Originally, that puzzle was supposed to be a lot more complicated, with multiple parts you had to find and reconstruct in a particular order, and timed perfectly to make it work their play testers, apparently consisting of bonobo monkeys and fed a thin gruel for pay, simply couldn't get past the puzzle, and one even drowned in a puddle less than a foot deep trying to find parts eventually most of the puzzle was scrapped in favor of one gear you had to find then just jam back into the elevator and pull a lever.Д«ottom line: it's not that Valve couldn't have made NP more atmospheric with more of those 'human' moments that occupied the early part of the game before you get the Hazard Suit it's that for whatever reason, this was the iteration they decided worked the best according to their metric.

If you played Episode 1, then you remember the puzzle where you have to get the elevator working to bring the Vortigaunt down and then bring the two of you back up to Alex. I don't think they have commentary for HL2 itself, but given what I've heard from the rest of the games I can say this much: 9 times out of 10, if something feels 'missing', it's from one of 3 reasons: the engine couldn't handle it, the play testers couldn't manage it, or it was cut for expediency. LabTech If you played this game as part of the Orange Box package, the version comes with the option to see developer commentary which explains why certain things are the way they are.

Half life 2 nova prospekt walkthrough