Half-Life's raytracing mod is great because it makes the game look old in a new way

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Half-Life’s raytracing mod is great because it makes the game look old in a new wayTurn on all the mucky filters and revel in the fancy mess

Turn on all the mucky filters and revel in the fancy mess

Half-Life raytracing mod gameplayHere’s me playing the first 20 minutes of Half-Life with raytracing and the wonderfully mucky CRT filterWatch on YouTube

Half-Life raytracing mod gameplay

I dislike most modern makeover mods for old games. HD texture packs which overwrite intentful and suggestive detail with high-def noise. New models which replace charm with ‘realism’ or turn Alyx Vance into some sort of Leather Goddess Of Phobos. Raytracing mods which make every surface gleam. Post-processing shader tools which just agh. They might bring higher pixel density, polycounts, and other big numbers, but they typically break a game’s style and make it look unlike itself (the phenomonalResident Evil 4 HD Projectis a rare exception). I like this mod’s unusual approach to that problem.

You can even see Gordon reflected in Barney’s shiny helmet

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Without the added mess, the mod is just new technology crammed into an old game, which is wholly uninteresting. I imagine many people will think it looks worse with the mess, and I can understand and respect that. But responding to it with dislike is more interesting than the only reasonable response to the clean version: acknowledging that yes, this is indeed what Half-Life looks like with real-time path tracing added.

I do have a few gripes with the mod, mind. Quite a few colourful sprites, flashes, and other effects probably should cast light but don’t. That’s a shame. Some strong lights in the original are weirdly muted here. But on the whole, I’m quite pleased. Even the glitches fit within the messy experience.

I like these big chapter title cards too

I had meant simply to have a gander at the mod then take some screenshots and record a video for this post, but I’ve got sucked in. This mucky makeover is enough to draw me into another playthrough. You know, I think Half-Life is a pretty good game.

Fans of the Freeman should also check out our recentinterview with Half-Life’s writer, Marc Laidlaw. He chats about the early days, his decision to release his planned Episode 3 plot as fanfic, and more.