What Could Have Been / Half-Life

Between copious amounts of behind the scenes material, leftover game files and several Content Leak events, there’s many, many things known to have been changed or cut throughout the Half-Life series.

Half-Life

• Early betas of the game used an unmodified Quake engine. When it became apparent that the engine wasn't going to be able to deliver what the development team wanted, they considered porting the game to the Quake II engine, but after figuring out that it would delay development by too long, they instead started modifying and customizing the Quake engine to suit their needs, eventually ditching about 90% of the original code. The end result was the GoldSrc engine.
• A number of characters went through redesigns. Gordon's original design originally had a wild, unkempt beard and thicker face going along with a much larger HEV suit that that led to him being dubbed "Ivan the Space Biker". This was refined into a trim goatee and a more form-fitting suit for the final design. Scientists and Security Guards had much more exaggerated faces before being toned down into something more believable.
• It was originally planned that the Scientists and Security Guards would be hostile toward Gordon, believing him to be responsible for causing the incident. AI tests that had the guards following the player and fighting other enemies greatly appealed to playtesters, and Valve realized they were much more interesting as friendly NPCs.
• Many enemies were cut from the game, and the ones that made it in often had features cut from the final game.
  • Among the unused enemies were a minigun-wielding Human Sergeant and a penis-shaped Xen enemy dubbed "Mr. Friendly", who would be able to knock off Freeman's glasses and cause his vision to go blurred, which was considered an impressive effect for back then, but cut for being annoying. It would also have eaten corpses, removing them from the levels to ease performance. Also, a proposed idea what that it would kill Freeman by raping him
  • Another Xen enemy called the Kingpin would have used Psionic abilities to attack and to defend itself against explosives. One setpiece would have had a Kingpin captured and caged by the military, where the player could free it to attack the soldiers. A flying enemy called the Stukabat lasted late into development, enough that it was seen in footage from E3 1998. While both enemies were cut, the assets and code left in the SDK led to both enemies being used in several mods, including Sven Co-op .
  • The Panthereye, a feline-like counterpart to the Houndeye, was cut both due to being redundant and due to engine issues regarding quadrupedal NPCs. Like the Kingpin and Stukabat, its code and assets were in an advanced enough state that several mods were able to restore it.
  • Vortigaunts originally could resurrect dead Vortigaunts using their beam attack. They also had a “bravery” function where they would lose their will to fight if they witnessed too many of their kind be killed.
  • Female Assassins have unused animations for melee attacks and were seen armed with Crossbows in promotional material. They still have a quiver attached to their belt in the final game.
• The HEV's features would have been dependent on having battery power available, with features like the HUD, Long Jump module and voice shutting down if the HEV ran out of battery. This was likely deemed annoying as the battery power doubled as the HEV's armor.
• Enemy attacks and environment hazards could inflict status effects that would have to be treated with special items. There also existed an Adrenaline canister that would have provided a one-use revival upon death. The models for these items still exist within the final game, albeit unused.
• Cut voice lines exist for the HEV suit announcing the acquisition of new weapons. Interestingly, these sound files indicate that the .357 Magnum was originally a .44 Magnum.^note This is also in line with beta textures for the weapon's ammo pickups, which identified it as .44 Magnum. Another cut voice line refers to the Tau Cannon as a "hypervelocity projectile weapon", suggesting it was originally planned to be akin to a railgun instead of an energy weapon.^note This is further backed up by the Tau Cannon's name in the game code, "weapon_gauss"
• The pistol's secondary fire was meant to attach a sound suppressor. It was likely cut for its limited utility. Unused textures show the pistol with a Glock 18's fire selector switch on the slide, explaining the secondary fire it ended up with of simply firing faster. Likewise, the Gluon gun had a secondary fire for switching between wide and narrow beams, with narrow beam mode doing less damage but using less ammunition. While the functionality was cut, pressing secondary fire will still play the animation intended for switching modes.
• A slew of VOX announcements throughout the facility were cut, as seen in this video. Many of these cuts were likely due to the announcements becoming repetitive.
• A port for the Dreamcast was in development by Gearbox and actually finished (trailers advertising the port came out a few months before launch), but Sierra On-Line, who was publishing the series at the time, was not pleased with the Dreamcast's sales numbers and pulled the plug just weeks before it was supposed to come out; the game's players guide even made it to shelves before the cancellation. The Dreamcast port was eventually leaked online years later and found to be fully functional, if awkward due to the limitations of the Dreamcast's controller, and fans later released the Dreamcast port as a mod for the PC version of the game. Not even this version of the game was immune to cut content. An unused in-engine intro cinematic was found within the files, along with an unused deathmatch map.
• Originally◊, the vending machines were going to involve Product Placement, but due to the ability to destroy the machines, the Coca-Cola Company backed out. This is why there seems to be duplicate vending machine textures in halflife.wad, why Hammer vending machine prefabs include the names of real-world soda brands, and why one of the pieces of trash that comes out of destroyed garbage cans suspiciously resembles a can of Sprite.

Half-Life: Opposing Force

• Leaked game files show a second vehicle that the Black Ops would have used: a black V-22 Osprey. While it is fully modeled, the final game instead has the Black Ops solely use black M35 trucks to get around.
• An unused model for a flash grenade weapon is in the files. It is unclear if it was meant to be usable by the player or limited to NPC usage, as it is still seen as gear attached to the Black Ops soldiers in the final game.

Half-Life: Blue Shift

• Blue Shift was originally an exclusive campaign for the cancelled Dreamcast port of Half-Life, similar to how the PS2 version of Half-Life had Decay as a bonus campaign. The Dreamcast port was also going to feature the remade "High Definition" 3D models to take full advantage of the Dreamcast hardware. After it was canceled, Gearbox and Valve opted to release Blue Shift and the HD models as a standalone PC expansion.
• The Dreamcast version has several HD models that weren't included in the official HD pack on the PC, such as a new model for Gordon Freeman and several prop objects.

Half-Life: Decay

• Three missions were cut from the final game. Apparently, one of them there would contain a scene where Gina and Colette would have to save Freeman after he was captured in the main game, explaining why the soldiers didn't just shoot Freeman.
• The original sixth mission, set after Domestic Violence, would have taken place at the Central Transit Hub mentioned in the tram announcement in the original Half-Life.
• The hangar in the airport mission was originally meant to be explored, according to unused game files.
• Unused voice lines indicate you could tell the AI partner to follow you/stand still, as opposed to always having to switch characters to move them.

Half-Life 2

• The game's story was constantly changed during development. Examples include:
  • On top of draining the oceans, the Combine were replacing the atmosphere with poisonous gas that forced humans to wear gas masks. City 17 had darker and more overtly Orwellian styling, with a skyscraper dominated skyline more in line with western cities. Valve felt this didn’t make the Citadel stand out enough, and pursued an eastern European city aesthetic.
  • An early concept had Gordon clad in a leather stealth suit that would have been functionally similar to the HEV but more sinister, with aesthetics inspired by the works of Clive Barker. Combined with other ideas of the early storyline, this was deemed to be too far of a departure from the original game.
  • The opening parts of the game had the player passing through locations like Combine factories and the Manhack Arcade, where citizens unknowingly took control of manhacks hunting down refugees under the guise of a video game. While interesting on paper, Valve didn't find the gameplay of these locations appealing enough to keep around.
  • Ravenholm originally took place before arriving at Black Mesa East (which was originally just Eli's Scrapyard), and the Ravenholm mines would contained a vehicle called the Digger that would have been used to destroy a Gonarch pod used by the Combine to birth headcrabs.
  • Bridging the gap between Eli's scrapyard and the coastline was a journey through a cave system filled with Antlions. This concept would be revisited with the Victory Mine area in Episode Two.
  • Eli was to give an Exposition Dump of the events between the first and second game in the form of a slideshow at his lab.
  • The area surrounding City 17 was much more desolate, consisting of a barren wasteland with beached ships, pockets of Xen wildlife and train depots that the player would follow along to progress. The idea was refined into both the canals and the coast, though a brief glimpse of the wastelands is seen during the first teleport sequence in the final game.
  • The story also featured arctic locations, such as a Combine weather control center and an icebreaker named the Borealis. These were cut due to pacing and gameplay reasons, with the Borealis later being introduced as an Aperture Science vessel in Episode Two.
  • The Citadel went through many different designs. The earliest known concepts looked more organic with a rusty color palette, while early interiors were made almost entirely of tile materials. A near-final design used in many pieces of concept art is slightly different than the one used in the game, mainly by being surrounded by smaller Combine buildings.
• Characters underwent significant changes:
  • Eli was an old mechanic named Eli Maxwell who was living out of a scrapyard. Alyx's father was originally a white military man named Captain Vance who lead soldiers conscripted by the Combine, who would later revolt and join the Resistance. After the Conscripts were cut, Vance and Maxwell were merged into a single character in Eli Vance, with Captain Vance's face model being recycled into a citizen in the final game and a hostage model in Counter-Strike: Source.
  • Alyx had red hair and wore a jumpsuit with knee-high boots, which Valve felt was too generic and changed her to her current look just before the game was shown at E3. According to her voice actress Merle Dandridge, Alyx was much more foul-mouthed, but both Merle and Valve felt it didn't fit the character.
  • Odessa Cubbage's face model came from a cut character named Odell, who was the engineer of the Borealis. When the location was cut, the character model went into freefall until a scene with a character demonstrating the RPG came into play. The leaked build shows that the character that would become Odessa was meant to directly attack the Gunship only to be killed, with the player having to pick up the weapon to finish the Gunship off.
  • Dr. Breen was originally The Consul, a straightforward Big Brother figure with no ties to the Black Mesa facility. One concept for the Consul had the player only seeing his face throughout most of the game, with The Reveal at the finale that he had his body replaced by a life support machine giving him immortality. He eventually morphed into Dr. Breen in order to have a more personal antagonist. Concepts seen in Raising The Bar show that Valve considered eyeglasses and contact lenses for Dr. Breen.
  • Dr. Kleiner was much older looking (in line with the 'Walter' scientist model from the original game), and Valve toyed around with killing him off during the first teleport sequence. His model was changed when Valve employees had a chance run-in with a man who bore a striking resemblance to the “Walter” scientist model. The original Kleiner head, like Captain Vance's face, would be recycled for a hostage in Counter-Strike: Source.
  • Dr. Mossman was a blonde-haired woman named Elena Mossman, who worked in an underwater resistance lab named Kraken Base. Elena was more overtly villainous, betraying the Resistance without remorse. Lead Writer Marc Laidlaw changed her name to Judith as it was too close to Elena Hausmann, a character from a tie-in novel to Gadget: Past as Future that Laidlaw had previously written. After Kraken Base was cut, she was heavily rewritten and the performance of Michelle Forbes encouraged the developers to make Mossman a more sympathetic character.
  • Father Grigori, according to voice files in the leaked build, was a more grim and serious character. An unused model that was leaked in 2016 shows a more stylized face model◊. He also has unused voice lines suggesting he was to give the player health and ammo.
  • The earliest known models for the Citizens wore gas masks with green hazmat suits and aprons, which were cut when Valve realized the masks would get in the way of their new facial expression technology. The E3 2003 and 2004 citizens have differences in clothing compared to the final game, with the E3 2004 version still being used in the final game as the clothes used on corpses. The leaked build also contained textures for several unused face models that appear to be Valve employees or their relatives.
  • Robin Williams, a fan of the series, was interested in voicing the Vortigaunts, but his schedule wouldn't let him. They would end up voiced by Louis Gossett Jr. in Half-Life 2 and Tony Todd from Episode Two onward.
• The game's arsenal was originally much larger, as it was envisioned that the player would lose their weapons and gain new ones that would serve the same role throughout the story. Many were cut to give focus to the Gravity Gun, which Valve thought was more interesting.
  • Among them were a number of sub-machine guns and assault rifles, including the AK-47, MP5k (which was seen in the hands of Citizens and Barney during the E3 2003 footage) OICW (which was the Combine’s standard rifle in E3 footage, later replaced by the Pulse Rifle), and the Combine Sniper Rifle (which was a conventional weapon rather than an emplaced pulse weapon as later seen in Episode Two).
  • The Gravity Gun appears to have its origins in the ‘Brickbat’, a weapon used as a means to throw objects and even headcrabs at enemies. Rioting citizens were also meant to make use of this weapon to throw bottles and rocks. The Gravity Gun and the ability to pick up objects by the USE key was the likely reason this was cut, though this weapon is still referenced in the map editor of the final game.
  • The Civil Protection stunstick was meant to be a usable weapon, but was rendered unusable as it was too similar to the crowbar. The SLAM mine, a weapon that combined the functions of the tripmine and satchel charge from Half-Life, was also cut from the game, though both weapons would become part of Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, with the stunstick being made slower but more powerful to differentiate it from the crowbar.
  • The model for the Pulse Rifle was intended for a different weapon called the Incendiary Rifle, which acted like a magazine-fed flare rifle. The model in the final game is still named “v_irifle.mdl”.
  • The arsenal also included tools like a Flare Gun, an Ice Axe, and Binoculars. The Ice Axe would have likely replaced the Crowbar during the Borealis levels. The Binoculars were refitted into the HEV's zoom function.
  • The Tau Cannon was also planned to be usable by the player while on foot, akin to the original game. Cut voice lines and animations suggest that a Vortigaunt would have decoupled the Tau Cannon from the Buggy at Lighthouse Point to give to the player. Leftover scripting in Nova Prospekt suggests that a Vortigaunt found within the prison would have been able to provide the Tau Cannon ammo by charging it. This was ultimately cut due to there being not enough development time left to flesh out the concept.
  • Alyx's custom pistol has several unused animations where it transforms into sub-machine gun and rifle configurations.
  • One of the weapons in the leaked build was a throwable mine called the Hopwire, meant as an anti-Strider weapon in the later stages of the game, acting as a mine that deployed several smaller explosives attached by tripwires after being thrown. This was cut likely for being too inefficient of a weapon.
  • The E3 2003 footage shows the player dropping a shotgun to pick up the RPG. Combined with an unused "dropprimary" command found in the development console, it's likely that Valve planned that the player would have been limited in how many weapons they could carry.
  • Interestingly, the .357 Magnum and Crossbow are two weapons not present in the original stolen build, indicating they were added late into development.
• A large number of enemies were axed:
  • Among them were returning enemies from the first game, such as the Bullsquid, Houndeye, and a Combine version of the Black Ops Assassin. The Bullsquid would have been reimagined as a more aquatic creature behaving like a crocodile, while the Houndeye was to be more aggressive with a Lean and Mean appearance caused by hunger.
  • The Ichthyosaur was meant to be appear along with the leeches as Border Patrol to keep the player from swimming too far out in the coastline. It was ultimately reduced to a mere cameo during the teleport sequence.
  • The Hydra, which was featured in the debut E3 trailer, was cut as playtesters found it frustrating to fight against despite its impressive looks and technical wizardry (it used only a few pre-built animations, with most of its movements being handled by code).
  • Antlion Grubs were meant to appear prior to their inclusion in Episode Two, with an early model and texture included in the leaked 2003 build. Concept art also showed a massive Antlion King, which was later refitted into the Antlion Guardian in Episode Two.
  • Early in development, the main humanoid Combine enemy was the Combine Guard, who wore an all-black uniform with armor vest and a black trenchcoat. The look was dumped as Valve pursued a less heavy-handed aesthetic for the Combine, and the enemy was eventually split between the Civil Protection and Combine Soldier. The Combine Guard seen in the leaked build of the game was a new enemy entirely; a heavy humanoid synth who could only be damaged by launched objects from the Gravity Gun, an idea that would be explored with Episode Two's Hunter enemy being extremely vulnerable to objects thrown with the Gravity Gun.
  • The Cremator, effectively a Combine janitor that used a flamethrower-like weapon to dissolve trash, was among several early synth enemies that were cut. While cut, its head was used as a prop in Eli's lab, with Eli claiming "we're still not sure what that does" if you look at it. Two other early synths, the Crab and Mortar synth, were reused in the background of the Citadel pod ride scene.
  • Stalkers were meant to be fought throughout the game. The leaked build has the Stalker using vastly different AI over its final incarnation fought in Episode One, with agile movements and melee attacks.
  • The Combine Elite was originally a soldier using dynamic Predator-style camouflage to blend into any environment. After it was cut, it became a bipedal synth called the Combine Super Soldier, who lasted late enough to have its model viewer icon in the final game. It was cut when Valve felt its design clashed with the Citadel's architecture and they opted for a Palette Swap of the regular Combine Soldier in its place.
• The Combine APC was originally intended to be driveable by the player. Playtesters found that its slow movement was unsatisfying compared to the Buggy, and so it was relegated to NPC usage only. Before Valve came up with the Airboat, the vehicle intended for the Canals sections was a Jet Ski. It was replaced due to feeling too much like running around on-foot, as well as having a poor reference as to where the front was while driving and looking around. The Airboat itself went through a number of visual redesigns due to severe motion sickness issues during playtests.

Half-Life 2: Episode One

• Episode One was originally titled Half-Life 2: Aftermath before Valve decided on the Episodic release model.
• Unused G-Man dialogue suggests the intro scene was longer, with the unused lines having him display a more severe reaction to the Vortigaunts' rescue of Gordon. Given that the unused lines have him uncharacteristically upset, they were likely cut for being unintentionally humorous.
• A test weapon called the Vortex Hopwire existed within the files, acting as a grenade that generates a black hole that draws in and disintegrates anything in range. Its code suggests it was meant to be an anti-Strider weapon like the earlier "Hopwire" cut from Half-Life 2 proper, the concept of which would be finally realized in Episode Two's Magnusson Device. It was later removed from Episode One's files, but can still be spawned in Portal with console commands.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two

• The Muscle Car was originally a ramshackle vehicle called the Jalopy, which lasted long enough to be seen in early gameplay footage. It was changed late in development when playtesters felt it was "uncool" and too similar to the Buggy.
• Early trailers showed Alyx being incapacitated by falling off the bridge at the very beginning, but this playtested poorly since it simply made Alyx look weak. This caused Valve to overhaul the entire intro to help introduce the new Hunter enemy and establish White Forest early in the story.
• Griggs and Sheckley were originally Cyril and Fred, who were mechanics that had built the Muscle Car. After they were reworked into an Abbott and Costello-style comedic duo, they were intended to die early in the fight against the Antlions, but that changed when playtesters became confused and overwhelmed during the fight without assistance.
• According to Earl Alexander (voice actor for Left 4 Dead's Louis), he did voice work for Griggs but was replaced in the final game with the citizens' usual voice, John Patrick Lowrie. Unused Episode Two files from a leaked build of Postal 3 includes some of Earl Alexander's voice work, though it only consists of generic Rebel lines and no lines specific to Griggs.
• Valve strongly considered bringing back the Bullsquid enemy, but ultimately felt that it didn't fit the forest settings of the game. Most of its features were instead given to the Antlion Worker.
• A section in the Antlion tunnels had a choice of two paths where one path would progress and the other would loop back around and dump you back where you started. This got removed after they watched one playtester spend over half an hour taking this path over and over again, never realizing they were going in circles.
• The original draft didn't feature Dr. Magnusson, instead simply having Eli and Kleiner running White Forest by themselves. The team quickly realized how implausible it was that Eli and Kleiner could travel there and set it up in less than a day, and the creation of Magnusson also allowed them to provide a bit of antagonism among the heroes, as Alyx, Eli and Kleiner get along very well.
• Textures for an unused juvenile version of the Combine Advisor was left in the game files, along with unused dialogue from Alyx suggesting it was meant to be used during the barn scene showing the Advisors in full for the first time.
• Early videos of the final battle had large numbers of Combine soldiers, Gunships, and Dropships alongside the Hunters and Striders. Everything but the Hunters and Striders were removed when playtesters felt overwhelmed and lost track of the objective.
• An update to Episode One in 2013 accidentally included a test map that appears to have been an early idea for Episode Two's final battle. Taking place in a wasteland setting rather than a forest, the player would have needed to recover fuel for a helicopter at the resistance base while under constant Combine attack, with the final phase having the player hold off the Combine while Alyx prepares the helicopter to leave.
• The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx states that when the decision was made to kill off a member of the main cast, they originally considered Dr. Kleiner for the axe. They ultimately felt Eli's death would have a more emotional impact, especially with his connection with Alyx.

Half-Life 2: Episode Three

• The entire game can be considered this after Half-Life: Alyx, as it retcons the ending of Episode Two in a fashion that's incompatible with plotline originally established by prior episodes. Even if a future Half-Life game revisits many of the ideas intended for this game, they won't exist in the same way.
• According to developer commentaries, the Hunter-Chopper fight in Episode Two started as part of gameplay experiments intended for this episode but playtested so well that it was dropped into Episode Two.
• Particle effects and unfinished code in Episode Two included prototypes for the Combine Advisor's AI and attacks, suggesting it was intended to use an energy shield to defend itself and would have telekinetic powers to use physics objects as attacks, much like the player's Gravity Gun.
• Concept art released by a Valve artist in 2008 showed several ideas for the episode, including different designs for Alyx in arctic weather clothing, unknown characters in arctic gear, and a return to Xen from the first game.
• After his retirement from game development, Marc Laidlaw has shared the entire plot on his website on August 25th, 2017. For legal reasons, he's changed the names and titles (Episode 3 becomes Epistle 3, Vortigaunts becomes Ghastlygaunts, Eli Vance the father of Alyx is now Elly Vance, the mother of Alex, the Combine becomes the Disparate, and the Borealis becomes Hyperborea).
  • In short, the Combine made a backup of Breen's consciousness before he died at the Citadel and transferred it into the grub body of a Combine Advisor. Breen ultimately found no pleasure in his current predicament and begged Gordon to Mercy Kill him. His final fate is left unstated. Gordon, Judith and Alyx manage to board the Borealis, which carries a device that is constantly transporting the ship through space and time. Alyx realizes they can use the ship as a weapon against the Combine. Judith, who attempts to preserve the ship for its technology, is killed by Alyx. As the ship is about to be sent to the Combine homeworld, Alyx is whisked away by the G-Man, who now considers her a more worthy agent than Gordon, while Gordon realizes that the ship will be ineffective against the mighty Dyson sphere the Combine have. Before he is consumed by the explosion, Vortigaunts arrive and rescue Gordon. An epilogue^note though this epilogue is implied to be a metaphor for Laidlaw's feelings about Valve and the series, and not part of the intended story shows Gordon on Earth in an indeterminate time in the future, where the fate of the Resistance is an Ambiguous Situation but the planet has seen some recovery and enough time has passed that the Living Legend Icon of Rebellion has been forgotten.
  • Laidlaw was, however, quick to point out that if the game did get off the ground, the story would've likely gone through multiple revisions. If it is ever picked back up, it almost certainly won't share the same plot.

Half-Life: Alyx

• The game's initial story, playtested in late 2018, was significantly darker. The Combine's oppression was more overt, with dead Vortigaunts being openly displayed in the streets and citizens fearful of the Combine, while Alyx and Eli's relationship was strained. Playtesters gave a negative reception to the storyline for its low energy and bleak tone, causing Valve to bring in Eric Wolpaw and Jay Pinkerton along with Campo Santo's Sean Vanaman to rewrite the story in 2019.
• Alyx was originally to retain her voice actress Merle Dandridge, or at the very least she voiced a prior build of the game from start to finish. However, Valve determined that this didn't quite fit the younger Alyx or presumably the final release's storyline and tone, which led to Ozioma Akagha taking up the role instead.
• The character that became Russell started as Lazlo (apparently intended to be the same character from Half-Life 2, specifically the Sandtraps chapter), envisioned as a "kooky uncle" to Alyx. Over time, the character evolved into Jozef, a "Swedish Punk Rocker" whose hideout was in a firehouse, before eventually becoming Russell. His radio dialogue with Alyx was added in the final year of development in order to address issues with the lack of narrative energy in the game. The filename for Russell's character model in the final game is still lazlo.mdl.
• A character named Hahn would have factored into the plot as the main antagonist, a Combine loyalist who had her brain replaced. She would have forced Eli to read Combine propaganda over the city screens after his capture, broadcasting his torture when he refused. Unused voice lines in the game's files have a British accent for the character. Rewrites ultimately cut her from the story, though she was partially reused in the forms of Olga's face model and the shadow figure seen speaking about the G-Man. Word of God is that the identity of the shadow character is being held back for potential future plot points in the series, suggesting that some of these ideas may be revisited in the future.
• There was at least one Breencast planned as a Combine propaganda take on the Seven Hour War (with placeholder voice files left in the day one build), and an idea was discussed where Breen would have a brief appearance after Eli and Alyx's capture in the first chapter. Dr. Kleiner was also considered to make an appearance as well, and both Breen and Kleiner went as far as to have prototype◊ 3D models◊ created before they were dropped from the game.
• The Vortigaunt that became Gary was originally found near-death, with Alyx having to feed him hearts from dead headcrabs to sustain him. Playtests found this sequence to be boring and repetitive, and so it was heavily reworked to be more humorous and energetic.
• Eli was meant to be found hanging off a ledge at Alyx's feet after she derailed his transport train, rather than from a piece of debris suspended in front of her, but players' controllers would collide with the floor as they reached out to grab him. He was also meant to be found in an injured state, explaining why he couldn't accompany Alyx on her journey, but this resulted in playtesters not wanting to abandon him out of concern. This would be changed to him being rescued by the Lone Vortigaunt and leaving Alyx to return to Russell's lab with a Combine data pod in tow.
• Jeff was originally envisioned as a damaged Combine robot wielding a machine gun and later a flamethrower, with his final mutated Plant Person look coming about as the developers leaned into the horror aspects of the level. Furthermore, there were originally more direct interactions with Jeff, like needing to steal a keycard from his pocket to open a door or needing to hang items off his uniform to pass through barriers, but these were removed, likely because they didn't playtest well.
• Early versions of the Jeff chapter had you fighting Combine soldiers as well, which can be seen briefly in the trailer, but this detracted too much from the horror aspect of the encounter and thus was removed.
• Larry was added to the Jeff chapter late in development to better explain the game mechanics and to provide the story with more characters to interact with.
• The ending went through some of the most significant alterations of the entire story. The initial end goal of freeing G-Man was so that he could summon Gordon Freeman and start the events of Half-Life 2 was deemed too low in stakes and writers began pursuing other ideas. One idea had Alyx dropping into Black Mesa and stopping Gordon from causing the Resonance Cascade, but this was deemed too radical. A sequence of Alyx following the G-Man through a series of red doors portraying locations from other Half-Life games was also considered.
• Another idea involved the G-Man handing out “business cards” with a single word printed on them. Various characters throughout the game would give these cards to Alyx, with the G-Man giving a final card to Alyx before returning her to the beginning of the game, where she would read out the cards to Eli, saving him from being captured and preventing the events of the game from occurring. A variation of the idea had Alyx killing Hahn to prevent Eli's capture.
• When it was decided to have the ending revisit the final moments of Episode Two, a full re-creation was planned opposed to the fragments seen in the final game. Remnants of this still exist: The trailer has Eli say the line "Close your eyes, honey!" in voice-over, and the game's files contain a direct port of Alyx's animation from the scene in the original game as well as a full animation of Gordon standing up from a prone position and putting his glasses on. Part of the latter was used in the game during the ending.
• A leaked build of the game from August 2019 gives additional insight on how the ending differed from the final product shortly before release. For instance, Alyx asks the G-Man about the supposed weapon inside the Vault upon meeting him and makes no mention of Gordon, suggesting the element of Gordon being the Vault's alleged prisoner was added later on. Alyx also would have killed the Advisor by ripping off its mouthpiece instead of shocking it with Vortigaunt energy. The build also has some noticeable differences in other places, such as alternate dialogue for the introductory video call with Eli and Russell and the design of Olga's jacket, and Merle Dandridge's original voice acting for Alyx is still present.
• The game files contain references to many enemies from previous games; including rollermines, hopper mines, fast headcrabs, and fast zombies. In particular, the last two seem mostly complete, leaving it unclear as to why they were cut. Given how Alyx's Combine soldier AI was dialed back so as not to overwhelm the player, the fast headcrabs and zombies were likely deemed far worse in getting into the player's personal space that their presence could not be justified at the player's expense.
• Valve considered revisiting the cut Cremator enemy from Half-Life 2 as a Xen cleanup unit, going as far as to draw up new concept art◊ for it. Although cut, some of its animations were reused for the Suppressor. Another piece of concept art shows a Combine patrol mounted on a synth horse◊.
• An unused model within the files has a design for the Combine soldier◊ that is a recreation of their Half-Life 2 appearance, along with placeholder textures for different classes that would be realized as the Suppressor and Ordinal.
• Combine Chargers were planned to be capable of switching their shotgun out for a stun baton and becoming a melee attacker. Dialogue (such as calling out "mode 1" and "mode 2") and animations (including a headlong charge ending with a baton swing or a fakeout) still exist in the game for this. This makes the scene where a Charger incapacitates Eli with a stun baton make more sense, as well as the name "charger" itself.
• Files for the game's tripmines indicate they were originally meant to be a player-usable weapon, and it's possible to re-enable this. Developer commentary confirmed that the game didn't have enough "defense" encounters to make this satisfying.
• There were plans to have Alyx wield a crowbar, or at least a melee weapon as per the standard for most Half-Life games. This was ultimately scrapped due to the combined issues of Valve being unable to create VR melee combat in a way they liked, having difficulty with its collision with the scenery and with players potentially hitting something in the real world and hurting themselves, and the fact that playtesters kept assuming they were playing as Gordon Freeman. The weapon data still exists but without a model assigned, as does a 3D model used in The Stinger along with HEV suit gloves (for when the player actually takes control of Gordon).
• The game files include data for many cut weapon mods, including a tau cannon mod for the shotgun, and a shotgun mod that fires Ricochet disks, the latter possibly an early prototype of what became the grenade launcher. The SMG had at least four upgrades that were cut in development; an energy ball launcher, a magnetic dart launcher that allowed you to curve your shots around corners, a stun grenade launcher, and an explosive goo sprayer.
• The ammo capacity upgrade for the pistol was originally envisioned as an extended magazine upgrade - once applied, the pistol would use magazines that held 20 rounds instead of 10. In addition to looking awkward, it introduced the need to explain why all the pistol magazines in the world and in Alyx's backpack suddenly doubled in capacity, so it was ultimately changed to the bullet hopper seen in the final product.
• In early builds of Alyx, Combine soldiers would sometimes call out to Alyx and try to trick her into thinking that they're on her side. While the trick did work on some playtesters, Valve felt it was causing too many confusing and frustrating deaths, especially for newcomers to the series, so they repurposed some of the lines into a scripted scene found late in the game.
  Soldier: Alyx, you there? Hey Alyx, it's us! ...Alyx!
  Alyx: Russ, are they saying my name?!

Other Canceled Games

• Hostile Takeover was meant to be the second expansion to the first Half-Life. Developed by 2015, Inc.^note the developers of SiN: Wages of SiN and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, but perhaps best known for having many of its developers leave to start Infinity Ward and create Call of Duty, it would have taken place at a support facility to Black Mesa called Allied Processing, and the player would have taken the role of a "Junior G-Man" (!) assisted by private military soldiers (who were the classes from Team Fortress Classic). Squad-based combat was to be a major focus of the expansion. While the project got quite far in development, it was unexpectedly canned in August of 2000 and Half-Life: Blue Shift by Gearbox Software, the same devs as the first expansion Opposing Force, became the second expansion.
• Ravenholm, often fan-nicknamed Return to Ravenholm or Episode 4, was a spin-off episode for Half-Life 2. Initially developed by Junction Point Studios with veteran developer Warren Spector, Junction Point was bought out by Disney in 2007 and began work on Epic Mickey, and the project was passed to Arkane Studios. As detailed in Noclip's documentary of the company, the story would have taken place after the events of Half-Life 2, and would have seen Adrian Shephard from Opposing Force returning to the series to assist Father Grigori, who would be experimenting with headcrab blood in an attempt to develop an immunity to their abilities. There would have been more types of zombies with overhauled AI, most of which are seen without headcrabs attached, and there would have been multiple electricity-based weapons and tools. Valve canceled the game around the end of 2007 for unknown reasons, though it's speculated that Valve feared the game was too similar to then-upcoming Left 4 Dead.
• Electronic Arts worked on a possible expansion or spin-off Half-Life game in the late 2000s that was also canceled for unknown reasons. The only traces of the project are concept art from Randy Humphries, who worked at EA's Montreal studio at the time, and perhaps the fact that EA Bright Light worked on the oft-maligned PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box.
• A game focused on Alyx and Dog was briefly worked on but cancelled at some point between Episode Two and Half-Life: Alyx. The only proof of its existence are four pieces of concept art that were bought by a private collector and released in 2022.
• In The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx, Valve confirmed that Half-Life 3 was indeed in development throughout 2013-2014. Its gameplay would have taken inspiration from the AI Director of Left 4 Dead, with item placements and enemy encounters being dynamically randomized between playthroughs to provide fresh experiences. Development only lasted one year before the project stalled out and was canceled, largely in part due to the rough state of the Source 2 engine.
• A Half-Life themed minigame codenamed Shooter was intended for Valve's VR compilation The Lab. While it playtested extremely well, a lack of development time and concerns over fan backlash from using the then-dormant Half-Life IP for a VR minigame caused it not to make the final cut, though it planted the seeds for what became Half-Life: Alyx.
• Another VR title, Borealis, was briefly worked on around the same time as the Shooter demo. Headed by lead writer Marc Laidlaw, it would have taken place on the Borealis ship as it traveled through time between the Seven Hour War and the events of Half-Life 2, and the team considered minigames such as fishing. It never gained traction and was canned at the end of 2015, with Laidlaw retiring from the company soon after.