Half-Life: Source

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Mixed · 68%Mixed · 68%2004

The verdict

A janky, bug-ridden Source port of the original Half-Life with ragdolls and water. Skip it as a first playthrough; get the original or Black Mesa instead.

Great for

Half-Life veterans, Garry's Mod users, and fans who enjoy janky quirks or fix mods

Main risk

Many bugs and broken scripts that can softlock the game, with no official fixes

What changed in the last 30 days

26 recent reviews

Recent negative reviews repeat bugs, Valve's neglect and advice to play the original or Black Mesa. No new patch or event is evident; low confidence.

26 recent reviews

What players love

Bugs are minor or overblown

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews

“very minimal bugs, only a single softlock that wouldnt happen to a normal player.”
Steam review · 4.5 h played ↗

“I didn't meet many bugs, just a couple of non-critical ones, like a scientist hanging on a chair.”
Steam review · translated · 14.4 h played ↗

Great for Garry's Mod content

Mentioned in ~1 in 11 positive reviews

“good for gmod workshop, bad for everything else”
Steam review · 3.4 h played ↗

“The only reason this game isn't rated 1/10 is because you can mount it on GMod.”
Steam review · 1.9 h played ↗

Ragdoll physics and water are fun

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 positive reviews

“The water, sky graphics and physics are very nice! This is a good remaster.”
Steam review · 9.2 h played ↗

“introduces vastly improved ragdoll physics, dynamic water effects, enhanced lighting, and far smoother character movement”
Steam review · 2 h played ↗

Fan fix mod makes it playable

Mentioned in ~1 in 13 positive reviews

“However, there is an easy fix for this and that fix is to download the Half-Life Source fixed mod.”
Steam review · 2 h played ↗

Still Half-Life: classic story and gameplay

Mentioned in ~1 in 15 positive reviews

“A true classic. Great story. Great gameplay. A+ Would Recommend.”
Steam review · 31.6 h played ↗

“Legendary classic, even after all these years it looks and plays with great interest.”
Steam review · translated · 15.9 h played ↗

Funny bugs add charm

Mentioned in ~1 in 17 positive reviews

“the crowbar noises are broken, some npcs forget to spawn, lots of other npcs just keep repeating their hurt noises, it's beautiful.”
Steam review · 5 h played ↗

“It's sloppy, but it's Half Life 1 with physics. It's goofy fun.”
Steam review · 0.4 h played ↗

What players complain about

Worse than the original; play that or Black Mesa

Mentioned in ~1 in 2 negative reviews

“It's the very worst version of one of the best FPS' from the late 90s.”
Steam review · 6.9 h played ↗

“This game breaks more things than it improved over the original.”
Steam review · 8.8 h played ↗

Riddled with bugs and broken scripts

Mentioned in ~2 in 5 negative reviews

“it's half life but with 1000 bugs, please fix valve”
Steam review · 2.1 h played ↗

“It has so many bugs that the Crowbar didnt even spawn for me.”
Steam review · 0.3 h played ↗

“After a single death at Nihilanth all weapons vanish, the game is unbeatable.”
Steam review · translated · 15.3 h played ↗

Only useful for Garry's Mod

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews

“Only buy this game if you want to mount Half-Life 1 Assets to GMod.”
Steam review · 0.2 h played ↗

“Bought it only for Garry's Mod content and nothing else.”
Steam review · translated · 3.2 h played ↗

Broken by Source updates and abandoned by Valve

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 negative reviews

“Valve has broken the game with updates it didn't need and they don't give enough of a ♥♥♥♥ to fix it.”
Steam review · 30.1 h played ↗

“This game could have been a good re-release of the original Half-Life but SteamPipe ruined everything.”
Steam review · translated · 4.6 h played ↗

Ugly shiny visuals clash with old assets

Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews

“The floors EVERYWHERE look like they’ve been freshly mopped and waxed”
Steam review · 0.2 h played ↗

“The high-quality water and lighting effects look uncanny in contrast with the geometry and textures.”
Steam review · 8.6 h played ↗

Graphical glitches in Residue Processing

Mentioned in ~1 in 17 negative reviews

“Do NOT play through Residue Processing if you have epilepsy, the things are so broken in the chapter that it is nearly unplayable.”
Steam review · 0.2 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Unknown

Minimum

Memory1GB RAM

GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce 8 or higher, ATI X1600 or higher, or Intel HD 3000 or higher

Memory1GB RAM

GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce 8 or higher, ATI X1600 or higher, or Intel HD 3000 or higher

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