Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
multiplayer first-person shooter video game

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Valve. Released on Steam on November 30, 2004, it uses many of the assets from Half-Life 2 and its Source engine. It features new levels, optimized for multiplayer arena play, and a few new weapons. Also included are portions of the game's source code, which were the basis for many early Source-based multiplayer modifications. The game is the successor to the popular multiplayer component of the original Half-Life, but is offered as a separate product from Half-Life 2. Deathmatch, like Half-Life's multiplayer, does not develop any part of the plot or story of the Half-Life series.
Gameplay
Deathmatch
Deathmatch includes some notable features such as instant respawn; weapons that have specific spawn points; and special abilities (sprint, flashlight, etc.). The aim of the deathmatch is simple: the player must kill other players to score points. If the player accidentally self-kills, they lose points. If a player is killed, they will respawn with 100 health points and the default spawn weapons, but will lose all the weapons and ammunition acquired before being killed.
The public source identifies “Half-Life 2: Deathmatch” as multiplayer first-person shooter video game. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Half-Life, Deathmatch and multiplayer.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1325680. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004.
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This entry incorporates text from “Half-Life 2: Deathmatch” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.