How Hydras could have worked.......

[$kelet0r]

I've been thinking about this quite a bit because the hydras at e3 2003 caused so much excitement and anticipation and the news that valve had to cut them because they were no fun to fight was heart-breaking.

But what if they could have implemented the hydra. How could they have done it.

Well i think they would have worked really well if they had responded to sound like bats. So simple.
When Gordon was travelling through the tunnels he would be forced to resort to the crowbar, crossbow and gravity gun to make a noiseless and safe journey through the tunnels.

Any combine chasing him and firing the'r weapons would have been skewered.
When the combine cop on and send in prowlers/assassins gordon would be forced to use silent takedowns or use the gravity gun to project noise by making boxes land noisily near enemy positions to use the hydra to clear the path

If gordon uses percussive weapons he is hunted mercilessly by the hydras while trying to distract them desperately with the gravity gun or grenades
This way gordon could avoid fighting the hydras, use them to his advantage and survive.

The idea i think sounds cool - what a tense hl1-esque level that would have been - what people seem to be asking for as well...
Any criticisms, thoughts etc.?

 

[Hazar]

crowbar, crossbow and gravity gun = noiseless?

I think it would be too similar to the big claw thing in HL

 

[NJspeed]

I think a better idea would have been this:

They could have implemented it similar to how they did in HL1 with those big green stabbing 'vines'.. Remember the green ones that looked like giant green crab legs or something coming up out of the ground.. you can't actually fight them.. they just kill you if you don't evade them.. and you'd throw a nade down at them and it would get shocked and give you a couple of seconds to run by.. Anyway to kill it we had to turn on the power to the rocket.. and then launch the rocket so its fire blasts and kills the green arms.. We did not actually battle it outright..

I think they could have used the Hydra in a similar situation.

 

[beam]

Yea, would have been cool to see it in action even if it killed me lots. Maybe we could've threw sand at it, or drink it away :rolling:

The thing I'm curious about is what/where it would've originated from....might be one of the many reasons it wasn't in the game.

 

[Jangle]

crowbar, crossbow and gravity gun = noiseless?

I think it would be too similar to the big claw thing in HL

wait, was that attracted to noise?

 

[MarcoPollo]

no.......wait how DID it see you???

 

[ríomhaire]

How about you are being chased by it?
Enemies and obsticals and enemies could randomly spawn so you wouldn't know what to expect.

 

[Pai-Mei]

wait, was that attracted to noise?

Yes. It could not 'see.' If you threw a grenade to the other side of the blast pit and crouched around, they would keep pecking at where the grenade went off.

 

[Antlion Hunter]

One way to kill the Hydra would be to drain the tunnel or freeze it like in MONSTER.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

They did the right thing to cut it, they should've just made a source-tentacle monster and used that in sandtraps.

 

[Jintor]

I think the best idea i've heard was a motion sensing tentacle. You have to keep watching it, and use the g-gun to pull a crate over there... suddenly it lashes at the crate as you run like a scared n00b to (relative) safety...

 

[Asknoone]

I think he wants a medal.

 

[MarcoPollo]

Yeh if Hydra was a boss it coulda worked

 

[DoctorWeeTodd]

The first thing I thought when I saw the Hydra was "retarded looking HL2 version of tentacle", though it had a much cooler attack.

I thought it was such a copout how they couldn't make things like that work in the second game but could in the first. I wanted my Itchyosaur fight dammit! Before I discovered it was cut I treaded soooo carefully during the canals part. That monster gave me nightmares, and it was also total bull$#!+ we weren't given a bullsquid.

 

[beam]

Itchyosaur was alright to look at but I hated being in the water with the thing. I really don't understand why the bullsquids weren't added but I'm sure Vavle has thier reasons and after making two of the greatest games I've ever played, I've come to trust thier judgement.....if it was cut it was for good reasons

 

[Blakeb155]

Its to similar to the tentacle. I guess they wanted to build soemthing new and exciting, different then any other monster people had played with. But when they tested it, it was boring and too similar to tentacles.

 

[Antlion Hunter]

The bullsquid was cut because when the game's coding was pirated/leaked in 2003.When they got some of the coding back they didnt have time to make a new bullsquid model.Same for a few other creatures.

 

[TheAmazingRando]

The bullsquid was cut because when the game's coding was pirated/leaked in 2003.When they got some of the coding back they didnt have time to make a new bullsquid model.Same for a few other creatures.

I thought they cut the bullsquid because all the sections it would be in where cut for gameplay reasons.

 

[Antlion Hunter]

You never know..........

 

[FireCrack]

tentacle > hydra

 

[doomed14life]

noo i hated the tentacle in hl1 and it wasn't very fun. All you did was throw a bunch of grenades and crouch...

 

[Mith']

Am I the only one thinking "blue g-gun + hydra = fun"?

 

[Laivasse]

It was a squiggly blue line that stabbed stuff. Why do people act like Valve have robbed us for not including an enemy that they had to cut, cos it was crap....am I the only one who thought it looked crap as soon as I saw it in the E3 vid? Valve say they worked hard on the design, then cut it because it was awful to fight...well the design was bad, too, and if it had made it into HL2 it'd be the only thing in the game that looked cack. Please get over it, for the love of God.

 

[Kuklish]

i concur

 

[bliink]

That idea is too similar to the three headed thing in blast pit, HL1. It navigated by sound; and the barney scene was quite funny.

Barney1: [whispering, breathy] Quiet! this thing hears us!
Barney2: [on platform off next room] WAHHH EAT LEAD YOU OUTER SPACE OCTOPUS!! AHHH!!!! [fires gun]

 

[>>FrEnZy<<]

lol, Yeh..loved hl so much. But i gotta say, i was expecting a little more diversity with the creatures and the weapons in hl 2. A few more bosses would have been nice too. HL 1 was jammed packed with them...Vavle didnt have enough time to produce to their full potential I guess.

 

[Sid Burn]

I hate bosses... I prefer to fight 20 combines than just one overpowered boss.

 

[Langolier]

That idea is too similar to the three headed thing in blast pit, HL1. It navigated by sound; and the barney scene was quite funny.

Barney1: [whispering, breathy] Quiet! this thing hears us!
Barney2: [on platform off next room] WAHHH EAT LEAD YOU OUTER SPACE OCTOPUS!! AHHH!!!! [fires gun]

Personally I think that guy's idea would have been very nice.

It wouldn't be just similar to the "Tentacle Battle" in Half-Life, it would be a souped up version.

Instead of just creeping about and tossing grenades, you'd have to act quickly as you grabbed crates and stuff with the gravity gun to launch towards pursuing Combine Soldiers, or even sprint for cover/safety as they fire at you. It would be very intense. Though, for the record, I trust Valve's judgement on this.

 

[The Dark Elf]

The Hydra would have probably reacted to vibrations, movement, and been in an area with lots of physics objects, making it difficult to get around. Which would have made sense, to show off the physics engine. The sandtraps might have got the idea from that when they decided to drop the Hydra. Being water based it would have probably had some kind of water attack or something too, which is probably another reason it was removed, maybe firehose like spray weapon that would knock you back and maybe into dangerous water was more annoying to the player than challenging?

Just a guess. I doubt they'd have done a HL1 tentacle kind of creature again.

 

[Asknoone]

That idea is too similar to the three headed thing in blast pit, HL1. It navigated by sound; and the barney scene was quite funny.

Barney1: [whispering, breathy] Quiet! this thing hears us!
Barney2: [on platform off next room] WAHHH EAT LEAD YOU OUTER SPACE OCTOPUS!! AHHH!!!! [fires gun]

Tentacle: [Swoosh]
Barney2: [Splat]
Silence....


You missed that bit

 

[Mith']

I actually cheated to get past the tentacle.. And then i ended up cheating thourgh the hole game.. Yes, I am ashamed!

 

[Antlion Hunter]

And how do you suppose it couldve shot water at you?The only think I liked about the tentacle was when you first saw it.Breaking through that glass and eating the scientist!

 

[special-ed]

Lol, I saved the scientist by pressing "e", but I think most of hl2's enemies were cut out due to script errors, like the stalker for example had some attack errors.

 

[Flamin-h]

I actually cheated to get past the tentacle.. And then i ended up cheating thourgh the hole game.. Yes, I am ashamed!

Exactly the same thing happened with me.

 

[RomeoJGuy]

In my hydra mod the way the hydra will be killed.

Is the player must take a plug, like for the sheild generators and put it in the water where the hydra is without getting stabbed by the hydra. This will in turn shock the hydra and kill it.

Also I do not know where the "water" based hydra came from. This is false. I happened to notice that the JellyFish shader was used for the hydra from my secret sources and thought to look up hydra on google. It is a real living thing of the Cnidaria Group (JellyFish) type things. While it may not look exactly like the hl2 hydra as it is a hybrid of the hydra species and a jellyfish tentacle.

 

[Ennui]

I got past the massive claw tentacle beast WITHOUT cheats

 

[halflifeguy]

You have to remember that they removed them after the leak...
They redesigned levels just because the hydra didnt work.

 

[FireCrack]

Tentacle: [Swoosh]
Barney2: [Splat]
*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*CLANG*


You missed that bit

fixed

 

[Phat-t]

arite here's my level concept for a hydra level drawing on the idea's of everyone in the thread. It would take place before the "combine nexus" part of the game.

SEWERWORKS

You, Barney, and your little group of rebels must travel through the sewers in order to get to the nexus without being caught. One of the citizens goes "the old sewers? are you crazy!". Barney says "It's the only way we're gettin' to that nexus without being caught by a combine patrol. Stay here if you don't think you can take the heat." Citizen: "We've survived this far, I'm coming". Barney turns to you. "I know a secret way into the sewers that the CPs didn't know about last time I used it. Every other entrace is either too highly guarded or tightly barricaded since the combine found out we we're using the sewers for transportation."

You're group of rebels follows Barney to the secret entrance and climb down through cracked concrete. After the group makes it down a series of ledges, a hidden combine camer pops out and starts snapping pictures. A metal door slides over the cave entrance. Barney: "Get cover!". Turrets come out of the ground and start spraying bullets. You have to chuck grenade in them like the ones in the nexus. Barney: "We're gunna hafta move fast now, civil protections know's we're here!".

You and the group make you're way through various tunnels and battle bullsquids, icthyosuars, zombies, etc. The whole way, you see hidden cameras tracking you if you look close. You come to an area where theres light coming through a few bars. You hear CPs talking above. The bars are blown open and a metal combine case is droped down. The rubble block you off from Barney. The case begins to open with mist coming out. You see part of the Hydra flash out and hear screams from the other side of the rubble. Through a gap in the rubble you see the hydra simultaniously impale two rebels. Barney (between gunfire) "Gordon get outa here-!"

You make your way through some more tunnels until you come around a corner into a narrow tunnel with a bullsquid in your face. On either side of the bullsquid are circular barred manholes blocking off two other sewer tunnels. Its roar is cut off by the hydra quickly sliding though the bars on one side, impaling the bullsquid, and pinning it to the bars on the other side as it slide through. You keep getting chased by the hydra and other monsters through the tunnels. You can't kill the hydra though, you can only fend it off and distract it. Finally, you come to a place with broken circuitry and electricute the water the hydra swims in.

 

[Great Grizzly]

:flame: OHHHH i hated those tenticles they were the most annoying creatures in the game. especially at the blast furnace part :flame: