Half-Life 2 (2004) is one of the most influential first-person shooters ever made, and this grouping covers it along with its episodic sequels and spin-offs. Where the original Half-Life proved a shooter could tell a story without cutscenes, Half-Life 2 went further, building the dystopian City 17 around Valve's then-new Source engine and its physics-driven puzzles. The gravity gun, picking up and hurling the world at the alien Combine, became the signature.
Episode One and Episode Two extended Gordon Freeman's story in tighter, faster chapters, while Lost Coast was essentially a technology demo for high-dynamic-range lighting and Deathmatch carried the physics into multiplayer. The included soundtrack rounds out the set. The throughline is craft: deliberate pacing, environmental storytelling, and a refusal to take control away from the player, all of which set a template the genre spent years catching up to.
The Half-Life 2 and episodes franchise spans 5 games, 1 music in the CrossBinge catalog.
Part of Half-Life.