Are you really excited for March's Half-Life: Alyx, but have somehow not played the previous Half-Life games? Have you always been looking for an opportunity to get in on Gordon Freeman's exploits, but didn't want to drop money? I think there are bigger questions with regards to that second one, but you can rest easy with your eternal waiting game. In the run-up to Alyx's release, Valve just made every Half-Life game free to play on Steam.
In a two-month promotion to garner attention on Valve's upcoming VR shooter, Steam users can now download and play each official installment in the Half-Life series. This includes the original game (via its Source port), Opposing Force, Blue Shift, Half-Life: Deathmatch, and the entire Half-Life 2 saga. That's quite a lot of games for exactly $0.
The catch -if you can call it that- is that users won't be able to keep these games forever. Two months to play through all of these campaigns isn't that big of a task, though. The original Half-Life can be toppled in roughly eight-hours and the expansions are roughly 1/3rd of the length. Half-Life 2, even, isn't that long and the episodes go by quicker. It's a lot of content, but you won't need until March to finish them all.
In a statement on Steam, Valve writes, "Half-Life: Alyx is set before the events of Half-Life 2 and the episodes, but the games share characters and story elements. The Half-Life: Alyx team believes that the best way to enjoy the new game is to play through the old ones, especially Half-Life 2 and the episodes, so we want to make that as easy as possible."
Basically anyone with a modern computer should be able to run these games. The oldest of them is Episode Two and that released in 2007. We're 13 years out from the last Half-Life game and computer technology has advanced tremendously. I'm almost positive a potato could power the Source engine.
If you're still hesitant, you've at least got a few months to decide. I'd take the plunge because Half-Life still holds up. Certain elements may be dated, but the games have amazing pacing and are constantly mixing up gameplay elements. It's never a boring time.
Source: Steam