In celebration of the upcoming launch of Half-Life: Alyx, the studio’s first full VR title, Valve is making all games in the Half-Life series free to play until Alyx’s release in March.
Half-Life is the cornerstone franchise that established Valve as one of the game industry’s most lauded developers. From the first Half-Life in 1998, the series has spanned seven titles, leaving the world with a doozy of a cliff hanger in 2007 with the release Half-Life 2: Episode 2.
And though it isn’t the infamously anticipated Half-Life 3, the upcoming Half-Life: Alyx is set to be Valve’s return to the franchise after more than 12 years, and the first full fledged VR title to be release by the studio.
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For many, it’s been a minute since they played the iconic series; for many others, Half-Life may have simply been before their time. To refamiliarize (or newly introduce) Half-Life to the world, Valve has made all seven titles free to play until the release of Half-Life: Alyx this March.
Although Alyx is set before the events of Half-Life 2 (2004), Valve has said that players will be better off having played the Half-Life 2 series before Alyx, for reasons that will become apparent in the game.
“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,” the company said about making the franchise free to play.
