A landmark in PC gaming, Half-Life 2 was a game that set the standard for many fans with its immersion, animation, and story. There have been a brevity of fan-made projects and mods based on the Half-Life series too, such as the fan game Black Mesa. And according to a recent datamine, a remaster of Half-Life 2 and its sequel Episodes will be coming to Steam soon.
Half-Life 2's episodes were a novel concept at the time, where they were episodic game sequels to the original. They were planned to be a trilogy of episodes, but Valve only managed to finish the second episode, which ended up giving fans one of the most infamous unresolved cliff-hangers in video games. Since then, many other Half-Life related projects were canceled, with the only other official release being the VR game Half-Life: Alyx, set in-between Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2. Fans can look forward to another Half-Life project being in the pipeline however. With the blessing and consent of Valve, a remaster of Half-Life 2 is reportedly being developed thanks to a group of fans.
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This project was found in a datamine of the Steam Database by Tyler McVicker, an avid reporter of Valve. According to McVicker, this remaster is being helmed by a group of passionate fans. This team of developers had all worked on the Half-Life 2: Update Mod from 6 years ago. This community-made mod contains new lighting, particle effects, bug fixes, and even audio commentary from well-known YouTubers.
According to development posts on the Steam Forums, this project has been worked on for about a year. From further observations made by fans on Twitter, this remaster is likely to be run on a refined version of the Source 1 engine, the one that has powered most of Valve's library of games. These include the Counter-Strike: Source, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 among others. The previously mentioned fan remake of Half-Life, Black Mesa, was also a game that ran on a modified Source 1 engine to make many different changes and improvements from the original Half-Life.
Much like Black Mesa, Valve continues its support of community made projects, with this possible remaster being another example. This is seen as a hands off approach, as most companies usually block the development of fan projects, where many cease-and-desist notices are sent from large Triple-A companies. With this being in the works, fans can look forward to another community supported Half-Life project coming soon.
Half-Life 2 is available now for PC.