It was always the little details that made Half-Life 2 work. Take a second to look around Dr. Kleiner’s impromptu lab in City 17, or the ramshackle Black Mesa East, and you can find dozens of traces of a world beyond what you’re seeing as a player. Valve created some incredible environments, and threaded your journey between them with a smart, understated story, told through a cast of rounded characters. But the developer neglected combat. Although you spend most of your time as Gordon Freeman fighting and shooting, the guns feel a little damp, and there’s no real ‘system’ – you tank damage with the HEV then emotionlessly knock down waves of Combine with the shotgun. The upcoming Half-Life 2 RTX remaster doesn’t change the mechanics, but, based on a big new trailer, it might make the combat better. Again, it’s the little details.
The 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2 is about to arrive, and to mark the upcoming occasion, the deeply impressive Half-Life 2 RTX Remix project has shared an extensive new look at the remastered FPS game. Lighting is more complex, assets have been rebuilt with a lot of extra detail, and there are new dynamic elements like ray tracing, reflections, and more responsive shadow effects. In essence, this is still Half-Life 2 as it was in 2004, but the remaster overhauls some key elements of the visual design.
That includes the weapons. We get a good look at the shotgun, magnum, and Combine pulse rifle here, and – again – although the functionality and behavior of the guns remain unchanged, the combat in Half-Life 2 RTX looks a lot more alive, a lot more dramatic, than in Valve’s 20-year-old opus.
Just those details, like overhead lights that swing and cast new shadows in response to being hit, or the glint of the barrel when you emerge from the dark into a corridor, add extra complexion to Half-Life 2’s gun battles. I’m especially keen to see the helicopter battle from the end of Water Hazard, with the low, evening sun and the giant pools of water.
We still don’t have a release date for Half-Life 2 RTX, but based on recent Steam rumblings, there’s reason to believe Valve itself may be up to something for the 20th anniversary.
In the meantime, get the best single-player games, or maybe the best old games, if all this Half-Life talk has made you nostalgic.
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