21 Years Ago Today, One of the Best Games Ever Came to PC

It’s been 21 years to the day since one of gaming’s best-ever titles made its way to PC. For as long as video games have been a hobby, debate has raged over the best games of all time. With each generation of tech, new competitors rise up to challenge the previous undisputed classics. Hyperbole is common, and unpopular arguments are frequent. However, there are a handful of games that are usually considered beyond reproach.

One such game is Half-Life 2. The sequel to 1998’s Half-Life, the follow-up built on the first one’s bedrock in every conceivable way. A runaway success that helped cement Valve as one of the benchmark studios in 21st-century gaming, Half-Life 2 remains deeply impressive even 21 years later. It’s not often that a game can truthfully be said to have changed the face of gaming — but Half-Life 2 isn’t most games.

Making The Best Game Ever

Building on the success of Half-Life, Valve was challenged by Gabe Newell to not just deliver a worthy sequel but “the best PC game of all time.” Remixing the standard FPS approach with the then-new game engine Source, Half-Life 2 was in production for several years before it was ready to launch on PC on November 16, 2004. The plot pitting Gordon Freeman against the alien Combine empire was expanded far beyond the Black Mesa Research Facility.

The game’s central narrative was expanded, with more supporting characters like Alyx Vance, Father Grigori, and Dog fleshing out the world. The action expanded far beyond the typical halls and battlefields of the FPS genre, playing up the horror elements that were established in the previous game with enemies like the Head Crabs. Most notably, the game was also given a more in-depth physics engine. This added new layers to the combat and set up weapons like the Gravity Gun to push the new game design to its full potential.

The Gravity Gun is an absolute blast and a great showcase of the sheer level of depth afforded to the game during development, a worthwhile game mechanic all on its own, that is just a taste of what the game had going on under the hood. Given a blank check and a limitless timeframe to produce the game to meet his expectations, Newall’s direction was met by a team ready to deliver on his promise.

How Half-Life 2 Took Over The World

After several test runs and even an infamous leak of the then-uncompleted title, Half-Life 2 was released to almost unanimous praise in 2004. Gabe Newell’s intention to have the best PC game of all time was seemingly justified, with Half-Life 2 becoming only the fifth game to earn a perfect 10/10 score from the notoriously critical UK-based gaming publication, Edge. Within 7 years, the game would sell over 12 million copies across several platforms, including console releases on Xbox, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Several outlets awarded it “Game of the Year” status, and the game continues to dominate “best of” lists over twenty years since it debuted. Half-Life 2 became a foundational game in the FPS genre, expanding upon the mold in ways other popular titles like Halo 2 could only dream of. While other shooters had a larger scope, none of them necessarily had the mastery of genre blending and commitment to storytelling integration with the gameplay that Half-Life 2 did. Many games try to be a little bit of everything but fail to master any one element. Half-Life 2 is the rare game that succeeded in that pursuit, delivering a tightly controlled and deeply compelling product that has been a blast to replay across various platforms.

Half-Life 2 Was So Good, It Changed The Future Of Gaming

Without Half-Life 2, the modern gaming landscape would be radically different. Notably, Half-Life 2 was the killer app for Steam. The gaming service had been launched by Valve the previous year, providing the service with a killer app that helped keep it alive long enough to attract other games and publishers. This eventually snowballed into Steam becoming one of the premier ways gamers play on PC, leading to innovative new hardware like the Steam Deck. Half-Life 2 highlighted the storytelling depth that could be present in action-heavy genres like the FPS, all while retaining plenty of big set pieces and tense encounters. Each remaster works to improve the graphics, highlighting the enduringly impressive gameplay.

Games targeted at broad audiences after Half-Life 2 grew more ambitious in their storytelling efforts. Valve’s focus on making the supporting NPCs feel real required extensive focus on the graphics, writing, and acting, highlighting the emotional potential of gaming as a narrative. The inventive physics engines encountered further innovation at the publisher, leading to other projects like Portal. Half-Life 2‘s impact has lingered in the gaming ecosystem, with few titles ever being openly compared to the title.

That may also be why there’s never formally been a sequel to the game. There were two episodic sequels that carried on the story, and a prequel — Half-Life: Alyx — that was released in 2020 to overall strong reviews. However, an entire generation of gamers has grown up waiting for any announcement about Half-Life 3, only to be left wanting. It’s hard to overstate just how big Half-Life 2 was in the gaming space when it came out. It was a must-play title, something that felt like an ideal representation of what the medium could be.