Yesterday, Valve shared a documentary for the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2. And, in that documentary, we got to see some prototype gameplay footage from Half-Life 2: Episode Three. Not only that, but Gabe Newell shared his thoughts about why Half Life 2: Episode Three never came out.
Let’s start with the gameplay footage. This footage shows a new weapon that would allow players to create ice bridges to scale walls. This weapon would also allow you to freeze enemies. Plus, the video shows a new enemy that players would fight.
As for why HL2: Episode Three never came out, Gabe Newell had this to say.
“We could have shipped it, it wouldn’t be that hard. The failure was, my personal failure was being stumped. I couldn’t figure out why doing Episode Three was pushing anything forward. If it weren’t for the episodes there’d be no such thing as DOTA. And I know that sounds really weird, but it was the things we learned when developing the episodes that led to Team Fortress 2.”
Gabe concluded that Half-Life represents a tool Valve has and promises it has made to its customers to capitalize on innovation and opportunities to build game experiences that haven’t been involved previously.
The problem with this logic is that a lot of players want to know what happened next to Gordon, Alyx and the G-Man. They want closure to the story. And that’s what Gabe fails to understand.
That’s my main issue with a lot of game series lately. A lot of them do not feel like complete games. They don’t have proper endings. They either feel like fillers or “small episodes” (story-wise), or they end at a cliffhanger. And when they don’t get a sequel, it makes you feel like a fool for playing and supporting them. A perfect example of this is Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
Anyway, there are some rumors that Valve may be working on a new Half-Life. However, as with more HL3 rumors, I suggest taking them with a grain of salt.
Finally, the team behind the Half-Life 3 fan game, Project Borealis, has released a demo for it. So, if you haven’t played it, I suggest doing so. It’s not much but hey, it’s at least something.
Enjoy!
Check out never before seen footage of Half-Life 2 Episode 3!
Looks like you would be able to make ice bridges to scale walls and more! pic.twitter.com/RuaI7476jG
— Half-Life Alyx NoVR (@HL_Alyx_NoVR) November 15, 2024
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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