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Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Half-Life® 2: Episode Two is the second in a trilogy of new games created by Valve that extends the award-winning and best-selling Half-Life® adventure. As Dr. Gordon Freeman, you were last seen exiting City 17 with Alyx Vance as the Citadel erupted amidst a storm of unknown proportions.
View on Steam ↗ Free (US · as of 2026-07-26)What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.
What reviewers agree on
11 of the 102 reviews raise this.
“This is peak Half-Life 2. The outdoor levels were gorgeous. The combination of lush forests and ruined buildings is perfection. The gameplay is extremely fun, and I’ll even go as far as saying it’s more fun than the…”
“W Game the end fight is really fun :)))))))))))))))”
“I didn't start playing this game until 19 years after it was released. Even though I bought it a few years ago, for some unknown reason it no longer appears in my game library. The only reason I was able to play it is…”
10 of the 102 reviews raise this.
“This is peak Half-Life 2. The outdoor levels were gorgeous. The combination of lush forests and ruined buildings is perfection. The gameplay is extremely fun, and I’ll even go as far as saying it’s more fun than the…”
“Better than Episode 1, this was simply more than just the escape plot that part 1 had. If it wasnt more than one thing in this part and im illiterate and ignorant, then.. that's the case. But whatever this episode did I…”
“One of the best classical first-person shooter ever. Everyone knows Counter Strike and they love it so, this pearl has the same system and technology with all the benefits of the single player. In addition, the story is…”
5 of the 102 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“If you’re aiming for 100% achievements in this game, make sure to play the separate versions (found under “Tools”). If you don’t, any achievements earned in the merged version will not carry over to the separate ones…”
4 of the 102 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“games awesome endings crap”
“Let's address the elephant in the room - the story is incomplete, and thus hugely unsatisfying. There. As for the rest of the game... the opening is actually pretty poor, being a series of repetitive encounters that…”
4 of the 102 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“This is peak Half-Life 2. The outdoor levels were gorgeous. The combination of lush forests and ruined buildings is perfection. The gameplay is extremely fun, and I’ll even go as far as saying it’s more fun than the…”
“Let's address the elephant in the room - the story is incomplete, and thus hugely unsatisfying. There. As for the rest of the game... the opening is actually pretty poor, being a series of repetitive encounters that…”
“9/10. Should have also had the Crab Synth too, WHY VALVEEEEEE!!!!!!”
3 of the 102 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“A good story game. not as long as half life 2”
3 of the 102 reviews raise this · 1 of them still recommend the game.
“At the request of the publisher, Half-Life 2: Episode Two is unlisted on the Steam store and will not appear in search. The Steam overlay and stuff like discussions seem to have been removed too. If you want to take and…”
“I didn't start playing this game until 19 years after it was released. Even though I bought it a few years ago, for some unknown reason it no longer appears in my game library. The only reason I was able to play it is…”
Counted across 102 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 97.1% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“Great game. Had a fun time 100% completing the achievements. Dont really like the cliffhanger at the end though. [b]NOTE:[/b] If you want to 100% achievement hunt this game, do it in the separated versions (aka hidden under "Tools"). If you dont do that, the achievements from…”
— a player, Steam review · 12 hrs played“Half Life 2: Episode 2 is the finale of the original run of Half Life 2, and we've been waiting for almost 20 years for the Half Life 3 that is most likely never to be. HL2:E2 keeps things interesting and is almost 5 hours long if you take your time, over twice as long as…”
— a player, Steam review · 18 hrs played“The strongest Half Life Episode of the two! The Second half of this expantion is definetvly more memorable, not least because it remains to this day the last. Story wise it is captivating, leaving the player to one of the most memorable cliff hangers in gaming history. The…”
— a player, Steam review · 6 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-11 10:12 UTC · history via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-07-25.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Half-Life 2: Episode Two - Update
An update has been released for Half-Life 2: Episode Two - UI and Input support for Steam Deck verification.
Games like Half-Life 2: Episode Two
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
Half-Life 2
97.4% · 120,362 reviews
shares Silent Protagonist, Dystopian, Classic, Aliens
Half-Life 2: Episode One
95.1% · 14,693 reviews
shares Silent Protagonist, Episodic, Dystopian, Classic
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
89.7% · 6,962 reviews
shares Silent Protagonist, Dystopian, Classic, Aliens
Half-Life: Blue Shift
92.4% · 11,274 reviews
shares Silent Protagonist, Classic, Aliens, Zombies
Black Mesa
94.9% · 74,744 reviews
shares Classic, Aliens, Zombies, Great Soundtrack
Half-Life: Opposing Force
95.2% · 15,096 reviews
shares Silent Protagonist, Classic, Aliens, Great Soundtrack
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
91.7% · 177,599 reviews
shares Classic, Aliens, Great Soundtrack, FPS
Far Cry®
77.2% · 5,007 reviews
shares Classic, Zombies, Great Soundtrack, FPS
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.
| Genres | Action |
| Player tags | FPS · Action · Sci-fi · Singleplayer · Shooter · Story Rich · First-Person · Classic · Adventure · Aliens · Atmospheric · Zombies (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Captions available · Camera Comfort · Custom Volume Controls · Adjustable Difficulty · Playable without Timed Input |
| Languages | English * , French * , German * , Russian * , Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese - Portugal, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Spain * , Swedish, Traditional Chinese * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 23 |
| Estimated owners | 5,000,000 – 10,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | http://www.whatistheorangebox.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX® 8.1 level Graphics Card (Requires support for SSE), Windows® 7 (32/64-bit)/Vista/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX® 9 level Graphics Card, Windows® 7 (32/64-bit)/Vista/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection