The book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar and the numerous leaked files revealed many

of the game's original settings and actions that were either cut down or removed
entirely from the final game. Half-Life 2 was originally intended to be a far
darker game based on far grittier artwork where the Combine were more obviously
draining the oceans for minerals and replacing the atmosphere with noxious, murky
gases.

Half-Life 2 was also originally intended to be much more diverse in settings, and
the original journey was extremely long (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). Several City 17 levels at the start of the game
and complete chapters from the second half of the game were completely removed and
sometimes re-introduced in the subsequent Half-Life 2 episodes.

Parts of the book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar and the leaked files detail how
Gordon would fight alongside characters such as Odell in the Borealis (or
Hyperborea), as well as fighting together with Captain Vance and Vance's forces,
the Conscripts, in the Air Exchange, the Weather Control and the rooftops of City
17. Originally, Eli and Alyx Vance had no relation, and Eli's lab was located in a
cave in a scrapyard and was much rougher than the better-equipped laboratory within
a hydroelectric power station in the retail version (the scrapyard area where the
Gravity Gun tutorial takes place, being an auxiliary area as opposed to the bulk of
the lab, is reminiscent of the original concept). The Citadel also looked very
different, it was more round than the bulky Citadel from the final version.

Style
City 17 buildings and inner wall
Concept art for the early City 17, with what appears to be the inner wall on the
right.

While the playable game leaked in 2003 is quite similar to the retail product and
already heavily trimmed, this earlier period of development of the game shows a
quite different style. At this point, City 17 was an American East Coast-like city
based on Washington, D.C.,[1] with many large skyscrapers, and had a very basic,
blocky FPS design.[2] It was more faithful to the concept art seen in Raising the
Bar: darker, gothic, sinister, rainy, foggy, gritty, with a lot of brick, metal,
and glass, getting along well with the cut concept of the Combine replacing the air
with poisonous gas and draining the oceans. It was, therefore, a much more
dystopian, Orwellian universe (even though the final product is still quite
Orwellian) with touches of cyberpunk/steampunk style, in the vein of the book/film
1984 or other films such as Dark City, Blade Runner, City of Lost Children, and
Avalon. It was also more faithful to Viktor Antonov's early concept art and work on
the game.

The Combine was utilizing and recycling existent human materials and buildings
instead of adding their own technology to them. This is why the early Citadel, for
instance, had its walls covered with tiles.

During the time leading up to the 2003 leak, the team added more periods, such as
the 30s, the 40s, and the 70s, eventually reaching the more Eastern post-Communist
style seen in the retail version of the game, with older and smaller buildings and
a bright universe instead of a dark one, which is more in the vein of the original
Half-Life. The Ravenholm levels are a reminiscence of the original style even
though the American East Coast-style skyscrapers were all removed.

Note that not all the concepts were present in the development process at the same
time since the game had still a very rough, work-in-progress state.

Source code leak

Airex pistons 3
Pistons inside the Air Exchange.

Half-Life 2 was merely a rumor until a strong first impression at E3 in May 2003
launched it into high levels of hype, where it won several awards for Best in Show.
It was scheduled for a release date on September 30, 2003, but was delayed. The
pushing back of Half-Life 2's release date came in the wake of the cracking of
Valve's internal network,[3] through a null session connection to Tangis which was
hosted in Valve's network and a subsequent upload of an ASP shell, resulting in the
leak of the game's source code on the Internet in early September 2003.[4] On
October 2, 2003, Valve CEO Gabe Newell publicly explained in the HalfLife2.net
forums the events that Valve experienced around the time of the leak, and requested
users to track down the perpetrators if possible:

Ever have one of those weeks? This has just not been the best couple of days for me
or for Valve.

Yes, the source code that has been posted is the HL-2 source code.

Here is what we know:

1) Starting around 9/11 of this year, someone other than me was accessing my email
account. This has been determined by looking at traffic on our email server versus
my travel schedule.

2) Shortly afterwards my machine started acting weird (right-clicking on

executables would crash explorer). I was unable to find a virus or trojan on my
machine, I reformatted my hard drive, and reinstalled.

3) For the next week, there appears to have been suspicious activity on my webmail
account.

4) Around 9/19 someone made a copy of the HL-2 source tree.

5) At some point, keystroke recorders got installed on several machines at Valve.

Our speculation is that these were done via a buffer overflow in Outlook's preview
pane. This recorder is apparently a customized version of RemoteAnywhere created to
infect Valve (at least it hasn't been seen anywhere else, and isn't detected by
normal virus scanning tools).

6) Periodically for the last year we've been the subject of a variety of denial of
service attacks targetted at our webservers and at Steam. We don't know if these
are related or independent.
Well, this sucks.

What I'd appreciate is the assistance of the community in tracking this down. I
have a special email address for people to send information to,
helpvalve@valvesoftware.com. If you have information about the denial of service
attacks or the infiltration of our network, please send the details. There are some
pretty obvious places to start with the posts and records in IRC, so if you can
point us in the right direction, that would be great.

We at Valve have always thought of ourselves as being part of a community, and I

can't imagine a better group of people to help us take care of these problems than
this community.

Gabe
In June 2004, Valve announced in a press release that the FBI had arrested several
people suspected of involvement in the source code leak.[5] Valve claimed the game
had been leaked by a German black-hat hacker named Axel Gembe, aka 'Ago',[6] born
c. 1982. Gembe later contacted Newell through e-mail (also providing an unreleased
document planning the E3 events). Gembe was led into believing that Valve wanted to
employ him as an in-house security auditor. He was offered a flight to the USA and
was to be arrested on arrival by the FBI. When the German government became aware
of the plan, Gembe was arrested in Germany instead and put on trial for the leak as
well as other computer crimes in November 2006, such as the creation of Agobot, a
highly successful trojan which harvested users' data.[7][8][9]

At the trial in November 2006 in Germany, Gembe was sentenced to two years'
probation. In imposing the sentence, the judge took into account such factors as
Gembe's difficult childhood and the fact that he was taking steps to improve his
situation.[10]

Although Valve has never made any official statement about how the leaked files
should be considered and used by the community, no actions have been taken against
websites or people using and hosting leak-related content. Valve-sanctioned
websites and games such as Garry's Mod host material related to the leaks and
discussing it is not forbidden on the website's Facepunch forums (which was
forbidden in the past). The general consensus would then be that Valve is not
preoccupied anymore with the use of these leaked files and their use and
distribution is not forbidden although not blessed, as long as they are used for
free; when asked to Valve by e-mail on July 20, 2009, about the status of the Beta-
based mod Missing Information, the answer was that "the mod is not illegal to
download and play as long as it is just a mod."

Leaked files
Playable game
Bullsquids canals
Bullsquids in the Canals.

The files leaked in 2003 consist of a playable game available in two versions, the
"anon-hl2" leak and the "Russian" leak, both of which slightly different from the
other. The "Russian" copy of the leak is based on the original 100 part leak "anon-
hl2". One of the few notable differences between the two is the presence of an
installer, while the "anon-hl2" leak consists of 100 .rar files. The "anon-hl2"
beta contains at its root a .txt file last edited in October 2003, with these
words:

Just create a server to play.

in the console, use "noclip" when it's stuck.
Really full of bugs, sure that valve won't release it before a while.
Have fun !!!

The work-in-progress nature of the game makes it obviously very incomplete and
quite unstable with some maps even failing to load. At the time of the leak
chapters such as the Air Exchange, the Borealis, and the Skyscraper were already
cut and City 17 already had its Central/Eastern European style, making the leak
very similar to the final retail product and representative of what Half-Life 2
looked like in 2003. Therefore, the cuts were not made because of the leak, but for
other reasons, and much earlier in the development process.

Features from the playable game

Stalker beta
The Stalker as seen in the playable game.
The interface appears to be based on the Steam version of the first Half-Life. For
example, it has "Software," "OpenGL," and "DirectX" listed as usable renders in the
"Video" tab, but the Source engine used DirectX only when it was released.
There is extremely basic multiplayer support. It can support very few players.
Interestingly, one of the tabs in the "Create a server" option is named "CPU
Players."
It is, however, quite difficult to follow the incomplete storyline, as several maps
won't load and crash the game. The causes of the crashes are due to these maps
being very old for the branch that the leak is running on (from 1999-2001 was a
very early alpha of the source engine which is basically another version of Goldsrc
with physics).
There is basic DirectX 6 support, which consists of a few low-poly character models
and a DirectX 6 version of one of the Coast maps.
The engine is, of course, less optimized than the one used in the final game.
There is no built-in anti-aliasing. It can, however, be emulated with the most
recent graphics cards that override the game's settings.
The source code contains a folder called 'ivp' (IVP stands for Ipion Virtual
Physics, a physics engine from Ipion Software that was bought out and brought into
Havok 1) which contains Source's original physics engine from early 2001 containing
IVP code (dating from 1999?2000) incorporated into the Havok code. The VPhysics
engine based on Havok 2 is also present in a separate folder and is the final
version retained in the Source engine.
The leak uses a unique ammo system not seen in the final version. Ammo is broken up
into three types; small, medium, and heavy. The SMG2 uses small; the Pistol, SMG1,
AR1 and OICW use medium; the HMG uses heavy.
The Colt Python and Resistance Crossbow were not implemented in the game at the
time of the leak, and as a result, do not exist in the playable prototype.
Several sound files from chapters already cut in the playable version can still be
found in the sound folders, such as early Breencast clips by the Consul, Conscripts
dialog involving an Overwatch Sniper, Overwatch Soldiers chatting in the
Skyscraper, a scripted sequence involving three homeless Citizens (nicknamed
"hobos," one of them named "Regis") talking about Vienna sausages (one of the them
has the same voice as Odell) in a City 17 underground prototype (in the maps
"vienna_talk" and "vienna3," last edited in 2003),[2] a scene involving Alyx
(voiced by another woman) and a Strider chase, and dialogues and music from the
film Aliens, to be used for lip sync tests in the maps "aliens_test" and
"testroom_ripley" (the dialogues) and the surreal map "ickypop" (the music).[2][11]
NPC differences
Citizens have different models and facemaps, most of their Idle Voicelines voiced
by Marc Laidlaw and they only can use the Stunstick, SMG1 and OICW *Only used once*
Civil Protection were simply called cops by citizens. Although they have early
voice lines, they only say Idle Statements and don't talk to the Overwatch Voice.
WC mappack
Airex pipes outside
Concept art for the Air Exchange, based on a map from the WC mappack.

Other files consisted of a group of several zip files nicknamed "WC mappack" (WC
stands for Worldcraft, the early name for the Hammer level editor), containing
around 1300 incomplete VMF maps (VMF stands for "Valve Map File") of the very early
chapters already cut in the playable game mentioned above (most of them are
repeated and almost identical), demo/prototype maps and the maps from the playable
version, spread in around 60 folders named by the developers who worked on them,
taking up around 3 gigabytes. These maps can be opened in Hammer and can be run in
any Half-Life game after texture fixing (since several textures can be missing,
especially the original Combine metal variations) and compiling them into BSP maps
(using the option "Create a Mod" in the SDK and putting the textures from the
playable Beta in its folder will do most of the preliminary work, as most of the
textures will be missing if the compiled map is played on the released game). The
maps still have the date they were last modified, which can give other clues about
the game development. Most of the maps are very old and were last edited/created in
2001 or 2002.

The leaked files available on the Internet are obviously only parts of the original
files used in the development of Half-Life 2, since many more maps, models, sounds,
scripts, and textures exist, as well as more than 50,000 reference photos taken in
the USA and Europe used for design inspiration.[1]

Cut features
Weapons
Oicww
The XM29 OICW.

Throughout the development of Half-Life 2, its impressive arsenal of weaponry

varied considerably and it contained several different weapons than when the game
was first made public, weapons that were later cut before the final release.

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 AR2, and the OICW the same to the SMG1, and that it would not be very
believable to hold more than 25 weapons. However, a limited weapons system was
implemented at some point, having the player throw a weapon before picking up a new
one.[12]

Most, if not all of these weapons are usable in the playable Beta and the mod
Missing Information, although sometimes with changes.

Complete list
Vehicles
AirEx Truck (as a static prop)
Digger
Jet Ski
Israeli Merkava (used by the conscripts)
VAB APC (also used by the conscripts)
Van Car
Friendly fire
Half-Life 2 originally featured friendly fire, as with Half-Life. Valve found this
to be annoying to playtesters, as they would often accidentally kill their team-
mates, and was therefore changed so the weapons do no damage to team-mates. In the
retail game the friendly fire code is still intact.

Cut enemies
Combine guard
The Combine Guard.

Many enemies were cut. The most prominent ones include:

The Combine Assassin. A female soldier, the successor to the Half-Life Black Ops.
[1] She is included in Half-Life 2: Survivor.
The Combot, a predecessor to the City Scanner. It is slightly more aggressive than
the City Scanner: it is equipped with a flamethrower and causes a bigger explosion
when performing its suicide attack. However, it does not flash at the player.
The Alien Assassin, a humanoid creature dressed in black that would behave like a
stereotypical ninja. It can be presumed through cut animations that it was to drop
smoke grenades and throw Hopwire Grenades. Parts of the AI were reused for the Fast
Zombie.[1]
The Bullsquid. It behaves exactly like the one from the original Half-Life but has
reddish skin. One of the leaked maps set in the City 17 canals has a section
designed around swimming Bullsquids, but they will never enter the water. There was
also going to be a variant with a more yellow-ish color.
The Houndeye. It was to behave similarly to the one in the original Half-Life, but
there was to be more emphasis on the Houndeyes behaving like a pack of wolves. Its
leaked model is corrupt, but its textures are still viewable.
The Cremator. It would clean the streets of bodies after a skirmish with a massive
acid gun called the Immolator, which would double as an offensive weapon when the
Cremator would become an enemy. It has no AI in the leak.
The Hydra. The Hydra is a long, blue tentacle with a long needle on the end. While
impressive to view, the Hydra was much less interesting when actually fighting
against it. It's an interesting NPC in the sense that it lacks any animations and
all movement is handled by the code. However, when it was showcased at E3 2003, the
model was animated specifically for viewing at the event.
The Combine Guard. The Combine Guard is a giant transhuman soldier that wields a
weapon called the Combine Guard Gun. The gun is essentially a portable version of
the Strider's laser. The Combine Guard only appears in "e3_terminal," but it can be
spawned anywhere and is invulnerable; its AI is reused for the Hunter in Episode
Two but is heavily modified.
Cut locations
Main article: Half-Life 2 original storyline
The fate of the cut material
Although most of these concepts were cut from the final game, many of them
eventually made it into future releases.

Half-Life 2 (retail)
The concepts of the Overwatch Elite gathering all of the elite units, notably the
Combine Super Soldier and the Combine Assassin.
The Alien Assassin was recycled into the Fast Zombie.
A Cremator's head can be seen in Eli's Lab, placed in a jar.
Ravenholm was originally located at the end of the canals and before Eli's lab. It
featured a lake at its foot, with at least one Ichthyosaur. This lake and the small
docks were somehow kept for Black Mesa East when the chapter order was reversed,
and the Ichthyosaur makes its only appearance during the teleportation failure at
the start of Half-Life 2.
Odell's model was used and reworked for Odessa Cubbage.
One of the Borealis' door props is used as an entrance door for the Vortigaunt
Camp.
Lost Coast
Lost Coast was based on a chapter cut from Half-Life 2 and was finally released as
an HDR technology demo. None of its material, however, can be found in the leaked
files, suggesting it was implemented after the leak but removed before the retail
release.

Half-Life 2: Episode One

Proto core002 fixed0006
An early version of the Citadel Core.

The exposed head of a (Bloody) Standard Zombie was originally going to have a half-
skull, with only the jaw part intact, as seen in the playable leak. This concept
(the idea that a headcrab could remove the head of its victim) was recycled for the
Zombine.
The Zombine itself was to originally appear in Half-Life 2, based on the remaining
text files.
The Air Exchange train wreck[1] was reused at the start of the chapter Lowlife.
The huge destroyed concrete level at the start of Vertigo seems to have been reused
in the City 17 Underground in the chapter Lowlife, where Gordon and Alyx are
fighting Antlions and Gordon must find cars to block the Antlion holes.
The Stalkers, originally to be fought in Half-Life 2, are at last directly
confronted in Episode One.
The Citadel Core was to appear in Half-Life 2, as a prototype map exists in the WC
mappack.
The Advisor room. The tube used by Advisor Pods to leave exists in a very old WC
mappack map.
Judith Mossman wearing a winter coat in an Arctic setting appears to be recycled
from her predecessor, Helena Mossman.
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
The Air Exchange train wreck[1] was reused at the very start of the game, while at
some point wrecked train cars in a valley were to be seen at the end of the Canals
before Ravenholm, somehow recycled for the start of Episode Two.[2]
The Antlion caves:
The Antlion Grubs were to be met in the caves.
The Antlion King that was also to be met in the caves was recycled into the Antlion
Guardian.
Some mining themes cut from Ravenholm, such as carts, were reused for the Victory
Mine area.
The Combine Guard AI was recycled for the Hunter.
The Hopwire Grenade's purpose and function are reused for the Magnusson Device.
Half-Life: Alyx
The unused 'pale' synthetic skin for the Strider seen in some early concept arts
was finally used as the early variant for construction striders, as seen in the
first chapter.
Odell's overall model and some personality traits are seemingly reused and improved
for Russell as seen in-game.
One of the new Combine soldier types, the Combine Suppressor, appears to take
inspiration from the earlier Metro Cop and Elite Metro Cop's old helmet designs.
The City 17 beta logo symbol can be seen in a black and white variant.
Eli Vance's predecessor Eli Maxwell's Black knit/watchers' or beanie cap is reused
as part of the younger Eli Vance's attire.
The old mortar sounds heard in the leak and E3 2003 trailers for the Manhacks are
half-reused during gameplay shootouts.
The Cremator's original purpose as the 'cleanup' passive enemy has been reused and
expanded upon via the Combine Workers and the Combine Hazmat Workers. However, most
of them are never encountered alive in-game, instead only appearing as corpses and
in Zombified forms. The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx showcases concept art of the
Cremator, suggesting that it was also cut from Half-Life: Alyx.
The Xen Grenade�fs organic appearance is very likely inspired by the Hopwire
Grenade�fs appearance.
The concept of visiting City 17's Industrial side is brought back for chapters 6
and 7.
The idea of Xen fauna slowly taking over the City's landscape was revived and
hugely expanded upon, and plays a major part in the game's story.
The Vorti-Cell's concept and purpose are recycled through the Combine's use of
modified Combine Cells to harvest energy from captive Vortigaunts.
Alyx's Apartment in the very beginning of the game seems to be based on a reference
to Alyx's cache in the leaked sound files.[13]
Mods
Since the release of the retail game in 2004, many attempts have been made to
restore the original storyline by making mods based on the leaked files. Some mods
never went further than rough development stages and some fixes, some are still in
development. Some players have fixed several maps without including them in a full
game. These can be found across various websites online.

One of the most famous mods based on the Beta, the only to have ever been released,
albeit in an incomplete stage, is Missing Information. Though originally considered
"illegal content" by Valve, the mod has since been considered legal as long as it
is distributed for free as a mod and does not use the original source code. The
mod's current version includes the E3 2003 and the Borealis chapter, though quite
incomplete, and another release is expected soon. Other unreleased mods include
Half-Life 2 (GabeN), Half-Life 2: BetaSource, Dark Interval, CASTE, Raising the
Bar: Redux, and Project-9 (see Mods based on the Beta).

E3 2003
Several demos of work-in-progress levels were shown at E3 2003.

List of demonstrations
E3 town0006
The Traptown docks as seen in the E3 2003 presentation.

A trailer (featuring very early footage)

"G-Man" (facial animations)
"Docks" (featuring early docks near Ravenholm)
"Kleiner's Lab" (featuring an early Kleiner's Lab sequence)
"Tunnels" (featuring sewer areas partially recycled for the late chapters of Half-
Life 2)
"Bugbait" (featuring a daytime Nova Prospekt)
"Barricade" (featuring a street battle against Metrocops, with Barney and Rebels)
"Coastline" (featuring an early Dock 137 sequence)
"Psyche" (a dream-esque sequence featuring the G-Man and other pictures)
"Striders" (featuring a Rebel battle against Striders)
The original demos, .cfg files used to record the demos and .bat files
(demoloop.bat) used to start the demos played at E3 are included in the 2003 leak,
but there are so many differences between the engine used at E3 and the leaks that
it is impossible to play them.

Something notable is the fact that all of the 2003 leaked Beta demonstrations are
broken in one way or another. Most stem from missing models and incorrect usage of
props (ex. the game uses a prop_physics for a model when the engine only thinks
that prop can be prop_static, so it deletes it). Almost all the presentations have
been fixed and included in the mod Missing Information.

The G-Man emotions demo will not work, as the Half-Life G-Man model produces an
error, thus preventing the movie from even starting.
The Source engine demos are greatly affected by certain models being the wrong
version; most of the revolving slabs at the start will turn into error signs. The
camera is broken, as it faces only one direction. The G-Man immediately dies when
spawned, and the camera will not change direction when the Headcrab knocks it over.
The ground eruption at the start of the physics demo never works, but that demo is
otherwise the same.
Kleiner's Lab is also extremely broken; Alyx and Kleiner do not walk around and
their lips do not move. In addition, most of the dialogue is not in the game,
generating a large amount of errors. However, the player can still watch the
Strider blow up the wall and get the SMG from Alyx, even though she lacks the "give
the player the SMG" animation.
Traptown is as well extremely broken. The metal bars that are supposed to hit the
soldiers about halfway through the demo are released as soon as the map begins
because the game deletes the objects restraining it. The "Troop forcing open the
door" scripted sequence only works about half of the time, the soldier on the third
floor of the building never appears, the player can hear distorted music in the
building, the radiator constraint is broken, tossing a grenade under the trash can
will crash the game, and the blade trap at the end does not work.
Coastline is the only demo that is still in good shape, but it lacks a sound effect
(a soldier saying "Stop!" as the player gets near the back of the harbor).
Otherwise, it functions as it should.
The Psyche demo works except for the non-pre-cached G-Man voice and obsolete
"env_fov" entity that was replaced with "env_zoom" in the retail release and the
playable Beta.
E3 demonstrations cut from the final game
E3 Strider
Citizens fleeing from a Strider in the map e3_strider.

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

Terminal, whose remnants can still be found today on the Half-Life 2 box art. It
was also used in the Half-Life 2 teaser trailer. The column that's mounted by a
horse statue, however, made the final cut in the map preceding Gordon's first
travel into the Citadel.
Industrial, which featured an extremely early concept, the Combine Factories,
featuring children.
Depot, a map featuring parts of the Wasteland area surrounding the Depot and a
lighthouse. The Depot was kept for the Nova Prospekt level while the lighthouse is
featured in the rebel base Lighthouse Point.
Some other maps, which are incomplete, are:

Strider, which was actually almost complete, with the exception of missing scripts
which makes it unplayable. Some parts of it were later recycled for use in the
Hydra demo. One of the earliest official Half-Life 2 screenshots shows the
functioning map. It is one of the only pictures which showcases a group of citizens
with gas masks when the Air Exchange was still in the storyline intoxicating the
air. It was also used in the teaser trailer. Its design was based on the very first
Half-Life 2 demo, Get Your Free TVs!.
Sniper, which began as a player running through a ruin-covered street to kill a
sniper. This is also the earliest leaked map that utilizes the sniper.
Ship, showing the player on the Borealis. It starts off with climbing a ladder,
then shows struggling with some fast Headcrabs before entering a corridor and
finally reaching the deck where a Gunship appears. After this point, several
explosions are encountered. This could possibly be the gunship doing damage.
Town, which was a much longer version of the E3 2003 map "Docks" featuring a player
going through Ravenholm. However, Grigori is not seen at all. It ends with a
building exploding triggered by a zombie.
The E3 preview of Gordon visiting Kleiner's Lab after returning from Nova Prospekt
with Alyx contains a different dialogue between Alyx and Kleiner than in the
version viewable online: it shows a slightly different design for Alyx and ends
with the lab being attacked by Striders, an event that does not occur in the final
game.