Half-Life 2 Beta



Half-Life 2 Beta refers to the early version of Half-Life 2 before its initial release. The beta is about the Half-Life series main protagonist, Gordon Freeman. The beta was never released to the public, but a free mod, Half-Life 2 Missing Information, is now available for download in sites such as Gamespot.

The book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar 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 gases.

Vehicles & Weapons
Other cuts from the game included a drivable jetski, which was replaced by the airboat in the final game because of the lack of an Artic section. Another vehicle to be included was what looked like a large mining device, to be used in Ravenholm. The beta also featured many more weapons, most of which were cut because there were too many similar weapons. The cut weapons included:


 * The XM29 OICW.
 * An ice axe, likely picked up during the Arctic section of the game.
 * A flare gun, found on the icebreaker ship Borealis
 * Hopwire grenade - a ball, based on the M86 Pursuit Deterrent Munition, which the player throws and, after several seconds, leaps up into the air and shoots out several wires which, when tripped, cause the ball and all its tethers to detonate. A secret weapon in Half-Life 2: Episode One was dubbed the "blackhole hopwire". It was a grenade which opened a black hole, sucking nearby enemies, corpses and items into it. The Hopwire concept continued to be improved, and became the Magnusson device in Half-Life 2: Episode Two.
 * The Combine Guard Gun, a weapon similar to the Strider's cannon which was used by the Combine Guard, an enemy cut from the final game.
 * The Immolator, the device used by the Cremator, a cut enemy, to dissolve corpses.
 * S.L.A.M., Selectable Lightweight Attack Munitions. Seen again in Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.
 * A variety of light and heavy machine guns, including an HKGR9
 * Incendiary rifle, as seen in the E3 video Tunnels.
 * Fire extinguisher.
 * The Gravity Gun was originally called the Physgun and allowed the player to levitate far away objects without bringing them closer. The Physgun was cut and replaced by the Gravity Gun, but it was later used in Garry's Mod with different utilities.
 * Binoculars
 * The Missile Launcher, which used a slightly different model than the RPG. It fired stinger missiles and was not even scripted in the leaked beta.
 * Heckler & Koch MP5K/SMG2. The two weapons which are initially the same, but different models, were the incarnations of a cut second SMG, dubbed the SMG2, which is also the name of a gun which was extremely similar in appearance to the HL2 counter-part, suggesting that it was a gun that valve had imitated the design of, very similar with what they did to the SMG1 and MP7. It was also then changed to the model of the MP5K, or the other way around, before it was cut.
 * AK-47, dubbed the AR1.
 * A human frag grenade.
 * A much more powerful Franchi Spas-12 shotgun.
 * Players could originally use small objects, such as bottles, as weapons by throwing them at the enemy. This was likely cut with the introduction of the Gravity Gun. Its entity name, weapon_brickbat, can still be found in Hammer, although it is an invalid entity.
 * The standard pistol also ejected shell casings when being shot, unlike the one in the final game.
 * Petrol bombs.
 * A combine sniper rifle, which was most likely replaced by the crossbow. It may have been the combine sniper rifle found in Episode Two.

Most, if not all of these weapons were usable in the 2003 leak. Some slightly unknown weapons were:


 * The 'Rollerwand', which allowed players to control Rollermines. Episode One granted Alyx the ability to reprogram Rollermines to help the player.
 * Manhacks could be reprogrammed by the player and used against Combine forces.

Additionally, there is a model in the leaked beta which shows Gordon holding a headcrab, indicating that there might have been plans to use them as weapons.

It has been suggested that the bulk of the weapons were cut due to the fact that they were too similar to one another, as the AK-47 served a very similar role to the SMG2, and the OICW the same to the SMG1, and that it would be ridiculous to hold 25+ weapons.

Friendly Fire
Half-Life 2 originally featured friendly fire, as with Half-Life. Valve found this to be annoying to play testers, as they would often accidentally kill their teammates, so it was cut. Instead, the player's weapon will automatically aim downwards whenever looking at an ally.

Nova Prospekt
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 longest level of the game. Also, in many promotional videos and screenshots, an unnamed, orange prison like area was shown. This may have been just an unfinished Nova Prospekt, judging by the repetitive textures used.

Hydra


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 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 more frustrating for players to fight, and was also difficult to code.

Other Enemies
Other enemies cut from the game included Combine assassins (They were females, very similar in attitude to the Half-Life black ops; they are included in Half-Life 2: Survivor), a newly skinned bullsquid, houndeyes, 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 acid gun called an Immolator, which would double as an offensive 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 saying "We still don't know what that does. Alyx brings in the strangest things".

Plot
The beta features a different plot than the final version, some placs might be familiar to players who had finished the final version, such as the trainstation chapter, the chapter looks exactly the same as the final one with a few differences.

The tram ride
In old scripts of Half Life 2, the writer described the following in the tram ride area of the game.

"Off to the side you could see a big cow catcher, which would ravage anything in it's path, up from the rails a creature resembling the old gargantua is seen, which is then hit by the cow catcher [please take note that this is not essentially the correct words of the script, but has been rewritten to resurrect a previous article]."

This also hinted that the train ride would be longer. Beta leaks provide that the old tram could have been jumped out of through the open windows. Also, what was essentially a different trip to Barney's "Office", going up stairs and less CP held checkpoints.

The original journey for the player, as mentioned in Raising the Bar, details the following stages:


 * Encounter with Samuel, an Asian character, on the wasteland train. Samuel's character model would eventually be used for a nameless train passenger at the start of the final version's storyline. Samuel's model was later recycled as a hostage in Counter-Strike: Source. 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).
 * Encounter with Barney and Kleiner in the New City.
 * Encounter with Eli (a.k.a "Eli Maxwell" in the beta version of Half-Life 2) and Dog in "Scrapyard" (Eli's lab), notably without any mention of Alyx Vance or Doctor Judith Mossman (a.k.a "Elaine Mossman" in the beta version of Half-Life 2)
 * Encounter with Alyx in the wasteland. At one stage, Gordon takes another train ride which ends in a crash and he is met by Alyx in the desert (the idea of the train wreck was reused in Episode Two). 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 Exchange" (aka AirEx or Air Conditioner). This was a planned section of the game involving a massive scale attack on a Combine building. The Air Exchange 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 (the idea of the assault on an important building was reused for the "Overwatch Nexus" building in Half-Life 2, Vance being replaced by Barney Calhoun).




 * Encounter with Owen on the Borealis. The Borealis was a science icebreaker 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 recycled as 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. Note: A ship called Borealis is mentioned in Episode Two, but then in the form of property to Aperture Science. The ship will in all likelihood be visited by Gordon in Episode Three.
 * 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. As suggested by dialogue in Episode Two, elements of this Kraken segment, particularly Mossman's involvement and the idea of the Kraken being stranded, have been combined with the Borealis for use in Episode Three.
 * 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. (Flight C-130 was intended to crash into a building called "Vertigo", a museum or palace of sorts. The player would then continue his journey again on foot, and soon reach the citadel and navigate through it to meet the Consul. This was slightly modified, with the Vertigo chapter removed, to form the current Citadel level, some elements of the Vertigo building being re-used for the building used for the "Overwatch Nexus" in Half-Life 2.)

Differences over final game


The game was originally intended to be much more diverse in settings (to the extent that the game felt almost overblown, with little time being spent on developing existing characters; one of the key reasons for it being cut). 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 scrapyard area where the Gravity Gun tutorial takes place resembles the original concept; being an auxiliary area as opposed to the bulk of the lab. The Citadel also looked very different, it was more round than the bulky Citadel from the final version.

Ravenholm
The E3 video, Traptown, 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. Traptown was to be a section of the Ravenholm chapter. It seems to share some similarities with a section from the Ravenholm chapter from the released version of Half-Life 2, mostly the setting of the section. The trailer also showed the ability of Combine Soldiers to break open doors when blocked by props, which was removed before the final release. Also, the beta Ravenholm featured both Combine soldiers and zombies, whereas the final version features only zombies.

Initially a small mining town called Quarrytown, which was more of a puzzle solving section of Half-Life 2, with zombies added as the town's pests. Quarrytown eventually became Ravenholm.

Manhack Arcade and the concept of child workers


The final City 17 has no children, and there are references that human reproduction was disabled by a Combine suppressor field. In the first concepts, children were to be featured as workers in Combine factories. A glimpse of these factories was seen in the early demonstration "Industrial". It may also have been because of bans in many countries, mainly Germany, for children featured in violent video games and certain other media, this was also the case with the numerous Grand Theft Auto games.

More of City 17's civilian life was to be featured, with "Manhack Arcades" where unsuspecting civilians could play arcade games that actually controlled Manhacks, allowing the Combine to enlist civilians in order to murder rebels. Nothing remains of these factories or arcades in the final game, and it is not clear what role, if any, they would have played in the game.

Fate
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 scene that was cut from the sequel. It is possible or even likely that more removed sections of HL2 will be seen in future expansion packs, as Half-Life 2: Episode One didn't contain any of the aforementioned content. There's a possibility that Kraken Base might be in the further episodes of Half-Life 2 because Doctor Judith Mossman is only seen in Episode One on a monitor in the Citadel reporting from an Arctic base, which is replayed in Episode Two and the same place is shown to Gordon as G-man shows him a heart-to-heart. This might mean that Kraken Base (possibly under a different name) is being put back into the storyline. Episode Two includes areas of gameplay based around the "Antlion hive" areas cut from Half-Life 2, and the presence of the cut "Antlion King", now renamed to be an 'Ancient Antlion Guardian'. Episode Two also makes references to the Borealis icebreaker that was cut from Half Life 2, a research vessel revealed to have been created by Aperture Science (which is featured in the Valve game Portal) for some unknown purpose. It is likely that players will explore the Borealis and related Arctic base in Episode Three.

List of demonstrations shown at E3 2003

 * G-Man Emotions
 * Two Source Engine demonstrations
 * Docks
 * Kleiner's Lab
 * Traptown
 * Barricade
 * Bugbait
 * Coastline
 * Strider
 * Tunnels

List of cut E3 Demonstrations
Many E3 demonstrations never made the cut, either. The most popular among users, found in the 2003 leak as unfinished maps, are:


 * Terminal, whose remnants can be found on the HL2 Box Art. It was used in the HL2 Teaser Trailer. The column with a horse statue however made the final cut in the map preceding Gordon's first travel into the Citadel.
 * Industrial, which used an extremely early HL2 concept of child workers.
 * Depot, a map showing parts of the now-nonexistent Wasteland area surrounding the HL2 Depot.

Some other maps, which are very incomplete, are:


 * Strider, which was actually almost complete, with the exception of missing scripts which made it unplayable. Some parts of it were later recycled to use in the Hydra demo. A picture of this can be found around areas like Gamespot [1]. It is also one of the only pictures which shows a group of gasmask citizens, which further suggested the inclusion of Air-Ex, as civilians needed gas masks to properly breath the intoxicated air. It was also used in the HL2 Teaser Trailer.
 * Sniper, which started as a player running through a ruin-covered street to destroy a sniper. This is also the earliest leaked map to use the sniper.

The preview of Half-Life 2 circulated to E3 and online contained a different version of the scene in which Gordon visits Dr. Kleiner's lab after first meeting Alyx. The preview version contained different dialogue between Alyx and Kleiner, a slightly different design for Alyx, and ended with the lab being attacked by striders, an event that does not occur in the final game.