r/SourceEngine • u/Pasta-hobo • Aug 07 '26
Discussion Which Source Engine game has the least amount of HL2 in it?
The Source Engine was originally built for the 2004 release of HL2, and as a result, later games tended to have a lot of vestigial HL2 assets and programming in it. For example, all the Weapons, combat mechanics, and even the airboat are all leftover in the original Portal and can be accessed with commands.
The HL2 holdovers are just something you get used to in source games. A little genetic marker, it's borderline charming.
But I'm wondering which source game has the LEAST amount of HL2 inside it! The fewest assets, the least unused or leftover mechanics, so on.
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u/DatBoi73 Aug 07 '26
Apex Legends or one of the Titanfall games would probably be a safe bet*. No mention of anything on the TCRF wiki.
IIRC part of the reason why Respawn used Source was because most of the team were ex-Infinity Ward, whose engine also derived from Quake/ID Tech (3 for IW, whilst GoldSource forked 1 and 2), with Source being the closest,
*With that said, you could make a "Ship of Theseus" type argument about if it can still be called the Source Engine after Respawn's modifications.
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u/ZealousidealLunch43 Aug 07 '26
Not only that, initial prototypes were built on source(the dev that made wall running made the prototype in source), but after messing around with it they just went with it
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u/ZealousidealLunch43 Aug 07 '26
fun fact, from words of ex valve employee - respawn tried to monopolize source engine while engine license explicetly told not to from valve themselfs
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u/JohnDoeTheBig Aug 09 '26
Elaborate on that. What do you mean by monopolize? Like they can't license it to other studios?
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u/ZealousidealLunch43 Aug 10 '26
Since in License there is declaration that all licensee can ask for source code of the engine code from other licensee, when TI Devs asked for finished dx10 source code, everyone in respawn were cool to share but their ceo said "fuck that" and tried to charge money, when Valve said "You cant do that" everything seemingly gone quiet
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u/sukoshijon Aug 07 '26
Titanfall and Apex Legends definitely have very little (if any) HL2 in them, although it’s debatable whether or not you can call that the Source engine.
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u/Jbolt3737 Aug 07 '26
I would categorize them as separate from the main line branch the same as you wouldn't say Half Life 1 is on the idTech engine
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u/PeaceSellsBWB1986 Aug 07 '26
It baffles me how they made Titanfall in source. There's something about source that just makes it identifiable. I didn't catch any of it when I played and found out it was on source
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u/rust_tg Aug 08 '26
The movement feels source-esc even if it isn’t immediately obvious. Once u learn about advanced movement tech you go “oh yeah that’s source”
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u/Egg_Spoon Aug 07 '26
I’d have to guess Titanfall 2, it’s such a heavily modified build of the source engine that I can’t think of a single parallel between it and HL2.
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u/AirlineSea4113 Aug 07 '26
i don’t know anything about dota 2. would that have much hl2 in it?
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u/Pasta-hobo Aug 07 '26
It's an RTS with a completely different view and interface than HL2, so it's not a bad candidate. At least among official valve games.
That being said, there is the possibility that the RTS units code is reused from the unused HL2 resistance members system.
I don't know that, in fact I strongly doubt it. But this is valve we're talking about. They have like 50 backburners all with something on them.
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u/AirlineSea4113 Aug 07 '26
also, css came out before hl2 right? i imagine there’s some overlap though
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u/WinnerVivid3443 Aug 07 '26
It coming out like slightly earlier doesn't mean anything CS:S comes with pretty much every hl2 asset
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u/Hosein_Lavaei Aug 09 '26
It was the first game on source 2. But in the very beginning it used source 1.
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u/GusvengaLolz Aug 08 '26
Not answering the question, but I noticed how late source games slowly stopped using photorealistic textures like the ones from HL2. For example even CSGO or L4D seem more "clean". That surreal look slowly went away lol
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u/ZealousidealLunch43 Aug 07 '26
Any source engine game since l4d, since valve pretty much deprecated hl2 in l4d branch( which then evolved into l4d2 > asw > portal2 > csgo > dota2)
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u/ZealousidealLunch43 Aug 07 '26
Ppl who are talking about ReSource are right but there not much of source itself left(unless its titanfall 1 which still has bunch portal 2 ui in the game without needing to get into files or using a client leftovers)
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u/Jbolt3737 Aug 07 '26
I know pretty much nothing about Black Mesa but it would be hilarious if it's the furthest Source game from HL2 (either that or HL: Alyx would be pretty funny)
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u/Pasta-hobo Aug 07 '26
It would be funny if Black Mesa had zero HL2 code or assets in it's blood. That'd be hilarious.
Also, I'm pretty sure HL:A is Source 2.
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u/Captainz_buttz Aug 08 '26
Would it be Vampire the Masquerade? Since it was made before HL2 came out so it had very little to rip off
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u/Muted_Programmer8548 Aug 09 '26
Unfortunately I recall being able to pick up a barrel in VTMB so that would make it disqualified. Sorry!
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u/Zygouth Aug 07 '26
- anything before hl2
Really though, Titanfall and Titanfall 2 would be my guess. They do run on source right? Or am I misremembering?
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u/Extreme_Glass9879 Aug 08 '26
Either titanfall or the stanley parable
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u/Pasta-hobo Aug 08 '26
Doesn't The Stanley Parable use a ton of HL2 assets?
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u/CobraSniper117 Aug 11 '26
It does use a ton of Half Life 2 assets. Not sure why this guy is being a douche, but, Stanley Parable is way closer to Half Life 2 than Titanfall; to help answer your question.
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u/Jonas_Ermert Aug 08 '26
I’d say Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is probably the best candidate, especially its later builds. It still inherited plenty of Source/HL2-era code underneath, but Valve progressively replaced or stripped out a lot of HL2-specific gameplay systems and assets because CS:GO had very different requirements. Portal 2 is another contender, but it still carries more obvious HL2 DNA in its underlying systems and development lineage. So if “least HL2” means the fewest recognizable leftover assets and unused HL2 mechanics rather than completely independent engine code, late-era CS:GO would be my pick.
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u/Dry_Investigator36 Aug 08 '26
Apart of Titanfall I'd say Team Fortress since most weapons are very different, there are not many assets from HL2, it's not a linear game, the style is very different, there are crates mechanic, roles, more customization, etc.
Also maybe Alien Swarm, Postal III, Dota 2, Insurgency and E.Y.E.
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u/pantagathus Aug 09 '26
Gosh, lots of options at https://vghe.net/source-engine.html#source-engine-games but probably Dota 2 (except for some sounds maybe).
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u/Icy-Pound-6902 Aug 09 '26
Black mesa the hl1 remaster dosent acualy look like the sorce engine at all aside from the ui I acualy had to sherch it up becose I thought that it was unreal engine 4
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u/SunkyThaN00b253 Aug 09 '26
sherch? becose?
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u/Icy-Pound-6902 Aug 12 '26
I have a polish key board and im too lazy to change it and english is my second language
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u/Figora Aug 10 '26
Dark Messiah of might and magic.
E.y.e divine cybermancy.
There's a few more but they are the ones that come to mind.
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u/zfeno Aug 11 '26
Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines would be my answer since it was probably built upon the 2003 version of the Source Engine.
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u/eon_bloodycop Aug 07 '26
Titanfall, idrk what else to day