Arkane’s Cancelled Half-Life 2: Episode 4 Gets Some Screenshots, Animation

<p>Did you expect to see any <em>Half-Life<&sol;em> news when you woke up today&quest; Neither did I&period; Technically&comma; we didn&&num;8217&semi;t get any new news&comma; but we did get some interesting screens and animation from a cancelled <em>Half-Life<&sol;em> title&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Arkane Studios&comma; developer of <em>Dishonored<&sol;em>&comma; was working on a <em>Half-Life 2&colon; Episode 4<&sol;em> &lpar;also called <em>Return to Ravenholm<&sol;em>&rpar; between 2006 and 2007&comma; but ended up being cancelled&period; The following concept art and animation have all been confirmed as real by <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;valvetime&period;net&sol;threads&sol;new-images-of-half-life-2-episode-4-return-to-ravenholm&period;243033&sol;">ValveTime<&sol;a>&comma; and they&&num;8217&semi;ve even put all of the footage into one nice video for you to enjoy&period; In it&comma; you can see some new textures and models that Arkane planned to use&comma; as well as an &&num;8216&semi;Absorption&&num;8217&semi; element on the game&&num;8217&semi;s HUD&period; Now what are the chances of us ever finding out what that means&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><iframe src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;embed&sol;XRryGWqBNs8" height&equals;"315" width&equals;"560" allowfullscreen&equals;"" frameborder&equals;"0"><&sol;iframe><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As for why <em>Episode 4<&sol;em> was cancelled&comma; look no further than last year when Valve&&num;8217&semi;s Marc Laidlaw offered this explanation to <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;lambdageneration&period;com&sol;posts&sol;marc-laidlaw-on-the-cancelled-half-life-spin-offs-return-to-ravenholm-and-episode-four&sol;">LambdaGeneration<&sol;a>&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&&num;8220&semi;We are big fans of Arkane and wanted to come up with a project we could work on together&period; We threw ideas around&comma; they built some cool stuff&comma; but we eventually decided that it didn’t make sense to pursue it at the time&period; As I recall&comma; we felt like a lot of the staples of Ravenholm–headcrabs and zombies&excl;–were pretty much played out&comma; and the fact that it would have to take place sometime before the end of Episode 2 &lpar;so as not to advance beyond where Valve had pushed the story&rpar; was a creative constraint that would hamper the project…and Arkane&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Could you imagine if <em>Half-Life 2&colon; Episode 4<&sol;em> came out before <em>Episode 3<&sol;em>&quest; It would&&num;8217&semi;ve been absolute madness&comma; but I think we&&num;8217&semi;d all quickly accept it&period; Because <em>Half-Life<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lbrace;Sources&colon; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;polygon&period;com&sol;2013&sol;1&sol;14&sol;3874792&sol;dishonored-developers-cancelled-half-life-2-episode-4">Polygon<&sol;a>&comma; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;valvetime&period;net&sol;threads&sol;new-images-of-half-life-2-episode-4-return-to-ravenholm&period;243033&sol;">ValveTime<&sol;a>&rcub;<&sol;p>&NewLine;