The Image: Now for something a little more simple. Alyx Vance cradling the corpse of her father, Eli, while Dog looks on in the background. Why It's Powerful: Eli Vance became an instant hit with audiences following the release of Half-Life 2, making fast friends with Gordon Freeman and being unflappably devoted to ensuring the survival of his daughter Alyx. He's without question the most sincere and straight-up "nice" character in the entire series, and as such it was all that more devastating when he was killed by a Combine Advisor at the end of Half-Life: Episode Two. Though it's fairly standard fare for a game to kill off a beloved character to enhance the dramatic stakes, Episode Two's death holds a special place in our hearts precisely because it's a cliffhanger we're still waiting to be resolved. That's right, almost 7 years on, neither Episode Three nor Half-Life 3 has emerged, and this closing image is a stinging reminder of that fact.