See Half-Life 2 In A Whole New Light By Playing An RTX Demo On March 18

Nvidia has confirmed that Half-Life 2 RTX will get a demo on March 18, giving us a glimpse of what this Valve classic would look like if it were made in 2025, not 2004.

This demo is meant to be a showpiece for Nvidia RTX Remix, which exited beta today, March 13. As the video below shows, this gives Half-Life 2 features it didn't have before, like full ray tracing and multi-frame generation. While the final version of Half-Life 2 RTX will contain the full game, this demo will only feature the Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt levels.

First teased in 2023, Half-Life 2 RTX is not made by Valve but by the fans-turned-developers at Orbifold Studios. Positioned as a DLC mod for the official version of the game, Half-Life 2 RTX overhauls the shooter's visuals utilizing Nvidia RTX Remix, an open-source platform that can be used to enhance preexisting games with Nvidia technologies like DLSS 4, RTX Neural Rendering, and Reflex. Nvidia wants modders to use RTX Remix for fan-made remasters, and is backing Half-Life 2 RTX to show what RTX Remix can do.

Half-Life 2 RTX's demo will be released on Steam on March 18. The full version will be released "at a later date," according to Nvidia. It'll be free for those who own Half-Life 2 on Steam.