Half-Life: Alyx/Unused Animations

This is a sub-page of Half-Life: Alyx.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: The Snark in Alyx's hideout has a LOT of unused animations. Create gifs for the Fast Headcrab, there are 100+ animations, I don't think it's worth every single one of them, just the noteworthy and interesting ones.

Sequences

Jeff's Original Death Sequence

The original version of Jeff's ending had the player’s actions unintentionally causing him to be attacked and dragged away by Antlions. According to the Developer Commentary, the aim was to show that Antlions are even more dangerous than Jeff, ramping up tension before the player faces them. However, playtesters felt "a little empty" with this ending, as they were detached from Jeff's fate and wanted to be more directly involved.

Developer Commentary

Transcript:

"Figuring out how to end the player's journey through the distillery involved a lot of discussion about how players would ultimately end up feeling about Jeff. Observing playtests told us that most players simply wanted him dead, usually from the moment they met him. But there were some who felt kind of sorry for him and didn't necessarily want to see him killed. Our first version of the ending involved the player's actions unintentionally resulting in Jeff being attacked and dragged away by antlions. Part of the goal was to demonstrate that the antlions are even more powerful than Jeff, to amp up the tension just before players have to square off against antlions themselves. However, this ending left players feeling a little empty, they felt detached from Jeff's demise and wanted to be more directly involved. Dark stuff, to be sure. Plus, we weren't really servicing those players who felt sorry for Jeff and didn't necessarily want to see him killed. There were other problems too. The antlion attack felt random to many players, which reduced its impact. And because Jeff presumably died off-screen, players were left without a sense of closure. This prevented players from being able to switch gears and settle in for their encounter with the antlions. The trash compactor was the solution to these problems. It gave players the opportunity to decide Jeff's fate and be left with a sense of closure, whether they decide to squash him or just leave him imprisoned. Even so, it has to be admitted that most players seem to crush Jeff with zero hesitation. Monsters..."

Characters

G-Man

An animation called "Gman_trailer", as the name suggests, this is the animation used in the reveal trailer.

gman_trailer		Final

Enemies

Combine Charger

In the game files, Combine Chargers have several unused lines and animations for swapping out their Heavy Shotgun for a Stun Baton, respectively dubbed "mode 1" and "mode 2". While their shield is deployed, they would pull out a baton, sprint at an opponent, and attempt to either stun them or perform a fake-out attack. The Charger also was to have a Tau Cannon charging attack as part of the functionality of his weapon that goes completely unused.

Reviver

While the model itself is used in-game, many animations and sequences go unused.

Unseen Details

intro_world_heist

The video call from Eli is cut off around the 46-second mark, leaving 6 seconds unseen in-game.
The first few frames also go unseen, if paused, you can clearly notice Eli's coat stretching for a brief moment — lasting less than a second.

Eli reaching for Alyx

When young Alyx saves future Eli, altering the course of the timeline, Eli falls to his knees and soon disappears. However, when viewing the full animation, you can see that Eli gets back up and attempts to reach Alyx with his hand, which gets cut prematurely in the final game. Given that he also has an idle animation featuring that final pose, which also goes unused, it's possible it was intended for him to freeze in time just before reaching Alyx.

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