The twentieth anniversary of Half-Life 2 noticed Valve launch a serious shock replace for the PC gaming hall-of-famer (in addition to a superb two hour documentary). It built-in Episodes 1 and a couple of with the bottom sport (so now you can play via your entire expertise seamlessly), added a brand new commentary monitor from the previous gang, and for the coup de grace each location was given a glow-up: “Every map in Half-Life 2 has been regarded over by Valve degree designers to repair longstanding bugs, restore content material and options misplaced to time, and enhance the standard of some issues like lightmap decision and fog.”
Lovely! Except maybe in case you’re a Half-Life 2 speedrunner, a type of freewheeling souls who’s way back stopped seeing the G-Man and appears at City 17 just like the Matrix, pinballing the Freeman from checkpoint to checkpoint on Valve’s hidden flippers. It seems that, when enhancing all the pieces, Valve’s present designers added an invisible wall to a big sewer pipe. And speedrunners promptly began slamming proper into it.
The map in query is Route Kanal or “d1_canals_03” and encompasses a puzzle the place the participant has to show a valve and flood the pipe in query in an effort to move via. The higher part of the pipe is meant to have an invisible wall to cease the participant getting via earlier than they’ve solved the puzzle however, for no matter cause, this has solely ever been current within the Xbox 360 model of the sport, and thus profiting from the lacking wall (by glitching up the floor with physics objects somewhat than including water) is a daily a part of PC speedruns.
The Sourceruns wiki retains detailed notes on the variations between varied variations of Half-Life 2 and now has a bit dedicated to the twentieth anniversary replace with varied grumbles. Here it notes that “the pipe close to the top of the extent has been blocked off by a invisible brush which was beforehand solely current within the Xbox 360 model of the sport. The brush disappears as soon as the participant solves the puzzle within the supposed manner.”
And what use is that to a speedrunner? Someone at Valve clearly observed the disquiet as a result of, a number of days later, an replace for Half-Life 2 reverted this repair with a direct nod to the rationale why: “Removed collision from an underwater tube that pace runners take pleasure in.”
The weirdest factor about that is that Valve’s authentic repair was legit. It appears apparent within the context of the 360 model that this invisible wall ought to’ve been within the PC model of the sport, and the very fact it wasn’t till now was an oversight on Valve’s half. But I suppose the unexpected penalties have been judged to have benefit in their very own proper.
This is much from the one speedrunning strat that the anniversary replace has damaged. Pity the poor rocket scientists who specialize in “d1_canals_11”, as a result of now “the skybox celling of the map has been considerably moved up, breaking previous setups for launching over it.” Other maps characteristic new invisible partitions or adjusted collision factors, and at factors the speedrunners get straight-up stroppy about it: On “d2_prison_01” we discover that “Every clip brush on the map, apart from these on ladders had been eliminated, presumably by mistake.”
There are, nevertheless, a number of comfort prizes. Witness the delight of modifications to “d3_c17_05” the place “the door which the participant is supposed to make use of to enter a constructing has been made right into a gap as a substitute and considerably widened, making being quick lots simpler. Additionally, the ground texture within the residences was modified from concrete to regular ground tiles. Makes sense!”
Half-Life 2 isn’t uncommon amongst in style speedrunning video games in having a group that splits over which actual model of the title is getting used. The hottest period for Half-Life 2 appears to be the variations that existed simply over a decade in the past.
“We do primarily use older builds, most frequently ones from 2012-2013, particularly on the high degree,” speedrunner “Peng”, a HL2 world report holder, informed RockPaperShotgun. “But at the least I do discover it unlucky that we’re lacking out on a few of the new modifications, as some really profit speedrunners…”
Peng says modifications to the “Item Save Glitch” means the anniversary construct is unlikely to show in style with speedrunners, as this permits customers to skip total sections of the sport and save massive time by glitching via sure partitions. Though he does grant, with informal brutality, that Valve’s fix-reversal will make it “viable for inexperienced persons” once more.
The important factor with the anniversary replace for us mere mortals is the wealth of Half-Life 2 materials that got here alongside it. Valve ‘s documentary serves as each of a making of the sport and a time capsule of an period the place Valve wasn’t but Valve: No-one thought Steam would work, Testers have been going stir-crazy and taking part in with gnomes to make their forty seventh runthrough extra bearable, and for the primary time we get some actual perception into what went on with the unshipped Half-Life 2: Episode 3.
