I do not recommend playing Black Mesa before playing Half-Life however, as it's good to have the context of the original game in mind going into Black Mesa.Īs for how many hours it would take. Black Mesa is also a remake, and much more elaborate. Half-Life Source is just a remake of the original Half-Life, really more like a remaster. Technically, Alyx is a prequel to the Half-Life 2 series, but it really only makes sense after playing the Half-Life 2 games. They certainly have the same spirit at least.Īfter all this is Half-Life Alyx. Cameos or not, these are essentially major Half-Life spinoffs. For some reason, Valve decided to just can everything planned after Episode Two.
At one point it was going to be its own game, called Ravenholm. There was also an Episode Four planned, featuring the main character of Opposing Force. It's a little odd, thematically, that they're going with Unreal Engine instead of id Tech (did you know that the original Half-Life engine was partially based on the original Quake engine?), but it's not my project. I am told a group is working on a game based on that synopsis. There was supposed to be an Episode Three, but it just didn't happen, though what appears to be a synopsis got released. The above three games make up the "Half-Life 2 series". These three games actually do play out in order. This is followed by its own expansion packs, Episode One and Episode Two. Then you have Half-Life 2, again the original game. The above four games make up the "Half-Life (1) series". There is an unofficial port of it, but you have to go through some effort.
The developers intended to release it for PC as well, but things happened and the port never materialized. This was made specifically for the PlayStation 2 port of Half-Life and comes with that port. There is yet another standalone expansion pack known as Decay.
They don't need to be played in any particular order. Opposing Force is a standalone expansion pack. What's simply called "Half-Life" is the original game.