While many gamers are still hoping to see the release of Half-Life 3 one day, others are finding new and better ways to experience Half-Life 2. The latest about the 13-year-old game is a new virtual reality mod for Half-Life 2, which recently surfaced on Steam Greenlight.

The mod comes by way of Half-Life fans who want to provide a more immersive experience for gamers in City 17. Because who wouldn’t want to face nightmares and hellish creatures in virtual reality, right?

The crew behind the mod have released a new trailer, which can be seen below, that makes an excellent case for the project. As the trailer and accompanying Steam page show, the mod team is planning to bring a slew of features to the VR version of Half-Life 2.

Among the more notable features coming to Half-Life 2 VR are HDR lighting, updated effects, textures, models, and maps, as well as realistic weapon interactions. To this last point, the mods had to do more than just make minor tweaks to the weapon designs in the game. Instead, they’ve had to completely recreate the weapons for a VR experience.

Like most first-person shooters, weapons are created with a single viewing angle in mind. In order to add VR support, the mods for Half-Life 2 VR rebuilt the weapons so players could wield them and see them from various angles. In addition to a design update, the mods also incorporated realistic weapon gestures. For instance, in order to reload the .357 Magnum Revolver, gamers need to tilt the gun up and dump out the spent cartridges before loading in a new set of bullets and slipping the chamber closed.

According to the mod team, Half-Life 2 VR will be compatible with both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive thanks to the Source VR implementation capabilities. Interestingly, the original VR mod was released back in 2013, but quickly became unplayable when mods discovered the VR setup wouldn’t work on newer VR headsets. Fortunately, after revisiting the system, the mods were able to pull together a crew of people to find solutions to make Half-Life 2 VR playable on current generation Rift and Vive units.

Those who are interested in getting their hands on Half-Life 2 VR will need to head over to the mod’s Steam Greenlight page and offer their support, voting for the mod to go through. Once it’s approved, the Half-Life 2 VR mod will be available for free, though gamers will need to own Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 on Steam in order to play Half-Life 2 VR.

Again, for the sake of posterity, the Half-Life 2 VR mod can be seen more fully on its Steam Greenlight page.

Source: Steam