Valve has been holding on to a special surprise for Half-Life 2 fans to celebrate the game crossing its 20th birthday. Today, the company shipped the 20th Anniversary Update for the iconic Gordon Freeman adventure from 2004, combining the base experience and all episodes into one, bringing developer commentary, Steam Workshop support, and much more. Adding to all that, the game is completely free to claim on Steam right now too.
Before getting to all that, Half-Life fans should know that another documentary produced by Secret Tape is available right now for streaming. Much like the original Half-Life"s 25th Anniversary documentary, this one looks back at the game"s development as Valve battled budget issues, getting hacked, build leaks, and much more interesting details. See it below:
Coming back to the Half-Life 2 Anniversary Update, the base game now includes its Episode One and Two Expansions right out of the gate. While playable straight from the main menu, they will also seamlessly begin their adventures when players reach the end point of the base game"s campaign.
An interactive developer commentary mode has been added to the campaigns too, letting players hear what the studio was thinking about when designing levels, gameplay elements, encounters, and other goodies.
Steam Workshop support for built-in easy modding capabilities, fixes for longstanding bugs, restored cut content and features, updated graphics settings, refined controller support with better aim assistance, and more have landed for the classic title as well. All that"s missing is a Half-Life 3 teaser. Find the complete patch notes of the Anniversary Update on this page, though you"ll have to scroll down quite a bit to find it.
Half-Life 2 is free to claim on its Steam store page right now, alongside Episode One and Episode Two expansions, and all that"s required to grab it is an account on the storefront. The giveaway will last through Sunday, November 18.