Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to present to you: Half-Life 2 Essentials (Or Half-Life 2+ if you'd prefer that). A collection full of add-ons that definitively improve Half-Life 2. The fourth collection in the "essentials' series" after Garry's Mod Essentials, People Playground Essentials and POSTAL 2 Essentials, all of which I'd recommend taking a look at if you have any of the aforementioned games.


Half-Life 2 Essentials is a collection full of add-ons I've found scattered around this rather young workshop that are simple, widely agreeable improvements. These are the kinds of add-ons that are so polished and faithful that a casual wouldn't even notice their inclusion. This collection doesn't aim to rebuild Half-Life 2 from the ground up, overhaul its graphics, or give Alyx a fully-modeled clitoris; this collection simply aims to build on-top of and refine what was already there, even more than Valve already has over the years. In other words, the goal of the collection is to enhance Half-Life 2 overall in subtle and faithful fashion. Of course: I wasn't just doing this recklessly. Here's a few priorities that I followed whilst compiling this collection (In-order of importance):

• Nothing outside of what Valve could/would do! So no 4k UHD mods, no backports all the way from Half-Life Alyx (with one subtle exception), no memes, none of that. Everything must match the visual fidelity and style of Half-Life 2 or it's episodes. Any visual improvements would just be adding new Source engine texture features where applicable. This also means that (remaining) improvements from the episodes or even from the beta can be back-ported to Half-Life 2 under these rules, and quite a few of the add-ons are just that.
  
• The base mechanics of the game shall not be touched. I want every add-on in Half-Life 2 Essentials to feel a polished addition to the game, mostly quality-of-life improvements, not like an unnecessary change... Not like there are any mods on the workshop that overhaul base mechanics anyway :/
  
• No new campaigns. Pretty much *everyone* has different tastes when it comes to what they're looking for in a Half-Life 2 map pack/campaign, so I'm not gonna bother trying to package anything in.
  
• Buggy, unstable, or situational add-ons are not allowed. No crash-happy add-ons, no visual or functional jank, no "works in HL2 but may not work in Episode 2." Just install and enjoy.
  
• No add-ons that require manual installation. Though these are rare; The idea of Half-Life 2 Essentials, and the Essentials collection family in-general, is to give new-comers and frequent players alike a quick and *convenient* way to definitively improve their games, and manual installation goes against that goal.

Be sure to take these priorities into account before hitting that 'Subscribe to all' button... Or don't. The entire collection's probably less than a gigabyte right now.

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For those who'd like to know what they're getting into, I did you the courtesy of listing everything this collection changes, and some of the add-ons you have to thank. Feel free to take a look, and decide for yourself what you like or don't like:

[NOTE: List seen below is also the order of which add-ons are sorted in the collection itself]

• Improved HUD, mostly thanks to Condensed Animated HUD. Styled very similar to the vanilla HUD we all know and love, but with a few additions and improvements here and there. The perfect HUD of choice for anyone looking for a vanilla+ experience!
  
• Enhanced textures, models, and effects, utilizing leaked higher resolution vanilla textures, adding new/unused Source engine features or backporting from the Episodes, and even restoring some cut effects. This is my favorite part of the collection, and also makes up the bulk of it. Should be agreeable to the vast majority of players, and won't feel out-of-place with the vanilla game or your money back (none)!
  
• New and improved animations. "What? New animations in my vanilla+? What the f–" before you attempt to swear at me, resulting in Steam censoring you with a series of hearts: These animations are all very similar to their vanilla counter-parts, and when they aren't they are merely backports from the episodes or leaks. Nothing Valve wouldn't be happy to ship here (I think).
  
• New and improved sounds. Most of the improvements here come from Faithful/Uncompressed Sounds & More Sound Variety, but there are also some backports from the episodes for HL2, as well as some additional unused sounds for footsteps. All subtle differences individually, but your brain can tell the difference, and will most certainly enjoy it.
  
• Left 4 Dead 2 style ragdoll physics. In short: Stiffer ragdoll physics equals less goofy and unrealistic deaths in favor of more cinematic and "realistic" deaths. It's only one add-on and a matter of preference, so just skip it if you dislike it
  
• Many minor model/animation/sfx fixes. Nothing major – Hell, if you didn't scroll all the way down to see what add-ons these were, you probably wouldn't even know the difference – But fixes are fixes, and I love adding as many of these to my essentials collections as possible. Actually, as far as I'm aware: This is the most expansive and frequently updated collection of fixes on the Half-Life 2 workshop!

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Since the Half-Life 2 workshop is so new, you can expect this collection will to be updated regularly as I find more fitting add-ons until further notice. Please feel free to comment on the collection here if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or critiques, as I am open to adding more add-ons or even removing problematic ones. If you like my collection, please share it with friends and up-doot it so I can hit my goal of becoming the #1 most popular Half-Life 2 mod collection on the workshop! Thanks. ~Crigence

I haven't asked for donations before on Steam workshop projects, but if my collections have helped you find an add-on you love. or you're a mod author wanting to show support: You can donate to me anonymously on BuyMeACoffee[buymeacoffee.com] for as low as $1. Times are tough, but hopefully these collections make 'em better somehow.