Remastered ‘Half-Life 2’ Coming to Vive & Rift with VR Controller Support via Revamped Mod

Rise and shine Mr. Freeman... Rise. And. Shine.

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Praised as one of the greatest games ever made, the 13 year old Half-Life 2 is a lauded piece of gaming history. But soon you’ll be able to revisit the perils of City 17 using the latest and greatest VR hardware around. A reborn mod project is bringing compatibility for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive with full motion input support, remastered visuals, a made-for-VR UI, realistic weapon interactions, and more.

Those who have been following the modern VR era since the beginning may recall the original HLVR mod launched in 2013 that was well ahead of it’s time, offering motion-controller input via the Razer Hydra, literally years before Oculus or Valve would announce their own VR controllers. Here’s some gameplay from the original mod played on the Rift DK1.

Back then we said that the mod “turned Half-Life 2 into one of the best virtual reality experiences available today.” Sadly, it wouldn’t last. While Valve had added support for the Rift development kits to their Source engine, as the software that the headsets relied on advanced over time, Valve didn’t update the Source implementation, leading to the present situation which is that the mod can’t be played on anything but old development kit headsets.

A Mod Reborn

After several years of the mod in dormancy, members of the original mod, with some new help, have devised a method to make the mod work with the latest Rift and Vive. Watch the trailer above. Not only will it allow players to step into the world of Half-Life 2 in VR, it will also add motion controller support to make the game function much like a modern VR title. The mod team is further promising the following:

  • HDR lighting
  • Updated effects, textures, models & maps
  • A made for VR UI
  • Realistic weapon interactions
  • Multiple VR locomotion methods
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The mod team is sensibly calling the package Half-Life 2: VR (not to be confused with the original mod’s name, HLVR). It will be released entirely for free, though it does require a copy of Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 & 2 to work correctly. Luckily you can pick up all three, along with Portal (2007) for the entirely reasonable price of $20 via The Orange Box.

But in order to launch the Half-Life 2: VR mod on Steam for a simple one-click installation, the team needs your help. The group has launched a Steam Greenlight campaign for the project, which allows the community to vote on those which they think should be allowed to be distributed through Steam. Head over to the page to vote for the mod if you’d like to step into the shoes of Gordon Freeman in VR.

Half-Life 2: VR on Steam Greenlight

Motion Input on Modern VR Controllers

Perhaps one of the coolest parts of the Half-Life 2: VR mod is the ability to feel like you’re really wielding the game’s arsenal of memorable weapons. Because the game was originally a flat first-person-shooter, the mod team had to rebuild many of the weapons to be viewed from any angle now that players can hold them in any position.

They also went one step further, adding realistic reloading gestures. Several weapons require additional actions from the player to complete the reload. The .357 Magnum Revolver, for instance, requires the player tilt the gun up to dump out the spent cartridges, then swing the chamber back into place with a flick—much like the reload mechanism of Dead & Buried.

And yes, you can physically swing the Crowbar to break boxes and kill enemies.

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The team has described the current set of reload operations as “gesture-like”, but say they plan to build these out further over time, making them more realistic. Work is already underway for a motion-based pump-reload on the Shotgun (yes please).

Presently, guns are linked to your right hand (as per the original programming), but the team plans to offer ambidextrous support in the future and make the two-handed weapons wieldable with input from both hands.

Continue Reading on Page 2: Behind the Tech >>

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Wildtz0r

    GimmeGimmeGimmeGimmeGimmeGimmeGimmeGimme

  • David Herrington

    So, anyone thinking of making Prop Hunt VR or Trouble in Terrorist Town VR with these new assets? :)

    • NooYawker

      Are those mods?

      • David Herrington

        Prop Hunt and Trouble in Terrorist Town are game modes from Garry’s Mod, which is a platform made with assets from Half Life and Counterstrike.

        Garry’s Mod can be purchased on Steam.

        • Toby Nazer-Williams

          The mod outright states that many Source games and mods sharing mechanics with HL2 will work with HL2VR

          • David Herrington

            This sounds like a good indication that it wouldn’t be too difficult to implement these mods into a Garry’s Mod 2.0 with VR!

  • Mane Vr

    god I hope we can turn off manually reload guns in this.. not sure why people think doing that is fun

    • OhYeah!

      ha ha yeah, some little annoyances don’t need to be recreated. I feel the same way about car games where the windshield gets dirty. Give me a magic windshield that never gets dirty and let’s move on.

    • Agree, I’ve just tested a game with completely realistic reload and for some weapons it is super boring

      • Brent

        No way, it’s gotta be super stressful!!!

    • Rosten

      People don’t think it’s fun, they *find* it fun. In my case, I find it *very* fun and immersive. Apparently some people don’t, so let’s have options.

    • NooYawker

      It is fun, but only there’s lots of bullets in between. A six shooter with manual reload is a nightmare.

    • Caven

      I’m not sure why people think having no control over the speed of canned reloading animations is fun, yet it’s quite common for some reason. Personally, I like the idea of being able to rack a shotgun faster in a pinch, or already having a spare magazine in hand when the one in the gun is about to run out. In VR, manual reloads help avoid issues where the character’s hand movements don’t match the players, or having to have reload timers to artificially explain why a gun won’t fire yet. The manual reloading doesn’t have to be super realistic. We’re not talking simulation levels of functionality, with fully functional controls and weapon malfunctions–just an arcade-style reload to add a bit of a skill element to what is otherwise a forced, static timer that triggers every time ‘R’ (or reasonable facsimile) is pressed.

      • Mane Vr

        For me gaming is my down time i don’t wish to do the extra work with manual reload and i have reload guns before nothing in vr feels even close so for some those who have might feel a disconnect with what they are feeling vs what they remember feeling at least the button reload or the flick pr the lowering of hands reload won’t give that wtf feeling at reload

        • Caven

          That’s a perfectly reasonable opinion to have. I was just pointing out some examples why some people might actually prefer manual reloading in a game. It may not feel much like the real thing, but then again, neither does full locomation and object interaction in VR, and yet many people clamor for those features.

          It’s all a matter of degrees, anyway. For many people, having to manually aim in a game–especially while rapidly moving around–is extra work they don’t wish to do, so they choose different genres. Surely you wouldn’t want those people to invalidate your desire to play FPS games, just because they can’t see the fun in them. It’s bad enough that there are already people who try hard to invalidate videogames as a medium, just because they can’t see the fun in them.

          • CazCore

            those comparisons lol

    • Tadd Seiff

      I agree it should be able to be turned off. I want it, but it arguably adds significant difficulty, and there is no reason that a VR version needs to be more ‘difficult’, the player should still be able to elect an easy/smooth story-based experience. OTOH, those that crave full immersion, should be able to turn it on.

      Just like “auto-reload” became a ‘universally’ switchable setting, because it makes things harder. If you just want to play through the game, see the story, and not get killed too much, it’s nice to have auto-reload enabled…and turn off reload simulation in VR.

      So ideally, in settings, reload could have these options:

      Reload Method: button/gesture (gesture will grey-out the auto-reload switch)
      Auto-reload: ON/OFF

      • Mane Vr

        Yes they said they are going to have a arcade mode for those who don’t want the realistic reload..

    • yag

      Manually reloading the python/magnum in the original HLVR mod was one of the most satisfying VR experience for me at the time.

      • Mane Vr

        nice I want that in the game for those players who love it but for me I don’t wish to do so and I want that option which lucky I will have that option

    • We’ll be offering a simple arcadey reloading mechanic as an option, as well as a more realistic mode.

      • Dario Cannizzaro

        good man! And I guess track pad locomotion (if I have read the various Reddit posts correctly).

        Do you guys have a patreon/paypal where thankful people can give you money? :)

        • Not yet, but we may very well set something like that up at some point!

  • NooYawker

    I tried playing HL2 on the Vive and it’s pretty cool for the most part but without controller support it wasn’t easy. Some texture updates and controller support and I’d be a happy camper.

  • Justos

    Oh dang, free if i own the game? I might actually play through it now :D

  • MosBen

    Welcome, to City 17.

  • Cool cool cool!!!

  • Morality_Mortality

    Half Life VR should have been a launch title for the HTC Vive . . . if it was I probably would have bought that instead of my Oculus Rift. A VR exclusive that amazing is definitely a system seller.

    • johngrimoldy

      Agreed! Having this as a launch title would have made the Vive even more compelling. I’m hoping this opens the door to more VR ports of similar titles – Bioshock, Wolfenstein, Portal (imagine Portal in VR!).

      • Champion Hero

        There is a portal in VR! Portal Stories. It’s pretty good!

        http://store.steampowered.com/app/446750/Portal_Stories_VR/

        • Raphael

          It’s not really a portal as it lacks the standard portal mechanics. Just using portal assets and name. I haven’t even bothered with it.

          • Champion Hero

            If you haven’t bothered with it, you should. You’d have a less biased view. It’s actually pretty good and does feel like portal, albeit a simpler version. I enjoyed playing it, it’s free, and gives a good taste of how portal can work in vr

          • Raphael

            It was made at the height of the nausea hysteria i believe so is it restricted to teleport?

          • Champion Hero

            Correct, it is, but the zones are designed rather well to cater for teleport. Sure it’s not got the speed or fluidity of the real game, but it works really well and gives you a great scale of the world. It left me wanting more and just made me wonder what it could be if valve pulled their fingers out! Seriously give it a go, got nothing to lose other than an hour or so of your life :)

          • Raphael

            So it’s a point and click adventure. Teleport has that effect on games. Valve will never pull finger out. They have gone from strength to strength and their game development has been in constant decline.

          • Raphael

            I might as well give it a try in a week and half when i get home.

        • Strawb77

          t`would be great- a full release of portal stories, but wolfenstein?
          yes of course- that sounds so good!

    • NooYawker

      I truly believed they would release HL3 with the Vive. But what a fool I was.

    • Mermado 1936

      Steam VR doesnt work that way… the one that work with exclusives and blocking the the others its Oculus.

      • Adrian Meredith

        oculus didn’t have touch at launch so it would have been naturally exclusive

  • ResonanceCascade

    Oh yeah.

  • Buddydudeguy

    I’m all for it IF there is none of that floaty, skating on ice movement the Source engine games have. Can’t stand that and it would be nausea inducing in VR, to be sure.

    • DM

      Hl2 was a vomit train. After 45 mins playing I took 2 hours to recover, and no other game made me feel that bad ever again. Hl2 vr mod on the hydra was 1000x more comfortable.

  • JustNiz

    ErMiGerd I MUST have this.

  • J.C.

    Well, it’s free, and will run like a champ on anything that actually meets min spec, so that’s great news. It’s also a fantastic game. I do wonder how the you-aren’t-in-control sequences will work (like the early beatdown), as the camera will move independent of your head. That’s likely to be the worst nausea-causing bits in it, aside from general movement.

    • crim3

      Maybe this will open the eyes to the community about the kind of graphical detail developers should be aiming in order to have smooth 90fps all the time and how the experience benefits from this in VR

    • During that bit where you get knocked down and Alyx saves you, I just made the screen fade out last a while longer, but resolving that sequence less awkwardly is on the to-do list XD

  • AndyP

    HL2 with full locomotion – in the net!!!!!

  • Richard Powell

    If this is free to download, I’ll be making a payment to the developers

    • NooYawker

      Good man!

    • crim3

      I was thinking the same. Hard work must be rewarded.

  • AndyP

    This is great news, excuse the sidetrack, but I’m still sore that Dying Light (much higher spec needed of course) has never made it to the Rift CV1, despite being on previous versions. Still hoping it’s just a waiting game. Even tough I own the games, I’d even be happy to pay again to play in full VR for such great titles (with some discount).

    • yag

      I didn’t play too much Dying Light and Alien Isolation at the time, waiting for a better VR support and a better headset. And now I am sorry…

  • Thomas Sven Whittaker

    I loved that they acknowledged Valve’s abandonment. Valve really has been shafting their fans with this content drought. Hopefully this had angered the Gabens.

  • DaKangaroo

    Valve could create a gaming platform that consists of .. a literal platform, a wooden board, with rusty nails sticking up out of it, that you put under your desk and press your feet down on to play a game, and I think people would still preorder it at $1299 a pop as long as they made Half Life 3 a launch title for it.

    And I mean that as a compliment.

  • Andrew McEvoy

    Well I played this game through twice the first time it got vr enabled. Still one of the best vr experiences to date for me. Looks like there’s going to be a third time round..

  • DM

    Loved the original mod on my dk2 and hydra controller. Even my mum had a go and loved it

  • yag

    3 years after and HLVR is still the best FPS experience (IMO). Not for long now…
    Btw the remastered maps look great (for a 13 years old game !).

  • Tone

    Will this mod work for non-VR types?

  • Marcin Szustak

    Great Work!

    After this, Black Mesa VR please! <3

  • Castro Krinel

    Next will be PORTAL VR!!

  • Jesse Haston

    Well….we’re still waiting for HL2VR release! What happened modders?

  • brian thomsen

    i have played half life 2 with oculus dk1 using vorpx … this game is awesome in vr ravenholm level was one of the best experiences i ever had on dk1 … this greenlight got cancelled , what a pity would have been awesome on vive 8-(

  • Jacob Singer

    I’m guessing this is dead in the water, huh?

  • and 2 years later….nothing to show.

  • JesuSaveSouls

    Right now you can play in full vr on the quest half life 1.Get the mod on sidequest and own the game on steam.You too can play hl2 in full vr with gmod and the mods vrmod and half life campaign.

  • Jonathan Winters III

    So sad this is nonexistant. Would have been epic!!

  • so uh, Alyx is announced now… can we get this mod? maybe?