Seeing non-apocalyptic textures in hl2’s engine is cathartic.

I'm not sure what a "Half-life 2" is ... But I am familiar with City 17 from the Legendary game known as "Hunt down the Freeman" which "Half-Life 2" seems to have taken a lot of inspiration from.

The "before combine" maps are nice but there's one major flaw: They are too uniform and perfect. "Too clean and too well lit" is another way to describe it. When you look around a modern city, even a fairly "clean" one, you are still likely to find rusty fences, pieces of garbage or dry leaves here and there and many lights turned off, some even not working. There's a distinct lack of cars here as well.

These maps remind me a lot of those pre-distater maps for Half-Life 1 that show Black Mesa if the Resonance Cascade never happened, I especially like the Highway 17 map. The water makes the place feel more lively.

The water in the canals should have also been much higher really, but otherwise these look nice. It reminds me of the Fallout 4 opening a little. How you explore a small space in the pre-war world and then return to that bombed out neighbourhood 210 years later.

this feels like what a citizen may remember life before the combine as rather than how it actually was, things are still a little *too* clean and idealic

Imagine your country (Bulgaria aka City17) being invaded by interdimensional alien empire and remains still the same. Poor Bulgarians.😢

Waiting for someone to make a pre-war version of the Citadel chapters

The lighting in the new maps is just okay, so seeing the original maps side by side really made me realize how excellently crafted HL2 was. the oppressive feel of City 17 and the creepy atmosphere of Ravenholm are captured amazingly with the use of good lighting

Half life is always interesting... There isn't like fictional theroies or NPC's that doesn't make it look or anything as realistic, None of the less that the textures are sick, The plot is very well made for a game made in the 1997-2004, even though that the cut NPC's maps is also really interesting then some retail versions, Already is well made

The city without combine feels just... confortable, great, happy and place you would want to live ALSO RAVENHOLM MAKES GOD DAMN SENSE FOR ME AND NOT LIKE INCONPREHENSABLE MAZE

Would be nice to see those "pre-war" locations with regular pedestrian NPCs walking about.

Imagine you finally defeat opresion of communisum, only to fall back into even worse opresion from aliens

This mod reminds me of when I played Gmod and loaded up the coast maps to turn all the abandoned houses into real, lived-in ones. Adding furniture like desks, beds and such, and even putting pots on the stove. That was a lot of fun, like a Half-Life House Flipper! As for the mod itself, it's pretty great, but I think a lot of the trees are out of place. They replaced the foliage trees with pines and firs and such, but it doesn't seem right. I don't think I've ever been to a city with so many of these types of trees everywhere. The traffic lights also seem to follow the American structure, i.e. placing them across the street instead of on the street you're on. At least that's how it's done in Germany, no clue about Eastern Europe. I also feel that making the maps so bright and sunny makes them look LESS like Eastern Europe, honestly :D Even here, skies are very often cloudy and gray. Also, I believe the mod doesn't necessarily have to be "What these maps looked like BEFORE the Combine", but rather an alternate universe that shows how they would have looked if the Combine never arrived.

The idea of pre-half life 2 maps in Gmod is very good, is like seeing a game that you played but in the past.

Everything I've seen from real life Slavic areas would suggest that the Half-Life 2 would actually be really realistic minus the combine stuff everywhere. Things would still be slightly run down, out of repair, dark and cold. That's just normal there.

5:38 is so beautiful. But if I saw it in real life, I wouldn't have batted an eye. It's weird how that works.

These maps give me a happy and clean vibe, it’s sad the combine took that away. (hope you and your family are doing well by the way!)

I live in Russia, and I have a few poorly-made shacks at a summer house, and they've been standing for over 20 years without any maintenance whatsoever despite being made of wood. Sure, they're certainly not looking like new, but they're still there. Buildings can generally last a long time as long as whoever built them didn't make a big error.

This is a good reason why I liked Black Mesa so much, it was so cool seeing the 90s desert science facility vibe all fleshed out

The Ravenholm map makes me sad. It seems like it would be a decent town to live in..

Glad you liked the maps! :) I've got a few more areas of Sector 17 that I will be making de-Combined

I love pre-war maps ! It's amazing. So cool to imagine what life looks like, before the combine arrived on earth. Imagine pre war maps on Half Life Alyx

Man i've always wanted something like this for Half-Life, being able to full explore all of Black Mesa in an alternate reality where things took another course.

I really want a pre-war version where the citadel used to be built in.

The Half life 2 beta is bright and pretty

The pre-Combine maps do have a nice, peaceful feel to them. Though they also have a "calm before the storm" feeling as well, which can be from us being used to the post-Combine maps. We know what's going to come, yet people living there beforehand were oblivious to it all.

Since it's places that supposedly take place in Europe it makes sense that some buildings would stay the exact same, believee me

I remember playing a Ravenholm version before the outbreak but wasn't aware there were all maps before the combine arrival. That's so cool man.

I’d love a mod with a story where for some reason you travel through this normal then back again during in the seven hour war

The thing that hits me about these maps as a person who lives in Bulgaria is that the c17 map is just like a normal Bulgarian city that you would see in the summer times. (Also great vid Rad!)

I absolutely adore this kind of thing. Pre-disaster/pre-game glimpses into a game's world are some of my favorite things in any game. And HL2 might be one of the games I _most_ wanted to see before everything went to hell. Often when I played HL2 I would stop and stare at certain spots, just trying to imagine what it all was like before the Combine. These scratch that itch after so long, because just as you said, it _really_ gives an impression of just how _bad_ Earth under the Combine was. And this might be a bit of a hot take, but I think that was an aspect HL2 didn't do as well. It was a game that absolutely _wanted_ us to feel that way by looking at our surroundings, but I feel that on their own, the visual decay of the world was a bit too subtle in places, and in places where it wasn't (like the water level) it was so omnipresent that it was too easy to take that sort of visual for granted. These maps, on the other hand, provide that extra bit of context necessary to _fully_ appreciate HL2's dystopian world. The train station is a perfect example of this. Things are changed that you normally wouldn't _notice_ were Combine until it was gone, such as those harsh blue lights. That's kind of what I mean by in HL2 it was easy to take such scenery for granted since it was so prevalent it eventually just becomes white noise.

Yeah, I love this feeling. Watching the same places in different timelines. I can do this for hours. I've spent a lot of time wandering through Black Mesa Pre-Disaster maps.

5:02 Funny how the mapper didn't fix this road.

This is so interesting, it always feels like something is missing but, nothing really was. It’s just that the combines presence felt more, somehow alive. But before the combined invasion it feels so lonely, besides that awesome video RH!

ever since i was a kid and started learning the hl2 lore i always loved seeing and wondering how pre war half life world would look

I had no idea how much of the city 17 chapter was dried up beach areas or water ways. I always just thought it was low tide beaches, it’s also amazing how natural it looks with water, like they had designed it to be filled with water. Thx for the vid, this was a good one :)

Make City 17 peaceful again.

Honestly, seeing it without all the danger, combine, zombies, and such... It feels safe, peaceful, and ordinary. I like that. Great video ^^

This is like, a dream come true. Damn!

Man, seeing City 17 before the Combine is...really beautiful in its own way. Even with HL2/Gmod textures making things still look a bit run down, it's a far more warm, welcoming sight than the City 17 we know. Makes me want to plan a trip to Bulgaria now, lol Great video as always my man!

Half-LIfe's timeline is largely ambiguous. It's not known when either games are set. The only clue is from the Half-Life 1 manual, which states Gordon was to begin the experiment that would cause the Resonance Cascade on May 16, 200X (the year is censored), so this could be anywhere between 2000 to 2009. Half-Life 2 is said to take place "about" 2 decades later, though an exact number of years isn't given. It could be exactly 20, or perhaps a number that rounds to 20 to the nearest tenth. It is probably set somewhere around the early to mid 2020s.

00:01 Befor the Combine, Freeman was happy :(

these maps are so eerie

I think these maps can be summed up with: "But if you close you're eyes ♫"

Very nice maps. I've always thought how coast would looked like with normal water level.

Amazing work recreathing this, placing of trees looks very good and the sky feels like real life.

This feels like those antique items restoration videos! Very stunning!

Like when you do these types of videos. Feels like it's filling the HL universes history.

If you ever do this sort of video again I recommend using Garry's mod reskinned since it cleans up all the textures on the models and makes them less dirty and grimey.

You've done a great job! The music is also amazing! I really liked Highway 17)

the combine

My only complaint is that certain City 17 maps look too clean. Certain parts of the city, like the Dr. Kleiner's lab & canals would still be a dingy & dirty.

Seeing Ravenholm before the Combine AND during the day was quite shocking (even though it should be expected)

I gotta say I love how you actually compared the maps to the originals. By showing the custom map, then the original, and then back to the custom one you really helped strengthen the comparison in my mind a lot better than just showing custom map, then original, then moving on. It saves on skipping back and forth in the video to compare. Good work man!

I desperately want a 7 Hour War game or something very shortly after Half-Life 1 that shows the evolution of the Combine draining and destroying Earth to the state in Half-Life 2. These maps are great at showing what life would look like for City 17 and beyond had the Resonance Cascade never happened. I was going to make a video on these but you beat me to it lol.

I hope your kid is doing well.

Comparison shots can be gotten by the getpos and setpos console command. That's how 3kliksphilip gets such an accurate side by side view This is assuming of course the remade maps still follow the same coordinates

In some maps, the original hl2 sky fits better, while this pure blue sky makes it look kinda like a gta san andreas map

seeing the combine filled world change to normal is uncanny like if it was all a dream that felt so real.

0:24 didnt mention its a dark and griddy version

Taking away the whole combine technology and it's effects on the Earth, seeing unaffected buildings and land before the combine took over is really beautiful. Love your videos.

I got _waaaaaaaaaay too_ into mapping for source. I still know a whole hell of a lot about it, even though I've never published anything. I've cleaned up a few HL2 maps, it's kinda fun. But I get a much bigger kick out of taking real life locations and imagining what they may be like in the HL2 universe. That's wildly interesting to me.

halflife is the only futuristic eco-friendly game i see in ever my life.

Now I would like to see all of the Black Mesa maps from Half-Life, Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Decay before the Resonance Cascade.

Now this is amazing! City 17 without Combine material looks really cool; if it was real, i would want to live there

I think the idea of buildings and other locations staying the same for 20 years just shows the viewer the stagnation that the Combine create.

I was looking for this, thanks.

Hearing your voice so calm after the last two streams is so strange. Shows how smoking the smaples can change a person

I always was appealed at the fact at what would hl2 look before the combine

These feel like a "first sweep" if you will. Especially how the road is still collapsed just past the crane. I think if someone took the time to do another sweep, this could become a bit more "believable" rather than the somewhat uncanny that many Gmod maps are known to feel like.

Music choice was perfect man

Well, looking at these maps, the versions of them, you see that a lot of things have really changed about them, but it kind of gives you the idea that... everything changes, sometimes you come to the same place and you see something new that wasn't there these... let's say 10 years ago. To give an example, I recently came to my home village, where I was brought up for 12 years and in 4 years... so much has changed there, so many new buildings, so many new faces, but the home village is the same, after all, when I look at it... I feel lucky to see how everything is developing... oh... I wrote a bit too much... heh ;P

Another great video from our favorite hl content creator. The 50k sub milestone is pretty close, isn't it? Is there gonna be a special vid or sorts once you hit it?

I love the detail that the lighting is warmer in the pre-war maps. That alone makes them more comfortable

Currently playing through Half Life 2 for the first time, no sppilers. I feel blessed by Valve.

1:19 honestly, the chair should stay in the non-combine version, it'd make the room seem like some place for therapy

Yay new video

The way everything is lit and perfect has some sort of eeriness to it, like these could certainly be a vision Gman gives Gordon as a way to make him guilty for causing the resonance cascade, or be from the dream of a long-time resident of City 17

As someone who's lived in the balkans and currently resides in eastern europe, i assure you, the only thing that would be different before the combines would be the absence of fences and torture rooms. In fact, post combine hl2 looks less post apocalyptic than present time eastern europe

I love the highway 17 theme you made

I think in some cases the landscape would be different. Especially in highway 17, for example, the ramp down at 5:48 in my opinion would not be there pre-draining-of-the-ocean because you would not need to go down there when it is covered in water. It really is weird to see see HL² without the combine. The bridge without the fog is especially strange.

Banger video, as always

It's fun to see how it all could've looked before the Combine. I'd love to be able to play a story that takes place throughout those twenty years, see the world slowly shift into the oppressive Combine reality. I love your video, although I have two small complaints: removal of graffiti adds to the uncanny atmosphere of City 17. Eastern European cities aren't free from those and from litter, quite opposite. Also, the water level in the City 17 canals (mudskipper levels) should probably be higher, given the drop of ocean levels in HL2. But those are really minor things and besides them, the material is spot on.

This is so cool, but attention to detail isn’t good, because cmon, a very good example are those trees at 1:55 complete different type of trees

Thanks man, I had always tried to imagine it; now I see it...

Ravenholm looked like a TF2 map with half life 2 textures

Bright and Pretty

Half life

Ahhh, a new RadHaz video! The perfect way to start a new week.... Cheers from Ontario, Canada! :)

"rather than remembering the past, i was recalling the future" - i love this analogy, it's really well articulated and solidifies the perspective we have in these maps 👍

first

life 2

It's strange when the combines were there everything was sad before everything was normal it's sad to think that it could have happened behind the scenes like the seven hour war and strange that there were no people on the map because it's completely empty even if it was before the events

"where rather than remembering the past I was instead recalling the future" - well depicted 👍 Halflife 2 along with Halflife 1 + opposing force is one of the few games which setting and atmosphere truly had a huge impact on the experience of them. The dread and horror of some dark places like the tunnels and Ravenholm. The "facehuggers" that were many times more creepy than zombies etc. The desolate places that instilled a feeling of being truly alone. It would have been cool to see in a game how the world of halflife 2 slowly changed from your recreation step by step to what it eventually became with the Citadel. Really nice video and well made maps before it all unfolded. Thanks 😎👍

man the combine suck

Nice video. I have some of those maps before the Combine in Garry's mod. 😁

you know what? That's it! * un-Combines your City17 *

Well talking about an old shacks staying for 20 years. We can assume that after combine invasion nothing new was built by humans. Only combine structures and all the stuff they needed specifically

Interesting stuff. The concept reminds me of a cool HL1 mod Induction that takes place pre-disaster and begins with Gordon bringing his employment documents to Black Mesa.