sisslethecat
What a whirlwind it’s been this week. Valve, developers of some of the industry’s most beloved PC IPs ranging from Counter-Strike to Left 4 Dead, has finally come out of the shadows regarding their most famous title: Half-Life. The universe of Half-Life was last seen in Portal 2, almost a decade ago — and even then the Portal series is only tangentially related to the core titles. The last time we caught up with Gordon Freeman and the plight against the Combine threat was back in 2007, twelve whole-ass years ago, in Half-Life 2: Episode 2 — which ended on a pretty terrifying and depressing cliff hanger. The newly announced Half-Life: Alyx, a Steam VR exclusive title that serves as a prequel to Half-Life 2 carries a lot of weight and hopes on its shoulders. While many are extremely excited, one question has hung (okay, more like spat out across comment sections the internet over) on the lips of Half-Life fans: what about Half-Life 3? While Valve aren’t jumping on that grenade just yet, they have been happy to clarify that Alyx will not be the only return to the Half-Life universe we can look forward to. During an interview with The Verge, Valve’s David Speyrer explained their stance on the future, and it’s very bright:
The Verge: Does this mark a full return to the series? Should we expect more?
Speyrer: Yes. It’s probably no surprise that many people at Valve have been wanting to get back to the Half-Life universe for a long time, and this experience has only reinforced that. In the process of creating Half-Life: Alyx, we’ve had to explore new ways to tell stories with these characters and this world, and we’ve discovered a lot of new gameplay experiences that go beyond what we’ve been able to do before.
While it is worth mentioning that Valve has quite a history of talking about future projects that uh… well, they’re Valve. But after years of silence, hearing them speak about more of this series coming in such plain terms, with excitement, and not that standard line of “we will announce something when we have something to announce“. The excitement and possibilities it conjures up have stirred me, and many other fans, into an outright tizzy.
Half-Life: Alyx releases on Steam and is compatible with all Steam VR compatible headsets, March 2020.
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