Half Life 2’s City 17 Apartment Looks Amazing in Unreal Engine 4

Over the past few months, we’ve seen a huge array of gaming mascots and other projects emerge in fan-created Unreal Engine 4 demos. Some of them looked out of place, while others illustrate the unbelievable potential of this particular engine. One pertinent example comes from Polycount member, ‘PogoP’, who shared a number of stunning screenshots of the infamous City 17 Apartment from Half Life 2 remastered in Unreal Engine 4.

Today, ‘PogoP’ announced the City 17 Apartment map will be publicly available once complete and said:

“Just so you know, I do plan to release this scene online for people to play around with. I’m not going to release it just yet, as I would really like to get it working with Oculus Rift before I do.. So you can run around with virtual reality. Not entirely sure if its going to work, but I’ll give it a good go!”

The re-worked art assets and lighting model makes for a fantastic and almost eerie appearance. I love how the visual style has been updated without losing the iconic Half Life 2 look. In an ideal world, Valve could spend a great deal of their resources making a re-worked version and finally release Half Life 3. Sadly, I don’t think this is a priority for them given the financial success of Steam.

Despite this depressing note, it’s possible for fans to recreate Half Life 2 using Unreal Engine 4 with the right talent. Black Mesa is an extremely high quality mod and even became accredited by Valve. As a result, it’s theoretically possible, a similar situation could occur in the future.

Do you think there will ever be a Half Life 3?

Thank you Dark Side of Gaming for providing us with this information.