Half-Life 2 is one of the best loved FPS games in the genre’s history, even with its cliffhanger story still unresolved nearly two decades since its last episodic expansion launched. Unsurprisingly, then, fans of Valve’s shooter series have been eager to see its most recent, non-VR entry return in any form. Following projects like Half-Life 1 remake Black Mesa and spin-off Half-Life: Alyx, Half-Life 2 returned with fresh updates from Steam celebrating its 20th anniversary last autumn and, as of yesterday, a section of the game received a glossy RTX-enabled remix. Sadly, performance issues have marred the experience for many users so far.
The Half-Life 2 RTX demo, created by Orbifold Studios, overhauls the classic FPS game in a showcase of Nvidia’s current graphics technology. Regions of Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt have been altered with help from RTX Remix, reworking these familiar Half-Life 2 environments through new textures and models, changed lighting, DLSS4 and Nvidia Reflex, and full ray tracing at a 4K resolution.
Some players have recommended the demo, praising the extent of Orbifold’s work in so fully re-imagining Half-Life 2. One user says the demo “makes [the] game look … how I remember it looked when playing HL2 for the first time in 2004” while another writes that “it looks great, feels solid.”
Still, the demo’s user rating on Steam currently sits at just 58% or ‘Mixed.’ Most complaints center on Half-Life 2 RTX’s subpar performance, which has apparently seen even players with cutting-edge 5000 series Nvidia graphics cards disappointed. A negative Steam review notes that “this game is very beautiful and all but it’s far from playable.”
Another says: “It looks slightly better, but only if you enable frame generation, DLSS, and run it at 1/2 to 1/4 of the native resolution only just to maintain a stable 60fps. And somehow, it still takes up a whopping 80GB.” Others are less positive about the blur introduced to the demo’s visuals or the remake’s graphical style in general, which departs from the familiar aesthetic of the original Half-Life 2.
If you want to assess the Half-Life 2 RTX demo for yourself, it’s free for anyone who owns Half-Life 2 and available to download from Steam right here.
Otherwise, you can find plenty of other options like Half-Life 2 with our picks for the top old games and horror games on PC.
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