@Skyrionn Before I played it I had been with my oldest´son (then 3 now 22) at the Anatomical theatre the same day as I enterned Ravenholm and I had severe nightmares after playing that part och HL2 that night. The horror that they were inflicted upon me is beyond any horror movie I´ve ever seen. HL 1 and HL 2 is of course up to this day my absolute favorite game of all times and will not ever be matched. Even if we introduce force feedback suits and distance tracks as shown in Ready Player One. Think that the Smartphone market will explode as it done in China and soon the west in the next decade to come and apps like Voice AI will trigger our laughts and question our reality. Since reality with Covid and risk of Nuclear holocoust is some of our threats in our reality, than a alternative reality seems to be fine. A reality to escape for humans that there only income is OF and Insta which makes them turn on each other cause there are not any pronounce left in the universe for them to untake in their thirst to try to be unique and special. ;). To finilize I must say that the PC market and its games will be batteled with consoles which taking market shares but I still thinks that PC's will outmatch the console market since there are games that requires more than any console can match. Last of us (or US) depending how you see it is a very good lore and getting close. Another console game that got my attention were Assassin Creed brotherhood. But thats just me getting old...
Half Life was definitely one of the first games that had NPCs to help you out in a FPS. Yeah Halo did it but Half Life 1 did it 3 years before. It felt more personable when the NPCs help you in real time and not in a cut scene.
When I played ravenholm the first time when I was like 12 I was terrified. Around midnight some hooligan kids threw an egg at my house and it landed on our roof. This happened to coincide with the part of the level with those screaming jumping zombies that leap around on the roofs. I was shook.
I was like 4 - 5 when this game dropped. This game was a blast and I remember loving it until this part. The second I saw those legs hanging from the tree and the buzzsaws on the walls, my little child brain knew things were going to get dark, still gives me creeps playing the chapter to this day
Funny you mention Grigori making you feel safe. I had the same reaction. that town was CREEPY. You feel vulnerable the whole time. When grigori would show up it was like a weird wave of safety and companionship... even though he was kinda crazy
I can highly recommend you the book I Am Legend. It's not connected to half life, but the setting and vibe are almost identical. I can safely say whoever came up with the final concept for Ravenholm was heavily inspired by the book and for good reason. Also the book is way better than the movie.
@DriftZ TwoSeven do you even know what simping means im literally just defending the game so your edgy ass doesn't cut yourself over losing a game of Splatoon 3
I think Half-Life 2 IS a horror game, not an outwardly, jump-out-of-your-seat horror like Dead Space per se. The horror in Half-Life is subtle in its worldbuilding, and the more you think about them, the more terrifying they get: the Stalkers' and Combine soldiers' body horror, the uneasy creeping loneliness while traversing the coast, the horrific fates of Ravenholm's inhabitants, and above all - the overpowering, almost unknowable cosmic horror of the Gman and his "Employers".
Father grigiori might be insane. But he still has a heart. He sacrificed his sanity and possibly putting himself in the face of death to free his former friends. Including Gordon freeman when he came
I'm guessing he had to flee into black Mesa east when the explosions of nova prospect and then city 17 citadel begun destruction of area. He must have sought cover before the detonation occurred. He must have survived the blast due to the sentry being disabled and the door damaged to be operable. He must have survived the nuclear blast to be a full blown survival within the facility after nuclear destruction. Ravenholm destruction was within both blast radius. He happen to realize his survival improved with bunker.
Did you know the reason why Ravenholm is so creepy? It's because it was pulled straight out of the beta, which had a much darker, sinister tone compared to the retail version
I don't know why I find it so interesting. Maybe because it's so fleshed out an unique. The whole thing where combine refers to itself as a singular unit and uses surgical terms to describe things, the overwatch and the dialog there that you'd only know if you played hundreds of times or listened to them manually, the whole genetic altering of the best of a planet's species to conscript them into their army, and their technology which was expanded upon a ton in alyx due to the super high quality models and assets. I just don't understand how there hasnt been more interest in a movie. Portal is awesome in its own way, but they're in the same universe, there's no reason you couldn't do a movie that includes both.
Ravenholm definitely made an impact on me seeing it first time... I remember I was at my uncles' house long time ago when one of them played HL2, he reached Ravenholm and I was like "nope" from the get-go. I myself played HL2 two years ago and let me tell ya... Even at age 24 I was terrified from this place. I tried to rush as much as I could and leave Ravenholm the fastest as I could. Usually I would look for a bit of lore but decided to skip Ravenholm's lore because it was kinda scary for me to stay there. Fast zombies still the scariest zombie for me in the HL universe... They don't make a lot of damage and don't got too much health but the fact they can leap between roofs and climb walls is utterly scary. Ravenholm is definitely a unique place in the HL/Portal universe combined and I do wish Return to Ravenholm will be fully made one way or another. Maybe Crowbar Collective would be up for the challenge? Everything about the chapter of Ravenholm was pure horror game material... From the eerie music you hear when you first enter and then leave Ravenholm, to the zombie sounds being heard from a distance and even the traps Grigori made himself around the town. That horror feeling of Half Life was there from the first game but HL2 definitely kicked it up a notch. Also there was a debate I remember wether Ravenholm survived the explosion of the Citadel or not... If we calculate the amount of time Gordon took to reach to Ravenholm (arriving there by midnight most likely), we could assume that Black Mesa East and Ravenholm would still be intact if we regard the invasion Black Mesa East was suffering from before Gordon escaped there. Therefore its completely possible to make another chapter about Ravenholm, and I hope we will get to see it!
I would love to see a Ravenholm remaster of some sort. I have seen something about where someone is attempting to port Ravenholm to VR. It'd make the whole experience even scarier!
@@Skyrionn I just got to it in VR on my first playthrough and I am currently so scared. Its defianly as scary as Jeff, and it is more tense because you're on a ammo crunch.
God i love Ravenholm. You can feel the death and loneliness there, no alive creatures besides zombies, headcrabs and the insane priest that laughs maniacly. I hope that if half life 3 will actually come out someday, they will do something with Grigori and Ravenholm. Like, turning Ravenholm into a destroyed city with the maniac of the place still being alive but injured by the explosion of the citadelle. That would've been great
I think there's lots of us who still remember Ravenholm as a terrifying experience, especially from our first playthrough. I've never liked playing horror games (jumpscares are too much of me, haha), but Half life 2 was so, so goddamn good that I just had to power through and at the end of the day, the gratification and relief I felt after escaping it was palpable. 10/10, will play again. Thanks for making these btw, it's super obvious how much love and work you pour into your videos, I really hope your channel keeps on growing, despite the fickle yt algorithm.
Half life 2 has a special place in my heart, and so does it's Ravenholm part. When I first saw the entrance surrounded by wooden huts, I got an eerie feeling, but also a heart warming one, seeing old wooden houses under the dark blue night sky. And what happened next was an unique experience within this game. Having a break from the combine and facing my fear of headcrabs, together with this cool ghost town immersion, this will never be forgotten
This would make for an amazing prequel game...seeing the town normally beforehand, then just having it fall apart around you and descend into madness as you try to escape
Great video! When I was getting the ravenholm gravity gun achievement I really appreciated the abundance of radiators that I could throw at Zombies scattered throughout ravenholm. I was scared, but I countered my fear by carrying radiators around an calling them "the most powerful weapon in half life"
I do pretty good when going for that achievement, up until the water tower area when you have to wait for the elevator while the fast zombies come after you
13:49 "Their pleas would come out backwards" Help = Pleh Imagine a zombie moan screaming "pleh" to you, would by scary, unnerving and a tad bit confusing/funny
First, Ravenholm was a town with lots of crime, now its a town where everyone wants to give you a hug, and pets that want to spread your brain with love affection. All followed by Ravenholms mayor, father gregori.
I lived in the mountains in the middle of nowhere back when my mom randomly brought home HL2, I remember I got to Ravenholm at night while my family was away and there wasn't a person around for miles, It was always a relief when Father Gregori would appear to help, half the time while you're being mobbed by fast zombies...then suddenly you hear the crack of his Annabelle firing overhead.
Few people know that Father Grigor is an Orthodox priest, mainly in Eastern Europe. Every hour on your clips, they are great for you, I would like you to do the same with the Portal game, there are a lot of interesting things and people in the game.
I was shidding my pants so hard back then when I first played this level. Easily one of the most iconic levels in video game history. Big love to Skyrionn for these awesome videos.
Here are some more information about Beta/Leak Ravenholm G-Man was going to be glimpsed in ravenholm atleast Two times, spotting him on the first map and the second Father Grigori interestingly had an Russian Accent If you play Leaked version of HL2 or with Megabuild patches, The map e3_traptown has an soundscape involving with warehouse. When you enter the house you will hear what seem to be a disorted music playing, That's not all If you play this sound tone_warehouse in forward with audacity, It's actually just a guitar strings played
I'd say it was pretty unlikely Ravenholm was destroyed by the Citadel explosion, just based on the distance to City 17. The blast radius only barely reached the outlands in Episode 2 where it demolished the train Alyx and Gordon were on. However, not much more damage to the surrounding area could be seen past that. The ruins of the city and the Citadel itself were still clearly visible at this range. Meanwhile, at the location of Black Mesa East and Ravenholm, the city was just tiny specks in the distance, with the only distinguishable trait being the Citadel, but so, so much smaller than even its ruins in Ep2.
You did like allways an excelent work! The amount of information in this lore video is huge, also well presented, it is also the perfect "know what Ravenholm is" video for the younger gamers. And i like that the viewers can recognise you, not only like a person on camera but also your personal style using the game footage the way you choose - a personal touch that adds quality in your work. Ravenholm has a huge surprise as Half-Life 2 came out, Valve did a great work on that with my feeling that Nintendo started a trend with adding ghost houses for the first time in Super Mario World.. For me it was the good idea! It did worked for me like the same great idea. To be honest it is a "game changer" idea, if you look at Resident Evil 7 & 8 / Village as games are like bigger Ravenholm places (even if Resident Evil 7 is only a big family farm). I can still remember being very surprised by the graphic & gameplay of Half-Life 2 for the first time. The first time on Ravenholm was sure a "wow for the love of god.. where the heck am i here???" and also a huge inspiration to create a music single based on that feeling called "R4v3nh0lm". A dark techno track, you can hear if you like distrokid.com/hyperfollow/djkir/r4v3nh0lm Greetings & wish you the best!
I actually kinda liked it... I mean... Not in the eyes of a 12 year old first time playing this part ofc lol. But it definitely adds to the lore and its probably the most interesting yet scary location you get in this universe. It definitely felt different seeing someone who isn't an active part of the resistance, nor a civillian in City 17... Father Grigori was caught in a limbo inside Ravenholm and he was destined to live there forever. But only because he chooses not to leave it... Damn, I really wish Return to Ravenholm would be a thing.
@Hardware John Honestly, I completed HL2 around 2 years ago when I was 23 years old, and I gotta say I STILL a bit scared of that place lol. I got jumpscared so much by zombies and fast zombies... I decided to book it all the way I was in there till I reached the mine shafts.
Ravenholm was one of the scariest game levels ive played. It may not be an outright horror game but there were so many places like that that are definitely horrifying. My favorite part about that level is carrying around a big saw blade to cut everything down in an instant. So satisfying.
I remember being ultra high and playing half-life 2. For some reason i decided to torture myself; "today's the day i go for the achievement where you only use the geavity gun to get through Ravenholm!"............. So the whole thing was immensely terrifying to begin with. Cue scene: fast zombies attack you on small rooftop while player waits for grigori to send the damn lift over. The most scared i have ever been was trying to dance around that little frigging rooftop avoiding being gangslashed to death by a pack of screaming emaciated crabheads. It was all luck, but i got the achievement when I long-jumped into the lift and got me an amazing memory
For myself, one of the parts that sticks with me the most is Alyx's comments before Gordon enters, along with the look of distress on her face. It just sells the foreboding presence of Ravenholm perfectly.
I just discovered your channel a couple of days ago, and I can't stop watching your Half-Life videos. They're fantastic, and now I'm craving picking up one of the games again.
I love your HL lore vids. I love horror but Ravenholm gave me nightmares. I remember being so stressed while playing that section, and no matter how many times I play it I still get those same feelings. You are right. Ravenholm is a masterpiece.
As a mechanic, the way the engines(for the traps) work in this game is making my eye twitch. Running on air alone, no fuel. Running directly from an alternator(if one is even fitted, then MAGIC), 100% completely balanced. I know it's a game. I'm just messing about.
Honestly, it is good to point things like this out. Even in a game, things should make somewhat sense. Only excuse I would accept here are engine limitation..
I love these lore videos and the way you've acted out these moments. It's great being able to picture Ravenholm when it was thriving. I don't know if any of the Grigori stuff is confirmed, but my read on him was always that he wasn't actually a priest - he says people called him crazy and that he once had "too much time on his hands". I always thought maybe he was ironically something like a town drunk who somehow survived, but held onto religion to stay sane and find a mission for himself (to put the people he used to know and love out of their misery). Anyway great videos!
Just found your channel on some half life videos. Incredibly good stuff. I really really really appreciate your work. I'm excited to see what other lores you do.
I would play a game set in ravenholm playing as father gregory and the whole game is you trying to save their souls doing the same things that he'd done such as scavenging to set up traps, barricades etc and could even have some bosses and have that be the reason for certain traps such as the car drop
“Once a secret testament to mankind’s defiance of the Combine: this empty, bloodied derelict now housed only distant shrieks & echoes, shades praying for a rest that would never come”.
I guess they panicked and thought that if the headcrabs got into Black Mesa East, then they would also be at risk of collapse? We can only theorize I guess!
@@Skyrionn It seems likely that the resistance did what they could to save as many people as possible once it became clear that there is no chance to hold the town and only stoped once it makes no sense to try to safe anymore. Anything else would make the Resistance loathed just as much as the Combine. As for Father Grigori, I doubt he was abandoned. I bet he get as many people to safety as he could and once he was asked to leave the town for good, he refused and possibly even requested that the tunnels should be sealed behind him, so he can "save" those who hadn't made it.
somehow playing this chapter actually made me LESS fearful in general because i was already scared of anything that jumped at me. i was getting scared again and again and eventually i just went "fuck this fear, shoot anything that moves and it'll be fine"
I feel like ravenholm was doomed from the start because peoples activities are visible out in the open. With black mesa east, nobody is directly outside, and so it looks abandoned. I feel like if i were left in pre attack ravenholm i wouldve never felt safe
i have been trying to make a full complete version of Return to Ravenholm with a group of friends for nearly 3 years now. thing is, we mentioned this to Valve, asking if that was ok, and they said "we will talk with our Legal Team, and contact you once a conclusion has been made." but the thing is, that was nearly 2 years ago now. the game is nearly done, and we even got help from Arkane Studios with it, including the Voice Actors! we planned on releaseing it as a Free Singleplayer and Co-op side game to Half-Life 2, requiring you to own Half-Life 2 to even ply it, which would give Valve new sales to some degree. we have yet to hear anything from Valve, but we hope they will allow us to do this. hell, even Arkane Studios were impressed with our work and dedication! let's all pray that we get this greenlit and released before the end of 2023...
@@Skyrionn i really hope so too! it has been a Side Project that me and my friends have put in several months of our time to work on! i can describe one of the Features which are kinda unique! if you choose to play the Co-op version of the story, it is VERY different from the normal SinglePlayer one, as the other player is in Gregori's Shoes. you, as the main player in co-op, will be playing as Adrian Shepard, or rather, Adrian's Older Brother, Adam Shepard, who has been looking for his Brother Adrian for years since the Black Mesa Incident. (we did this story change to leave open a possible return of Adrian to make more sense in the future, if it happens.) every sequence where Grigori and Adam are in the same area, you, the main Player and Host of the Co-op game, will see Gregori from your perspective doing one thing, and the co-op player will see you from Gregori's Perspective, which is really cool! at one point, Gregori has tasked Adam with gathering ingredients for a "Special Stew" which in reality is a much more potent Headcrab Extract, and the Main Player will do this, just like in the Singleplayer Campaign. BUT, the other player who is playing as Grigori, will in turn do a completely different set if tasks, which all lead into the common plotline where the characters diverge together again. i hope to get some footage out of it soon, but i am legally not allowed to yet, due to Valve not giving us the go-ahead just yet.
One Man s Worth is the Gman s game . Gordon is a survivor , Alyx is a fighter , Adrian was the good soldier , Kleiner is a genius , Magnason is a lunatic , Barney is a Security Guard . However , Why was Eli Vance so important to The G Man , that was worth saving at least twice ? What skill does he posses ? Magnason and Kleiner would have cracked the code to teleportation on their own right
Maybe they couldn't? Maybe he's the Einstein of his generation. There were a lot of really bright minds around in Einstein's life, but none of them thought of the theory of relativity - he did.
Eli was the head of the resistance, he was the mastermind behind the plans pretty much. Also, don't forget in HL1 the Gman reached to Eli before the Resonance Casscade... Gman had quite interest in him and probably knew how important he would be to the remaining human life on earth. I think theres a reason Breen captured Eli and Alyx and not Kleiner and Barney... Even if he didn't knew the location of the base inside City 17... They weren't much as leaders like Eli was. Kleiner gave hell of a speech during the revolution of City 17 after Gordon and Alyx successfully destroyed Nova Prospekt, but I don't think Kleiner was still the leader they were all looking for. Eli was more than just a scientist, Gman knew that and he supervised him as much as he could.
I have done a sizable amount of beta content consumption. in concerns to the dead child, the model was to be the same as the lively ones, and would have indeed been placed underneath a bed. it was less of a scene and more just a ragdoll placed there for people to potentially find. supposedly they would be dead with a med-kit as the reward for finding them, which could imply the kid died due to a lack of understanding or unwillingness to operate on one self, or it was just game-design rewarding content absorption. I don't remember there being blood decals accompanying the kid, nor other bodies in the room, but there was a mattress on the bed-frame
I love all these maps of pre combine locations, it really shows the difference in their domain to me, plus it's just great to see all these familiar places in a new light
@@Skyrionn absolutely I do. I really want to see a half life game about the actual 7 hour war, like black Mesa period of time but just in other parts of the world
It was named trap town because father Grigori is Half Life's #1 waifu and a world class trap. This romance mechanic was unfortunately removed do to conflict with the Alix romance... :(
I remember being 8 and Playing Half Life 2 for the first time and being so terrified of Ravenholm that I couldn't continue and waited years to play it again.
I remember playing this in my single digits. While I wouldn't say it 'scared' me, it definitely had a most unwelcoming and unnerving atmosphere. Grigori's appearances were like an oaisis in a desert of tortured, moaning people that were trying to kill me; I always felt bad for these zombies. I also had a game guide book with me. One of the foes that I was expecting to be an absolute horror show was the Poison Zombie and its 175 hit points. Its in-game appearance wasn't as terrifying as I expected or even much of a challenge to face, but the sheer horror of such a creature disturbs and fascinates me to this day. Overall, this was my favorite level in the game.
I was very sad. It felt like a place that was alive but no more. Then the priest shows up and from time to time he addresses the zombies as people. It reinforces the idea that these things were victims. The whole town. Every zombie you (mercy) kill was a man or a woman who had a life, but now is reduced to screaming for gods forgiveness and begging for death. What an awful fate. HL2 was a masterpiece, hands down.
23:16 That's infact the voice of an adult woman, the pitch is probably just raised a little, you can tell by the tone, it's definitely a woman's scream. But that still makes Ravenholm so scary, it's practically a ghost down with the odd moans from a posion zombie in the distance, the gusts of wind, the unexplainable sounds.
Father Grigori is the only guy that would soothe my fear of Ravenholm. After 20+ plus years, this place still gave me chills. Great game aged like fine wine.
Notice how this part of the game symbolically represents science (GF) and religion (FG) fighting alongside each other against the desolation of nihilism. This is in keeping with the philosophy of Freeman Dyson (who Gordon is named after). 22:24 Also, you can't use the crowbar. Right? It's been a long time since I did Ravenholm that way, and I've only done it once. 25:27 Why does he wear a Catholic collar if he's Eastern Orthodox? 26:24 Why doesn't he use his gloved hand to do that?
frankly seeing the town in that state and basically learning about what happened there made me hate the combine more so than I already had back then....still do now.
Arkane should have ignored the greater gaming landscape, there is always a place for zombies done well, I would love revisiting Ravenholme and seeing what became of Shepherd.
Ravenholm is the first thing I think of when I think of HL2, my first play through scared the crap out of me I believe while on the roof and the first howling fast moving zombie makes its appearance. Now I wanna play through again. Lol
Hot Take, I'm glad that Arkane game got cancelled. Grigori is injecting himself with headcrab DNA why? Though I had heard rumors as well that the zombies were not going to be the typical headcrab zombies, but that may have just been placeholders in the test gaming phase.
The whole "Opposing Force 2" thing is bs as well, it has nothing in common with Opposing Force at all and the lore of Return to Ravenholm is dodgy and seems like fanfiction at best. Definitely would not have been canon at all considering Ravenholm is a small old mining town and wouldn't have a whole large hospital in it.
Ravenholm really haves this fantastic dark zombie apocalypse feeling to it. First time I played it, it brought back fond memories of HL 1 mod “They Hunger”, which it feels quite inspired by. As a kid playing that was so unnerving and scary. I was literally sitting on the each of my chair! Didn’t help that I had just installed the Cambridge sound surround system 😏
Not that it matters you probably have stuff in the pipeline for videos but I a have a few suggestions. You could do lore of the gonarch and how it relates to the headcrab and also mention the trap that was never put into half life 2. You could also do a overview of the black mesa facility as a whole and talk about its facilities such as the lambda core, rocket site, anti mass spectrometer, and the testing in questionable ethics. Could be a cool vid to discuss the morals of half life 1. Also a vid comparing the competition between apature science and black mesa with all the cut corners and differences in technology. Also comparing the theme of half life 1 and half life 2. I don't expect these to be used but were just some possible thoughts for new content. Your videos are great and I love the format. Also a video on just the lambda complex would be cool using both black mesa and hl1 footage. Keep up the great work. Can't wait for the next video
Great stuff! 😀 Even the ad read. I always liked Ravenholm's creepy horror vibes. Wish we could've seen more of the resistance trying to clear it out and rescue people with or without the OpFor tie-in.
Thanks bud! I wanted to at least add a HL element to the ad read. I'd love a whole game set in Ravenholm where you're a part of the resistance as The Combine strike.
