The Wasteland

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The Wasteland
General information
Location	Sector 17, Europe, Earth
Usage
Era(s)	Combine occupation
Game information
Map(s)	d1_canals_05 to d2_prison_08
Designer(s)	Viktor Antonov (appearance) (main area) David Sawyer (level design) (main area)

 

The Wasteland, also known as The Wild or The Scrapland, is the area outside of locations of civilization, such as City 17, with these collectively being the two main locations of Half-Life 2.

Overview

The Wasteland is a desolate, barren and hazardous region, infested with Xen wildlife such as Headcrabs, Barnacles and Leeches, as well as Antlions, although Earth creatures such as birds, frogs, rats and insects can still be found in most parts. It is littered with car wrecks, shipwrecks and submarine wrecks along the Coast, destroyed buildings and roads (such as Highway 17) and other scenes of desolation. The only infrastructure that is maintained is the railway, which is used by the Combine to link their outposts together and to transport Combine troops, Stalkers and Citizens via the Wasteland Train. Several Resistance outposts can also be found, mostly in the Canals and along the Coast.

Appearances

Half-Life 2

Although Gordon does not visit the Wasteland before leaving the City 17 parts of the Canals for their Wasteland part, the area can be first spotted during the teleportation failure caused by Lamarr in the second chapter, "A Red Letter Day". A sandy, desert landscape with a wrecked car, a headframe, rocks, and a crow (that Lamarr attacks) are seen during a few seconds, among the other places quickly visited before Gordon is freed by the teleport.

Locations

Ravenholm's church.

The main Wasteland locations are:

• The Canals from right after Station 6
  • Station 7
  • APC garage
  • Gate 5
  • Black Mesa East
• Ravenholm
• The Coast, including Nova Prospekt and the Depot

Half-Life 2 Episodes

Given the very lively flora seen in Episode Two, it seems that not all of Earth's surface is a wasteland, the Combine having likely not finished yet their conversion of Earth to their needs. Therefore the Outlands, although located in the outskirts of City 17 and having also its human settlements quite devastated, is not considered to be part of the Wasteland.

Behind the scenes

Concept art of the Wasteland around City 17, with wrecks and cracks in the floor.

• The several names for the Wasteland are actually never given in-game but are in Raising the Bar. Furthermore, a model folder featured in the game files is named "props_wasteland". It contains props found along the Coast or Nova Prospekt, among others.

• The area around City 17 has changed much since the first drafts of the storyline and was to be much more desolate than in the retail version, since the flora is still quite present in the game, three kinds of birds can be seen, insects and frogs can be heard in the Canals, and the train that brought Gordon to City 17 is mentioned to have stopped "in the woods" before reaching City 17. At one point, the Wasteland was to be a vast scrapland full of junked military machines. Another version was a completely dried seafloor, with the ocean draining away into a vast teleport "drain" and the seafloor full of beached ships and whale bones, recalling the real world Aral Sea (since the Aral Sea is set in Central Asia, near Eastern Europe, it is likely the developers drew inspiration from it). While the oceans are still abnormally low in the retail version, there is no in-game explanation for it. These old concepts survived in the Coast levels.

• It was also to be filled with a much more diverse range of Xen creatures, such as Bullsquids, Houndeyes, Gargantuas, other undefined alien fauna, and a Synth Scanner specific to the area, the Wasteland Scanner. The sea level was also to be even lower and Particle Storms were to be found in the area. A specific Citizen type was also to be met in that area, as suggested by the missing "Wasteland Citizen" model found in the Half-Life 2 leak.

Railway along the dried seafloor.

• Old concepts show that Gordon Freeman was originally to see the Wasteland for the first time when the train he was brought out of stasis on was carrying him to City 17. On the train he was to encounter Samuel, a Citizen telling him some bits of information about his life and giving him some hints about what is going on. He was also to give him a spare gas mask, as the air was not always breathable because of the Air Exchange activity. Another nearby train was also to be seen being attacked by a creature resembling the Gargantua, but the monster was to be destroyed by the heavy engine car's cow-catcher-like nose. Then the Wasteland Train was to proceed inside the city, first through the Old City, which was almost all ruined, and then New City, the Combine-converted city, surrounded by huge concrete walls protecting it from the Wasteland hazards (it does not seem to be present everywhere in the final version, although some sort of wall can be seen at the end of Episode One). Creatures were to be seen killing themselves on the barricades while trying to get in. Gordon was also to glimpse Citizens in their apartments. The train was at last to arrive at the station, and Cremators were to be seen cleaning around the train from Headcrabs and possibly a Bullsquid that have managed to get inside the perimeter.

• Like in the final version, Gordon was to go into the Wasteland itself while leaving City 17 through the Canals, instead of skipping it to reach Kraken Base through teleportation. There he was to go through Quarrytown at the end of the Canals, then meet with Eli in his den, and finally reach the desert through Antlion caves, and start his journey to the Air Exchange. During this journey, Freeman was to travel parallel to the Wasteland Train, a key theme of the game, tying all its environments together, transporting mysterious cargo from the city to outlying facilities. Along the tracks were to be numerous depots where the train would stop, refuel, unload, or take on cargo. One of these depots would later be expanded and merged with the AirEx to give way to the Nova Prospekt chapters, where the signal to begin the uprising would be given.

Concept art for the Depot.

• While Raising the Bar gives general information about the original journey through the Wasteland, the WC map pack gives deeper insight on the subject, with several maps featuring larger locations. Between these maps are several desert areas, with more Antlions and always the train tracks. Maps range from the very start of the game's development to much more recent maps, and thus do not follow a coherent storyline. Of note is they are all set during daytime, the dusk not coming before the AirEx, and that the actual sea is not as present as in the final game. Out of the oldest maps, the most prominent include:

• wasteland_railbridge, last edited September 2001, apparently the first map set after the Antlion caves following Eli's den. It contains small buildings surrounding a bridge and guarded by Combine Soldiers, that will give way to Bridge Point in the final game. There the train apparently merely passes by, and Gordon proceeds on foot after journeying on the underside of the bridge. This is not a depot, since the train does not stop - the facility does not allow it. The plow of the Razor Train engine is covered with blood, illustrating its use given in Raising the Bar, thus to shear through herds of whatever creature might stray across the tracks or try to take the train head-on.

• The map wasteland_depot, last edited August 2001, apparently follows. Apparently one of the depots to be seen during the journey and a predecessor for the main Depot (as several parts were recycled later), it consists of a small trainstation set on the desert ground, with small hangars, a control room and a platform around a single track linking City 17 to the AirEx, and it is guarded by Combine Soldiers and Stalkers, as well as a Cremator on the train platform. Gordon was to reach the area on foot and see soldiers battling Antlions on the sand before the depot. Then he was to get inside the facility through a small Antlion-filled tunnel (as the main gate is closed), to finally reach the platform and embark the train after his journey apparently on foot.

Concept art based on a screenshot of wasteland_railbridge.

• The main Depot can be found in the map wasteland_depot_outside (last edited November 2001). This larger facility is set on a cliff above the desert, with a large indoor (and brush) depot, a small prison next to it, a lighthouse overlooking the beach, and the train tracks mounted high above the ground. There Gordon was to get inside the lighthouse, defeat a Gunship from the top of it (recycled for Lighthouse Point), then get inside the facility through the lightouse basement, after which he would be in the prison courtyard, and get in the Depot itself through a garage door. This map was later modernized to give way to the map d2_depot_01, featuring a larger prison, then e3_depot, without the prison but with a battle between Combine Soldiers and an Antlion Guard at the start of the map, several Thumpers set along the sand, and the wreck of a submarine.

• What directly follows wasteland_depot_outside is the map wasteland_depot_inside (last edited January 2002), set inside the Depot and starting right after the garage door. Inside are trains stored above one another, and distributed with elevators inside the Depot or on the tracks, from which they can leave. There Gordon was to fight his way through the facility, avoid several Combine Soldiers, Stalkers and an Combine Sniper in a large hangar located below, then finally board a train in the hangar, have it lifted with an elevator inside the Depot above, then leave in it to the Air Exchange, to finally meet with Alyx in another depot located right before the AirEx. Of course, it does not include any Combine teleport, not part of the story at that point.

• Another map, zombie_town02 (last edited July 2001), consists of an early Ravenholm set in the typical early Wasteland. It features a desert town full of Zombies and overrun by sand, in a style reminiscent of the ghost towns found in the desert areas of the United States.

• After that was to be the Air Exchange, the original main chapter of the Wasteland/Coast levels and the last one before the Arctic chapters, later merged with the Depot to give way to Nova Prospekt. At some point, it was to be reached by train, later by foot.

• A map wasteland_test.bsp was included in an update to Episode One in May 2013. It takes place in a barren, rocky canyon, infested with Fast Headcrabs and Antlions. The map features an apparent Resistance base, two small outposts - each with three supply crates, a nonfunctional Emplacement Gun, and two rebels - one manning the gun, other, armed, providing medkits, a hill in the middle, and three Striders at the end, non hostile unless attacked, and separated from the main area by a deep ravine. The player spawns in the Resistance base guarded by four reprogrammed Combine Sentry Guns, and containing two Health and two Suit Chargers, as well as three supply crates and an infinite grenade crate; a reusable TNT trap is located near the base. He is greeted by an on-screen message from Alyx, who says that she needs six petrol cannisters, scattered around the map, to fuel a chopper, and that the player has to "find them and put them in the receptors by the cave entrance". Although Gordon has the Scout Car at his disposal, he is attacked by a never-ending wave of Combine Soldiers and Elites deployed by Dropships. When the player manages to collect all of the canisters, Alyx says that she needs to "make a few more repairs", and tells Gordon to "hold them off" for as long as he can.

Gallery

Pre-release

Concept art

• 

  Razor Train locomotive in the Wasteland, based on the map hub_test.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  Razor Train running through the Wasteland near the Air Exchange.

• 

  Wasteland props and several views of the Nova Prospekt cliff.

• 

  Ditto.

Screenshots

• 

  General view of the Wasteland part of the Canals.

• 

  Collapsed bridge in the Wasteland part of the Canals.

• 

  The wall protecting City 17 from the Wasteland hazards, seen from the Wasteland part of the Canals.

• 

  Wasteland part of the Canals.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  The Zombie town surrounded by the Wasteland in the map zombie_town02.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  Various prefabs for the quarry town, with the Wasteland around them.

• 

  Railway bridge in the map wasteland_bridge05.

• 

  Bullsquids under the bridge.

• 

  wasteland_testmap02, a prototype Wasteland map.

• 

  The early brush Depot in the Wasteland, in the map depot_1.

• 

  Railway and submarine wreck in the Wasteland seafloor near the Depot.

• 

  Shipwrecks in the Wasteland seafloor near the Depot.

• 

  Wrecked submarine in the Wasteland, in the map submarine, with added terrain.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  Inside the wrecked submarine.

• 

  Ditto, command room, in which a Vortigaunt was to be listening to an old gramophone player (the sound file it was to play is missing).

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  The refectory.

• 

  The sleeping quarters.

• 

  General overview of the map wasteland_test.

• 

  The Resistance base.

• 

  The canister receptors.

• 

  Ditto, with all six canisters placed inside.

• 

  The TNT trap in action.

• 

  One of the Resistance outposts.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  Striders at the far end.

• 

  Combine Soldiers attacking the base.

Textures

• 

  Composite Wasteland texture commonly used in the skybox of early related maps (actually a satellite view of the Grand Canyon area).

• 

  Unused alternate version.

Retail

• 

  Broken headframe, wrecked car, crow, rocks and electric poles in the Wasteland as glimpsed by Gordon Freeman during the teleportation failure.

• 

  Ditto, seen from another spot.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  Ditto, during the teleportation failure, when Gordon reaches it with Lamarr.

• 

  Lamarr then catches one of the crows.

List of appearances

Main games

• Half-Life 2 (First appearance)
• Half-Life 2: Episode One
• Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Other

• Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
• Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (Non-canonical appearance)

See also

• Half-Life 2 original storyline#The Wild - The Wasteland - The Scrapland

References

Combine OverWiki has more images related to The Wasteland.

External links

• "c17_outside" - fixed map of the leak Canals based on "canals_01_15" (requires Episode Two)

Preceded by Canals

Half-Life 2 story arc journey

Succeeded by The Coast