In all of gaming, there are few memes that have echoed across eternity more than the constant begging for Half-Life 3. With the second Half-Life turning sixteen this year, fans have waited for more than long enough for news on the future of the franchise.
Many were ready to declare it dead before Valve decided to pop back up with another log to throw on the fire. A few months ago, the developers announced the now soon-to-be-released VR exclusive title, Half-Life: Alyx.
But this has all had mixed reviews in several ways. Some are hesitant to call this new title, the third Half-Life game, Half-Life 3. In fact, some are saying it’s more of an experiment in the art of cash-grabbing, as anyone who wants to play the game will need to purchase a VR headset – and wouldn’t you know it, Valve has them for sale for the low price of several hundred dollars.
In an interview with Game Informer, Valve’s Robin Walker discussed the future of Half-Life and what’s to come Of the many complaints, one was that no one wants to buy an entire VR system just to play the one game in the franchise that’s going to pop. More than anything, fans wanted to know if there was going to be more in the franchise.
“Half-Life means a lot to us, and it’s been incredibly rewarding to refamiliarise ourselves with its characters, setting, and mechanics,” Walker told in the interview. “There are Half-Life: Alyx team members who have been at Valve since Half-Life 2, and quite a few who go back to the original Half-Life. We absolutely see Half-Life: Alyx as our return to this world, not the end of it.”
Storywise, Half-Life: Alyx is going to link into the others in the series. Walker hints that it would be good for players to refamiliarise themselves on the events of the second installment before they pick up Alyx, seeming to convey that there would be more than a few tie ins.
“Half-Life: Alyx is a full-fledged entry in the Half-Life series, both in terms of the sheer amount of content as well as the importance and substance of its narrative,” Walker stated on the title. “It’s a critical part of the larger story, and it does push that story forward.”
All of these hints of pushing stories forward has fans thinking about the release of the “true” Half-Life 3, which still has seen nothing in the vein of confirmation. Still, everyone seems hopeful that it’s still being forged somewhere and kept under the tightest wraps any game has been kept under in recent times.
