Be sure to watch until the end! Also check out my other videos, especially my newest video on mods (It features commentary! :) ) Check it out here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/odion9uUq7mplqs.html

People always said this was cut EP1 content, and I always was confused as of why, since the animation looked MUCH better than what we got. It being actually EP2 content much more sense. Thanks for the video.

DUDE THIS LOOKS SICK, I wish they would have put it into some trailer or whatever

It's honestly really epic how the Citadel blows up from the bottom and keep on hanging up, almost as if being pulled up from the explosion rather than down by gravity.

Would love to see someone somehow mod this into Episode 1. The destruction of the Citadel is so much more satisfying.

An old mod called "Dangerous World" did add a destruction sequence to it's ending, similar to this cut one

It's more like just a pre-recorded physics animation, doubt that causes pc lag, since episode two opens up with a bridge collapse of the same effect, without using source physics objects.

This literally gave me chills. That is an impressive visual.

It’s a shame, because this makes for a much stronger opening to episode two.

This really looks incredible, ngl it really makes the scene way more impactful, as you can see the citadel, probably the biggest structures in the entire Half life 2 world, be blown to bits right in front of you, instead of just seeing debris float to your face (which doesn't even affect the train you're riding on by one bit, even if it's a car).

It's also worth mentioning the XBOX 360 and PS3 versions did a weird thing and had a pre-rendered video (made in an old ass version of SFM) of the events that happened in Episode 1 for whatever reason. Maybe removed due to 360 performance? (XBOX 360 had a very small memory pool and also had a shared memory usage so it may of caused lots of issues, that or was removed for a video on XBOX 360 and PS3?)

I absolutely love this, the way it gets ripped into fragments (at least to me) shows how powerful that one portal is, ripping apart a massive structure we previously thought was tougher than anything humans could've made, but I'm not a game critic so I dont know much about that stuff, I'm just rambling at this point bye and good luck

someone should add this version to EP1's finale

damn pcs back then, we didn't not see this cool animation in release :(

I find it interesting that the leaked EP2 map shows the changes to make the scripted sequences of HL2 much more sophisticated than they previously were. Theatricality is put to the forefront, camerawork and directing are now closer to cinematic level than they previously were. You can also see this shift when comparing the Episode 2 G-Man speech and the base HL2 G-Man speeches. Shame we probably won't see another singleplayer game from Valve again soon.

Honestly the model swap looks pretty obvious, maybe that was a reason to consider. It's more likely though that it would just be a hassle to do a full throwback to EP1 ingame insteaf of just mashing up a video of the events, which was later removed on the PC version.

Bruh. Valve always knows how to play with destruction

that actually looks stunningly cinematic, shame it was cut

I do wish they kept it. It looked so cool

HL2 EP1's ending is extremely well made, especially for its time (2006), wish they keep the cut opening for Ep2, I never get bored watching citadel goes haywire.

Honestly, Valve should update Ep1's finale to include this version as it's so much cooler and more violent. It actually looks like it's being torn to bits effortlessly by an alien dark matter tech incident.

Maybe it was cut because from Gordon's perspective every new game starts exactly where previous one ended. While Ep1's opening flashback could be explained as a hallucination induced by G-Man or vortigaunts, the Citadel destruction couldn't have the same excuse.

Damn that's sick. Once again Valve was limited by the technology of their time.

Edit: Bluz0r already said it first. I do not think it crashing hammer is a strong case for "lag." I doubt "lag" (ugh do I hate the misuse of that term, if there's no network involved do not bring up lag please) is the reason for it to be cut. The big tech push in Episode 2 was prebaked (blendable?) rigid body simulations. It's how marque moments like the bridge collapse, wood circling around an advisor, and barns exploding into bits were done on 2007 era hardware, to include consoles. The citadel collapse does not look any more involved than any of those, so I doubt performance was the issue. Rather, this being cut might be one the first hints that Valve's monoculture and stacked ranking were causing lapses in judgement among the "not-leadership" of Valve. E.G. the people who made the long tram opening in Half-Life and the monologue opening in Half-Life 2 could have had a collective brain fart and decided the player must be in control sooner.

That biggest chunk flying off the citadel would be, what, roughly the size of the Eiffel tower?

Overall, it looks interesting and I honestly would like it to look like this in the end. As for the animation itself, it's probably the same one used by the author of the "Citadel destruction" map at the Garry's mod workshop, although I don't recall that many large objects falling to the ground near the Citadel itself. I honestly wish someone would recreate this animation but... it's a bit better that it doesn't look so basic.

This would've fit right into Episode Two, since that game LOVED to show pre-calculated destruction events. Definitely needs to be an Episode One mod.

That looks wayy more cooler and cinematic, but yeah, they probably cut it out because performance issues.

That is honestly super cool, I really wish that shipped with the game.

That explosion looks insane I would love it if there was a mod that added that back into the game.

Wow, what a shame this wasn't used. At least we got to see it.

the thought of something THAT BIG crumbling to pieces right in front of you is such a neat idea

Personally I think it looks a bit goofy. The chunks simultaneously look too big and too small. Given the size of the citadel, one of those chunks would be absolutely enormous, but the look of them, and the details of them, looks off. The way the chunks have all these girders sticking out of them, but at the scale of the citadel those girders would be the size of a house. And the way the pieces move looks odd too, they move as if they don't have the correct amount of weight for something of that scale.

even if im sick i will always watch your vids

I used the cut map in my HL2 EP2 installation on a WinXP gaming rig I have - I think one of the reasons this was cut from EP2 is due to the slower HDD speeds of the time, the next map takes a while to load, leaving you hanging on a black screen before the EP2 logo showed up.

It looks really cool but I can see why they would remove it for technical reasons. They also could have cut it so that the reveal of the destroyed citadel has a bit more impact.

Another idea to why it was cut, because it didn't make much sense for the whole citidel to crumble then come back slanted in hl2 episode 2

Well that explains why the cidadel falled like that in EP2

My favorite scene in the game, and the cut version i enjoy more, it tells you "Holy shit we did that!?"

The reason it was cut wasn’t performance as far as I am aware, but rather the entire intro bit being cut.

This looks stunning

It was probably cut for pc to save on resources, notes how the Debary uses less props in the finel and keep in mind that pc's at the time were not as good as they are now.

That would've been a wicked open for EP2

Woah, what a spectacle! They should have left it in.

...I genuinely for a moment thought it was going to be some joke about the citadel being sucked into a leak in the map.

All those poiple All those hamboigahs

I had a weak PC back then and it already lagged a lot without the debris flying around. It was a Pentium 4, then upgraded to Core 2 Quad.

They should've updated EP1 to use this.

so while the transmission did go out, it most likely wasn't complete due to *BIG ASS EXPLOSION*

looks incredible, but it would've easily melted low end pc's back then

The explosion looks awesome, but is it physobjects being scattered, or an animation? If it's Physobjects, why couldn't they have recorded their trajectories in software and turn that into a prebaked animation? I know Source '08 was capable of it.

i know they won't add it in, but damn is this cool af and i kinda wish they'd updated the game to add it. Way more cathartic than the flash of light before it fades to white.

i kinda wish they just updated episode 1 with the better looking ending, wouldnt be the first time they ported episode content to older games

I'm having a mandela effect right now. i thought this Citadel explosion was in the ep1. I swear! I remember when i saw it's complete destruccion when i played it for the 1st time

I wonder if it would have done performance issues. I mean, in the finale fight, the Striders blew buildings and the rocket shilo up. And I had no problame with an AMD Athlon 64.

why was this not in the game?! it looks SOOOOOOO much better

This is very interesting, good video :D

we've had this since 2017

The infamous HL2 Cinematic Mod replaced the explosion with this one lol

That would make sense if they show that in episode one and episode two your journey begins at the train wreck. And this is also random but the linking park parody of half-life that person kinda predicted the ending?

That, and probably it also needs to run on the xbox 360 and ps3.

1:00 Astro Toilet warping sound

Honestly, I'm fine with em cutting this one. They realized we would have been playing these 2 episodes back to back p much

"Bro, it's just a prank" prank:

I understand why it was cut, but I wished this was in the game instead of the compressed recap of ep1

I wonder if this caused significant lag or something on lower-end computers. Can't see why they wouldn't use it having rigged it otherwise

Some modder restored this?

Shame we didn't get this. Better than an FMV - those felt out-of-place in Half Life.

I wonder why they cut it

man, it look sick.

someone 100% needs to either mod this into Episode 1, or Episode 2. I'd prefer episode 1 personally though

WTF, why was this removed!?

They should've made it 2D to save resources. If the reason was performance, of course.

Should’ve been reimplemented when the steampipe update happened. i want this added back in. no one has put it back in, *WHY HAVENT THEY NOT?!*

i wish valve added this as an update after ep2 or something

I like the old one a lot better, it could use some minor fixes, but I also feel it would mess up continuity between the episodes, as the ep 2 ruins are much more intact

Sick

i need someone to make mod re adding the sequence

that looked awesome why would they scrap it..

Is there any mod to re-add this??

which half life soundtrack is this?

👾

What is that flying at 1:24

Nice Video! Where can I find the leaked map?

One question, is it possible to do this but for gmod?

Cool!

Bruh can someone mod this back in?

we need half life 2 revisited tbh

to much lag? isnt the entire point of using animated models to negate the lag of physics? i doubt the most recent gens couldnt handle it back then. im more willing to agree that they cut this for the sake of it being too cool like alot of missed content from the beta that was also cool and still somewhat fit the game yet we never got

IT LOOKS INSANE! someone make A mod

SOMEONE MAKE A MOD

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