Half-Life 2 Beta - Everything You Need To Know!

[Music] smell the did you know that originally half-life 2 was supposed to be immensely dark and sinister or that free man's journey was meant to be considerably longer and more epic in scope the game went through some major changes throughout its development and in my opinion not necessarily for the better i've always been intrigued by half-life 2's plot and setting but having now learned of all those lost concepts i can't help but feeling that the initial ideas were just so raw and fascinating and just overall more interesting than the version we ultimately got it had been a while since i played the half-life games and recently i decided to revisit this series i got captivated by that universe more than ever before and upon completing them all i was left wanting more since getting the valve index for one game didn't seem like an awfully wise financial decision started digging around the internet for various mods for some reason i've always been hesitant to play fan made mods slash games but having played the absolutely incredible black mesa a fan made remake of the original and loving it thoroughly i decided it was about time i tried out some more community mods during my search i somehow ended up deep down the half-life to rabbit hole and that's how i stumbled upon some very interesting information on its development see during the time between the release of half-life 1 and 2 fans were eager to find out what valve was cooking for the sequel one fan in particular a young man from germany actually hacked into their network and stole an unfinished fully playable version of half-life 2. along with other content including about 1300 maps from various stages of the game's development he leaked that early version onto the internet he was eventually arrested but that's not the topic of this video in this video we're gonna take a detailed look at the half-life 2 we never got and then explore a truly promising mod that aims to recreate that last version of the game the leaked unfinished version of the game was actually quite similar to the final product with most of the content i'm about to mention already being cut in the plot following largely the same structure as the retail version however it's from the many additional maps and eventually information and concept art revealed in the 2004 book half-life 2 raising the bar that we get an idea of what the game was like early in its development so what was it like exactly well to answer that let me first give you a quick overview of some of the main differences before delving deeper into that hazardous world and inspecting it in detail the most obvious distinction was of course the dreadfully dark and depressing mood that's exuding out of the concept art the game was to play out mostly at night time often during rainy foggy weather the combine empire was more evil and aggressive draining the oceans from minerals and releasing toxic gases into the atmosphere this resulted in a grim looking sky even during daytime sections seeing as the air was toxic to humans they were reduced to wearing gas masks outside [Music] as you can imagine the world stripped of vital resources set a far more miserable hopeless and menacing tone i don't know about you guys but even looking at these pictures gives me a sense of unease you can feel the dread and despair of this gritty dystopian universe as you can probably tell from the pictures city 17's architecture was completely different with large skyscrapers everywhere in the style of american east coast cities the citadel underwent many different designs as well [Music] naturally the citadel had to look intimidating and tower over everything else so that's partially why the architectural style was later changed to the more east european look we know today speaking of the game we know today i'm not trying to claim that it's a happy tale i realized that there's still a powerful interdimensional alien empire that has invaded and conquered earth killing and enslaving most of humanity it's certainly still in the pressed world but comparatively the final product no doubt has an overall brighter feel to it back to the topic gordon's journey was to be far longer spanning over many different areas both in and out of city 17. valve instead chose to focus on a shorter tighter story developing existing characters rather than constantly introducing new ones as for the characters here are some notable changes administrator breen was known only as the consul and he was a bald guy with some sort of accent the true citizen's job is the opposite of slavery [Music] eli's last name used to be maxwell and he was not biologically related to alex she had a different appearance although thankfully not this much her father in this version was a character named captain vance who was the head of a human combine unit that secretly organized the resistance when his unit was cut from the game he was merged with eli to form eli vance gordon would also at one point fight alongside another character odell on the borealis ship the combined soldiers went through their fair share of cuts and redesigns too to illustrate here's one with a badass trench coat furthermore initially they were meant to look more alien plenty enemies and alien creatures didn't make it into the retail version at all a few of them include combine synth elite soldiers and combine and alien assassins the bull squids and hound eyes from the original half-life were both men to return cremator my personal favorite cut enemy think of him as a combined janitor one of his tasks was to burn the corpses off the streets he used an emulator a flamethrower-esque weapon capable of completely disintegrating organic matter and was directly connected to his belly via hose such a perfect fit in this twisted universe oh and by the way their heads were prepared by children in a factory that's right the game featured child slaves working in factories there you are i wondered what was keeping you hope you didn't have any trouble finding me [Music] and then there was the peculiar hydra a neon blue gelatinous organism that was transparent with clearly visible organs its three tentacles had heads and each was to have its own function one of which was capable of impaling its victims note how cool looking it was ultimately cut due to the developers not finding it fun to play against from the first person view to deal with all these additional threats gordon had a more extensive arsenal of weapons at his disposal i'm not going to cover them all here mainly because this video is already long as [ __ ] but i'll say that i'm personally glad most of these were cut as i think the weapons in the final game are all distinct and serve their purpose although i wouldn't mind having the stun stick around and now that we have a basic idea of what the early build of half-life 2 was let's take a more detailed look at the origins of this masterpiece and see how it would unfold chronologically i should preface this by saying that the original storyline was not complete and the following will be a rough version of the old storyline put together by passionate fans all of this is based on various files and map packs from the leak as well as information given in the aforementioned book raising the bar additionally it's worth noting that these concepts were not cut because of the leak as the quote-unquote beta version of the main game was already established in the more east european style we know and love today and finally to record the footage you see in this video i played the old maps from different stages of development plus i got a few quality mods where fans have enhanced or recreated the levels since the leaked maps are in a really unfinished state and frankly don't look so good if you want to play the beta maps for yourself or any other mods that you see here links for everything are in the description [Music] dear citizen please put on your gas mask and use discretion now arriving in city 17. the train ride at the beginning was originally meant to be a lot longer similar to the transit ride in half-life 1 it was meant to serve the purpose of familiarizing you with the scope and setting of the world you're about to tackle just like half-life 1 did establishing the black mesa facility we start in the wasteland outside city 17 and see the grim state of the surroundings with bricks and ruins everywhere zen wildlife can be observed all around the hazardous region including hound eyes bull squids and even a gargantua the train eventually enters city 17 first through old city which is in ruins after the seven hour war and then new city a combined reconstructed zone surrounded by a huge wall to protect from the hazardous waste outside during the ride a passenger named samuel fills you in on the events that have occurred while gordon was in stasis and provides you with a gas mask as he reached the last station it's unclear what happens at the train station itself but fans speculate that you meet barney who tells you to meet him at the manhack arcade in retail he told you to make your way to kleiner's lab he would leave the train station advance through the streets and an apartment complex followed by some rooftops and the arrival at kleiner's lab however the journey initially involved a lengthy exploration of city 17 before arriving at the lab you exit the train station via the back and get to the industrial district this region has lots of combine factories and is patrolled by metro cops and combats it's here that you get to see the cremator factory mentioned earlier with children assembling the cremator heads i'm not sure if these kids are drugged out of their minds or if this is simply a consequence of unfinished code either way it's creeping me out so let's move on you would then traverse through other workshops such as the stenographer's chasm after the industrial area you continue past the train station a construction site and probably get chased by metro cops through some apartments before getting to the manhack arcade the manhack arcade is an entertainment hub for the citizens where they can relax and enjoy some video games controlling manhacks you know those annoying spinning blades that we all hate the games you can play here consist of killing fugitive citizens unbeknownst to the players they are controlling real man hacks killing actual people that are hiding in the streets and no wonder the graphics were so realistic when you're done with that bit of fun it's time to meet up with barney and pass through the zen-infested sewers with him to finally arrive at kleiner's lab in my opinion the longer train ride introduction and the journey to kleiner's lab perfectly highlighted the sinister nature of the combine and did a great job at acquainting you with the tyrannical world the game is set in valve ultimately decided to cut that whole section down for the sake of gameplay and pacing anyway back at kleiner's lab everything largely plays out the same way he provides you with the new hev suit and you enter his teleport to be sent to elena mossman at kraken base as eli's lab teleport is not functional the teleport malfunctions sending you to several places before failing all together and injuring dr kleiner in the process for this reason barney stays with a good doctor and directs you off to eli's lab stationed in a scrap yard in a cave outside the city by the way in one of the drafts kleiner didn't make it in this scene in any case you then cross the console plaza and go through the canals to escape city 17 on foot and then either on a jet ski or an airboat in a section that was again much longer than the retail version you would encounter varying enemies at the canals including bull squids and hound eyes warning hazardous radiation levels [Music] gordon makes it to the wasteland turned into the coast in the final game the wasteland is a completely dried out ocean a consequence of the combine tampering with the environment in contrast to the rather sunny bright vibe of the coast with its many beaches spanning alongside its vast ocean here we have gloomy skies and an overall far more dismal atmosphere you travel across these treacherous areas dealing with combine outposts as well as ant lines and other zen creatures along the way eventually you get to trap town or quarry town which is basically ravenholm from the retail version if you ever felt that ravenholm had a distinct mood from the rest of the game it's probably because this part was taken directly from the early version's dark setting basically you pass through a zombie-infested town while avoiding traps set by a mad monk after quarry town you arrive at the scrapyard where eli's den or lab is located in a cave in this rugged place you meet eli maxwell and dog possibly alex who is good friends with eli he provides you with the physics manipulator an alternate version of the gravity gun and informs you of the events of the past 10 years including the existence of the air exchange more on that later he also warns you about the particle storm an entity that took his leg when he stopped to study it and advises you to run if you see a flicker of green light he believes the storm is a conscious entity and expresses his wish to form an alliance with it to aid against the combine i've seen them take our whole squads reeling in soldiers tearing gun votes to bits some say it's only an electrical disturbance but if you ask me there's an intelligence in there somewhere only we could communicate with a force like that on our side that would be a powerful from here i assume that it sends you to the depot it is unclear if alex is with you along for the voyage but i think it's probable that she was so you go down the antlion caves that are filled with you guessed it antlions and antlion grubs at the end of this chapter you would confront a creature known as the antlion king this whole segment was recycled in episode 2 though the king was changed into the antlion guardian the part with the scout car was not in the original story instead gordon hitched the wasteland train or went on foot across the dried land which was vastly larger and more deserted having made it to the depot you fight your way to the nearby prison causing mayhem in a firefight that includes the combine soldiers and ant lions the act ends with fuel tanks exploding in the whole place engulfed in flames as you proceed to the depot itself and hitch another train this time heading to the air exchange before arriving at the destination the train crashes at another smaller depot not too far from airax here you link up with alex her pet alien skitch and her father captain vance with his conscripts it is believed that a battle is most likely fought here against combine super elite soldiers and striders among others as you push on toward the air exchange the air exchange was a combine facility described as releasing noxious murky gases into the atmosphere it was to be protected by a human combine unit known as the conscripts and captain vance was the head of security as a result when the secretly plotted rebellion was initiated vance and his men had abundant access to combine weapons and vehicles upon reaching the facility you ascend to the top of the air rex industrial tower in order to access some sort of control room next a battle with a gunship would ensue after which you jumped down into a pool of liquid below in progress to the main reactor core to sabotage it effectively rendering the air exchange non-operational and consequently causing the human uprising in city 17. all of this was of course cut from retail as there was no air exchange and concepts were recycled to various other parts of the final game the battle at nova prospect for instance featured the prison section and served as the trigger for the rebellion the destruction of a reactor core was moved to the citadel at the very end instead as mentioned earlier vance was merged with eli's character and his model was used for a citizen npc i find this entire idea of the combine replacing the air to make it breathable for advisors and humans forced to wear gas masks to be one of the coolest things from the early build and i wish this concept was left in the final game anyhow after the whole ordeal you make your way down to the shore where you meet odell former engineer of the borealis ship located in the arctic regions [Music] together with odell you get on a tugboat and ride it out to the ship you get on board the borealis in what i imagine was a distinctly eerie portion of the game imagine a massive stranded ship in a vast cold dark snowy region the corpses of the crew members scattered all around the vessel zombies and stalkers wandering aimlessly through the lifeless corridors let's give it a listen come in please this is kraken do you read our situation is critical down here we thought you were sending someone i repeat the craft is transporting large tanks with seemingly combine or alien assassins inside them in stasis the only sign of real life are the combine enemies that launch an assault on you leaving the ship heavily damaged you would then have to traverse through parts of the vessel that are on fire to find the mini submarine on board that you would use to reach the underwater rebel research facility crack and base what a damn shame we never got to experience this this section was removed from the retail game as well odell's character turned into that dude who introduced the rpg to you in half-life 2 and the borealis did come up at the end of episode 2. it's the borealis good god incredible what the borealis it's real it was most likely to play a big role in episode three but i guess we'll never know before we move on it's worth noting that in the first draft of the script the game was supposed to start in the arctic regions in close vicinity to the ice-locked borealis or as it was originally called the hyperborea it was used by undercover resistance members to deliver goods to crack and base and became ice locked in an attempt to do so much like in the later version you would work together with odell to find the submarine and navigate it to the underwater base the details of the events that occur at crack and base are unfortunately unknown we do know that gordon meets alina mossman and judging by the distress call sent out from the base that we heard earlier it is safe to assume that some sort of battle took place the facility would in the end get flooded and destroyed because of a traitor amongst the rebels but gordon would somehow manage to get out in an escape pod following that chapter gordon together with alex captain vance and his conscripts launch an attack on the weather control a massive dome that's draining earth of its oxygen the details are again unknown apart from the fact that a major battle broke out between the conscripts and the combine involving gunships and possibly combine elite soldiers it was a low dome jutting with antennae and radar dishes tiny red lights following or during the battle gordon and alex climb aboard a c-130 a cargo plane found at the site and fly it back to city 17. captain vance would return to the city around the same time as well [Music] [Music] in true valve fashion the plane crashes into a skyscraper in the middle of the city vertigo the vertigo was a huge art deco skyscraper that the c-130 crashed into in one of the earlier concepts following the crash alex gets injured and kidnapped she informs you of her father's whereabouts and instructs you to find his headquarters before being taken away by metro cops gordon i'm hurt can't move go on without me find my father there's an emergency bunker near the inner gate he's in command there tell him that you have to descend down the crumbling building facing combine soldiers and other enemies eventually reaching the atrium on the middle floor via a window cleaning platform meanwhile a full-scale war is ensuing on the streets of city 17 and you cross to the nearby smaller buildings and join the battle on the rooftops palace in an alternate version of the level a helicopter instead of a plane crashes into a building called the palace the vertigo was changed to the palace as the developers started adopting the more east european look for the city hence the building being more reminiscent of stalinist architecture it was an exhibition center of sorts featuring displays of vases brain busts and numerous other showcases one of the rooms even showcased on oh i'm gonna butcher this but ichthyosaur hanging from the ceiling similarly you would have to fight your way out of there now there would also be a gunship stalking the building and firing at you in any case you join the conscripts in the battle on the rooftops and gradually proceed to ground level this section would see gordon fighting off snipers and assisting the conscripts any way he can [Music] so it's plausible that a meeting took place at vance's headquarters positioned near the inner gates of the citadel's outer wall where you perhaps plot a rescue for alex among other things [Music] get to the citadel you return to the underground levels where you encounter several hydras these guys do not mess around they're quick and agile and just a few strikes can be lethal so as you make your way through these tunnels the hydras would be stalking you popping up out of nowhere all around you have to carefully but quickly maneuver past them and take an elevator up to the surface at last you make it to the citadel and reach the council office you find alex and discover that elena mossman has betrayed you you then confront the council who as it is revealed has sacrificed most of his human body to begin the process of becoming immortal with the help of combine technology further details like what happens to alex dr mossman eli maxwell and captain vance are unknown let go of me you [ __ ] gordon don't listen to them you know what you have to do what do you mean you speak for humanity you can't speak for something you're not a part of anymore call yourself consular or whatever you want but you're really just another cog in the combine machinery it's assumed that gordon somehow defeats the console and survives perhaps it went something like [Music] in the leaked maps of the citadel i found this rather significant looking space which might have played a role in destroying the building [Music] from a thorough exploration of city 17 all the way out into the hazardous wastelands then taking down a massive facility and traveling to the arctic regions this game had it all underwater bases and crashing airplanes into skyscrapers right down to total warfare on the streets gordon's journey was indeed quite extraordinary [Music] [Music] [Applause] quick question which version do you prefer and why the us style architecture with its skyscrapers and darker atmosphere or the post-communist east european style with a brighter and more hopeful vibe from retail please let me know in the comments below now i absolutely adore the game we got in the end but i'm a sucker for utterly dark dystopian narratives if you ask me the old version style and atmosphere is more in the vein of half-life 1 and is an overall better fit as a sequel to that game but what do i know valve most likely had legitimate reasons for the changes as a fan i can't complain either way because the game we got in the end is an absolute masterpiece all i know is that half-life fans around the world would give an arm and a leg to play this darker version as soon as i found out about it i was immediately looking for a way to play it well good news you can sort of talking about a mod that aims to recreate and re-imagine that early vision of half-life 2. and i mean the entire game with a complete narrative a unique soundtrack and gorgeous visuals it's called dark interval and it looks incredible sadly it's not finished yet but the first part is out now for anyone to play and that's what we'll be checking out here in just a few moments before we get to that though as far as mods go i'll give a brief honorable mention to raising the bar redux another mod with the same goal the first few chapters for this one are also available for anyone to play quick thoughts redox was a mixed bag for me looks great visually but the artistic style doesn't quite match the concept art it looks too similar to the final version of half-life 2. they weren't able to capture that vibe that i think most of us feel when we see these pictures in contrast look at these fan created maps whoever made this just gets it which i don't sense from redux on top of that the level design felt somewhat confusing and could definitely use some tightening up aside from that raising the bar stays true to the source material at least when it comes to the content itself it was cool to see the console spouting his propaganda and mossman's character model appearing more like she did in the early build though barney's voice was well you be the judge about that beer i owed you it's me garden barney from black mesa hell of a job you did there gordon they've done some neat things with the gameplay what stood out to me the most was the gun play the remodeled weapons have a real punch to them and feel satisfying to use the new animations are excellent as well take a look for yourself furthermore they've changed the explosions and various in-game sounds like when you pick up ammo and such it adds something fresh to the game which you have to give them credit for there's some really promising stuff in here like i said the animations are slickers and the guns look and sound great i just feel like it's lacking in some crucial elements which in my opinion are too important for a mod based on these early concepts mainly the atmosphere and the tangled level design it's not all bad and some areas truly look great but as you'll see shortly with dark interval they don't quite nail it here on the other hand there are some aspects of this mod that are better than dark interval and we'll get to those two in a moment of course it's not a finished product and everything is subject to change so i don't want to prematurely judge it i hope the developers make the necessary improvements and go all the way with the project i would definitely play it raising the bar redox team i'm rooting for you guys good luck [Music] you awake in an unfamiliar place seemingly in a cryo storage on board a cargo ship you have no memories of getting here you get a vague feeling that you've slept for a long long time dark interval follows the timeline where gordon's journey starts in the arctic regions surrounded by a thick fog the tone is immediately established and it's haunting out here it feels lonely and deserted out here you hear a ship bell tolling in a distance and proceed until you discover the source of the sound the ice locked borealis you move further in towards what looks like some sort of cryo chamber then you wake up on the borealis itself it's a little unclear as to what is going on was that a dream in the past the future as you progress through the vessel you are struck with these intense visions again are these flashbacks or visions of the future [Music] these dream-like states are mysterious definitely a welcome and fitting addition to this version of the game soon after we find our old buddy odell and he will act as our guide through the ship you learn that the ship is heading towards city 17 and we're nearly there at one point you sneak past some combined soldiers who are sporting these orange uniforms from the concept art throughout the ship you'll encounter zombies and headcrabs seeing as you don't have a proper weapon yet you're reduced to throwing around objects to deal with these threats later on you find a flare gun and it makes the job easier in my opinion the hostile creatures should be kept to a minimum in this section if not taken out altogether because it kinda takes you out of the otherwise incredible setting especially since the physics feel kind of janky in this version for some reason i think the entire first chapter could have been you just walking through the ship and having these weird visions without any enemy encounters i really like this bit where you find this stripped soldier laying here [Music] you walk into this next room to solve a puzzle and when you come back the layout has changed and the body has mysteriously disappeared this was honestly creepy and i much prefer stuff like this over throwing bricks around to kill headcrabs anyway soon enough it's time to get off the ship we've arrived in city 17. if you're a half-life fan you will lose your [ __ ] here i mean damn do they nail you here just look at this gorgeously designed citadel in the distance striders cremators burning waste cops patrolling zen creatures flying around the overall ambiance this is just absolutely stunning and i was frankly blown away [Music] what you'll see here and the rest of the mod does not feel like a fan made little project it feels like a high budget production that brought all of those old ideas to life here you meet barney who actually sounds like himself and yeah gordon it's me barney i wasn't sure if he still remembered me he'll take down these combine gates for you so you can enter the industrial area in this part we have to free some vertigons from captivity so they can let you pass further into the city you'll move between some sewers and factories to help these fellows out their voices are interesting here and i'm not entirely sure how i feel about them will sparkle a life or a passage our brother must be brought here united and strength we can expose the passage it's a little hard to make out what they're saying at times i didn't see any children working in the factory so i presume the suppression field is in effect in this version after rescuing and uniting the vortigaunts they open up the gate that leads to the plaza the plaza much like the rest of the locations looks on point and perfectly captures the tone of the concept art this is what i call reimagining something while staying true to it at the same time by this point you'll have run into some propaganda posters and console casts that show administrator breen is present here instead of the console you'll also notice that the citizens are not wearing any gas masks which might indicate that this version follows the timeline where the air exchange is not a thing honestly kind of a bummer but that's just a personal preference of course i'm just all for the earliest possible concepts when it comes to this stuff give me the gas masks and the kids in factories and the trench coat metro cops and air x and baldi console you know what i'm saying of course nobody knows how all these early concepts were connected it's up to each individual's own interpretation to bridge them as they see fit so in this particular re-imagination they chose not to include those things it seems like at the plaza you have the freedom to explore the map there's this little cyber cafe and this marvelous looking abandoned hotel man i love this stuff you'll see some citizens chilling here and chopping it up you can't help but feel this undeniable sense of oppression and misery in the air when you're done exploring you head to the train station where you again get in touch with barney this time he instructs you off to the manhack arcade some metro cops start chasing you and you soon reach an abandoned construction site the sense of dread and misery only gets amplified in the muddy rainy zombie-infested environment you guide a civilian through this place and he in turn helps you open up another gate that leads to the city center at this point i don't even have to mention how outstanding it all looks i mean just see for yourself [Music] you walk through the rain and witness the corruption and injustice firsthand the streets will lead you to an apartment complex departments have their own distinct look that differs from the retail version but is still clearly half-life again this is a proper way to reimagine something while staying faithful to the source material eventually you arrive at the entertainment center of the city right outside the manhack arcade you see the combine forces marching through the streets further emphasizing their utter domination over earth you enter the arcade through this door which i think i found in some concept art the interior is the coolest i've seen out of all the mods and variations i've played the games you can play here display a warning for epileptic seizures as they sport lots of crazy flashing lights and visuals it felt really unfinished and buggy and could have been left out altogether as far as i'm concerned anyways you meet barney once again and separate one last time before reaching dr kleiner's lab as you exit the arcade you'll see some more weird visuals you carry on past the bleak looking streets and enter the underground levels another thing i love about this mod is that each location has a unique look and feel to it while simultaneously staying true to the overall tone it makes the entire journey much more memorable the underground sewers are infested with zen plants and creatures you'll also come across these recon synth scanners down here too which were the same counterparts to the mechanical city scanners we see in the retail game actually all of the scanners were originally synth and the mechanical ones were added later in development you have a handgun on your now given to you by barney so these scanners and the occasional metro cop or stalker down here won't give you much trouble following all that you arrive at kleiner's lab dr kleiner decides to teleport you to cracking base we know how this part plays out you get teleported to several places where you get glimpses of the wasteland the interior of the citadel and even zen itself after the initial malfunction the teleport breaks down and injures dr kleiner barney sends you off on foot and tells you to leave city 17 as soon as possible and that's where the mod ends [Applause] so before we wrap this up let me very quickly point out a few issues i had here i noticed that the physics in dark interval felt very janky i'm not sure if i'm imagining this [ __ ] but something definitely felt off at times the objects would fly way too far as if you're using a gravity gun in general throwing things where you intend to throw them was more difficult than i remember from games using this engine it's like the weight of the item was incorrect or something just feels off and you'll get what i mean if you play it moreover the ai for zombies occasionally felt broken and the hud when switching weapons displays no icons also gordon would get stuck dead in his tracks too often from walking into small obstructions also also i found crates that were indestructible and what is up with this slow-ass crowbar the reason for all these issues is most likely that the mod is still unfinished so i'm expecting them to be fixed by the time the final version rolls out okay i'm done whining now all in all dark interval to me really stands out amongst the mods based on the early version of half-life 2. it has some of the best visuals i've ever seen in a source engine game brilliant pacing and level design and the atmosphere is absolutely on point this first section of the game is all about the exploration of city 17 and acquainting you with the world you're about to delve deeper into which i feel interval does a fantastic job achieving it doesn't provide you with all of the neat gameplay improvements that redox had but i personally place more value on the things it does excel in especially since the gameplay is not bad as it is i do wish it had some more of those older elements like people wearing gas masks but i respect the developers choice and interpretation and i can't wait to see the next episode in this saga with enough time will and effort the modding community is undeniably capable of delivering high quality products that can stand their ground as truly legitimate games no better example than black mesa which took over 15 years to develop and gave us a beautiful rendition of half-life 1. something about all that hard work and dedication coming purely out of love for the source material bleeds through into the work and the result is a lot of times not always but a lot of times spectacular so who knows maybe in the next 15 years or so we might have a complete version of this dark and beautiful alternate side of half-life 2. there are more projects out there that are based on these early concepts some of them out now and more in the works i played a handful of them to get footage for this video and most were very enjoyable experiences you can find info on everything you saw here in the description if you want to try them out for yourself thank you so much for watching i did my best to include all of the most noteworthy details of the early plot progression and cut content apologies in advance if i made any mistakes or missed anything important during my research putting all of this together was a lot of work but i truly enjoyed the process and i hope you found this video interesting and informative or at least entertaining if you did i'd really appreciate if you hit the like button and maybe even subscribe to the channel honestly i'm not entirely sure yet what this channel is going to be all i know is that i genuinely love creating content and i'm excited to see how this will all develop i'll do my best to upload frequently so i hope you guys stick around and i'll see you soon [Music] sometimes i dream about cheese

Channel: Neon Nova

Views: 412,588

Keywords: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Beta, Beta, Valve, Gordon Freeman, Consul, Captain Vance, Alyx Vance, Eli Maxwell, City 17, Manhack Arcade, Kleiner's lab, Canals, Wasteland, Quarry Town, Eli's Den, Depot, Air-Exchange, Borealis, Hyperborea, Kraken Base, Weather Control, Skyscraper, Vertigo, Palace, Hydra, Citadel, Combine, Raising the Bar: Redux, Dark Interval, Cremation, Missing Information, Mod

Id: NSMNdQl0xLk

Length: 41min 35sec (2495 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 05 2022