As we discussed last week, Valve’s iconic pillar of video games, Half-Life, was set to be put on sale for free on its anniversary on November 20th. And while that did come to pass as everyone expected it to, nobody expected what came with the sale. Half-Life was updated for the first time in a very long time, and so the game has essentially been remastered with what’s now it’s dubbed the Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Update.
The full list of changes can be found on Half-Life’s Steam store page here, which includes graphical updates, UI changes, restored content as well as full Steam Deck support as well as much more: The 25th Anniversary Update includes added content from Half-Life Uplink as well as four (4!) new multiplayer maps. We’ve also restored some content for the true nostalgia-seekers, including original main menu artwork and some early prototype player models from the alpha builds of the game.
On top of updates to the game, we’re also treated to an update regarding Half-Life’s original team via an hour long documentary on Youtube featuring the likes of Mike Harrington, Chuck Jones, Steve Theodore and, of course, Gabe Newell himself. This fantastic video is available on Youtube and, despite being completely unannounced and kind of out of nowhere, has already garnered 2 million views just showing how much Half-Life as well as this team mean to the PC gaming community.
And even still, they’ve launched a website that conveniently goes over these changes as well as features the documentary and all the patches and bugfixes and that’s right, patches plural. Half-Life has been receiving small bits of support over the past few days, with the most recent one being on November 21st, that show that this isn’t just a one-and-done operation, they’re really putting their backs into this and keeping up with the game as more and more players discover and explore this gaming gem. This should be expected, as this Half-Life: 25th Anniversary Update is now the definitive edition of the game:
We now consider this anniversary version of Half Life to be the definitive version, and the one we’ll continue to support going forward. Therefore, we’ll be reducing the visibility of Half Life: Source on the Steam Store. We know Half-Life: Source’s assets are still being used by the Source engine community, so it’ll remain available, but we’ll be encouraging new Half-Life players to play this version instead.
It’s heartwarming to see so many players either renew their love of Half-Life or even discover it for the first time, classics such as these should not be left to obscurity but should instead be celebrated as this 25th anniversary edition so happily does. While there may not be a Half-Life 3 it’s great to know that Half-Life in general hasn’t been abandoned and that it will continue to be shown love and appreciation as we move closer to its next big anniversary.
If you want to experience this timeless classic for yourself then, while you’ve just missed the opportunity to receive it for free, the next best thing is available as the first Half-Life is available for sale on Steam at 90% discount, so for 99 cents you can experience a real massive part of gaming history.