For Half-Life fans, piecing together what could have been (and to some, what still might be) in the game’s various unreleased sequels and spin-offs has become as absorbing as the Half-Life games themselves. And that rabid fandom was blessed with never-before-seen concept art this week, thanks to 2K producer and Valve collector David McGreavy.
McGreavy posted images of some of his various Valve art on Twitter before sharing more high-resolution versions of the photos and prints with Kotaku. McGreavy’s collection includes concept art that indicated plot points from the canceled Half-Life 2: Episode Three, as well as concepts for a spin-off title revolving around Alyx and Dog that would have been entirely separate from Half-Life 2.
While several pieces of art are simply pieces featuring environments and potential enemies that never saw the light of day, one character stands out: the BreenGrub, as McGreavy calls it. It shows off what the evil Dr. Wallace Breen would eventually become, as his death in Half-Life 2 was apparently not the end of his consciousness. Instead, he gets to live out even more days as a disgusting pale and bulbous-looking alien worm, complete with a baby-ish face and an arm that looks like a deflated balloon.
Meanwhile, the art picturing Alyx and Dog from the canceled spin-off title shows the pair wandering through some desolate environments, with seemingly nothing around them apart from sand, stony crags jutting up from the earth, and mountains. This is certainly a departure from the urban landscapes players made their way through in Half-Life: Alyx and enthusiasts now have yet another unreleased project that they can try to piece together.
The portions of the collection that McGreavy has made available are worth checking out, especially for fans of Valve and the Half-Life series pining for new releases from Valve. And who knows? Maybe some of this art returns in the form of a new Half-Life at some point.
