Since Planet Half-Life is no longer the site I remember, and has declined a bit (it hasn’t updated for two years), I thought I should revisit the past which I remembered fondly.
Which brings me to this awesome April Fool’s joke they did back in the ancient era of 1999. I think Fragmaster wrote this. There are some crude concept art, and some in-game screenshots (which are stated by the author to be really old screenshots of what the Gunmen Chronicles was originally going to be, which was a mod for Quake 2). Better check it out for yourself.
https://web.archive.org/web/20000816004906/https://www.planethalflife.com/features/articles/hl2prev/
The mailbag response to the article is also pretty humorous.
Even though it’s a joke, I think that a screwy retelling of Half-Life with Deerman as the main character would make for a really wacky mod, for Goldsource or Source. It would be like if Half-Life incorporated a bit of The Tick and other underground comics into its universe. If I had to develop the story some more, I would have it that Deerman was a mistake resulting from the crypto-genetics branch of Black Mesa, and somehow escaped to do battle with the forces of Xen and other dimensions. He might use the antlers on his head for a weapon when he doesn’t have a crowbar
And here’s another link for one of PHL’s old mailbag sessions, in which the fans submitted their own ideas for Half-Life 2’s story (long, long before Half-Life 2’s announcement). Some of the ideas are downright creative, though it is funny to see how many of us then thought that Xen was the only threat before the official Half-Life 2 came out.
