Valve is a mysterious bunch, and their flagship franchise, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Half-Life, is no different, as the series is shrouded in uncertainty —and not just in its storytelling, but also in its devꦑelopment.
For over a decade, fans eagerly awaited for a successor to Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and, at long last, Half-Life: Alyx was unveiled to the world. To celꦫebrate its release on March 23rd, here 🅷are ten things that you may not know about the series.
10 Gina Was Originally Intended To Be Gordon𝓰's Spouse
Gina, who you most likely know from the tutorial section of Half-Life, was originally intended to be bothꦦ a playable character and Gordon Freeman's spouse. This was so the player would have the option of both a female and a male character.
However, Marc Laidlaw, the lead writer of the game, told Gabe that it would be better to have a single protagonist for the narrative. Gina was recycled for Half-Life: Decay and the tutorial, but 🌺her original purpose was never utilized.
9 Marc Laidlaw, Lead Writer, Published His🦂 Story For Episode 3
Despite Episode 3 never seeing the light of day, Marc Laidlaw gave fans some story to chew on as to satisfy their curiosity following the gut-wrenching cliffhanger of Episode 2. With all the names changed, likely for legal reasons, Epistle 3 was birthed and shared with the community.
It reveals a rough and shortened draft of Marc's intended follow-up which has Alyx and Gordon board the Borealis for a kamikaze into the Combine hub, which doesn't even leave a scratch. Gordon is pulled away by the Vortigaunts and Alyx by the G-Man. The fans are now hard at work to bring his vision to life, with Project Borealis.
8 The Civil Protection Mask🃏 Is Based On ꧂The Soviet PMG Mask
A lot of the Half-Life universe is modeled on real-life, naturally, as it takes place within a version of Earth that is overrun by an interdimensional empire hell-bent on domination. However, what you may not have known is that the ico𒁏nic Civil Protection gas-mask has some basis in reality.
, looking nearly identical, albeit with the l🍷arge right cylinder removed and with greyed out eye-sockets. The in-game mask also has a back, covering the entire head, whereas the one in real-life does not.
7 Counter-Strike Began As Half-Life: Counter-Strike ♕
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Counter-Strike, a majorly competitive shooter that is one of the leading eSports titles, started out as a mod for Half-Life, but what you may not hav🅠e known is that the original title kept its roots front and cenღter.
It began as Half-Life: Counter-Strike, not dropping the prefix until later releases, in which it managed to form its own identity, separate from Valve's flagship IP. It's not the only title from Valve that began as a mod for Half-Life, as Team Fortress did, as well.
6 HLVR (Half-Life: Alyx) Has Been Lea🐭ked Since 2016
The announcement of Half-Life: Alyx came as a shock to many, including those who have stayed engrossed in the community despite radio silence from Valve. However, leaks for HLVR date back to 2016, from outletsꦗ such a🐼s Valve News Network.
It was never clarified as to what HLVR was, but many speculated that it was an acronym for Half-Life VR which Half-Life: Alyx seems to give credence to as it is a VR title in the series. There have been many leaked Half-Life games over the years, but HLVR was t🍸he most cons🅰istent, indicating a healthy development.
5 There Was a Cancelled 4th Episode Titled 'Return To Ravenholm' 🔯
We don't go there anymore, except we were set to jump right back into the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm in Episode 4, which was canceled after Episode 3 never saw the light of day.
Valve's mission was to release episodic Half-Life games over the years so that fans would have regular releases to sink their teeth into, and the 4th planned installment was titled Return To Ravenholm.
4 Gearbox, Better Known For Bo🐻rderlands, Made Three Spin-Offs
You most🐽 likely know Gearbox for their work on Borderlands, but they started out making Half-Life spin-offs for Valve, with three launches: Opposing Force, Blue Shift and the PlayStation 2 exclusive, Decay.
Opposing Force told the story of Adrian Shephard, a military HECU sent to Black Mesa after the experiment went wrong in the first game, while Blue Shift introduced Barney Calhoun as the protagonist during these same events. Decay expanded upon Gina's story while also introducing a co-op element iℱn the form of a second playable character in Colette Green.
3 Mik♏e Shapiro Voices G-Man And Barney
Mike Shapiro is the talented voice-actor behind the guards in Half-Life and Barney Calhoun in Half-Life 2, but he also lent his voice to the 💃illustrious G-Man, despite the two having inꦯcredibly different personalities and sounds.
This is why, in Black Mesa, the fan-made re-imagining of Half-Life, Crowbar Collective opted to have their voice-actor for the security team also voice the G-Man, which is a little more obvious than it was when Mike Shapiro did it. He's returning for Half-Life: Alyx, nonetheless.
2 Half-Life 1 Was Built On A Heavily Modified Quake Engine ♋
ID Software is the grandfather of the FPS genre, with Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake laying the groundwork for what would come. Half-Life, which served to revolutionize, was built on a heavily modded Quake engine dubbed GoldSrc.
GoldSrc would then evolve to become the Source engine, and now, more recently, the Source 2 Engine, which is what Dota 2 and Half-Life: Alyx are running on. Fans are even porting Half-Life 2 back to GoldSrc.
1 Gordon Freeman Was Origin🅰ally Ivan The Space Biker 𝐆
, but we may have had an entirely different hero storming through the corridors of Black Mesa with a tru𒊎sty crowbar, beatin꧑g up every single alien dotted along his treacherous path.
Originally, Valve had modeled Ivan the Space Biker, a bulkier and older looking man with a gigantic beard and a much more square head. He's a little intimidating, appearing almost like a fantasy dwarf. It's not surprising as to why he was re-work🔜ed into the lovable Gordon Freeman.