Here’s a bit of nostalgia for you: Sven Co-op [official site] is now on Steam. The seventeen-year-old Half-Life mod is available as a free standalone game, and—thanks to a fair bit of generosity on Valve’s part—includes all of the Half-Life campaign maps. For free.

That means you can head to Steam, download the game, and start playing co-op Half-Life right now. Again, for free. No need for you or anyone you’re playing with to own Half-Life proper.

The main difference with Sven Co-op is that Half-Life’s been rebalanced for two players, adding more enemies and some two-person puzzles. Also: improved enemy AI, additional weapons, a revive ability, new monsters, a new physics engine, high-definition models, and an optional third-person camera.

Phew. Okay, other than that, it’s Half-Life. You can also play through Blue Shift, Uplink, and Opposing Force, were the inclination to take you.

The standalone Steam release launches alongside Sven Co-op version 5.0—yes, a seventeen-year-old mod is still in active development. Here’s a trailer, though it’s a bit hard to tell what’s new and what’s not. If you want the nitty gritty details, you’re better off reading through the changelog, like it’s 1999 all over again.



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And if you’re tired of Half-Life but want to indulge in some no-holds-barred ’90s gaming, there are apparently “well over a thousand custom co-operative scenarios” for Sven Co-op at this point. There’s no Steam Workshop support yet—it’s slated for a future update—but there’s plenty of old-school fun on the internet if you’re willing to look around.