The Borealis is nowhere in sight now I'm back in City 17 instead. All that expectation and.that was it?ĭesperate for and convinced there's more, I boot another of the standalone levels. He tells me this is the way out, and before I can even muster enough anger to hit Alt-F4, the screen fades to black and the main menu pops up. He leads me up to the deck where, hanging from the end of a crane, a submarine awaits us. Perhaps they are a chance for the Borealis to shine in my eyes? Instead though, without enough room to dodge their precise laser-beams, they feel like the lowest point yet.Įventually I find Odell again - though I'm sure he must have noclipped his way through the ship to be able to get this far ahead. The stalkers, like the Borealis, were constantly cut back from their original outline, and felt under-used even when they finally stepped up in Episode One. It's not until I stumble into a couple of stalkers that I start to pay real attention. The ship has been everything from the starting point of the game to a critical objective in its own right, but Odell didn't give any reason for this visit in particular and there's no clue in the environment, which is bland and inconsistently paced. The Borealis has existed in so many versions of HL2's script that it's impossible to know which one this is. Why the zombies and soldiers are here, I have no idea. The demented geography funnels me through engine rooms and cargo bays with no logic or pattern guiding the route. There are zombies everywhere, but no bodies or headcrabs.
![half life 2 odessa half life 2 odessa](https://static.gamefront.com/storage/screenshots/32/files2/46511_2t.jpg)
The Bridge leads down towards a meat locker, but there's no kitchen in sight. Moving back down into the Borealis - which is called the Hyperborea in this map, but is identical to the point that the names are interchangeable - it strikes me that nothing seems to make sense. and a fire extinguisher? I blast the smouldering corpses to no effect, move on, then return to try again and investigate if it has a secondary fire. I smother the soldiers in flarey flames and, when I'm done, there's a litter of weapons left behind. Up ahead is enough trouble to distract me for a while - a handful of Combine loitering purposelessly on deck in odd-coloured armour, carrying OCIW rifles I remember from screenshots of the leaked beta. I've spent years fantasizing about what the Borealis might contain, going over and over the extracts contained in Raising The Bar - and a lonely, monotone boat is what greets me? Was this worth salvaging from the illegal betas and level fragments? How about you take the lead?"Īlone, I move down empty, plain, shoulder-wide corridors, unable to shake the disappointment at how dull this has been so far. "You've got a gun, I've got a cigarette lighter. "I've got an idea, Freeman," Odell/Odessa says, sitting down. I open one and take the flare gun I find inside - a weapon cut from the final release. Blunted orange hues sit against off-whites and steel-greys, with only the occasional emergency-red wallbox to brighten up the place. Odell and I move through the ship's empty corridors and I can't help noticing how old everything looks, how bland the art style is.
HALF LIFE 2 ODESSA MOD
Scraps taken from the leaked beta and E3 footage, crafted into a playable mod by the delightfully named team, Gabe's Love Tub. This is the Half-Life 2 that was never seen. When Odell's character was cut from the original version of HL2, his model was re-used for the role of Resistance leader Col.
![half life 2 odessa half life 2 odessa](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FeBwD6ikGT0/maxresdefault.jpg)
Or, rather, there's someone looks just like him. He looks just like someone I used to know. I climb the ladder on the side of the ship and greet the terse, moustachioed man who's waiting for me. The Borealis sits ominously in the water, sealing into place as the Arctic ice surrounds it. Joe takes a look at the parts of HL2 Valve didn't intend for us to see, and wonders if the game we got was the best it could have been. Imagine his joy at finding the Missing Information mod, which collects workable snippets from the stolen HL2 beta and assembles them into a Steam-compatible mod. Joe Martin is a Half-Life 2 obsessive who often wells up with actual tears when he thinks of the content Valve cut during development.