Evolution of the Half-Life 2 Citadel
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- Taking a look at the various variants of the Citadel throughout Half-Life 2's development.
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#HalfLife2 #Citadel #Evolution
Maybe people are saying “it’s alive” because all those big yellow, translucent pipes that run through it have veins on them, and they kind of undulate or sway back and forth. You get a good look at them while you’re riding the second “cart” in the citadel chapters. There’s also a better view of them on the HL2 menu screen from inside the citadel.
Anyway, my take from this was that it’s not the citadel that’s alive, but rather the technology that powers it is. Think like the rat powered consoles in Alyx. It appears as though the combine have organic powered technology. So maybe that’s it?
that’s how i always took it. there are organic aspects of the citadel, however the superstructure itself is not alive!
Are you sure rat is the correct word for the console power, I never say any rats in the consoles
@@sgas check again next time you play HL Alyx (or watch gameplay) - there's rats and other biomass in the consoles. You see them start to breathe and twitch when you align the node/disc with the energy beam. Fun stuff
@@erikbrand6682 The whole point of Xen is that the flora is literally flesh, which is why Headcrabs are attracted to humans but not necessarily to Vorts. Headcrabs are herbivores in the context of their own habitat, and the grim reality is that humans evolved to be of the same material that headcrabs feed on.
The Combines are probably using flesh flora in the same way the Nihilanth powered his own Xen Tech (alongside Vort Essence).
@@canadianblt8667 Weren't the rats like dead
If they were in them then I saw it as just them having crawled in there
I’ve always been a sucker for huge monoliths such as the citadel. Thank you, I’ve been looking for stuff like this for so long
Same, I both absolutely fear and love when there's huge structures in a game of indescribable size, and you can see it from most places
Barad-Dur? Orthanc?
I think people theorized that the Citadel was supposed to be "alive" because of some of the beta sfx that people have gotten ahold of. It might just be due to the uncanny and unnerving nature of these sounds, which led to people saying that maybe the citadel was supposed to be some sort of sedentary creature. An interesting theory for sure, but it's hard to say whether that was actually the case, since it's really only the sounds that give any sort of "evidence".
I think its also cause theres a eli maxwell voice line talking about particle storms that says "theres an intelligence in there somewhere" but someone cut out the part about particle storms so people thought it was about the citadel
Also the citadel in the concept art looks very "veiny" and looks as if it is either organic/covered in organic material
Well in the retail Half Life 2 the citadel has veins, so it's not "alive" but it has organic elements and tech complementary to the metallic tech.
@@tlpawhat the fu
When I was a kid I had a nightmare where I was trapped in a building similar looking to the tiles citadel (The one Radiation Hazard likes) and I was being chased by something I couldn't see but can hear. When I saw that citadel version for the first time it reminded me of that dream.
What was your reaction.
It's quite interesting how much they thought about how the citadel would look, some AAA studios would have just made a big tower with a cylinder and some spikes but here valve really took their time, it shows the dedication in making a follow up of one of the best game ever made.
Weird how HL2 and the citadels used to look like something that could have been in the ‘C&C Tiberian Sun’ universe.
something I appreciate about Rad Hazard is that he doesn’t perpetuate this ridiculous notion that the beta was somehow superior to the retail version of the game. even when he discusses unused concepts he admires, he always acknowledges how superb the final game turned out
Such is often the nature of beta content, our imaginations can fill a lot of missing details without being restrained by things like good game design, budgets/deadlines, or hardware limitations of the era.
As much as I love the grim, darker tones of the earlier art, it would be very presumptuous to say the final product would have been improved if valve stuck with that direction.
@@funx24X7 I absolutely agree. the thing that makes the beta so interesting to me is that it’s like seeing an alternate version of my favourite game; just without the subtlety and nuance that make the retail game so brilliant
Except when it's Duke Nukem Forever.
I hate when people insinuate that the beta was better than retail, It's not right now and never will be, The closest we are to beta being better/equal than retail is Dark Interval.
@@tlpa except for the vortigaunt voice acting...
I really hope this turns into a series, it's really great
Daily uploads and beta stuff? Perfect!
I’m joking mostly, but seriously, the beta citadels have always been really cool to me, so it’s great to see a video on them!
2:06 Ah, yes, the Shitadel.
Or Crabtadel
A list of the versions here present and their timestamps:
1. 0:32 - Dystopian Citadel. Present only in concept, no 3d model.
2. 1:40 - Rusty Citadel. First one to have a 3d model and be present in maps.
3. 2:55 - The one with shapes attached. Used between 2001 and 2002, actually has two shapes one tapering and another thicker.
4. 3:40 - Shiny citadel. Used in E3 2002.
5. 3:58 - Hole Citadel. Present between 2002 and 2003, very similar to the retail one but with an even bigger hole in the middle.
6. 4:23 - Clamped Citadel. Looks like a castle, used in map proto_docks.vmf.
7. 4:46 - Retail version.
Personally, I'd have to say the clamped citadel is my favorite, actually looks a citadel, also looks the most robust to attacks.
Citadel 3 is my favourite
anyone give a link to a vmf with the 2001-2002 citadel or shiny citadel? its for a beta map
Citadel 1 is my favourite.
There's a lot of aspects from the Beta I wish were kept but I can't say that I feel the same about the Citadel. The one we got is great.
As usual a interesting video but to be honest: I'm glad that they changed the design of the Citadel and the general aesthetics of the game after the Leak. In my personal opinion, the Beta had a very generic "LOOK THE WORLD IS LIKE 1984 AND BAD ALIENS HAVE CONQUERED THE WORLD" while the Retail Version is much more subtle about this.
The 2001 citadel was the one that deviated the most from that concepto though, I think. But overall I agree.
you summarized the entire beta in a nutshell lol
This is a common myth, the design of the Citadel and the general aesthetic of the game was already changed before the leak
When the leak happened,those things,concepts etc, were already scrapped...
100%. Beta was really generic, overly dark & oppressive, and looked like it would have been just a miserable setting for a game, not at all fitting in with HL1 (or Portal). The HL2 we got is vastly superior, subtle & realistic in it's depiction of Combine occupation, grounded in the everyday normality like HL1. Glad they eventually went back to a game that feels perfectly half life, rather than mimicking generic brown fps games that were all too common in that era & beyond.
my favorite is the greenish-looking ominous metallic one with spotlights on the top! (the concept art one.)
As far as the citadel being alive, I recall Barney refers to it as an entity unto itself at least once or twice (the only one I can remember clearly is near the beginning of the game when he says it's acting weird and he's never seen it stirred up like that before).
"Hey Gordon! The Citadel's on full alert, I've never seen it lit up like that before! Get out of City 17 as fast as you can Gordon." Probably what you recall, just after the teleport misadventure in Kleiner's lab.
"The Citadel is Alive" source is something Mark Laidlaw said back in 2000 at the same panel where the "Get Your Free Tvs" map was revealed. This source state "I wanted Half-Life 2 to feel different from what I did withthe story of Half-Life 1. I wanted the Citadel to be more Alien and more Alive." -Mark Laidlaw. There was also a saying by a few employees at Valve that said "The Citadel was a living creature" or "The Citadel has something moving inside it".
Laidlaw's quote seems more metaphorical, as in he wanted the citadel to feel like a believable, dynamic place.
Others have mentioned the citadel’s veins but I would also like to point out how the announcement system seemingly gets “sick” in episode one. I imagine that the citadel is a horrific abomination of flesh and machinery like almost every other combine synth
Edit: also the 2002 citadel looks like a vape pen
I love the color at 3:00 dark blue sky, yellowish light in opposition ! it looks very non-Earth atmospheric, they did a great job to vary those citadels looks until last version
Dark Interval goes all into that aesthetic :v
The notion of the Citadel being alive are the big yellow tubes that run throughout it. If you look closely at them, it looks like they have veins running around on them. As such, the implication is that they're of a somewhat biological nature.
Great video! My two favorite Beta Citadels are the one you mentioned as your favorite and the shinier more alien one. But they all have their pros and cons -- I had never seen that castle-like one, whoa! Someone should make a self-contained level set there and instead of being the Citadel, it could just be another Combine facility.
I've been creating a sort of "HL2: Extended" playthrough idea which essentially takes base retail HL2 and, well, extends or expands it with various Beta or other elements; not a mod, just a playthrough where I'd play retail HL2, then occasionally switch off to other things. For example, Lost Coast will take place sometime during or between the coastal maps H17-Sandtraps. Lost Coast itself will utilize both a cut extended opening with additional Fisherman lines, plus the prettier official release. From there, that leads into the Mission Improbable mod which leads into the Lost Industry 2 mod and then back to retail HL2 to finish off the journey toward Nova Prospekt.
But with this pseudo-project, I'm also utilizing all the various Beta-styled mods like Dark Interval or Raising the Bar Redux -- at least the stuff that doesn't outright conflict with retail HL2. So that means there older version of the teleport incident at Kleiners' WON'T be used... but the various levels exploring the grittier more ominous City 17 WILL be used since that's easier for me to justify as being simply different sections or districts -- the children making Cremators will be the last generation of humans essentially since retail has the Suppression Field.
As a result though, there are several different depictions of the Citadel which obviously does conflict. My solution? The Citadel already has moving sections even in Retail so my idea is that for any mysterious reason, sections will shift and spin and rise or lower... thus explaining the various different looks of the Citadel when switching off between Retail, RTBR, DI, and other mods haha
Hey Man, I Really Appreciate You Pumping Out 2-3 Videos a Week, I Remember Back Around Early To Mid 2021 When I First Found Your Channel, You Used Upload Like 1-2 Videos a Month, Even If The Videos Are Short, I Still Appreciate The Effort That You put In.
I appreciate that, thanks!
@@RadiationHazardYT No Problem
Man it's so interesting seeing the evolution since that first 2001 design. I can't believe the Citadel used to be dark and shitty.
Lol this rhymes with Dark and gritty
@@NoVIcE_Source ikr!!!
@@NoVIcE_Source *hits the gritty*
I love your almost daily content in the morning, great video!!
Thank you :)
el profesis en un video del radhaz nunca visto
alv el prop en un video del rad
Even 18 years later we are still having a lot of theories and speculations in the half life fandom, i really love these videos a lot, and it makes me sad how dedicated the community is yet valve just ignores the fandom
I believe the citadel claims are from a Reddit post theorizing how the citadel could be alive, with its strange movements (the “ribs” that move slightly when it opens itself up.) and the weird veins on its inner tubes.
The Citadel may be "alive" in the same way a skyscraper is like a living organism because people working inside are like our body cells, each with a different role depending on the area they're working in.
I cant stop thinking, what if in another world. Half Life 2 got completed, including every concept art in the game. I would really love it.
At that point, it would be open world
I've never seen the E3 one before in my life, and hell it's amazing. It could've fit into retail, as it showed off the alien aesthetic and the big combine symbol on top to remind the people that the combine are there, and can be seen everywhere they look.
I love how cool it looks, how polished and sleek it looks.
The “proto_docks” Citadel Looks So Interesting And Also, Very Unusual. I Wish That We Had More Info About This Version, And Also, How The Story Would Go If We Had a Fort-like Citadel!
I like the "retail" version most, of course. What I particularly like is the architecture within the Citadel, which you explore at the end of HL2 and for a big bulk of HL2E1, it has a really futuristic, alien and oppressive feeling to it.
I personally like the cylinder one that you also like most.
And i'm glad you went over the Citadel evolutions, some of these I wasn't even aware of!
4:31 This one is the scariest one imo, i like to think that we are at "The Coast" (Retail HL2) and even from there you can see that gigantic structure
I believe the misconception of the Citadel being alive comes from a snippet in Raising the Bar that sort of got out of control, From the book, page 190:
*Combine Technology*
'Early visions of the Combine wall had it devouring the City over the course of the game, an ominous metal monster that constantly reconfigured itself as it advanced.'
While I'm not 100% sure if this is the reason why it's viewed this way, it's certainly a guess on how it grew it's own legs and became 'Living Citadel!!!'.
i find the E3 Citadel Very Cool looking, and it probably would have looked different in the inside but i am very thankful for the change, it looks cool! but not scary like the retail citadel which makes a big differents for the tune, if we got the E3 citadel for retail i think we would have lost that feeling of that blue metal tower that seems to go on forever in the sky
1:42 2001 citadel look like the ones from the combine overworld from the end of the game
I think my favorite of the bunch is going to be the alien-looking design, its shiny surface makes it truly feel otherwordly and somehow, alive, and so unlike the rest of the designs, especially the earliest ones where the "combine" (different factions at the time) used to recycle materials a lot more than using their own.
Had that been altered slightly to fit the final product, I could definitely see it in retail, and the retail interior would just fit it, too.
the clamped Citadel would actually be more scary If more height it was added to it then that would be my favorite citadel.
I don't know if the theory that the Citadel is alive predates Half Life: Alyx but the reason I'd make that assumption is [mild spoilers for HL:A] when you hack the combine consoles it's revealed that the "computing" is done on brain like, small cylinders made of assorted biomass. Implying under all that sleek metal is something that could be considered living.
the oldest concept art Citadel definitely was going for a H.R. Geiger look with the outwardly organic design and veiny walls
some of those ideas still survived in the final cut with the veiny tubes inside the HL2 Citadel and HL:A's depiction of Antlions and the new Xen Memory Worms
To be honest I like the retail version the most. It’s less stylised, and looks the most utilitarian. It isn’t trying to be scary or imposing, it is meant to do it’s job efficiently and its efficiency makes it terrifying in its own right.
The combine doesn’t care about you or your feelings so it doesn’t bother to make it scary.
My hot take is that i prefer the retail design over all the beta ones.
i really like the E3 one i think the way it looks is good not to mention the combine logo at the top of the citadel always being in view when you look at it is cool as well
radhaz is pumping out high quality half life videos like its nothing
3:42 my favorite version of the citadel, its just so menacing and alien
While I like the Citadel as it is now, I wonder what it is like if Valve follows the original concept and makes it an organic living being
Oh yes! I was always interested in the Citadel's structure, and how it looked back then. Thanks for the video!
The reason alot of people say the citadel is alive because (I think) there is some cut sounds that made people think its alive. A lot of noises make it sound alive or like its tryna speak ruclips.net/video/BAw1isoV8ic/видео.html
Take this with a pinch of salt, im not an expert
Imagine the 2002 citadel with postal and postal redux ambient sounds and the sounds from the level screens
The citadel in it self is not alive, it is an important organ to the combine system.
Ever since I became aware of the manga “Blame!” I’ve wondered if people on the HL2 team were inspired by it. It was published from 1997-2003, so it lines up…
Please never stop making videos. Even if it's you talking about real life architecture I'd still be interested 🙏
There is something so grand and horrifically somber about Half life 2’s concept art. It’s a peek into a world and art style that will never be expanded upon aside from one off peices inspired by the concept art.
Concept Art half life won’t be expanded upon in the future, but maybe someday we’ll get a peice of media that could capture the grim majesty that the artwork conveyed
another banger of a video from Radiation Hazard, love your content
The retail one feels like it's an alien machine stabbed into the Earth for utilitarian purposes. The cylindrical design looks cool and despotic but it feels too grounded and human; it has these curves and juts that are aesthetically pleasing but don't look otherwordly like the retail Citadel.
my personal take on the tubes and stuff is that it gives nutrients and life support to the advisors that are still in their maggot phase
such a good edited and the music just so good keep up the good work like a true citezn
I like the retail version the best, but what I'd like even more is a version up to the standards of HLA. The one in HLA looks incredible, but is under construction. Imagine what it would look like when finished. It also looks much bigger, but maybe that's just because you're closer to it in HLA.
Also my favorite one was the castle like one,gives off a steampunk vibe
People talking about the citadel being alive is probably because of its weird expansion in half life 2 i remember something like that that the walls come a bit forward
I don't know why but the castle citadel gave me such a bad feeling. Most of them are impossible towers, but that one really straddles the line of probability
Some dude disagreed, but i see the citadel as a character just like the advisors.
symbolically, of course.
I have no source for this, but the Citadel being alive just makes sense to me. Everything done is for the Citadel, and the combination of species all sustain the Citadel. You don't see the Master in all of this. Just structures.
If the Shu'ulothoi are the "master race" of the combine, but aren't in charge, and have "lost their limbs" to technology, (Breengrub), then the Combine can be considered a political divide amongst the Shu'ulothoi.
If the theory that the G-man is a hatched Shu'ulothoi is true and working against the Combine, then it demonstrates that the Combine Advisors we see are the other side of the political divide.
Just an interesting idea is all.
Omg, you explained it very simply! It's really easy to understand. Thank you so much! I've always wanted to learn these.
it is, because it has stalkers,those combine conquered aliens,everything.
Damn, the concept art looks so much better than what we got.
You're pumping out the hits lately
E3 version was the best at its time but still love the retail, hard to choose which one's the best
All the versions from the beta are drafts, and perhaps they fit better into the version of the draft plot and lore for which they were designed, but I like the final version best of all. It looks like a strange alien structure with strange architecture and geometry. All the others also look strange, but like buildings that were erected by man, and not by alien intelligence. For a long time, many believed that the Citadel was instantly teleported to the place where it is located. But HL Alyx refuted this theory.
I think people say beta citadel is alive because of the sound files you can hear voices
The citadel being alive has got to be one of the dumbest theories in the half life universe
Great, thank you, this goes to my future beta lore book.
people say it was going to be alive probably because of the shiny green thing at the top of that concept art citadel with the spotlights.
Even it did blow up in Episode 1.
I love how the more alien looking one looks like a giant vape.
Ngl the rusty citadel looks like a dog squatting down to drop a brown stick.
The citadel have veins in it, that's why many people saying citadel is alive. Obviously, the source is: the game.
I prefer the fact that they made it less obviously "Dark and Gritty" because it is more eerie when the Combine is not obviously evil and are seemingly letting the humans die humanly (at the beginning). And the horror is more subtle rather then just immediatly you know that you are in a distopian and super evil world... I also just prefer more subtle storytelling.
"E3 2002 Citadel looks like a vape" -Vinny Vinesauce
I think people think that the cididell is alive cuz it looks like it has veins
proto_combine_underground5 also uses the clamp design but you can only see it faintly
0:01 Music?
ruclips.net/video/NfQqSdmL6yc/видео.html&si=Cn2b1DXi4M6nh3At
The citadel is alive in so many ways, Just not a ways we'd fully understand.
Sorry for being too late, but what music do you use in this video, Radhaz? Also thanks for the great video!
Something cool is to imagine if the citadel was a common consciousness And all of the organic tech has their conscience inside the citadel and they ar stuck there that's cool if you think about it for example hl2 beta citadel sounds imagine trans_6 comming out of a console
I need to port the citadel to Goldsrc some day
Early concept arts citadel's look sick
Perfect first video on my new phone
I really like the 2002 citadel. It looks extremely ominous
After seeing the concept art for the Citadel I now really wish we had the Half-Life 2 beta instead of what we got.
It went from a stick to a Playstation
will you be making entropy zero 2 review? I played it and felt it's an ok mod
I will cover it soon-ish.
You should mention the evolution of the citadel in half life alyx
I wanted to but I dont own the game or a VR set.
@@RadiationHazardYT use a screenshot or video, all you really need is a screenshot of the board alyx created for the evolution of the citadel
I think the Alyx one is the best. And they even upped the scale in that game.
The Citadel always give me goosebumps
To me the citadel is more of an organ than a creature. The combine treats the entire planet and humanity as a single organism. The citadel is a transplanted organ into it to make sure it works "Correctly".
1:11 "My source is I MADE IT THE FUCK UP" probably
considerating that almost all other combine technology involves or is built off of organic life, i wouldnt put it past the combine to create buildings and networks or power using organic and metallic parts mixed
I have a theory
The citadel is a big giant rocket and theres millions of differents citadels
First Citadel was Jovian, then Minmatar and in the end it turned Caldari.
Great video, as always!