This production was originally released in video form on the 17th of December 2022, it was added to Entropic Domain in article form on the 3rd of April 2025.
Just give me a map, targets to kill and a gun, the concept of a Deathmatch is simple to understand and much more importantly, extremely entertaining! Some classic game experiences, like Quake, are solely based on Deathmatch game modes and interestingly enough Valve are big Deathmatch fans themselves, they also are not subtle with their preference of violently killing each other either, with not one but three games of theirs featuring “Deathmatch” in their titles!
Today we will be looking at the most unique game in Valve’s Deathmatch lineup, a game that unlike any other in the ego shooter genre, allows you to fling toilets at your friends!
Different Legacies #
While Half Life 2 went down in history as one of the most influential shooters of all time, Half Life 2 Deathmatch has a much more modest legacy. It never was that popular of a game, maybe due to the fact that it isn’t a multiplayer mode for Half Life 2, but a wholly different game. The game is made up entirely of reused assets from Half Life 2, yet it has to be separately bought which must have neutered the game’s reach significantly, although it always had a dedicated following of players, many of which are monsters, capable of things you wouldn’t even think of pulling off when starting the game!
Getting into the game, we can play in maps that are based on the Half Life 2 campaign maps, but which have been modified to make the maps functional for multiplayer combat. There also exist unique maps which have been built from the ground up for this Deathmatch game which we haven’t seen in Half Life before! We also have many custom maps by the community as the Source Engine is famous for enabling a relatively easy modding experience for players.
For this game though it does not really matter as much where people kill each other but rather how people can kill each other! In this game you get a portion of the standard weapon lineup for Half Life 2, with pistols, revolvers, SMG’s, Rifles, Shotguns and exploding things together with the hot rebar launcher which acts as a sort of Railgun in this game, being exceedingly powerful. We also have a weapon that is unique to this game, which is a trip mine… or satchel charge, it depends how you use it. While these weapons are rather fun to use on their own, the most chaotic, powerful and fun one is rather unconventional for a multiplayer game!
Push and Pull #
Strewn all through those maps, lay improvisational weapons the player can readily make use of any time they want. Crates, furniture, toilets, explosive red barrels and more, the world -or rather the asset library- is your oyster! Even larger objects like big dumpsters and cars can be moved by the gravity gun, but bigger objects cannot be grabbed, aimed and launched, rather only pushed by the Gravity gun’s primary fire.
The Gravity gun also has its own hotkey! By pressing G you switch from your weapon to the Gravity gun and when pressing G again you switch back to your previously held weapon. If you wanna be any good at this game you better use that hotkey, as it allows for some advanced grenade related maneuvers that otherwise wouldn’t be possible in this game. So, when using grenades, normally you just throw them, but when pressing the alternative fire button you roll your grenade on the floor.
You cannot cook grenades in Half Life 2 Deathmatch, so picking the bomb up with the Gravity gun and holding onto it for a while is how you can control when the grenade explodes. Additionally, the Gravity gun can launch the explosive far and precisely, so if you want to frag some loser on the opposite end of the map, you can!
The gravity gun propels this game into a truly unique experience that is worth having. Just as other Deathmatch games you are encouraged to make full use of your arsenal, but at any time you can use your Gravity gun to ameliorate your position in the game.
Remember that you can cook grenades and fling them using the gravity gun? The same applies for an enemy’s grenade that finds itself beneath your feet. Someone tries to crush you by pushing a car into your direction? Then try to push back and hit the car with the gravity blast yourself! The person with the most well placed blasts wins by crushing the other! Sprint and jump through an arena quickly picking up an explosive barrel to fling at someone, but make sure to be fast as other players can ignite the barrel before it gets launched, which makes the explosive barrels an amazing high risk high reward utility.
Learning when to switch weapons to your SMG, explosives, Shotgun, Hot Rebar Launcher or Revolver in between throwing props like a motherfucker, rewards you with high scores in the leaderboard and the ability to compete with the beasts residing in the many servers the game offers. You can also pull off many more risky maneuvers amidst a rigid body confrontation in which one of the multiple combatants will inevitably get up close and personal with a utility, toilet or piece of furniture violently smashing into their body resulting in many months of recovery in a nearby hospital if they are lucky. To avoid that from happening you can pick up an object and fling it at another which is approaching you at terminal velocity to deflect it away.
You could also choose to be a daredevil and catch an object with your gravity gun! A very inconsistent and risky maneuver, but it can save your life in a dangerous situation! But really, a lot of the time the danger doesn’t come from gravity gun propelled toilets, but rather from hitscan bullets which easily burrow into your flesh and… Like… Kill you maaan.
For this exact issue you can choose to use rigid bodies to your advantage again. A Samsung Smart Fridge or office desk can easily be converted into mobile cover, but not all objects are created equal. Crates and really anything that looks wooden or a bit too ceramic can splinter, shatter, disintegrate, in general it just goes kaputt when it gets too much of a beating. So look out what you use for cover, it might just break on you!
Going back to the maps, it really gotta be appreciated how interactive and fun they tend to be! Not just Valve made maps, but also community made ones often feature a multitude of interactive elements and a good selection of props to use as deadly weapons. Half Life 2 Deathmatch is another one of those games that come from a different era, one that was just as competitive or even more so than the one we live in right now, but it also was an era where games weren’t made with careful balancing and game tournaments and battle passes in mind. Maybe the polish wasn’t always on point, but the fun was guaranteed to be had!
How “Dead” is Half Life 2 Deathmatch really? #
And really, Half Life 2 Deathmatch, like many other games which could be considered old but gold, aren’t really “Dead” at all. Similar to Day of Defeat Source, this game has a rather active player base which means that you should not be deterred from giving this game a shot just because it “only” has about 80 to 200 active players every single day. Another big difference from a game like Half Life 2 Deathmatch when compared to a game like Fortnite or Chivalry 2, is that the server population limits are so small that when the game even has only 80 players active right now, a server or two will always be filled up and ready for action. And if you want to get your friends to play this game, they can just buy it for a modest price of 5 Euros, and even less on a sale.
Really, just buy the Valve Complete Pack during the next Steam Sale, many gems will materialize in your library if you do. One of those gems being Day of Defeat Source, a title which unlike Half Life 2 Deathmatch is way more team oriented and far from Sci Fi, but just like Half Life 2 Deathmatch, it brings a lot of enjoyment and a unique experience no other game has managed to replicate yet. Click here to read about the Dead Game Review of Day of Defeat Source!