Skyscraper

"What are the odds two people survive this crash?"

- Conscript

The Skyscraper, also known as Vertigo or Palace, is the generic name of a chapter cut from Half-Life 2 and an informal predecessor for the Overwatch Nexus building. It was to be set between the Weather Control and Rooftops chapters.

Features


After the Weather Control battle, Gordon and Alyx were to go back to City 17 with a C-130 and head for the Citadel, but the plane was to crash at the top of a very high skyscraper, originally to house a museum and a hotel/palace, after being damaged by Hunter-Choppers. The crash was to cause Alyx to be hurt and kidnapped by the Combine, and Gordon having to find her father, Captain Vance, in an emergency bunker near the inner gates.

Gordon was then to go through the whole building from its top to its street level, leading to the Rooftops chapter and then the the street wars, while fighting Overwatch Soldiers and Headcrabs (see below for a detailed list of enemies encountered), aided by Conscripts.

Sound files indicates that the player was to hear at some point two soldiers talking through a radio (likely Conscripts, since they don't refer to themselves as Citizens and speak with a normal voice), among others about Alyx being taken away, the Consul, a "Rebel chopper" having crashed in the upper floors, the possibility of finding Rebel weapons in the building or in the crashed chopper and blowing up a wall with a RPG. It seems that they were to find themselves in front of Gordon after blowing up a wall with a RPG. It also seems that more Conscripts were to come, leading to the Rooftops chapter.

Versions
The building comes in two versions, almost totally unrelated to each other: "Vertigo", last edited in 2001, and "Palace", last edited in 2002.

Vertigo
The first is an Art Deco-style building with brick, stone and concrete, reminiscence of the early City 17, and contains a big atrium with a pound, but no museum. There the player was to be attacked by Overwatch Soldiers, Headcrabs and Zombies. It is the most complete version, even providing the Rooftops chapter beginning at its foot at the end of the level. This latter part was also to contain shuttles flying above the battle.

Palace
The second version, much more incomplete but much closer to Half-Life 2’ final design, is a Neoclassic-style building, without brick and with more stone, and plaster and wooden wainscots inside. In there can be found a museum, featuring pedestals with vases and Breen busts, showcases containing vases, a Vortigaunt, and, strangely, two Citizens and Cohrt. An Ichthyosaur is also hanged to the ceiling. The player was to be attacked by Overwatch Soldiers, a Headcrab, a Combine Assassin and a Mortar Synth. A Gunship was also to fly around the building, attacking the player. It seems that the team wanted to remake the skyscraper from scratch with another style and not followed by a rooftops battle (since it belongs the the older City 17 style), but the chapter was dropped before any link to the streets was made, although what seems to be the first street war map,, last edited September 2002, features the building with streets and houses at its foot. In the WC mappack, final names for the game's last part tend to start with, while in the final version it stops at.

Fate

 * The high tower concept became redundant with the Air Exchange and was therefore also recycled in the Citadel levels.
 * The concept idea of the skyscraper being a museum was reused into the Overwatch Nexus.
 * The huge destroyed concrete level at the start of Vertigo seem to have been re-used in the City 17 Underground in the Episode One chapter Lowlife, where Gordon and Alyx are fighting Antlions and Gordon must find cars to block the Antlion holes. Vertigo also contains several burned corridors that were reused in some Combine Factories maps.
 * The building where the player starts the E3 map "Strider" is actually a partial floor from Palace.
 * The C-130/chopper journey might be recycled in Episode Three.