The Half-Life 2 Retcon Patch is a lightweight addon that enhances the gameplay and the aesthetics of retail HALF-LIFE 2 and its Source-based sequels: LOAST COAST, EPISODE ONE, and EPISODE TWO. It makes the games playable for first-time players without altering the maps or the source code, which permits the fair and legitimate earning of Steam achievements. Click "Read more..." if this interests you.
Retcons
The Retcon Patch was conceived to harmonize the visuals and the sounds across Half-Life 2 and its sequels. The on and off sounds for the soldiers' radios, the textures used by the stalker, and the model used by the hunter are but a few examples of such harmonizations.
Additions
The Retcon Patch evolved to accommodate quality-of-life improvements that extended beyond retconned aesthetics. The '22 edition of the Retcon Patch features sprite-based crosshairs and custom configuration files that enhance the gameplay itself, whereas tweaks to muzzle flashes, shell ejections, and sounds add greater satisfaction to weapon usage.
But wait. There's more! An altered sound script prevents earrape when walking around Eli's lab in Black Mesa East, and startup music and static background images provide feedback for the adjustment of music volume and remove hiccups from the alteration of graphics settings. Best of all, obtaining ammunition for depleted weapons no longer interrupts combat.
Difficulty
Vanilla Half-Life 2 suffers from two major flaws: enemies who barely damage the player and weapons that barely damage the enemies. The Retcon Patch mitigates these flaws in ways that maintain the balance of the original game. It also disables automatic weapon switch after a player depletes his ammunition for every weapon but the hand grenade, and it incentivizes manual reloads by extending the automatic reload time for holstered weapons to 4 seconds--which is longer than what it takes to reload the .357 magnum.
And as an act of mercy toward Father Grigori, the Retcon Patch allows Father Grigori to always shoot at a zombie's head. This mercy is balanced against his weapon's two-shot magazine.
Installation & Compatibility
The system requirements for the Retcon Patch are as follows:
- Microsoft Windows--whichever versions are supported by Steam.
- DirectX 9 - capable PC hardware. A discrete graphics card is recommended.
- The June 2010 release of the Microsoft Direct X End-User Runtimes.
If your system supports the Retcon Patch, installation is as simple as drag and drop. Consult the readme files for details.
NOTE: As the Retcon Patch is intended for first-time players of the official Steam Release of Half-Life 2, it is effectively incompatible with third-party mods or addons. Veteran players and modders are welcome to extract the contents of the VPK files for private use.
Tips
As previously mentioned, the Retcon Patch is harder than vanilla Half-Life 2. Remember the following to stay alive:
- Never mindlessly charge into enemies.
- Aim for enemies' heads when possible.
- Take cover, then pop out where enemies least expect you--when possible.
- The shotgun behaves like a riot gun. Play more aggressively than normal and shoot enemies at close range to ensure that all of the pellets hit their torsos.
- The single-fire mode for the shotgun fires one fewer pellet than in vanilla Half-Life 2, but the individual pellets have a higher base damage. The double-fire mode is consequently no longer wasteful.
- Automatic reloads for holstered weapons take 4 seconds.
- Ammunition boxes yield less ammunition. Every shot counts!
- The Retcon Patch disables auto aim when configured for mouse and keyboard.
- Enemies consistently react to you in 0.2 seconds.
Third Party Attributions
Onemanshow47 (BSNOOCH): Two-handed pulse rifle and crossbow view models
Radiation Hazard (YouTube): Additional music--from his album Half-Life 2000 Unofficial Soundtrack
- "Air Exchange 2000"
- "Route Kanal 2000"
- "Train to City 17"
- "The Antlion King"
- "Credits"
- "Alyx' Theme"
- "Sunken Ships, Ocean Floor"
Flashlight and debris sounds have been ported from Counter-Strike: Source, which is owned by Valve Corp like Half-Life 2.
New! Version 2
![hl2 retcon patch 22 v2]()
Version 2 of the Retcon Patch '22 contains the following updates:
- Updated controller support. You may now enable "modern controller" support, which optimizes the game for use with Steam's controller configuration instead of Half-Life 2's legacy Xbox 360 controller configuration. You may toggle this setting via the autoexec file.
- An updated "no save" challenge. You may now disable in-game saving in a manner that prevents the auto save feature from falsely notifying you that it has saved the game. You may toggle this setting via the autoexec file--but be warned that quick saves and manual saves will still falsely notify you that you have saved the game.
- Una actualización del archivo "readme" en Español. "El Parche Retcon de Half-Lfie 2" ahora es "El Parche Retcon para Half-Life 2."
- An updated file structure. The ZIP file now places images and trailers into a separate directory from the actual addon files.
You must delete all of the files from any previous versions of the Retcon Patch from your games' "custom" folders before you install Version 2. The new readme files, meanwhile, will help identify whether or not your ZIP file is the updated file for Version 2, and the new autoexec file will help identify the files in your "custom" folders.
I want to know what this mod does in full because the description is descriptive enough
Are you clicking the "Read more…" button to read the full description? If so, then are you also downloading the .zip file and reading the mod's changelogs?
Either way, I would recommend that you wait. I am soon to release a new update that adds more polish and a better MODDB description.
Will you add any model fixes on weapons like the gravitygun viewmodel or texture fixes?
I decided to leave such fixes out of the latest update--apart from a pair of two-handed and more complete models that Onemanshow47 created for the AR2 and the crossbow before BSNOOCH closed.
I suppose that you could also count some VMT tweaks that I made to the magnum, so that the handle no longer looks shiny, and to the world models of the AR2, the SMG, the shotgun, and the hand grenade. They're subtle, but you can't play without them.
this patch is compatible with hl2 update?
Thank you for your interest!
The '22 version of the Retcon Patch is possibly compatible with HL2: UPDATE, but it is not designed for it. There are two good reasons for this:
• Some of the team behind HL2: UPDATE are working on an even better version called HL2: REMASTERED--https://www.pcgamesn.com/half-life-2/remastered-steam.
• The Retcon Patch is intended to ameliorate the retail releases of the games. It is meant to acclimate new players to Half-Life 2 before they move on to bigger mods like MMod or SMod.
Despite these, you should consider trying the Retcon Patch for the sprite-based crosshairs alone. You won't regret it!
Will you add things like unused voicelines and animations in the next update?
The latest update does not restore cut content like voicelines or animations, because my vision for restoring such a thing is too grand. It does, however, mix some fake beta tracks into HALF-LIFE 2 from a YouTuber named Radition Hazard. You should hear what plays when you storm the beaches of Nova Prospekt!
Is this mod still recommended or it has allot of bugs?
It has returned! I even added a pair of trailers to pique your interest again.