, to me Office Complex felt like the ultimate expression of that. It's the most mundane part of Black Mesa's clandestine research facility, swapping the hellscapes of Doom and the fantasy realms of Heretic for a cold and clinical administration centre...
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Valve considered making a 'B title' before Half-Life, until an exec told Gabe Newell 'that's just not gonna work… the company will fail'

Last year saw the 25th anniversary of Half-Life, one of the most important games in PC history and a spectacular debut for Valve. But in another timeline, it could've been the studio's second game...
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