Unseen Half-Life Concept Art Released – Including a Spin-Off That Never Came Out

Many Half-Life projects have never come to fruition, from Half-Life 2: Episode 3, to spin-offs that never reached development. Thanks to some new concept art, we at least know what they could have looked like.2K developer and Half-Life fan David McGreavy (via Kotaku) has released a selection of never-before-seen images from the long-awaited Half-Life 2: Episode 3 – confirming some previously-released plot points – not to mention a game idea that never saw the light of day.Although McGreavy never worked on Half-Life 2, he has become a an avid collector, and found himself in possession of concept art that give us a glimpse into the chapter of Half-Life 2 that never came to be.Spending my Sunday scanning and archiving my collection of #Valve concept art.Not a bad way to spend a day.😅 and then I’ve gotta restart cataloging all the OTHER stuff lol pic.twitter.com/jjkFwD08Om— David McGreavy 🔜 PAX West (@DominusNoctis) April 25, 2022 Back in April, McGreavy teased the never-before-seen artwork as he began cataloging his Valve collection, with new additions from a former Valve employee looking to downsize their collection. The most immediately interesting part is the slug-like creature at the top left.That’s ‘BreenGrub’ – a large, slug-like creature that fans will recognize almost immediately due to its name. Half-Life 2 villain Dr. Wallace Breen appeared throughout Half-Life 2 and was seen falling to his death after Gordon Freeman destroyed the reactor at the top of the Citadel. During Episodes 1 and 2 he only appears in flashbacks. Nevertheless, it looks as though he would have returned in Episode 3 after a video recording in Episode 2 mentions a transfer into a “host body”. It’s just not the kind of host body he might have preferred.The once-human Dr. Breen was going to have his conscious mind transferred into a slug-like creature at the behest of the Combine – becoming a prisoner who would have been found by Alyx and Gordon during the events of Episode 3. How do we know that? Well, this gorgeous (but pretty gross) concept art confirms a plot revealed by former Half-Life 2 writer Marc Laidlaw before he left the company in 2016.BreenGrub pic.twitter.com/rOUvkrH1ra— LambdaGeneration (@LambdaGen) August 29, 2022 The plot, as revealed by Laidlaw, would have seen heroes Alyx and Gordon traveling to the Borealis – an Aperture Science vessel in a perpetual state of flux, phasing in and out of existence. The Combine, who set up base around it, have meanwhile transferred Breen’s mind into the aforementioned slug-like creature… and begs Alyx and Gordon to kill him.Although Laidlaw has asserted that his version of events is “0% official” after he left the company, it’s nevertheless a fascinating glimpse into what might have been.Additionally, McGreavy released scans of other concept art for Half-Life 2: Episode 3 that include post-apocalyptic vistas and a coastline covered in debris.However, the two pieces of concept art showing Alyx Vance and robot companion, Dog were not from Episode 3 at all. Instead, McGreavy told Kotaku that these were part of a spin-off attempt that would have been entirely separate from both Half-Life 2: Episode 3 and the never-released Half-Life 3.We can only guess at what that spin-off might have been for now.High-res scans of Half-Life 2: Episode 3/Half-Life 3 concept art (previously teased by @DominusNoctis as part of his *extensive* Valve collection).A huge thanks to David for sharing these with us and the community 🙏 Raw scans to be released in the near future. https://t.co/pbSJXMBCXI pic.twitter.com/HTY0cuebdG— LambdaGeneration (@LambdaGen) August 29, 2022 Half-Life 2 was a landmark moment in game development, with IGN’s review saying: “It sets the standard in all areas, especially the use of physics as a gameplay tool instead of merely a visual treat for gamers.” It was followed by two extra episodes, with a cliffhanger for a third. However, it took until 2020 for Valve to tell us why Episode Three was never made.We’ve since gotten the incredible VR-only game Half-Life: Alyx, but we’re still waiting for an official Half-Life 3. Multiple versions of the game have been abandoned, but we may be closer than ever – Valve’s developers have said that they want to keep making more games in the series.Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.



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