Years of jokes with Half-Life 3 and Valve's silence regarding the franchise have ended in a spin off for virtual reality. Is there a future later?
Steam's great business for Valve has meant that the company commanded by the popular Gabe Newell can afford to be completely indecipherable when it comes not to sell the games of others, but to develop and publish their own. So much so that even a hit as Artifact is turning out to be a mere stumbling block, and enough to be able to follow its own launch policy completely oblivious to the wishes of thousands, millions of players that three years ago will enjoy the adventure of already legendary Gordon Freeman. Fifteen years later, Half-Life: Alyx comes to warn that Valve has not completely forgotten about this brand, and incidentally, and not least, to represent a purchase incentive for the Valve Index, the virtual reality device.
It is a firm bet, since far from being a mere short experience as we can be accustomed, Half-Life: Alyx is a complete game with all of the law, which according to its own director will be as long as the second dear main delivery, and to which Geoff Keighley, producer and host of The Game Awards, has taken 15 hours to complete. It narrates the events that occurred between the main deliveries, explaining how Alyx and Eli Vance organized the resistance to the invasion of the Alliance, in short, they wanted to make it clear that it is not a spin off or anything similar, but a new full-fledged delivery, important in the general plot as were the two numbered. In spite of everything, it is not the most desired Half-Life 3, hypothetical direct continuation of Half-Life 2 that, it is worth remembering, maintains a spectacular 96 in Metacritic – with the Must Play seal of the portal -, and that is a very important part of the Valve's story, being the first game that necessarily installed the Steam client.
After its launch, there would be two small expansions with not very imaginative names – Episode 1 and Episode 2-, and which, Valve intended to be part of a kind of anticipation of what would be Half-Life 3, completing with the Arrival of Episode 3, which as we know, never saw the light. Yes, this second part would come to consoles, although Valve has always been a company associated with the PC, making it first to the original Xbox and then appearing in the last generation through the Orange Box compilation, edited by Electronic Arts. Interestingly, the Canadian company also had to take care of the development of the PlayStation 3 version of this collection of 3 games – Half-Life 2 itself, Team Fortress and Portal-, since for Gabe Newell, Sony's console was "a complete disaster". Controversial aside, this "Orange Box" was a new success, with exactly the same note in Metacritic.
Is there a future beyond Alyx?
Half-Life: Alyx will not arrive until March 2020, and although it seems incredible after so many years and so many desires, even Valve herself is not convinced that developing a third numbered installment is the most appropriate, for whatever reason. "We want to launch it and see how everyone reacts before finalizing plans on what we will do next with the franchise," they have acknowledged in a documentary made by the aforementioned Keighley about the development of this game. These doubts do not hide that the study members themselves were the first interested in creating a new Half-Life. "It is no surprise that many people in Valve wanted to return to this universe for a long time, and this experience has only reinforced that feeling," said David Speyrer in statements to The Verge media. Speyrer himself ensures that the franchise has a future, that it will continue, but does not specify how. Who would say it, considering that 12 years have passed since Half-Life 2: Episode 2, and at no time Valve has left indications of remembering to have a dearest IP as it is.
In between this period, many false "Half-Life 3 confirmed" and even jokes by Valve herself, especially at the expense of the curious reluctance to launch something that involves a third installment, also in reference to a, today by Very complicated today, Left 4 Dead 3. "One day, number two may lead us to a bright, whole number that is somewhere on a mountain," Gabe said last summer at the presentation, precisely, of the Valve Index. Also, two years ago, Newell starred in a small video released during The International 2018 – the great DOTA 2- competition in which despite needing it at times, avoided anything mentioning the number three, being unable to pronounce the triple expression kill, referring to the MOBA de Valve. So impossible has it been given by the community that they have even prepared to develop their own Episode 3, which incidentally, looks really good, but joking aside, it had become very clear that if Valve continued working on a new Half-Life, It would not be this third episode. In fact, we almost have half-life among us: Alyx.
But to create even more confusion, Valve's silence has been absolute, focusing all his strategy on multiplayer games with more -Counter Strike: Global Offensive or DOTA 2- or less -Artifact- success, while number 3, joke or not, it was something completely taboo for the company. Serve as a curiosity, but extremely representative, this video in which Gabe Newell's feeling of Half-Life 3 is reviewed over a decade: from the enthusiasm of 2007 to the most complete indifference today. This null interest is, as published in Game Informer a little less than two years ago, the main reason that this third installment never saw the light, given that the hierarchical structure of Valve is based on Gabe himself and a few people of his trust, being this voice of authority. In fact, according to this same article, there was an Episode 4 entitled Return to Ravenholm, by Arkane Studios (Prey, Dishonored), finally canceled because, apparently, in Valve they did not see clearly what he could contribute to the franchise. According to that text, every time a project related to Half-Life was canceled, it was more difficult for a new one, and said so, it almost seems incredible that Half-Life: Alyx has managed to see the light.
That said, is there still hope for Half-Life 3? While "Half-Life 3 confirmed" became a meme, apparently in Valve there were not many people who wanted to develop it. "The only reason we would make such a game again, that it became a super classic, is that there were a lot of people in Valve who wanted to do it, and set out good reasons for that," Gabe said in an interview with Keighley. "If you want to do another Half-Life and ignore everything you learned by publishing Portal 2 and all the updates for multiplayer, it seems like a bad choice." That said, it seems that the present of the Half-Life flame license: Alyx , and the future … for now too.
