Half Life 2 is, by far, one of the best games ever made and having the ability to play it in VR is great. And, there's not much content that even comes close in the pipeline. So this is the best we're getting for a while and that has people hyped. If you're looking for nostalgia, play the original. If you're looking for an enjoyable experience, play Black Mesa (I assume that's what you mean by "source remake" since, as others have pointed out, Half Life: Source is pretty much identical). The original Half Life is a poorly made and frustrating game by today's standards. All I can say is that it's a great and fun game to play. Yes, it may look old because it was released in '98 (I believe) but it is, nonetheless addicting as well as a lot of thinking to do when playing throughout the game. After Half-Life, I know I'm getting the expansion packs and the sequel as well. Half-Life 2 is a first-person shooter game involving the element of resistance, and everything works in combination with the story. With each level, new weapons get unlocked that helps in fighting the more formidable enemies. As the game goes on to end, more options related to the strategy and weapon are available for the playing character. Black mesa is basically a reimagining of half life 1. Same game and story just better in a ton of ways. half life, half life 2 to get the feel of the source engine, then black mesa if you want. Honestly, although Half Life is a really amazing game and all, Black Mesa would honestly be better. Options 1&2 with a 4x ai upscale texture mod. Loading HL2 assets & campaign into Portal RTX. HL2 + RTX Remix kludge. Loading HL2 assets into source 2/Halflife Alyx & kludging a flatmode. It seems like 3 is the most reliable good option with 4 being promising, but inconsistent reports of success & failure. 4. I suggest you get the Orange Box since it comes with Half Life 2 and the two episodes, along with Portal for only $20. If you like Portal then you can decide to get Portal 2, which I believe is a masterpiece. You don't need to necessarily play the original Half Life games before Half Life 2 as the story hardly makes much more sense. Sadly, no, it's just the original game, plus some areas are modified, so it's not a 1:1 recreation. Still, for the story alone, it's well worth it, and it's a damn great remake; the thinks they changed actually improve the game a lot, and I say that even though the original Half-Life is my favourite game of all time. ZYdi.