Half-Life Current Day

On March 23rd 2020, Valve did the unthinkable. They released a brand new Half-Life game built from the ground up for VR amid a pandemic.

The game was well received, some calling it the “Killer App” for VR.

And in an end-credits stinger we see a freshly revived Eli Vance vowing vengeance against the G-Man and handing Gordon his crowbar. But what’s this?

He’s wearing his classic Half-Life 2 Harvard sweater!

Or is it? As the albedo textures on the model reveals it’s actually blend between the Half-Life 2 Harvard design and the Half-Life 2: Episode Two Argyle design.

And on May 15th of the same year Valve updated Half-Life: Alyx with Workshop support, giving users the ability to create custom content for the game with official tools. But ability to create user generated content wasn’t the only change Valve made. 

The sweater... This time with NO Harvard logo. Some time ago I pointed out the differences of Eli’s sweater in HL2 and EP2, even going so far as to email Marc Laidlaw (A man who hadn’t worked at Valve in a while) about the sweater issue for a clear answer to no avail. 

When I saw Half-Life: Alyx’s ending for the first time I was relieved, after all this time I thought Valve’s artists were putting my restless nights to an end and giving me a reassuring conclusion: It was the same sweater the whole time. Only for this latest update to raise even more questions:

Is it a different sweater? 

Why was it changed?

Without Marc Laidlaw, who’s inbox am I supposed to clog to get to the bottom of this?

I promise to work day and night to figure this out.