Gunman Contracts Stand Alone Exits Half-Life: Alyx Mod Status, Launches Sept 10

Gunman Contracts – Stand Alone, the standalone shooter grown out of a fan-favourite Half-Life: Alyx mod, launches in Steam Early Access on September 10. Developer Arne Burkert, known online as ANB_Seth, confirmed the date and a $25 price tag, with support for both PC VR headsets and flatscreen play on PC or Steam Deck.

Unlike the original mod, which included Part 1 and 2 and required Half-Life: Alyx, Gunman Contracts – Stand Alone isn’t a Source 2 project, but rather a full-fledged game built in Unity from the ground-up, boasting new weapons and new contracts. The Early Access build ships with three story contracts, two challenge modes, a weapon and attachment system, leaderboards and a training hub called the Home Base, according to the game’s Steam listing.

Longtime followers of the project are debating whether the launch price undersells years of solo development:

From Free Workshop Mod to Paid Unity Rebuild

The Gunman Contracts story started small. Chapter 1, “The Extraction,” went up on the Half-Life: Alyx Steam Workshop on September 12, 2021, and Chapter 2, “Art of War,” followed the following January, according to VR.org’s review of the Workshop listings. Both mods put players in the role of a nameless hitman working the criminal underworld, styled after action-movie hired-gun fiction.

The numbers explain why 2080 Games bothered funding a standalone sequel at all. Chapter 1 has 309,185 lifetime subscriptions, and Chapter 2 has 240,862, tallies pulled directly from Steam Workshop subscriber counts on mods that required owning Half-Life: Alyx just to install. Both chapters have sat untouched since March 2022, effectively finished rather than maintained.

No Source 2, No Alyx Required

Stand Alone breaks cleanly from its origins. Road to VR reported that the new game isn’t a Source 2 project, but rather a full-fledged game built in Unity from the ground-up, boasting new weapons and new contracts. Nothing from the two free mods carries over: players who finished both chapters are getting an entirely new campaign rather than a repackaged version of what they already played.

The Steam store page lists three story contracts, two challenge modes, weapons and attachment system, leaderboards, and the Home Base as finished and available on day one, with VR and Non-VR (PC and Steam Deck) both fully supported. The developer frames the shift plainly on the store page, crediting “Starting out as a mod for Half-Life: Alyx, getting feedback and inspiration from the community pushed me to expand my first Gunman Contracts mod with a second chapter, and ultimately to making this game.”

The Steam Frame Date That Never Came

The launch timing has a small subplot attached. At the August 2026 VR Games Showcase, ANB_Seth had pegged Stand Alone’s release to arrive alongside Valve’s still-unannounced Steam Frame headset, a plan UploadVR flagged as an unusual bet to build a launch schedule around. With Valve yet to name a firm date for the hardware, the developer cut the tether and picked his own.

UploadVR reported the developer’s own explanation on Reddit, noting the studio still expects “Steam Frame will be coming this Summer, as this is Valve’s last standing statement,” and chose September 10 to land close to that window regardless of whether Valve confirms it in time.

Read also: Sol Protocol Launches Early Access on Quest 3 September 17 at $9.99

Pricing Climbs Toward Version 1.0

Road to VR reported the launch price at $25, with the studio warning that cost will rise as more content lands on the way to a full 1.0 release. That version is slated to add “at least 3 more contracts in new locations, new weapons and new features that come with them.”

The Steam page confirms the plan directly, stating the launch price will start lower and increase as the Early Access period adds content. Players who buy in on September 10 will need Windows and an OpenXR-compatible headset for VR play, with the flatscreen mode running on PC or Steam Deck without a headset at all.

Reported from

• Road to VR
• UploadVR
• VR.org
• Steam