Dark Interval.. I got to play this recently. Solid, wish it was longer, but very interesting. It's not terribly fun but I think that's because it's authentic to beta HL2 as it was before the major revisions that brought to the concept retail HL2 uses. It shows precisely *why* the developers chose not to go in this direction. It's long, meandering, a bit tedious, dark and depressing. The atmosphere is ceaselessly oppressive, and that's just not as fun.
There's definitely a unique charm to the constant sickening atmosphere though.
Mhm. Beta/DI City 17 has an interesting flavor to it. Oppressive and dystopian, yes, but also closer to Half-Life I feel, with a thoroughly industrial and otherworldly aspect to it. City 17's Combine architectural elements were more restrained and monochromatic, whereas this design sense is closer to the vivid colors of the 90's.
*retail City 17's Combine, I should say
I feel like this is a little dismissive of what they were aiming to do. "Feel bad" books and movies have their place, why not videogames as well? Something doesn't always have to be overtly "fun" to still have an impact. Pathologic comes to mind as a "feel bad" kind of game that still left an impact on the players that played it, whether good or bad.
I'm not dismissive of it. I'm simply saying that the beta City 17 is a very depressing, bleak and hopeless feeling, which doesn't suit the unlikely hero shooter concept. Also, gameplay wise, the segments where you gain weapons, lose them, and gain them again is tedious, so I see why it was cut from retail. They streamlined the City 17 intro so it went to Kleiner's lab, then the canals, instead of several chapters of huge city areas with no gameplay in them and slower player movement.
I disagree on the depressing and bleakness not working with the concept. If anything, I feel like it strengthens it. But even then, the game at this point was very different and I'm not even sure if comparing what HL2 is now is very fair to compare to what it was going to be at that time. Fair enough on the streamlining aspect though. Dark Interval is still missing pieces that they may not know exist so I'm not sure if those areas that currently have not much to them would have had more to (1/2)
...them or not had they been finished. It always feels weird to compare a finished game to a version of it that was work in progress. (2/2)