Single-player games like Half-Life 2
Below are 13 single-player Steam games similar to Half-Life 2, ranked by player overlap. Every pick carries Steam's Single-player category, so multiplayer-only titles or always-online games don't sneak in. imho.run pulls the category data from Steam directly — Single-player here matches what the store labels.
Want the full alternatives list (paid + free + Steam Deck + cheaper picks)? See the parent games like Half-Life 2 page.
Ranked picks
- 1
Half-Life
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required. Shares Action with Half-Life 2.
Named Game of the Year by over 50 publications, Valve's debut title blends action and adventure with award-winning technology to create a frighteningly realistic world where players must think to survive. Also includes an exciting multiplayer mode that allows you to play against friends and enemies around the world.
- 2
Half-Life: Alyx
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required. Shares Action with Half-Life 2.
Half-Life: Alyx is Valve’s VR return to the Half-Life series. It’s the story of an impossible fight against a vicious alien race known as the Combine, set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Playing as Alyx Vance, you are humanity’s only chance for survival.
- 3
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required. Shares Action with Half-Life 2.
Made by Gearbox Software and originally released in 2001 as an add-on to Half-Life, Blue Shift is a return to the Black Mesa Research Facility in which you play as Barney Calhoun, the security guard sidekick who helped Gordon out of so many sticky situations.
- 4
Black Mesa
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required. Shares Action with Half-Life 2.
Relive Half-Life.
- 5
Left 4 Dead 2
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required. Shares Action with Half-Life 2.
Set in the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead 2 is a co-operative action horror FPS takes you and your friends through the cities, swamps and cemeteries of the Deep South, from Savannah to New Orleans across five expansive campaigns.
- 6
Half-Life: Source
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required. Shares Action with Half-Life 2.
Winner of over 50 Game of the Year awards, Half-Life set new standards for action games when it was released in 1998. Half-Life: Source is a digitally remastered version of the critically acclaimed and best selling PC game, enhanced via Source technology to include physics simulation, enhanced effects, and more.
- 7
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required. Shares Action with Half-Life 2.
Return to the Black Mesa Research Facility as one of the military specialists assigned to eliminate Gordon Freeman. Experience an entirely new episode of single player action. Meet fierce alien opponents, and experiment with new weaponry. Named 'Game of the Year' by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.
- 8
Left 4 Dead
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required. Shares Action with Half-Life 2.
From Valve (the creators of Counter-Strike, Half-Life and more) comes Left 4 Dead, a co-op action horror game for the PC and Xbox 360 that casts up to four players in an epic struggle for survival against swarming zombie hordes and terrifying mutant monsters.
- 9
Portal
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required. Shares Action with Half-Life 2.
Portal™ is a new single player game from Valve. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal has been called one of the most innovative new games on the horizon and will offer gamers hours of unique gameplay.
- 10
Portal 2
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required. Shares Action with Half-Life 2.
The "Perpetual Testing Initiative" has been expanded to allow you to design co-op puzzles for you and your friends!
- 11
Touhou Mystia's Izakaya
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required.
A brand new pixel art restaurant simulator based on the Touhou Project! Play as Mystia, the owner of a small izakaya. Collect ingredients by day, cater to the customers by night, learn recipes from familiar characters, and become the best izakaya owner in all of Gensokyo!
- 12
BioShock Infinite
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required. Shares Action with Half-Life 2.
Indebted to the wrong people, with his life on the line, veteran of the U.S. Cavalry and now hired gun, Booker DeWitt has only one opportunity to wipe his slate clean. He must rescue Elizabeth, a mysterious girl imprisoned since childhood and locked up in the flying city of Columbia.
- 13
BioShock™
Single-player alternative to Half-Life 2 — playable solo, no multiplayer required. Shares Action with Half-Life 2.
BioShock is a shooter unlike any you've ever played, loaded with weapons and tactics never seen. You'll have a complete arsenal at your disposal from simple revolvers to grenade launchers and chemical throwers, but you'll also be forced to genetically modify your DNA to create an even more deadly weapon: you.