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Over an hour of gameplay footage from cancelled Half-Life 2 spinoff Ravenholm has surfaced online.
The footage comes courtesy of YouTube gaming documentary channel Noclip. They travelled to French developer Arkane Lyon back in 2020 as part of their film on the history of the studio. During this visit, Arkane granted them access to in-development builds of three cancelled games.
One of these games was a spin-off to classic Valve FPS Half-Life 2. Known internally as ‘Ravenholm‘ this standalone spinoff would see players return to the infamous city from the shooter. Though characters and story was still being finalised, it seems it would also see the return of Father Grigori. It’d also star Half-Life: Opposing Force protagonist Adrian Shepard as the player character.
Development started in 2005, following a prototype by Warren Spector’s former Junction Point studio prior to their acquisition (and subsequent closure) by Disney. During that time, they created a Magnet Gun for their prototype. This prototype is what Arkane started from, and was said to be around 8 chapters in before Valve pulled the plug in 2008.
The footage is of an early build of the game, and as such there’s some roughness and placeholder content. Nevertheless, it remains a fascinating look at what could have been. Of course, Arkane would go on to create the Dishonored series and last year’s excellent Deathloop, among other games. You can check out the hour of the Half-Life 2 Ravenholm spinoff footage for yourself down below.
