All That Is Missing In Half-Life 2

[Shorewalker]

Well, im starting to come to a disheartening conclusion: the game was rushed. Now, ill say that I waited for this game forever and loved the Binks, was awake at 3:00 AM for the release and played it for 12 hours, and loved every second of it and the game as a whole. But, therein lies one of the problems.

The Binks were really cool, but none of them were in the game. Just random spliced parts were put here and there. I find this rather... wasteful, considering that it was all already made. I think specifically to a scene where your in the street with Barney, and he says something along the lines of "Remember when we thought Black Mesa was bad?" and you battle through an awesome street fight. Now, why in all of creation would you cut all that? The voices, the cool red combine forcefield things, all of it.

Apart from that example, Traptown was totally removed. The coastline video's enviroment was not in the game, which was rather dissapointing. And the strider battle in the town where it blows the hotel bridgeway out was non-existant. And it was all really cool, really done material.

Moving away from the Binks, I sort of felt that there werent enough enemies. I was hoping to see a little bit more of the Hound Eyes (even though they were kind of annoying) and all the good 'ole stuff from Half-Life 1. It wasnt a big deal, as there were a fair amount of enemies in the game, but I think it would have been sweet to see the Hydra, for example, make it into the game. Or the gargantuan. Not like full fledged enemies, but maybe some guest appereances. And also, the concept art in the Raising the Bar book was sweet, why wasnt more of it made into the game?

Moreover, the selection of weapons was just... depleted. I recall that certain rifle mentioned elsewhere in the forums, and it was in total working order, but was cut. For anyone thats seen the extensive weapon give commands, many weapons were just plain left out. Weapons I had heard about during development that just werent there, such as the cocktail molitov.

So in summary, I feel like they cut things that were wonderful and completed. Its almost mind boggling, if you watch the Binks again, that they cut some of the things that sold the game for me. They removed weapons and maybe just didnt add aliens or other enemies. Overall though it rather seems that the game was rushed. Especially apparent, for example, in the one type of model Maw Man (zombie, in case no one read the first manual or knew their true name ) . This was one issue on which my brother commented on: its always the same white shirt and face on every zombie.

So even though I loved the game, for the reasons stated above I wish it was different and more exapnsious in terms of content...

P.S. Sorry if this is a little funny on the english, its really late here and I am falling asleep in my chair.

 

[Goombatommy]

Well, HL 2 itself wasn't disappointing. Should they have kept a few things, yes. As for which ones, well, it depends on what flows with the game. There were things taken out and things that were added. It's just all part of creating a game..to see what works and what doesn't. Movies work the exact same way - What works stays, what doesn't gets cut.

 

[Kommie]

Maybe just maybe Those were scenes from hl3 which comes out tommorow and we all get it for free for putting up with the 80 minute install (for retail) the 90 minute unlock, the 20 minute patch, and the fact that i cant lend the game to my freakin brother to play because only i can play it, and the sound issue.....
Sorry i had to get that off my chest,

Now to my real post,
Some would say that in order to preserve the "freshness" of the gameplay they took out the scenes that everyone saw so they wouldnt be familiar and you wouldnt be able to tell what was going to happen. But to me that just equates to saying buy this candy bar and look what youll get (shows a yummy candybar) and when you get it all you get is a big ol turd in a snickers wrapper,( a bit overdramatic yes i know) I mean comeon nothing irritates me more than when they advertise movies with scenes that dont make the final cut, they are like
LOOK AT THIS COOL SCENE that we deleted and you will never see

 

[Narcolepsy]

Certain parts do seem a little rushed. Of main concern to me is the inconsitency of interactivity - sometimes windows break, sometimes they don't. Sometimes wood splinters, sometimes it doesn't. At first, this really bothered me, but you know what? I learned not to care, and accept this game for what it is: the best PC fps ever.

 

[ThrasherX9]

Bits of those levels were in the game but changed around a bit. And enemies had to be cut for the story and or because certain levels got cut. For the weapons, they just found certain weapons to be useless.

 

[Goombatommy]

Have you seen the original concept art for the Combine solder? Christ, am I glad it got cut. It was some sort of.....snail? Or white worm with a uniform? Friggin dumb looking.

 

[Asus]

First, those scenes were not removed from Half-Life 2. They never were anything more than demos to peek interest. They were not made to fit into Half-Life 2 but rather just cool ideas to show what they could do. And a number of them were OLD, but still cool.

Second, the game was far from rushed. Infact it was tuned and the excess was cut. Maybe you were just wanting more. I dunno.

You are correct that they would have been very good in the game if they could get them to work with the story and how the game plays out.

 

[SkylineGT-R34]

Wah wah wah, why dont yall just stfu with your crying, the game wasnt rushed, it was 6 years in the works you idiots.
This game is perfect.

 

[Ownzed]

This game kicks so much ass!! It's the best fps i've played.

 

[destrukt]

yeh, they did the same thing with halo2.

i'm not happy, but meh there were some other good things.

 

[bam23]

Traptown has become a part of Ravenholme if you haven't noticed..

 

[poseyjmac]

the fact is, if they had included all the scenes we saw from the binks, they would have to take out the existing scenes they have now in their stead. which means a lot of the game would be nothing new to you, and you would make a thread complaining about that fact. im glad stuff is different.

 

[FangsFirst]

Wah wah wah, why dont yall just stfu with your crying, the game wasnt rushed, it was 6 years in the works you idiots.
This game is perfect.

You are the perfect example of the asshole elitists I have referred to in other threads.
Shut up.

Everyone else, good job on being civil

 

[aerasal]

the coastline environment is there. they just changed it by adding the crank instead of going straight up a ramp

 

[Finger]

The truth is, with any massive project like this, you shoot for the moon, and end up somewhere in the upper atmosphere. This is the nature, and process, of game development. What Valve gave us wasn't rushed. Everything that ended up on the cutting room floor probably deserved to be there, and if they would have stuffed those things in, just because it was 'cool', THEN the game would have been rushed. Instead they were smart, used what worked, focused on a balanced, solid, design, and delivered a practically airtight game.

It's interesting to see what got cut, though. Maybe we will see some of these things in future expansions.

 

[SkylineGT-R34]

You are the perfect example of the asshole elitists I have referred to in other threads.
Shut up.

Everyone else, good job on being civil

Why dont you shut up, you brain dead fruit cake.

 

[Flyingdebris]

i liked the game alot, but i personally would have wanted a little more enemy diversity

gonarchs, assassins, the hydra, actually fight the apcs rather than shoot down their rockets, those stalker guys, more synth creatures maybe.

i was hoping that by the time i reached the end there'd be more than just lots of soldiers to fight.

 

[FangsFirst]

Why dont you shut up, you brain dead fruit cake.

I can't see any reason to grace honor this with any response beyond this; and so I shall not respond again to you.
Let me go see if there's an ignore function anywhere in here....

 

[no-life2]

I agree that the game definately wasn't rushed. Hell they probably were planning for what HL2 would be when they made HL1. And also, if they would've put in all those weapons, enemies and scenes that someone said were left out, I think then it would've been rushed. Some games are not good because there too much of everything. Most of the time good stuff comes from simple things. I couldn't imagine to make the game better than it already is.

 

[no-life2]

AND also:
Maybe Valve is planning to make an expansion pack to HL2. One that would be played from the perspective of the Combine. As in Opposing Force. Maybe Valve plans on putting the "missing" enemies and weapons to the expansion pack. Just a thought, but also a dream. It'd be great

 

[fatdave]

i wonder if they'll be included in the hi-def stuff later on... they mentioned they were making stuff for all those rich peeps who own 6800 ultras and the like (x800xt is supposed to not give as good performance). Anyway, i am really happy that everything is different from those binks because although that strider bit looked goo.... hang on are they still in there? Does anyone know if valve removed them from the final thing? They left weapons in and a mp map, whats to say they removed them, and if so, why? must be a good reason. Im pretty sure of that.

 

[FangsFirst]

They left weapons in and a mp map, whats to say they removed them, and if so, why? must be a good reason. Im pretty sure of that.

They what??
I tried all of the weapon items listed on cheat pages (I assume those are from the beta?) and more than half gave me "item does not exist!"
and here I was hoping I could at least fool about :\

but hey, you say some are still in?

 

[NB.]

First, those scenes were not removed from Half-Life 2. They never were anything more than demos to peek interest. They were not made to fit into Half-Life 2 but rather just cool ideas to show what they could do. And a number of them were OLD, but still cool.

How do you know this?

 

[omnimutant]

With regard to the weapons that were left out of that game, I don't think they were even needed. Infact as neat as the crosbow was, it was completely usless in the game. I think I used it like 4 times becuase I was either out of ammo for everything else, or becuase I was just messing around. I think they might have decided that since other weapons don't really serve a purpose whats the point of implementing them. I'd Say out of everything the Grav gun and the Crowbar were the most used items.

 

[FangsFirst]

still, weapons don't take up a ton of coding or modelling space, and it gives you options--even if you never take them.
If they're done, why not just throw 'em in?

 

[Moto]

Yeah, a lot of things got cut. The first function of the I-Rifle (fire grenades), the entire beginning of the game was changed from an ice breaker to the train station (here and here ), welding and stickybombs were cut, Bullsquids were cut, the shotgun sounds were changed, the combine's uniforms have changed 3 times, the sound that the buggy makes while driving was changed, the sound that the manipulator made when you launched something was changed (I like the old sound more), the OICW was cut, the shotgun model was redone, the MP7 at first had 30 rounds and a slow rate of fire, then 75 rounds and an extremely fast rate of fire, and now 45 rounds with a medium rate of fire.

The airboat used to be a jet-ski (I think), grenades didn't have that red light on them when you threw them, zooming while shooting with the MP7 was cut, dented barrels seem to have been cut (e3 footage shows dented barrels), the zombie gibs were changed, Alyx and Eli's clothes changed (here ) The buggy used to have a hood on the front, the headcrab skin was changed a few times, the armored combine soldier skins have changed 2 or 3 times, the resistance fighter's uniforms used to be green and white (here ) and there were no females.

It's a huge list.

 

[omnimutant]

And all of that being changed did'nt make the game any less enjoyable correct?

There were alot of things that were changed and I bet had the game not been leaked no one would have notice any difference. I guess thats really my point. Sad they are gone? Sure. Does it matter? Not really.

 

[Przemek]

I love such work-in-progress stuff, I'd love to see the things that were cut some day - maybe Valve would release something like "deleted scenes"?

 

[PvtRyan]

The Binks were really cool, but none of them were in the game. Just random spliced parts were put here and there. I find this rather... wasteful, considering that it was all already made. I think specifically to a scene where your in the street with Barney, and he says something along the lines of "Remember when we thought Black Mesa was bad?" and you battle through an awesome street fight. Now, why in all of creation would you cut all that? The voices, the cool red combine forcefield things, all of it.

Apart from that example, Traptown was totally removed. The coastline video's enviroment was not in the game, which was rather dissapointing. And the strider battle in the town where it blows the hotel bridgeway out was non-existant. And it was all really cool, really done material.

Most of the binks were in the game, both Coastline binks were in there (the 2003 one just didn't have a gunship and the 2004 coastline was in there identically to the bink) and traptown was in the game, but Ravenholm just wasn't inhabited by combine.

And there were plenty of replacements for Barricade like scenes and the Strider scenes. And when I look back at the 2003 Strider bink, it looked rather poor.

And as for weapons and enemies, things get cut in development, plain and simple. Could be for a variety of reasons, mostly that it just didn't work, the OICW while cool looking was obsolete because it was identical to the SMG. It got a good replacement with the Overwatch pulse rifle.

So in summary, I feel like they cut things that were wonderful and completed. Its almost mind boggling

What really boggles my mind is how you can argue that the game felt rushed when you discuss stuff that was done, how can a game be rushed when stuff that's already done is taken out? That only takes more time. They probably had good reasons for it, and tell me, if you didn't know that there was supposed to be a hydra, bullsquid or ichtyosaur, would you have missed them?

 

[twist]

Think about it, ok its dissapointing maybe that you cant play through what was exactly shown in the binks but the amount of new brilliant situations there are in its place is a worthwhile swop.

coming on to weapons... too many weapons and enemies would have cluttered the game right up. they perfected a balance which meant that everysingle weapon you had got used to a full extent. this for me impressed me they managed to do what they did with cs (ever since the early days) and created a perfect balance between the enviroment, the weapons your using and the enemies your up against.

the gameplay of the game was astonishing... it didnt need anymore enemies and anymore weapons than were in there to win me over









(i would however liked to have simply seen the hydra thing snatch a combine soldier simply for a laugh and to see the big blue glowy bit lol )

 

[twist]

I love such work-in-progress stuff, I'd love to see the things that were cut some day - maybe Valve would release something like "deleted scenes"?

just read your post and ive gotta say thats a superb idea


(im just hoping for a couple of expansion packs tbh , opposing forces lmao)

 

[sKuNx]

Well, I also missed the traptown scene, where the blue container smashed the combines. Also I thought there will be more weapons. But still its the best fps ever.

 

[Spugmaster]

Anyone who thinks this is a rushed game has never played Enter the Matrix.

Enter the Matrix was one of the most rushed games in history - to coincide with the release of the second movie.

I dare not even compare the two games for fear of my copy of HL2 physically smacking the shit out of me.

 

[Raidea]

Well, I only had one problem with the game, I didn't particually mind the lack of weapons (though I would have loved a few tripmines) but what really bothered me was the lack on enemies.

What happened to enemies like the Garg, the hydra, the assassins, the four legged thing with the nut sack.... (sorry, can't think of the name)

A few super-boss monsters, and a little more variety, wouldn't have felt out of place...

 

[FangsFirst]

What really boggles my mind is how you can argue that the game felt rushed when you discuss stuff that was done, how can a game be rushed when stuff that's already done is taken out? That only takes more time. They probably had good reasons for it, and tell me, if you didn't know that there was supposed to be a hydra, bullsquid or ichtyosaur, would you have missed them?

What he means is the stuff is done but they rushed and so cut out making, say, levels or environments for those entities/weapons/etc.

EG, there was no underwater level (thus no icthy) perhaps because..? it was rushed!
("No time for icthy level guys! Gotta get the game out!")

just guessing at what he meant.

 

[Spugmaster]

What he means is the stuff is done but they rushed and so cut out making, say, levels or environments for those entities/weapons/etc.

EG, there was no underwater level (thus no icthy) perhaps because..? it was rushed!
("No time for icthy level guys! Gotta get the game out!")

just guessing at what he meant.

Spoiler

but the icthy is there...

 

[Alec_85]

Yeah. For like 2 seconds. I hope there won't be another 6 years for expansions etc. I want this experience to be fully complete fast. Mostly story-wise though. There was a new enemy at the end of the game (looked like a toad) that we never fought (dunno if it had fighting skills but whatever). And where does the Antlions fit in to all this? Must've missed that part if they ever mentioned it at all.

 

[Asus]

How do you know this?

It was in gamespot's article. You should read it. All 25 pages.

The part that mentions the 'proof-of-concept' is here.
Later on, they talk about how they trimmed those proof-of-concept demos for E3 2003 here.

 

[FangsFirst]

Spoiler

but the icthy is there...

Hardly a spoiler, it's in the damn intro

But because of that, it acts as if it will appear LATER, too. that whole intro acted as if it was foreshadowing----and much of it was. But parts of it never showed up, thus creating that "oh shit, forget those levels we've gotta finish!" feeling...

 

[Baal]

Without reading this thread much, my opinion of the game:

Definetly rushed, many things were cut out that could have been a great feature in an already incredible game, but it's still one of the best FPS games of all time. Not to mention modding possibilities, and CS: Source is an enjoyable game. As well the impending release of DOD:Source, followed by Team Fortress 2 (eventually).