The HEV Suit is a staple of Half-Life, making another appearance as the Mark V iteration, upgraded from the Mark IV version from the original Half-Life. Health and energy can be replenished by picking up medical supplies and energy cells respectively, or by using wall-mounted health stations and charging devices, respectively. A heads-up display at the bottom of the screen shows the player's health, energy, and ammunition status, while a toggle screen shows available weapons at the top. Since Half-Life 2 is a first-person shooter, the gameworld is always presented from Gordon Freeman's perspective, and the player is implicitly asked to place themselves in Gordon's shoes. Puzzles and sequences involving vehicles are interspersed throughout the game, breaking up stretches of on-foot combat and exploration. The player navigates through a linear set of levels, fighting off transhuman troops known as the Combine as well as hostile alien creatures. Half-Life 2 plays similarly to its predecessor. Several City 17 levels at the start of the game and complete chapters from the second half of the game were completely removed and sometimes re-introduced in the subsequent Half-Life 2 episodes, as well carry on in its main following up prequel, Half-Life: Alyx. Half-Life 2 was also originally intended to be much more diverse in settings. Half-Life 2 was originally intended to be a far darker game with far grittier artwork where the Combine were more obviously draining the oceans for minerals and replacing the atmosphere with noxious, murky gases. The book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, and, against the developer's will, the 2003 leak and its numerous files, revealed many of the game's original settings and actions that were cut down or removed entirely from the final game.

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