Ah, Half-Life 2. For a lot of, Valve’s follow-up to the influential 1998 FPS is the developer’s magnum opus. It nonetheless holds up right now and is usually held aloft as one of many biggest shooters of all time. A lot of it comes all the way down to its tight fight, intriguing story, and dystopian setting.

However what was life like for the folks of Metropolis 17 earlier than the Mix got here and wrecked all the things? Earlier than the famed Seven-Hour Struggle would see humanity turn out to be enslaved? Properly, that’s what YouTuber Radiation Hazard puzzled. In a current video of theirs (and utilizing beta footage from the sport), they confirmed what Half-Life 2 appeared like lengthy earlier than Gordon Freeman got here into the image.

The result’s what you’d anticipate. With no conflict and no Mix, town and its environment are as they need to be. No broken constructions. No wreckage. No enslaved people.

Possibly we’ll go to Ravenholm now

Even Ravenholm (the place the sport turns right into a horror expertise) appears positively tranquil at the beginning went to shit. True, Radiation Hazard’s video solely reveals the mining city within the daylight, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a stark distinction to see this deserted and dilapidated locale really trying liveable.

Nonetheless, it nonetheless feels just a little bit…eerie. Possibly it’s the truth that Half-Life 2‘s setting is essentially industrial, together with virtually brutalist buildings, or the truth that even in a non-Mix inhabited metropolis, there are nonetheless no folks milling about, nevertheless it nonetheless appears fairly oppressive.

It form of reveals Valve’s abilities in with the ability to invoke a temper. Even with out the carnage, corpses, and graffiti, Half-Life 2 nonetheless appears like a spot that one most likely wouldn’t need to go to. Which is smart. The sport most likely wouldn’t really feel proper if Freeman needed to defend an idyllic fishing village from the Mix.