Half-Life 2: Episode 1 is due to receive its biggest mod yet, with the Half-Life 2 VR team now working on porting the project over to the game's first standalone expansion pack. After Half-Life: Alyx showed just how interesting and engaging a true Half-Life VR experience could be, it was only a matter of time until someone attempted to do something similar for Valve's old classic.

Indeed, last year's release of the Half-Life 2 VR mod showed that not only does the game hold up remarkably well even after almost two decades' worth of technological advancement, but it's also still quite a lot of fun. The team responsible for the mod didn't dawdle after its release, either, and the tech used for it is now being leveraged to update another Valve classic for VR gameplay.

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According to the SourceVR Mod Team, the developers responsible for the VR version of Half-Life 2, the virtual reality retrofit of Episode 1 content should be coming out sometime in Q1 2023. This information came about as part of SourceVR Mod Team's latest announcement trailer featuring some pivotal scenes from Half-Life 2: Episode 1, but played out in VR. This makes it clear that the project is well underway and that fans of the devs' previous efforts should have a pretty solid idea of what to expect.

The scope of the SourceVR Mod Team's efforts is fairly extensive, but it doesn't include adding, for example, Half-Life 2's unused beta levels. The majority of novelties introduced with the mod have to do with its gameplay and mechanics, instead, with the VR implementation being put front-and-center as the crux of the release. Players can expect advanced weapon handling, a number of important VR quality-of-life improvements, an intuitive UI, as well as a variety of other upgrades.

SourceVR Mod Team's inspiration primarily comes from Valve's own Half-Life: Alyx, which has been acclaimed as one of the finest VR games of all time. A full-fledged campaign with a surprising array of interactive elements strewn about each level, Alyx is a more comprehensive experience than a Half-Life 2 VR mod could be, but the fact that the projects are comparable at all is more than impressive enough.

Curiously, Half-Life: Alyx mods have made it possible to play the game in 2D, without its default VR requirement. There have been several successful attempts at pulling this off to make the game more accessible to those without a VR headset, and it's good to see the Half-Life modding scene reinvigorated by Valve's recent releases. Naturally, this still doesn't mean a Half-Life 3 will be coming out anytime soon, but that shouldn't be much of a surprise at this point.

Half-Life 2: Episode 1 launched in 2006 and is available on Mobile, PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

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