Redux’s latest chapter will chuck Gordon Freeman into some of City 17’s nasty canals, and re-envisions the creepy Ravenholm. It’s a different spin on Half-Life 2, and one that I find quite intriguing. The project has a more traditionally American sci-fi flavour to it than Half-Life 2 proper, and I approve of Alyx’s almost Rocketeer-style goggles and jacket. You might’ve noticed, too, that Eli Vance is now Eli Maxwell, and isn’t Alyx’s dad in this version of the story. The Raising The Bar: Redux project isn’t the only glimpse into abandoned Half-Life we’ve seen this year either, with footage from Arkane’s scrapped Ravenholm spin-off included in a Noclip documentary back in May. The Half-Life 2 reimagining started out in 2012 under a different team, who dropped the project in 2016. Another group of modders revived the idea a few years later, and slapped the Redux moniker on the end. The whole effort gets its name from a book by former games journo David Hodgson, which details Valve’s development of Half-Life 2 from its early days to release. The mod team has used the concept art and information in Hodgson’s book to essentially remake a Half-Life 2 that probably exists out there somewhere in an alternate universe. Although there’s no solid release date yet, you’ll be able to download Raising The Bar: Redux: Division 2 from ModDB when it’s out. There’s already a demo, which you can grab here.
