Ambitious, unofficial Half-Life expansion wraps up a 24-year-old cliffhanger

You think of Half-Life, and you immediately think Valve. It's a series synonymous with Steam and PC gaming as a whole, but it has ventured onto other platforms, too. No, I'm not talking about Alyx (which is still a Steam-only game, despite the fact that you can play it on non-Valve headsets), this is Half-Life: Decay. This DLC for the original game was designed by Randy Pitchford and developed by Gearbox Software for the PlayStation 2 back in 2001. If you ever wanted to learn the fate of Drs. Colette Green and Gina Cross, you'll finally be able to, thanks to a new set of mods.

Half-Life: Decay ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger. Spoilers for a 21-year-old game, but Green and Cross ultimately succeed in their mission during the DLC, activating a resonance reversal to weaken the resonance cascade. However, nobody knows whether the scientists survived the nuclear explosion at the facility, which was detailed in Half-Life: Opposing Forces. Thankfully, modders are on hand to save the day.

Half-Life: Decay can hardly be listed as one of the best FPS games like its progenitor, but its story deserves to be finished. Taking place alongside the events of Half-Life, we follow Drs. Colette Green and Gina Cross before, during, and after the Black Mesa Incident.

The mod, appropriately named Half-Life: Recovery, continues the plot of the DLC, finishing Dr. Green's story and adding in some new tricks while it's there. Recovery takes place directly after the events of Decay, and promises to add a dozen new maps across four chapters of gameplay, as well as a host of new weapons to shoot, bash, and burn the Xen with.

The mod also adds a portable teleportation device to the scientists' arsenal. I can't imagine we'll see GLaDOS make an appearance, but it certainly sounds a bit Aperture Science.

Half-Life: Recovery has been in development for at least three years already, winning the "most anticipated mod" award on ModDB back in 2022. However, the wait is soon coming to an end as developer 'IlaLia' has released a new teaser, saying the team has made "significant progress" and the mod should release "in the near future."

However, it's worth noting that the planned rollout for Recovery is in four separate episodes, so don't expect the full experience until the full unified quadrilogy is released. There is at present no word on a timeline for this.

You can follow updates for Half-Life Recovery here.

Want more Half-Life action? Try some of the best old games, or look towards the future with our list of the biggest upcoming PC games.

You can also hop into our community Discord server to discuss the latest mod that's taken your fancy with other readers and staff.