The company, which has just released Half-Life: Alyx on Steam, reasons about the reasons that stopped the development of new chapters.
Half-Life 3 has never materialized; no additional episodes of the second installment were developed, beyond that Episode 2. With Half-Life: Alyx already on the market, the new installment developed for virtual reality, Valve has been honest about the reasons that motivated the company not to continue expanding Half-Life 2. Dario Casali, level designer, did it in an interview with IGN.
"We realized that those episodes were becoming more sequels." The creative recalls that they were adding more and more content because they wanted Half-Life 2 to be the best possible product. That particularity made Valve rethink the model, since the studio was looking for an impact formula in its projects. Prototypes of new unannounced installments were developed that did not stop working.
Change of plans
"Our judge and jury were always the game tests," says Casali. “They never came from our team, always from someone outside. They told us how we were doing it, no matter what we were really creating. " This being the case, they received feedback from these tests, which they paid attention to “in a religious way”.
Back then, the North American company thought that the Half-Life graphics engine, Source 1.0, was already out of date. In this situation, he decided to get down to work and work on version 2.0. Once the task was completed, Valve returned to the saga, with the result that we have in our hands today: Alyx. The developers have stated it from the beginning: this new chapter is a franchise game with all the law.
Half-Life: Alyx is designed exclusively for virtual reality. It is compatible with all VR glasses that work on Steam VR. At the moment, there are no plans for the video game to be released on PlayStation VR, although Valve has not completely ruled it out. What seems clearer is that they will not adapt the product to traditional controls.
