Valve has released a major update for the 25th anniversary of Half-Life (1998), its juggernaut first-person shooter that serves as a genre staple. In addition to patches, bug fixes, and general technical improvements, the update restores previously unforeseen content and includes an hour-long documentary on the game’s development history.
Not only does the new content give people a reason to download the game again even after beating it a million times, but it’s also been made entirely free for new players.
This version of Half-Life is now fully compatible with the Steam Deck, including online play, gamepad configurations, and updated graphics settings such as HUD UI scaling for today’s monitors. Valve said, “We built most of this stuff for 640×480 CRTs and apparently some of you have upgraded since then.”
When it comes to content additions, the update brings Half-Life Uplink to modern audiences. This was a small campaign that originally came out on disc as part of magazine and product bundles. Aside from the original logo intro, and restored multiplayer maps and skins, Valve’s designers created four new multiplayer maps for the new update.
The one-hour-long documentary on how Half-Life was created is available to watch online and is narrated by Danny O’Dwyer of Secret Tape. On the revamped official website for Half-Life, you can go download a bunch of fresh wallpapers and a full list of fixes. During this celebratory event, all other titles in the Half-Life series are discounted.