You can play all classic Half-Life games for free ahead of Half-Life: Alyx

Half-Life: Alyx promises to set a new benchmark for VR games when it releases in March, although the story might be difficult to follow if you haven’t played past titles.  

Valve, realising this issue, has made a significant play to counter the excuse – making every game in the series available to download and play for free until Half-Life: Alyx releases in March 2020.  

All you need is to have Steam installed and Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two will be available to boot up from the store.  

This bundle also throws in Half-Life expansion packs Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift, along with Team Fortress Classic for a multiplayer break.

While the original Half-Life, released in 1998, might feel dated played today, its sequel Half-Life 2 is widely regarded as one of the best games ever and a cornerstone of the FPS genre.  

Half-Life: Alyx takes place prior to events in Half-Life 2, but Valve explained in a blog post how story elements and characters from the title will play a significant role in Alyx.  

“The Half-Life: Alyx team believes that the best way to enjoy the new game is to play through the old ones, especially Half-Life 2 and the episodes, so we want to make that as easy as possible,’ Valve wrote.  

Half-Life: Alyx is yet to be given an exact release date within March, so we’ll just have to hope it doesn’t fall prey to the dreaded delay curse of 2020.  

Half-Life: Alyx releases on PC in March 2020.