The worst thing to happen to HL2 was the code leak. It effectively led to a whole host of things being redesigned on the fly in some sort of attempt to invalidate the build that had escaped into the wild. Truth is that people would've bough HL2 in it's original form whether there was a leaked version or not.
Valve hit the panic button, and as a result we got a game far less beautiful or entertaining that we should have.
The lesson here children, is stick to the project development plan and content designs you spent years making, as opposed to the ones you drew up in five minutes.
I heard about that... any idea of specifics?
I know in the leaked build there was a ship level with all sorts of interesting things going on that never saw the light of day in the released game...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_life_2#Cuts_from_the_gameThe book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar [7] revealed many of the game's original settings and action that were cut down or removed entirely from the final game. Half-Life 2 was originally intended to be a far darker game where the Combine were more obviously draining the oceans for minerals and replacing the atmosphere with noxious, murky gasses. This quote from the book, from an early draft of the introductory sequence, gives a feel for what the game would have been like:
Off to one side, you see another train hurtling through the dusk. It gives you some sense of the train you are riding. The nose of the engine car is protected by a huge, deadly variant of a cow-catcher, a sharpened steel plough designed to shear through herds of whatever creatures might stray across the tracks or try to take the train head-on. Something that resembles the old Gargantua looms up from a fissure, lunging at the parallel train, and the engine slices right through the thing, leaving it in gory pieces on the track.
In addition, the evolution of Nova Prospekt is described: originally as a small Combine rail depot built on an old prison in the wasteland (the depot model remains in the game, visible from the beach and trash compactor) it grew and grew from a stopping-off point along the way to the destination itself.
Promotional shots and gameplay videos released before the game became available showed parts of these scenes, and also showed enemies that do not appear anywhere in the final game, such as a the "Hydra," a massive, gelatinous, translucent, neon-blue creature that lived in the sewers. It was planned as a massive bulk far below the city with tentacles that would reach up and spear through enemies, including Combine soldiers. The Hydra was apparently cut because its AI proved troublesome: while impressive when attacking NPCs, it was less interesting and frustrating for players to fight.
Other enemies cut from the game included Combine assassins (whose AI was salvaged to form the Fast Zombie), various Synths and Combine soldiers. There was also a planned creature called the Cremator who would clean the streets of bodies after a skirmish with a massive flamethrower, which would double as a weapon when the Cremator would become an enemy. The Cremator's head would eventually be featured in Eli's lab in Black Mesa East, encased in a jar of formaldehyde, which Eli will make comments about when the player nears the jar and views it.
The game was originally intended to be much more diverse in settings. Parts of the book detail how Gordon would fight alongside characters such as Odessa Cubbage, albeit under a different name and in a different place, as well as fighting together with Colonel Vance - a character that was later merged with Eli to become Doctor Eli Vance - and Vance's forces. Originally, Eli and Alyx Vance had no relation, and Eli's lab was originally intended to resemble a form of scrapyard and town in a cave than a better equipped laboratory within a hydroelectric power station.
The original journey for the player, as mentioned in Raising the Bar, details the following stages:
* The player meeting Samuel, a character of African descent, on the Wasteland Train. Samuel's character model would eventually be used for a nameless train passenger at the start of the storyline of the final version. In addition, the train ride was originally planned to be much longer, and allowed players to view the wastelands outside the New City (the original name for City 17).
* The player meeting Barney and Kleiner in the New City.
* Encounter with Eli and Dog in "Scrapyard" (Eli's lab), notably without mention of Alyx Vance or Doctor Judith Mossman
* Encounter with Alyx in "Wasteland." At one stage, Gordon takes another train ride which ends in a crash and he is met by Alyx in the desert. Alyx was intended to be a much tougher character and mention is made in Marc Laidlaw's scripts of her using an array of weapons, including grenades.
* Encounter with Captain Vance in the "Air Conditioner." This was a planned section of the game involving a massive scale attack on a Combine building. The Air Conditioner was a massive dome that literally drained Earth of its oxygen. Captain Vance - Alyx's father, but not linked to Eli - was one of the few surviving military leaders and was leading an assault on the building, and Gordon and Alyx join the fight after their journey there on foot.
* Encounter with Owen on the Borealis. The Borealis was a science ship that was, in some versions of the planned game, stranded in the ocean. Owen, sometimes named Odell, was the engineer of the original ship and leader of a group of rebels. His model was later re-used for that of Odessa Cubbage. After the battle fought with Captain Vance, Gordon travels on foot to the Borealis, which in turn takes him across the ocean bay.
* Encounter with Doctor Mossman in the "Kraken." The Kraken was either a stranded science ship, locked in ice or beached in the shallow depths of a nearly dried ocean, or a rebel base of sorts. Judith Mossman met the player here for a period of time before Gordon leaves, on foot, and advances through a Combine Weather Control Complex.
* Consul confrontation in the Citadel. After battling through the Weather Control Complex, the player would board "Flight C-130" and travel back across the ocean towards the New City. Here he would either land at or fight into the Citadel to confront the Consul. The Consul was the origin of Doctor Breen's character and his model went through several different incarnations.
Other cuts from the game included a drivable personal water craft and additional weapons. Weapons cut included the OICW seen in an E3 demonstration video and two different models of the Gravity Gun or Physgun, which is seen in another E3 video, also depicting a level cut from Ravenholm, dubbed "Traptown."
It remains unknown if most of the cut Half-Life 2 scenes will eventually be completed and released, or if they are lost forever. A removed section of the original Half-Life was eventually released as the Half-Life: Uplink demo; a similar situation was in place with the HDR technology demo, Lost Coast, which was based on a cut scene from the sequel. It is possible or even likely that more removed sections of HL2 will be seen in expansion packs such as Half-Life 2: Episode One.
The E3 video also shows that at some point in the game's development it was also possible to shoot any gun while using the HEV suit's zoom function and that the player could discard weapons, indicating they could only carry a specified amount of firearms at a time.
I don't think this is comprehensive. For one thing, I remember a scene described in the previews of a Strider spearing rebels on it's legs, and chasing the player - intelligently trying to smash and then ducking under a bridge. I also remember another scene where the player runs down a corridor, and hides in a room; the door is thumped against, and splinters, with an eye-stalk thing poking through. Also, there were screenshots of some very large beached and rusting shell of a cargo ship, replete with ant-lions in the foreground and those flying whale things in the air, which wasn't in the final game.
EDIT; also, AFAIK;
- there were to be cutscenes of Zen wildlife taking over the world; bullsquids running rampant in supermarkets, that big monster thing in a farm, etc, as part of Eli Vance explaining the backstory at his lab
- there was going to be child citizens, and a level centred around a child labour factory (this is the more dubious rumours, so I'm not 100% sure on it)
- the Icythosaur was likely to be an enemy at some point (apparently the version ingame has attack animations partially done)
- there was also likely to be some level set illustrating how the combine 'manufactured' headcrabs, namely showing a sort of sac surrounded in machinery that grew them
All in all, the cut stuff sounds like it'd have made a far, far better game; I found HL2 far too repetitive - whilst not bad - to be held in the best ever type regard the magazines put it in.
