Footage of unreleased HALF-LIFE game emerges

Superb video game documentary makers Noclip have released a full hour of footage from an unreleased Half-Life game. Return to Ravenholm was a planned self-contained expansion to Half-Life 2 set in the titular town, where the protagonist has to fight off headcrabs and zombies with a range of new tools.

Return to Ravenholm, sometimes referred to as Half-Life 2: Episode Four, began development in 2007 at Junction Point Studios, with Warren Spector in charge. The original plan was for a prequel to Half-Life 2, showing the deterioration of Ravenholm from a pleasant town to the nightmare-infested location it appears as in Half-Life 2 itself. The main character would have been Father Grigori, who appears in Half-Life 2, or possibly a new protagonist. Development of the project was only at an early stage when Junction Point was awarded a contract to make Epic Mickey instead, which became their main focus.

Valve gave the concept to Arkane Studios, who had already used Valve's Source Engine to make Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. They recast the game as a sequel to Half-Life 2, with it being revealed that Father Grigori had survived his last stand in Ravenholm. The game would have used Adrian Shepard, the long-missing protagonist of Half-Life: Opposing Force, as its main character. Shepard would have been charged with eliminating the alien presence in Ravenholm, using both traditional weapons and new physics-based weapons, including being able to push or throw enemies into traps, as in Dark Messiah, and creating new traps yourself.

The game was startlingly close to being finished, with a new soundtrack recorded and voice-over dialogue largely completed, when it was cancelled. The main issue leading to the cancellation was the perception that fighting zombies and headcrabs were played out over the course of Half-Life 2 and its first two episodes.

Noclip first uncovered information about the expansion in a long 2020 documentary on Arkane Studios, including coverage of their other games like Prey and the Dishonored series.

The Half-Life series began in 1998 with a revolutionary first-person shooter. It was followed by two expansions, Opposing Force (1999) and Blue Shift (2000). Half-Life 2 was released in 2004 and was a massive hit. It was followed by Episode One (2006) and Episode Two (2007), the latter released in a special "Orange Box" alongside Portal and Team Fortress 2. The Half-Life franchise went on indefinite hold, despite Episode Two ending on a major cliffhanger. The non-appearance of the promised Episode Three or Half-Life 3 led to more than a decade of memes and jokes. The VR game Half-Life: Alyx (2021) revisited the franchise and set up a new cliffhanger, leading to speculation that Valve are finally willing to make the next "proper" Half-Life game.