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.
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.