2020 is looking like it will be a big year for speed runs. There’s already been a huge improvement in theMario 64 120-Star run, and now there’s been a breakthrough inHalf Life 2. This week the any% no voidclip record has been absolutely smashed by a Danish speedrunner.
There are a number of ways to speed runHalf Life 2. Any% no voidclip means that the runner is trying to beat the game as quickly as possible without having to finish all of the side missions or get all of the collectibles. It also means that the runner can’t abuseHalf Life’s “void” or skybox. In other speedrun categories, players can repeatedly save and load in a way that glitches them into out of bounds areas, allowing them to finish the game much quicker. Using glitches like this is how something like a6 minutePreyspeedrun is possible.
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The new world record holder is a Danish speedrunner who goes by Maltemller. He absolutely smashed the previous record of 52:48:070. His new run clocked in at 48:32:00 which is a mind-bending 4 minutes faster than the previous run. To put that in perspective, the 5th through 10th best records are all within a minute of each other. So to be this much faster than the previous time is a massive achievement.
This isn’t the only record Maltemller has inHalf Life 2.He currently holds the world record for ‘cutscene-less fun%’ run, and has second place in the ‘glitchless any%’ and ‘cutscene-less – HL1 movement fun%’ categories. With a record like this, he’s well set up to start setting records inHalf Life Alyx, once it’s released.
With the 16 year wait almost over, and a newHalf Lifegame on the horizon, players can look forward to moreHalf Lifecontent in the near future. And with the release of any new games comes the inevitability of the speed running community getting their hands on it. While it’s unclear just how popular VR speed runs will become, considering thatthere’s already a brutalRingfitspeed run, it’s hard to imagine that speed runners won’t gleefully take to the newHalf LifeGame.
