PREVIEW – It’s hard to believe that Half-Life 2 is already 21 years old, but Half-Life 2 RTX is the perfect showcase of where the gaming industry is headed. Valve’s groundbreaking classic has been given a stunning facelift thanks to NVIDIA’s latest technologies.

In recent years, graphical advancements have been driven less by raw hardware power and more by software innovations. We’ve seen games like Black Myth: Wukong deliver jaw-dropping visuals and seamless performance purely through DLSS scaling, even when RTX 50 cards alone wouldn’t be enough. The battle for upscaling technology is at its peak, and NVIDIA’s latest showcase is proof of that: Half-Life 2, now sporting an RTX edition you won’t forget—if your PC can even handle it.

If you followed NVIDIA’s announcements at GDC 2025, you already know that RTX Remix has officially launched. This tool allows modders and developers to overhaul classic games with the latest cutting-edge graphics enhancements. From ray tracing to DLSS 4.0’s Multiframe Generation—which promises up to four times the frame rate—everything is here to make an old title look like it was made yesterday.

A 2004 Game With Mind-Blowing Lighting

The goal of Half-Life 2 RTX is to make the game look like it just came out, and honestly? If I didn’t know what Remix was doing, I’d swear it was some kind of wizardry. The demo covers two chapters: Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt. You’ll still need the base game for it to work, but it delivers around two hours of content. And there’s a reason these levels were chosen.

If you remember Valve’s classic, you’ll recall that both of these areas thrive on intense visual contrasts. Nova Prospekt’s sterile neon lights cut through the darkness, while Ravenholm oozes horror-movie atmosphere. And this is where NVIDIA truly flexes its muscles. Even for those who know the original version inside out, the new visuals make it feel fresh. For newcomers, it’s an entirely different experience.

The RTX version comes with a dedicated graphics menu that allows you to switch between visuals closer to the original or the fully remastered RTX Remix mode. The latter makes use of advanced tessellation, giving Ravenholm’s cobblestone streets real depth rather than flat textures. Enemies have also been overhauled—fast zombies are now even more terrifying, with exposed bone structures and grotesquely distorted bodies, while Nova Prospekt’s Guardian Antlion looks like something ripped straight from another dimension.

Incredible Lighting, but at a Cost

The highlight of this demo is its lighting—but that’s also where it will push your PC to the limit. NVIDIA’s Ray Reconstruction technology uses AI-driven lighting enhancements, optimized primarily for RTX 50 cards, though a CNN-based alternative is available for older GPUs.

It’s worth noting that Half-Life 2 RTX alters the original’s visual style slightly. The Remix edition generates artificial light sources, making Ravenholm, for instance, appear brighter than before. Moonlight, torches, and other sources cast entirely new shadows, and black tones have been replaced with warmer grays. That said, some sequences are now darker than ever—zombie silhouettes breaking through the dim light are more terrifying than before.

Is It Worth It? Yes—If Your PC Can Handle It

The visual upgrades are breathtaking, but they come at a steep price. On an RTX 3060 Ti, the base game runs at over 250 FPS at 1440p, but in the RTX Remix version, even with DLSS 4.0 Balanced mode enabled, it struggles to break 40 FPS. Since this is still a tech demo, shader loading is far from optimized, leading to frequent stuttering when loading new areas. If you manage to stay above 25 FPS in the most demanding moments, you deserve a medal.

These projects serve both as a way to revisit classics and as technical showcases for the latest hardware. Is it worth experiencing this masterpiece again? Absolutely. But if you’re running a mid-range PC, you might want to stick with Half-Life 2 Cinematic Mod, as even an RTX 3060 Ti is scraping the minimum requirements—and anything weaker is in for a rough ride.

– Gergely Herpai „BadSector” –