Half-Life 2: Episode 4 Could Have Looked Like This

Additional model renders from Arkane’s cancelled Half-Life 2: Episode 4 aka, Return to Ravenholm have surfaced.

ValveTime has gotten its hands on some additional model renders from the cancelled Half-Life 2: Episode 4 project, and have analyzed them along with prior information to try and determine just how the game may have played out. The spin-off was apparently to have an new, yet unnamed protagonist return to the headcrab-zombie-infested town of Ravenholm.

Back when Half-Life 3 wasn’t the new Duke Nukem Forever of the gaming industry, Valve had ambitious plans for the episodic content format. In a 2007 interview, Doug Lombardi said that Episode 3 would bring Gordon’s story to a close, but further episodes would flesh out the rest of the universe. Episode 4 also known as Return to Ravenholm was a project aiming to do just that, and was under development by Arkane Studios (of Dishonored fame) before it was cancelled some time between then and now.

The video spotlight from ValveTime talks about the original images from the cancelled project that were discovered some time ago. Those images were very early on in development, leading people to believe that the project was scrapped pretty quickly after it started.

However, the new models renders discovered suggest that the project was further along in its development when Valve pulled the plug, as ValveTime thinks that such detailed models would only come along late in the development cycle.

The video then goes into some speculation on how the new models may have related to the project. Among the speculation is a new drive-able vehicle, and some kind of hospital-based level and puzzles.

Half Life 3 is still completely missing in action, with Valve giving no hint on the game’s release date, or if it is even in development anymore, over the past several years.

Source & Image: ValveTime