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.
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.
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.
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.
The system requirements for the Retcon Patch are as follows:
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.
As previously mentioned, the Retcon Patch is harder than vanilla Half-Life 2. Remember the following to stay alive:
Onemanshow47 (BSNOOCH): Two-handed pulse rifle and crossbow view models
Radiation Hazard (YouTube): Additional music--from his album Half-Life 2000 Unofficial Soundtrack
Flashlight and debris sounds have been ported from Counter-Strike: Source, which is owned by Valve Corp like Half-Life 2.
Version 2 of the Retcon Patch '22 contains the following updates:
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.