Half-Life 2 Cheats & Cheat Codes for All Systems

Half-Life 2 is the direct sequel to the first Half-life game developed by Valve and released in 2004 for PC, Xbox 360, and the PS3. Half-Life and Half-Life 2 have become ultra-classics in the gaming community. Starting off as a truly one-of-a-kind interdimensional first-person shooting adventure with cryptic characters, storylines, aliens, and just a touch of time travel. Originally published and developed for PC gaming only, the explosion of popularity more or less forced Valve’s hand, and the Half-Life series was republished on Xbox, PlayStation, and various mobile formats thought out the years.

Half-Life 2 Premise

Half-Life 2 comes as an FPS where you are set back into the shoes of the mad scientist Gordon Freeman. Awoken twenty years after the events of the first game, Dr. Freeman is hired once again by the mysterious G-Man to save the Earth from alien occupation. Through the events of the game, Dr. Freeman will have to solve physics puzzles, defeat alien technology, and fix portal travel through the extended universe. You, the player, will have to do all of this with the world’s strongest crow bow and various resistance-style human weapons.

Half-Life 2 Main Characters

Half-life 2 has some of the most memorable characters in gaming history: Dr. Freeman, G-Man, and even Alyx Vance the daughter of Eli Vance. The various scientists, otherworldly beings, and if you could consider it, the crowbar, are some of the best-written characters that make picking up a copy of Half-Life 2 worth the effort to find one today.

• Gordon Freeman
  • Dr. Gordon Freeman appears to be your run-of-the-mill scientist but is far more. Dr. Freeman is decked out in an HEV suit, standard ‘nerd’ glasses, and a deadly crowbar. Throughout the game, you’ll see him using various weapons and scientific advancements to battle various enemies.
• G-Man
  • The mysterious G-Man will appear at various points throughout the game as both a catalyst to the events of the game and somewhat of an antagonist. He dresses in a 3-piece English-style navy suit, has almost demonic green eyes, and speaks in a rather strange manner. Almost as if English or any human language is foreign to him.
• Alyx Vance
  • Alyx Vance is a main ally in Half-Life 2. She saves Dr. Freeman’s life at various points in the game. She is of darker complexation, sports a fitted leather bomber jacket, and the all-powerful headband of badassery.
• The Combine
  • While the Combine isn’t exactly a single character, the idea of them as the main enemy type is the most important aspect. The most common enemy type of the Combine is the standard soldier. They dress in flack jacket armor with a clear HEV mask to allow them to survive on Earth.

Half-Life 2 and Other Titles in the Series

The Half-Life series is a very interesting one. According to the developers at Valve, the Portal series is actually the same game as Half-life and Half-life 2 just split along the same timeline. Technically there’s a way to play them all in order but a few Reddit users pointed out that Half-life and Portal happen at the same time. You can find all these games on Steam, Xbox, and Playstation across various generations.

• Half-Life (1998)
• Half-Life 2 (2004)
• Portal (2007)
• Portal 2 (2011)
• Half-Life: Alyx (2020)

Half-Life 2 Cheat Codes

Unlike modern games, Half-Life 2 has many cheat codes. However, these codes only apply to PC gamers. These codes will physically alter the game’s save files and code, so be sure to back up your save files and game properly before starting out.

To Spawn Any NPC

Hit the tilde button “~” and type “npc_create npc_ [name]” to spawn an NPC. Here is a list of the names you can enter for [name]:

• “alyx” (Alyx Vance)
• “barney” (Barney Calhoun)
• “dog” (Dog)
• “kleiner” (Dr. Kleiner)
• “eli” (Eli Vance)
• “mossman” (Judith Mossman)
• “monk” (Father Grigori)
• “citizen” (Citizen)
• “headcrab” (Regular Headcrab)
• “zombie” (Regular Zombie)
• “zombie_torso” (Regular Zombie Torso)
• “headcrab_fast” (Fast Headcrab)
• “headcrab_black” (Black Headcrab)
• “headcrab_poison” (Poison Headcrab)
• “fastzombie” (Fast Zombie)
• “poisonzombie” (Poison Zombie)
• “antlion” (Antlion)
• “antlionguard” (Antlion Guard)
• “combine_s” (Combine Soldier/Combine Elite/Prison Guard)
• “metropolice” (Metro Cop)
• “stalker” (Stalker)
• “cscanner” (City Scanner)
• “manhack” (Manhack)
• “rollermine” (Rollermine)
• “combine_mine” (Hopper Mine)
• “combine_camera” (Combine Camera)
• “turret_floor” (Combine Turret)
• “turret_ceiling” (Ceiling Turret)
• “turret_ground” (Ground Turret)
• “launcher” (?)
• “combinedropship” (Dropship)
• “combinegunship” (Gunship)
• “strider” (Strider)
• “pigeon” (Pigeon)
• “crow” (Crow)
• “seagull” (Seagull)
• “barnacle” (Barnacle)
• “ichthyosaur” (Ichthyosaur)
• “vortigaunt” (Vortigaunt)

Be aware that these are going to be best used to replay certain sections or chapters. In turn, these are more of a way to have fun rather than use a cheat to beat a hard boss battle or section.

Spawn Items or Change Perspective

To bring up the in-game cheat console on PC hit the “~” button and enter any of these codes.

• firstperson – Play in first person
• give item_healthkit – Spawn a health kit
• give item_healthvial – Spawn a health vile
• give npc_alyx – Spawn NPC Alyx
• give npc_barney – Spawn NPC Barney
• give npc_citizen – Spawn NPC Citizen
• give npc_kliener – Spawn NPC Kliener
• give weapon_frag – Spawn a grenade
• give weapon_pistol – Spawn a pistol
• give weapon_rpg – Spawn an RPG
• give weapon_shotgun – Spawn a shotgun
• thirdperson – Play in third person

Combine Half-Life 2 and Portal

This cheat may be a bit intensive for the casual gamer but if you’re willing to put in a little elbow grease, it should be worth it. If you have both Half-Life 2 and Portal you will be able to splice the Portal gun into Half-Life 2. Therefore, it’s important to note that NPCs will not flow through any portals you create but you, your weapons, and objects will fly through with no problem.

To add this cheat follow these steps.

• You need both Portal and Half-life 2 for starters. Install or re-install both games now.
• Back up your Portal directory. Unless you changed the install path, the directory is in </i>…Steamsteamapps(your_username)portal</i>. If you make a mistake during this hack, you may need to re-download Portal through Steam (or at worse, Half-life 2 through Steam).
• Download and install GCFScape if you do not have it already. This program allows you to access the cached game files for games using the Source engine.
• Head into the directory …Steamsteamapps for all the available GCF archives available. Open the file half-life 2 content.gcf via GCFScape. Click the hl2 folder on the left pane of the GCFScape Explorer window. Right mouse click maps and select the command Extract to place all the contents of the maps folder into the directory …Steamsteamappsthe_great_bundiniportalportal. This merges Half-life 2 maps with the Portal map folder.
• Repeat the above step with the scenes folder via GCFScape.
• Boot up Steam to run Portal. Drop the developer console with ‘~’ (you may need to enable it under your keyboard options or enable it via the -console command switch on the executable’s shortcut).
• On the developer console, type maps * to list all the available maps; this should inclde the Half-life 2 maps imported from the previous steps. Type map and then the name of that map (i.e., map d1_canals_01).
• Once the map is loaded and you can play, drop the console and enable the cheats for Portal by entering sv_cheats 1. Give yourself all weapons (including the Portal Gun) by entering impulse 101. You may need to input upgrade_portalgun to enable you to fire both portals.
• Sit back and enjoy the Havoc

Half-Life 2 Cheat Codes FAQ

As mentioned before, cheat codes for Half-Life 2 will only work for PC gamers, but that hasn’t stopped the vast internet from asking the best ways to get extra ammo, powerups, and other superpowered cheats.

How to get unlimited ammo in Half-Life 2?

In the developer console enter the code “give weapon_ar2” but replace the weapon with whatever ammo type or weapon you want. For example, if you need ammo for the 357. Magnum enter the code – give item_ammo_357 – and a box of ammo should drop at your feet. Rinse and repeat for whatever ammo you need.

How to add the no reload cheat in Half-Life 2?

There isn’t exactly an endless clip with guns in the game. However, in the developer console, you can change the max ammo loadout for various weapons with the command – sk_max_357 # – just change the last word and # to your desired weapon and ammo amount in numbers.

How do you toggle Noclip in Half-Life 2?

Nocliping allows players to pass through solid objects much like a ghost. To enable this go to the developer console and add the code – sv_cheats 1 – and then hit enter. After cheats are enabled add – noclip – and then exit the console. In no time Dr. Freeman will be floating around every map and around every enemy type.