Half-Life 2 is one of the greatest games of all time and received two episodic expansions that are beloved to this day. While fans love the games that did release, there has always been a fascination with those that didn’t: Half-Life 2: Episode 3 and the lesser-known Half-Life 2: Ravenholm.
Based on the base game’s brilliant We Don’t Go To Ravenholm level, Arkane Studios was working on the scrapped spin-off between 2006 and 2007. Speaking in a recent interview with Press Box PR, Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio explained that losing the project was a huge blow for the studio.
“It took us a decade of pain to move on from the pain of the Ravenholm project because we were incredibly excited about doing that game,” the founder said. Colantonio explained that the team “put a lot of “creative energy into it and eventually when the decision was made to cut it, we did not understand it as it happened”.
In the decades since, Colantonio has had a lot of time to think about Half-Life Ravenholm and learn more about its cancellation. By the time the spin-off was in development, Episode 1 had already released, and sales weren’t particularly strong. This was also before Steam became the powerhouse it’s become today so Valve didn’t have unlimited money to throw at passion projects.
“It all came down to the economics behind Half-Life 2 and how the DLCs were selling,” Colantonio explained. “They had a business ratio between how much they could spend and how they could make it to be worth it to them because it takes the attention of the entire structure on their side.”
Colantonio still believes that Half-Life Ravenholm would have been a great game if they were able to finish development. “What we had was really, really cool,” he added. “But it still needed more time, and too much time to finish. Beyond it being cool there was a business call at some point where it was decided that it didn’t really make sense.”
Nevertheless, Arkane moved on. “We grew up and got a little bit more mature about it,” the Arkane founder added. In the game’s cancellation, the team dreamt up Dishonored which allowed the team to continue working with Half-Life 2 art director Viktor Antonov to design the stealth game’s brilliant world.
While Colantonio has since left Arkane and is now working at his new studio, Weird West developer Wolfeye Studios, it’s clear that the loss of Ravenholm still stings a little bit. Even fans still think about it, although admittedly not as much as the scrapped Episode 3, as we would do literally anything for more Half-Life.
Half-Life 2 is one of the greatest games of all time and received two episodic expansions that are beloved to this day. While fans love the games that did release, there has always an urge for more. (Hopefully, with Half-Life 3 seemingly actually in development, we might not have to wait much longer!)
For more on Ravenholm, I recommend the brilliant Noclip YouTube documentary on the cancelled game. Although, fair warning, it will make you wish you could play the game even more.
