New documentary shows gameplay from Arkane’s cancelled Half-Life game

Prior to Valve scrapping the Half-Life 2: Episodes concept all those years ago, the team was working on Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Beyond that though, Valve was also licensing out the IP to other studios for future Half-Life Episodes. One of those studios was Arkane. Prior to Dishonored, Prey and Deathloop, Arkane was working on Half-Life: Ravenholm, and now, we have our best look yet at the game in action.

Back in 2020, NoClip released a documentary covering the history of Arkane Studios. We got quite a few details about the studio's cancelled Half-Life game back then, but now, NoClip has released a new video diving deeper into Ravenholm, the game's features and even gives us a good look at gameplay.

Arkane Studios was working on a Half-Life game set in Ravenholm, an ill-fated town where zombies roam. Unlike the other Half-Life games, Ravenholm would use a more advanced AI system for the zombies, allowing them to move faster and be more aggressive. Zombies would aim to attack in groups and they could pick up objects to use as weapons.

Judging by the new documentary, Half-Life: Ravenholm got quite far into development before being cancelled in 2008. Unfortunately, this is probably the most we're ever going to see of this game, unless the build leaks someday.

KitGuru Says: Ravenholm is another piece of interesting history in Valve's journey with Half-Life. The game had a lot of promise, but it just wasn't meant to be. 

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