You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here The cutting room floor at Valve is filled with enough scrapped ideas to drown in. Decades after its release, players are still finding new secrets in early builds of Half-Life 2 and other Valve games.  As it turns out, one early build of Half-Life 2 connected the iconic opening of City 17 to the final battle at the Citadel. Found in an early 2003 beta of the iconic FPS game, players would’ve spent far more time in the City 17 sewers as they connected to the Citadel.  Half-Life 2’s massive cut sewers Explored by YouTuber CMDR RileySV, the 2003 build of Valve’s masterpiece focused a lot on the City 17 waterways you can still see in the original game. While these waterways are inaccessible in the released build, earlier versions of the game would have spent considerable time here. Via PCG, the unfinished map designated “streetwars/proto_c17map” was an alternate version of what we eventually see in Anticitizen One. This early map features dense waterways that connect with the City 17 river. However, it also leads directly to the Citadel where you finally confront Breen. In the early build, you would go through a deep underground sewer and fight a massive Hydra instead of the released version’s short trip through a factory. It certainly sounds very intense, but perhaps it pulled away from the game’s pacing. This isn’t the only use of the underground waterways in this early build. In fact, the Uprising chapter would originally shove players back into the sewers with the Scout Car in a high-speed set-piece that would end with an awesome shot of the Citadel that still sends chills down the spine even in its very unfinished state.  It’s always interesting to see more of what Half-Life 2 used to be before its finished release. While the finished version of the game is almost-perfect, earlier builds feel like seeing a sketch of the Mona Lisa instead of Da Vinci’s final work.  For more Half-Life 2 coverage, read our thoughts on Half-Life 2 RTX, the upcoming power-hungry remaster of Valve’s iconic FPS game. Half-Life 2 Platform(s): Android, Linux, macOS, PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360 Genre(s): Action, Shooter 10 VideoGamer Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share