10 Video Game Mysteries Answered In CUT CONTENT
3. Why Are The Oceans Drained? - Half-Life 2
One of the most memorable visuals from Half-Life 2 is the drained oceans which players encounter throughout the game, and while many fans reasonably assumed that this was caused by the Combine one way or another, the main game itself stops short of detailing the specifics of the environmental disaster.
But in the behind-the-scenes companion book Raising the Bar, concept art shows the Combine straight-up draining the oceans in an attempt to harvest minerals from it, and even replacing oxygen with noxious gases, because why the hell not?
The book confirms that the original vision for Half-Life 2 was much darker and more dystopian, believe it or not, but Valve ultimately decided to scale this back and leave much of the world's wider context up for debate.
But there you have it - the drained oceans weren't the result of an unexplained ecological catastrophe, but the Combine straight-up sucking the drink up for short-sighted gains.