Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Developers
	Valve Corporation
Publishers
	Valve Corporation
Russia	Buka Entertainment
Engines
Original	Source 2007
Current	Source 2013 Singleplayer
Release dates
Windows	October 10, 2007
macOS (OS X)	May 26, 2010
Linux	May 9, 2013
Reception
Metacritic	90
IGDB	70
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Shooter
Vehicles	Automobile
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Eastern Europe, Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi
Series	Half-Life

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two is a singleplayer first-person shooter game in the Half-Life series.

General information

GitHub Issue Tracker for Half-Life 2: Episode Two and other Source-based games

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Steam		DRM-free when launched directly from the executable with -game ep2 command line argument.[citation needed]

All versions require Steam DRM.

Soundtrack is available for free here.

Essential improvements

Peixoto's patch

Peixoto's patch forced resolution allows in high resolution without shrinking the HUD\menus. Super sampling anti-aliasing is also possible

Low draw distance

Default draw distance is too low resulting in noticeable pop-ins of vegetation during the driving sections.

Use console commands
Download hiquality.cfg and put it in <path-to-game>\ep2\cfg Enable console commands, open console using ~ button and type in bind "F11" "exec hiquality" and press ↵ Enter When a new map loads, press F11 to switch to high quality configuration.

Skip intro videos

Use -novid command line argument

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Steam	<path-to-game>/ep2/cfg/

This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Steam	<path-to-game>/ep2/save/ <path-to-game>/ep2/cfg/config.cfg

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud		Approx. 100 MB available. Syncs save games and settings.

Video

General video settings

Advanced video settings

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD			Interface scales poorly.
Field of view (FOV)		Values between 75° and 110° horizontal can be set via ingame slider. For even higher values use this guide.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Run in a window (No Border) option, otherwise see Borderless fullscreen windowed if running old versions or not working.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 8x MSAA. SGSSAA available with flag 0x000000C1.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Double buffered
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Frame rate cap can be changed by changing fps_max in the developer console. To uncap FPS or cap FPS higher than 300 you must first set sv_cheats = 1 before using fps_max. sv_cheats = 1 will also disable achievements.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.

HBAO available with flag 0x0000002C.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

-window -noborder
For newer versions, see above. Otherwise follow this steps: Find Half-Life 2: Episode Two in your Steam Library Right-click the game name Select Properties Select Set Launch Options... Input -window -noborder Press OK Launch the game

Input

Key map settings

Mouse/gamepad settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Native since 2022 update, use -gamepadui Command line argument to enable Gamepad UI. By default, this will also enable Vulkan. If you want to enable the Gamepad UI on systems with GPUs that does not support Vulkan, use -dx9 alongside -gamepadui in order to force the game to launch with DX9 mode instead of Vulkan, while having Gamepad UI enabled.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts		Supported via Steam Input API.
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers
PlayStation button prompts		Supported via Steam Input API.
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes	Wired, Wireless (Bluetooth), Wireless (Bluetooth)

Tracked motion controllers

Generic/other controllers		Both Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and Generic Gamepads are supported via Steam Input API
Button prompts		Nintendo Switch Pro Controller button prompts are supported via Steam Input API

Additional information
Button prompts		The new Controller-centric UI will automatically change the button prompts based of the controller you have connected (through Steam Input API). For older version of the game (or third-party mods that doesn't support the Gamepad UI), use Controller UI Mod to get a choice of button prompts such as Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3/4, Switch, and more.
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		Supported via Steam Input API. If using the old version or Legacy XInput mode: you can bring back Controller rumble by download an updated version of the SDL2 runtime binary (choose Runtime Binaries x86) and replace it with the one in <path-to-game>\bin. This works for any Source engine based game.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Official controller preset(s)		PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam Controller & Steam Deck (under Standard and Motion Controls presets)
Steam Controller button prompts		Uses Steam Input API's built-in Button Icons

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Over-all game volume and separate music slider.
Surround sound		7.1, 5.1 surround sound, 4 speaker surround. 7.1 output may require DirectSound3D restoration software.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		"Silence the audio while the game window is in the background" check box.
EAX support		Set snd_legacy_surround 1 in console, 4 speakers in options, and use DSOAL for binaural HRTF mixing.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech				Fan - dub
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Hungarian				Localization by Pink Sunset Studio. Download here
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian				After the "SteamPipe" update, errors appeared in the localization, such as the effect of broken phrases. Therefore, it is recommended to download the patch, made by guys from the "hl-inside" forum.
Slovak				Fan - 1
Spanish
Swedish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play
Online play		10	Use Synergy.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting		See Documentation: Dedicated Servers.
Direct IP

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision
TriDef 3D
iZ3D
vorpX		G3D, DirectVR Officially supported game. Momentarily not on official vorpx game list, but assuming through some forum talk the game should be 3D.A profile is available at the factory profile list.

Headsets
SteamVR		This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer (compatibility list).
Oculus VR (LibOVR)		Available under Video Settings. See Oculus Rift for more information.
Windows Mixed Reality		This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer.

Devices
Tracked motion controllers
Traditional controller		See Input for details.
Keyboard/Mouse
3RD Space Gaming Vest
Novint Falcon

Oculus Rift

By default VR mode will run full screen, to switch back to a borderless windowed set the vr_force_windowed convar.

Issues fixed

Purple and black broken textures

A generic fix for this issue can be found on our Source engine page.

Pickup Icons cut off at the bottom

Misaligned HUD causing pickup icons to appear cut at the bottom in certain resolutions.

Instructions
Download HUD FIX and extract it in <path-to-game>\hl2\custom

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9	Has compatibility levels for older Direct3D 8 cards.
OpenGL	2.1	OS X and Linux only.
Vulkan		Use -vulkan command line argument.
Shader Model support	2, 3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)			[citation needed]
Linux			[citation needed]

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok	Heavily modified variant.
Audio	Miles Sound System
Interface	VGUI2
Input	SDL
Cutscenes	Bink Video	Used for one startup video.

Console commands

Games running on the Source engine can utilize Source Engine Console Commands for various tasks.

Enabling the console in Source games
Launch the game From the main menu select Options Select the Keyboard tab Click the Advanced button Check the box next to Enable developer console (~) Click Apply Notes Press ~ to open the console. Some commands may first require you enabling sv_cheats. You can do so with sv_cheats 1. Users without a US keyboard could experience some problems.

Launch options

View this Steam Support Article regarding launch options as well as the relevant Valve Developer wiki page for further information and a list of useful Source engine launch options.

Enabling a launch parameter
Find the game in your Steam Library Right-click the game name Select Properties Select Set Launch Options... Input your selected launch options and separate each command with a space Press OK Launch the game

Mods

For popular mods, see Mod DB's "Half-Life 2: Episode Two Mods" section.

Research and Development

Research and Development is a Source Mod that requires Episode Two, download it from Mod DB.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two 4X AI Textures

Textures for all NPCs, some weapons, some items, some crates, and some vehicles, upscaled with Topaz A.I. Gigapixel.

Upscaled textures are faithful to the original textures.

Large download at over 8.5 GB, including patches. Around 22.7 GB once extracted.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	1.7 GHz	Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	512 MB	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4.6 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 ATI Radeon 9500 128 MB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce 6800 ATI Radeon X800

Windows 2000 was previously supported, but as future updates for this game and Steam occurred; the support was dropped, even with retail copies. Support for Windows XP were also dropped with 2022 Steam Deck update, but users can downgrade to older version (previous beta branch) to play.

Must be run without Steam to play on Vista.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.5.8, 10.6.3
Processor (CPU)	1.7 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4.6 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8 ATI Radeon X1600 Intel HD 3000