Remember when Half-Life came out in 1998 and it was one of the best first-person shooters ever made? Remember when the same thing happened in 2004 when Half-Life 2 came out? And in 2007 with Half-Life 2: Episode Two? Not too many franchises out there boast such preposterous standards of quality. Few can hope to be as memorable. None have induced such acute anxiety in their fan bases.
Over the years, Valve’s developed a reputation for announcing slippery release dates. Portal 2 was supposed to be out for the holidays in 2010. Then pushed to 2011. Then February 9th, 2011. Then April 18th. Then we played it and it was amazing, so the delays didn’t really matter. With Half-Life, it’s been a different story. As in, Portal 2 shipped, and the next Half-Life still hasn’t.
It’s not that Valve hates working. There have been significant Team Fortress 2 updates alongside Dota 2′s development. The entire Left 4 Dead franchise launched and updated after Episode Two’s release. Yet still nothing about Episode Three. According to what Valve founder Gabe Newell said back in 2006, the episodic release strategy would allow Valve to more quickly deliver Half-Life games. As we all know, almost six years later, that hasn’t exactly held true.
At least back then, Newell was committed to the episodic format. “There are three [episodes] in this arc. There are three that are worked out, and those are the ones that we’ve been talking about so far,” he told Eurogamer. But now, considering how silent Valve’s been on the topic of Gordon Freeman’s future, anything could be happening. Thanks in no small part to the success of Steam, Valve’s bigger than ever, so it’s not as easy to blame a lack of manpower. While we wait, here are a few possibilities for what might be next for Half-Life.
Maybe we all just need to shut up and wait. Valve is a busy company. The Team Fortress 2 support and updates have been outstanding, an industry standard for a multiplayer shooter. The Left 4 Dead series offers some of the best co-operative gameplay ever designed. Portal 2 is near the top of our list of best modern games. Valve doesn’t want to be known as just the house of Half-Life.
On the other hand, Valve wouldn’t exist as it does today without Half-Life. There has to be some significant reason we haven’t heard anything about Episode Three. Maybe now that Dota 2 is the only game on Valve’s release calendar, it’s finally time for some real Half-Life news.
The game will still pick up after Episode Two’s dramatic cliffhanger, but now it’ll just be called Half-Life 3, and it’ll be a longer game. No sense dragging out the whole episodic format now that economy-sized chunks of DLC are the standard. As much as Valve wanted to reframe the Half-Life 2 expansions as “Episodes,” Episode Two felt very much like an old-school expansion pack. You know, that additional content format from the dark, dangerous days of PC gaming. 4:3 monitors. Voodoo3 cards. Throne of Bhaal. Chaos.
It would make sense if the Half-Life information blackout is because a whole bunch of employees are busy working on a new engine. Let’s call it Source 2 because I lack imagination. Developing something like this could take a very long time, especially if Valve is trying to drop the world’s jaw when the next Half-Life is revealed.
But then again, Gabe Newell told Develop that Valve was content to continuously upgrade the existing Source Engine instead of build something new. That’s a sensible thing to say. It means when Valve announces Half-Life 3 running on Source 2, it’ll be even more of a surprise.
At this point it’s difficult to imagine anything but a multiplatform release. The Orange Box was released on multiple platforms. Portal 2 is multiplatform. Valve even put a modified version of Steam on PlayStation 3. Though Team Fortress 2 didn’t exactly work out on consoles, a single-player experience like Half-Life always will.
Considering the span of time between now and Episode Two, Half-Life 3 / Episode Three may already be done. While Half-Life 3 will very likely be a multiplatform release, that doesn’t mean it can’t come out on PC first. What better way for Valve to promote its digital download service?
Taking this idea a step further is GameSpy editor Ryan Scott, who suggests that when Valve finally announces Half-Life 3 (this scenario precludes Episode Three), it will hit Steam mere weeks (if not days) later. Console versions will follow at some point, but the mouse-and-keyboard crowd will get first access. It’s not as though Valve really needs to advertise for Half-Life anyway; the community takes care of that, and would certainly support Half-Life 3′s release with viral YouTube videos and constant chatter across social networks.
Valve sees a lot of money in multiplayer experiences, so it’s likely the next Half-Life could be paired with one. Half-Life 2: Deathmatch was never much more than a goofy diversion. If the next Half-Life is to have a multiplayer component it could, a little more plausibly, at long last be Counter-Strike 2. Leveraging the experience Valve’s had overseeing Counter-Strike Online outside of North America, Counter-Strike 2 would serve as another Valve entry in the free-to-play microtransaction market. In this scenario, Half-Life 3 could also be free, or at least severely discounted on PC, leaving the microtransaction bit to generate profit. It might help explain why it’s been so very long since Valve has said anything about what’s happening with Half-Life – because the studio isn’t just working on one all-new game on new technology, but two.
I’ve reached out for a comment. If I get one, I’ll update this answer field.
Maybe the next Half-Life won’t be a single-player game at all. Maybe Valve is completely changing the format and making it a multiplayer experience where you can fight alongside Gordon, Alyx and resistance fighters or as the Combine soldiers. Considering Valve’s commitment to microtransactions seen in everything from the now free-to-play Team Fortress 2 to the overpriced robot accessories in Portal 2, it’s very, very, very, very remotely possible something like this might find its way into Half-Life.
If it did, though, I would expect purists to completely lose their minds. I know I’d freak out. Half-Life has never been about any of this, and it would be extremely surprising if the studio moved in this direction. It’s always been about Gordon, the silent hero, overcoming impossible odds to plant crowbars in the foreheads of all that want to nefariously warp the world. And occasionally hopping across irritating terrain on Xen.
What do you think? Are you still itching to see what’s next for Gordon Freeman? Do you have your own theories about what’s going on?
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