Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary Brings All Episodes Together With New Features

While we are still waiting for the Half-Life 2 RTX to drop and completely blow us away with incredible graphics, Valve didn't pull any punches during the Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary celebrations, with a two-hour documentary you can watch at the bottom of this article. 

Alongside the celebrations and hearing from Gabe Newell and the Half-Life 2 development team, Valve also released the Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary Update via Steam, and it's a big one.

The base game, Episode 1, and Episode 2 are now all in one box, accessible from the Half-Life 2 main menu. There are also Steam Game Recording and Steam Workshop features, alongside awesome developer commentary. Navigate to the Half-Life 2 Steam page and get the complete experience today, and check out the dedicated 20th Anniversary website.

In case you didn't know, Half-Life 2 was released two decades ago, on 16 November 2004. Below, you'll find the highlights of the Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary version.

HL2 Updated Game Content

Every map in Half-Life 2 has been looked over by Valve level designers to fix longstanding bugs, restore content and features lost to time, and improve the quality of a few things like lightmap resolution and fog:

• Fixed pops, holes in the world, fading-out and disappearing objects across the game.
• Rebalanced the lighting across Half-Life 2 to account for playing with HDR on or off, using the original release as reference.
• Cleaner, smoother horizon lines thanks to new radial fog!
• Added higher-resolution lightmaps across the game!
• Removed green glow from the G-Man model’s eyes in the opening of the game, and restored the reflective glint as seen in the original release.
• Fixed missing grass sprites and blacked-out models throughout the game!

HL2 Updated Graphics Settings

• Choose either the original launch day blood and fire effects, or those created for the episodes, when playing the Half-Life 2 base game!
• Play with only the highest detail models in High Quality mode!
• Get smoother lightmap shadows at Very High shader detail, thanks to new bicubic lightmap filtering!

HL2 Gamepad, Input, and Steam Deck Updates

• Gamepad controls have been updated to match the Half-Life 1 anniversary update.
• Aim Assistance has gotten an overhaul making it feel better to use, and there are more configuration options available. Aim Assistance can be enabled separately for gamepad or mouse/keyboard input. The amount of assistance can be tuned up and down, and it’s no longer tied to a skill setting. Want to play on Hard with high aim assist, or Easy with it off? Knock yourself out.
• The Steam Deck main menu has been updated with all of today’s additions including the Episodes, Workshop, and new input configuration. The Steam Deck version of the main menu will also appear when you play Half-Life 2 on a PC running Big Picture Mode.

While you download Half-Life 2, why not check out the two-hour Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Documentary below.