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 | Half-Life 2: Aftermath Info
 Valve Software
Self-published / Electronic Arts
Fall 2005
The latest on Aftermath has come via a number of interviews with Valve employees, Valve's showing at E3 2005 (in May, 2005) and a number of previews.
You can get the low-down on Aftermath here at HL Fallout as more information becomes available on the expansion to the award-winning Half-Life 2.
- News Updates - You can always find the latest Aftermath news in the HL2: Aftermath category of our news archive. You can also search the archive for Aftermath for a comprehensive news listing.
- Summary - read below on this overview page to get a quick summary of Valve's new game.
- Publisher & Retail - find out who's distributing Aftermath to a store near you.
- Screenshots - Check out the Aftermath gallery for all those important pre-release Aftermath glimpses and teasers. See also Gamespot's gallery" for some additional screens.
Summary
Aftermath is the first expansion episode to the critically acclaimed first person shooter Half-Life 2. Picking up the story from the cliff hanger ending of HL2, it promises to bring more edge-of-your-seat gameplay, improved Source engine graphics and gravity gun mayhem. Once again you don the famous HEV suit as Gordon Freeman for some crowbar wielding action in the next chapter in the Half-Life universe with promise of deeper teamwork and Alyx in a pivotal role.
Valve hope to get the expansion out to players before the end of 2005 with some tipping the release date to land as early as September.
PC Gamer were lucky enough to get the first exclusive article with Valve on Aftermath in May, 2005. It was revealed that this would be the first time Valve have created an expansion for the series in-house rather than contracting out to external companies such as Gearbox Software. In addition, Aftermath is also the first expansion where the gamer will play as Gordon Freeman.
The article also seemed to reveal that Aftermath was only to be released over Valve's Steam distribution system and not appear in the shops, to the dismay of some in the community. This has since been rebuffed by Doug Lombardi in recent interviews."Aftermath will be coming out at retail, but we're finalising our publishing partner."
—Doug Lombardi, 23rd of May 2005
You can now sleep easy at night: Alyx survives The Citadel explosion. |
The PC Gamer article and various interviews conducted with Valve staff have revealed some clues as to the fate of several characters from HL2 as well as to the plotline itself. To the delight of many, including the people who use garry's mod for mischievous means, Alyx survives the explosion of the fusion reactor core at the top of The Citadel. She returns in Aftermath to play a more prominent role beside Dr. Freeman, along with her trusted companion, Dog. Dr Kleiner also re-emerges to present some "informed opinions as well as some speculation" on the situation.
With the force field down, the Xen aliens are free to roam into the city to cause havoc. Note how Alyx and the Combine are forced to work together. |
But what of The Citadel, you ask? As shown in the screenshot to the right, it still remains towering high over City 17. However, with the critical damage you've done to it, it won't be standing for very much longer. You might think this a good thing, until you realize its collapse will result in the destruction and death of everything around it, including City 17 and its citizens.
As Gordon Freeman, Superman of the era (sans cape), you must lead the flight from the city, neutralising old and new enemies alike. Enemies are set to include such lethal foes as Antlion Guards unleashed by the release of the Combine's force field around the city and perhaps even the skeletal "Stalkers" (as seen in The Citadel)."[Aftermath] deals with the events and issues set in motion during Half-Life 2....you've done critical damage to The Citadel. The whole place is going to go up, taking out City 17 and what's in the immediate radius."
— Marc Laidlaw, May 2005
As an expansion pack, Aftermath is deliberately shorter in length -- taking approximately a third of the gaming time that HL2 did according to PC Action Deutschland.
While still playing as Gordon in Aftermath, Valve have suggested Alyx and teamwork will play a much larger role in the expansion after expressing regret at the lack of time spent interacting with allies in HL2. They've aimed to hit this apparent problem on the head by introducing brand new ways in which you can interact with characters and objects, as well as new abilities for these allies to assist Gordon in his mission.
Arguably the biggest addition to the graphical experience will be the introduction of support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) as an option in the graphics settings of Aftermath. The technology was showcased this year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in demonstrating Lost Coast: a new Half-Life 2 level based on HDR technology.
Players with the hardware requirements for HDR will be able to take advantage of this in Aftermath and play Lost Coast (Shown Above). |
In tech-speak, the technology enables the creation of a more realistic rendering of a virtual 3D area by allowing the use of colour values over the "Dynamic Range". Specifically, it allows the use of "whiter than white" or "blacker than black" rendering effects which allows for a high contrast scene while keeping details high. In Source, HDR allows advanced effects like realistic light blooms (as seen in the demonstration).
Valve have confirmed future Steam titles including Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2 : Aftermath will allow for the use of HDR in the graphical settings. All you need is a fantastically good rig -- latest generation video cards with 128MB+ video ram is required."Running Lost Coast, or any Source-based game Valve releases with support for HDR, will require at least a 2GHz processor, 1 to 2GB's of RAM (still being finalized), and the very latest GPU from Nvidia or ATI."
—Doug Lombardi, June 2005
Publisher & Retail
With Valve and Vivendi Universal ending their publishing relationship in April (following the conclusion of a 3 year legal dispute), who is left to publish and distribute Half-Life 2: Aftermath?
EA to distribute Aftermath |
Stepping up to the plate is large publisher and developer Electronic Arts who have announced the striking of a deal to distribute HL2 Xbox and HL2 Game of the Year Edition. While Aftermath was not specifically named in the announcement, it seems likely that EA will be handling distribution of the title with Valve retaining some level of "self-publishing".
This appears especially likely in the light of comments to Eurogamer in May that there would be an announcement on an Aftermath publisher "soon, in the summer". Despite the confusion, Valve have made clear that there will be a retail copy of the game on store shelves.
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