Half-Life News

Mysterious new Half-Life app appears on Steam before 25th anniversary

Something is going on with Half-Life. Firstly, there have been a series of updates to the Steam backend of the original game, seemingly hinting at some kind of change or new set of features that might be released to mark Half-Life's 25th anniversary on Sunday November 19. Possibly, this will be full, verified Steam Deck support for the classic shooter, or maybe something else - maybe Gordon Freeman, Black Mesa, and cohort will return for some kind of new chapter. But perhaps more mysterious, on the same day that Half-Life suddenly becomes a free game on Steam - and then stops being a free game on Steam, after Valve seemingly reverses the decision - a new, mysterious Half-Life app appears. I'm not getting my hopes up. We're not talking Half-Life 3 here. But maybe we should start preparing for unforeseen consequences.

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Half-Life has been rebuilt so you can play the whole game backwards

Half-Life remains one of the best-loved and most-popular shooters in PC history. From the opening train ride into Black Mesa, to the mysterious appearances of G-Man, Surface Tension (ugh), and the final battle in Xen, after 25 years, you probably know every inch of Valve's landmark FPS like the back of your HEV-suited hand. But, a quarter of a century on, there are still new ways to play Half-Life. Imagine the entire game but in reverse, a flipped-on-its-head story about Gordon Freeman trying to escape Black Mesa by fighting from the Lambda complex back to the safety of the tram. Tweaked, rebuilt, and reimagined, this is Half-Life, but backwards.

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Dev reveals that Half-Life could've been called 'Bent', 'Screwed', 'Trash', 'CrYsis', and my personal favourite, 'Dirt'

Dario Casali, who started working at Valve in 1996, has started his own playthrough of the original 1998 Half-Life on YouTube (thanks, Gamesradar). The episodes are coming out at a blistering pace, with Chapters 1 through 8 already released, but the Chapter 1 walkthrough comes front-loaded with a fascinating glimpse into the classic's early development...
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Mystery Half-Life update added by Valve ahead of anniversary

A new Half-Life update of a mysterious nature has been added by Valve just ahead of the epochal sci-fi shooter's 25th anniversary. Sneaked away in the backend of Steam, the update potentially suggests new material for the original Half-Life, as we also await the arrival of Half-Life 2 RTX. However, after all this time waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Half-life 3, it seems advisable to keep expectations low. Something is happening with the original Half-Life, and it seems likely Valve would commemorate the silver anniversary of its Gordon Freeman, Black Mesa, and the G-Man's first appearances, but it's all very hush-hush.

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Half-Life's most ambitious rework is back from the dead

A fan-made project centering around Half-Life's original 1998 build, with new enemies, levels, and weapons that didn't make it into Valve's original FPS, is back from the dead. With a release date set for the game's 25th anniversary, Half-Life: Absolute Zero is coming back, and it's showing a lot of promise.

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