The original Half-Life gets a brilliant ray tracing mod

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It's already receiving big praise from the game's community

Half-Life
(Image credit: Valve)

A Half-Life mod that adds ray tracing to Valve's classic game is out right now on PC.

The mod for the original Half-Life on PC only just launched earlier this week on February 22, adding ray-traced graphics to the iconic game. You can see a launch trailer for the new mod just below, giving you a quick look at how the revamped shooter runs with ray-traced capabilities.

With this new mod though, you'll want to make sure your PC is up to par. As per the mod's GitHub page, the recommended specs for this Half-Life mod are an Intel Pentium II with 32MB RAM, 6GB HDD,  and a GeForce 4090 RTX. These specs aren't anything to sniff at, that's for damn sure.

However, be warned that AMD GPUs might have some incompatibility issues with the Half-Life mod. There's a 'Known Issues' section on the mod's GitHub page, and it also reveals that although custom maps are supported, they might be a little darker than they're meant to look.

Over on the dedicated PC Gaming subreddit, users are quick to praise the new mod. "Great excuse to replay a classic, thanks!" writes one user, while another adds "Wow! This looks amazing. I LOVE being able to switch between the two renderers like in halo mcc, such a cool detail." 

Once you've installed the new mod, you can switch between the old graphics of Half-Life and the ray-traced mod's output by simply pressing 'X.' That's a nice little touch for those who really want to see just how much the new mod overhauls Valve's game.

Considering Valve has already given its blessing to Half-Life games to launch on Steam, there could be some official praise in store for this mod's creator.

Check out our best PC games guide if you're after other old school hits to play on your rig.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.