sisslethecat
It’s generally considered kind of a joke that, if you have Steam, you have every single Half-Life game. Partly because they’re so often on sale for pennies, and partly because there’s a good chance you got most of them because a buddy gifted them to you back when The Orange Box forced everyone to buy a second copy of HL2 and Episode 1. That’s actually how I ended up with my Steam copies, which is kind of weird and nostalgic to think about. Regardless, it is worth noting that these games are all a decade or more (in HL1‘s case, two decades) old, and an entire generation of gamers may have never touched them before. Getting ahead of Half-Life: Alyx when it releases this March, Valve has made the entire series free to play on Steam up until the release of Alyx. It should be noted that these games aren’t free to keep, merely free to play up until Alyx‘s release, but that’s more than enough time to charge through them (not to mention that, again, they go on sale for pennies constantly) This includes:
- Half-Life (1999)
- Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999)
- Half-Life: Blue Shift (2001)
- Team Fortress Classic (1999)
- Half-Life 2 (2004)
- Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006)
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007)
Sadly this doesn’t include Black Mesa (the fan-made remake of the first game that just finished) or either Portal games (which are set in the same universe), but it’s very easily one of the greatest collections of games on PC period. There is very arguably no more influential franchise beyond Mario or GTA, and you owe it to yourself to give them a shot. I just did a run-through of the games myself, and they’re just as good today as they were over a decade ago. Time well spent in the anxiety-inducing Ravenholm or the depths of City 17’s darkest places, you’re going to find a great time in this franchise no matter what. Unforeseen Consequences be damned.
Half-Life: Alyx releases March of this year for Steam VR.
