No matter what the player did, they wouldn't be able to aid her in time, an illogically scripted situation which was found to be both confusing and upsetting during playtests. But this moment wasn't always so poignant - because if you remember the original Episode Two trailer, Alyx was supposed to be injured by a calamitous fall.Īfter the train crash that concludes Episode One, Gordon was to wake to Alyx calling for help as she dangled above a treacherous drop. This scene is a masterstroke in how to sway a gamer's emotions, as you're immediately overcome by rage at the Hunter for impaling your loyal, lovely companion in the back. The Manhack Arcade was designed and redesigned no less than three times before eventually being left on the cutting room floor.Īfter growing so attached to Alyx Vance over the course of Half-Life 2, it's utterly devastating when Gordon has to watch helplessly as she's viciously attacked by an alien Hunter. Of course, they'd be completely unaware that playing meant that they were actually mutilating real people on City 17's streets, and therein lies the horror. The concept behind Manhack Arcade is that it would be a space for oppressed citizens to blow off some steam and try to nab a high score in a popular video game, in which you control a Manhack as it slices up fugitives. Manhacks are those pesky flying drones that constantly accost Gordon in Half-Life 2, getting all up in his grill with their vicious spinning blades.
Gordon Freeman was set to encounter a variation of this dark concept in the Manhack Arcade, a chunk of City 17 that didn't make it into the final game. Kids think that they're just racking up kills in a militaristic video game, but they're actually wiping out enemy combatants with remote-controlled ships in a far-off skirmish. If you haven't read/watched/lived Ender's Game, one of its most fundamental concepts is (literary spoiler alert) a program that appears to be a battle simulation, but is actually a one-to-one representation of an interstellar war.
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