Half-Life: Alyx is the long-awaited next game in the venerable Half-Life series. Unfortunately, it’s a game that many, many Half-Life fans won’t get to play, purely because it’s a VR exclusive. Without the requisite, expensive hardware, it’s out of reach for most. It’s a bit of a downer for fans who’ve been waiting over a decade for more Half-Life – but they can at least be safe in the knowledge that the VR experience doesn’t continue the story, and instead serves as a bit of a prequel to some of the events of Half-Life 2.
Still, if you are going to be playing it, it’d be good to catch up, as Valve notes on the Steam blog.
“The Half-Life: Alyx team believes that the best way to enjoy the new game is to play through the old ones, especially Half-Life 2 and the episodes, so we want to make that as easy as possible.”
They’re making it as easy as possible by giving the games away for free until Half-Life: Alyx’s release in March. That doesn’t give you an awful lot of time to play through the entire Half-Life Library, but it’ll give you something to play if you don’t already own the games on Steam or having nothing else to play considering everything that was supposed to be coming has been delayed.
Says Valve:
From now until Half-Life: Alyx launches, visit the game page of each Half-Life game to install it and play as much as you want, right up until the day Half-Life: Alyx is released!
Here’s which games are included:
Also included in this bundle and available to play for free are:
Unfortunately, it doesn’t include the superior Portal games which, while not explicitly Half-Life games, most exist within the same universe. Anyway, free games! If you haven’t played the, now’s a good time.
Last Updated: January 22, 2020
G8crasha
January 22, 2020 at 12:41
Everytime I read about the new Half-Life game I want rage!!!
Pariah
January 22, 2020 at 12:48
Rage and Rage 2 are not really up to Half-Life standards. I’d give them a skip.
G8crasha
January 22, 2020 at 13:06
I seem to have misworded the statement. I meant to say: “I want TO rage”
Pariah
January 22, 2020 at 13:06
haha I know what you meant. I’m doing my usual grammar nazi thing. 😉
Dresden
January 22, 2020 at 12:48
The speed runs of these games are magical. Especially Half Life 2!
Raptor Rants
January 22, 2020 at 12:48
Does anyone not have these? Don’t they go on sale for next to nothing every sale Steam has?
*Looks at Steam account*
Wait… I got none of these in my steam library. Lol.
PS:I do have HL2 but bought it back in school and I have some bizarro yahoo account that I don’t know the access details to.
Alien Emperor Trevor
January 22, 2020 at 12:48
Well now you can add all… 7… games.
Raptor Rants
January 22, 2020 at 15:02
I knew someone was going to point this out. I just knew it
Pariah
January 22, 2020 at 12:48
HL2 was the reason I created a Steam account. Still use the same account to this day.
Raptor Rants
January 22, 2020 at 12:53
I lost access to my yahoo address ages ago. So I can’t reset the password even hehe. And my account was purged off Yahoo for non use. And yeah too much of a schlep. I wonder if there’s a way to see what your first ever steam game was… Would like to know what made Steam so permanent for me. It wasn’t HL2, that’s for sure
Pariah
January 22, 2020 at 13:06
Steam only really started seeing me use it as a main thing at around the time BL2 released. So 2012. For a while I was a console gamer.
Raptor Rants
January 22, 2020 at 13:13
Sadly Steam only sees purchases for me up to Dec 2011. Before that there’s no record I can find. I know I used it way before this. Guess it remains a mystery unless I remember
HvR
January 22, 2020 at 17:07
Half life 2 was the reason I ran a pseudo steam verification server.
Hammersteyn
January 23, 2020 at 15:36
Yes, people with banned Fortnite accounts. Now they can play proper games
Pariah
January 22, 2020 at 12:53
The wording makes it sound like it’s only F2P until Alyx is released, so you’d have to buy them thereafter to continue playing?
Not that 95% of people on Steam don’t already own these games (as Rants so aptly points out). But you know.
Geoffrey Tim
January 22, 2020 at 13:06
Yeah, only free to play until then.
Geoffrey Tim
January 22, 2020 at 12:53
Half Life, Free!
Original Heretic
January 22, 2020 at 13:13
Thanks for clarifying. After that headline and the article, I thought they were only half price.
….
Aaaand that’s my sarcastic quota for the week.
Pariah
January 22, 2020 at 15:15
Brilliant.
Hammersteyn
January 23, 2020 at 15:36
XD
Dresden
January 22, 2020 at 14:25
Speaking of free games, Europa Universalis 4 plus a few DLC’s is on sale for $1 on Humble Bundle. For those that are interested or don’t already know.