The prospect of Half-Life 3 doesn’t seem too strong, but even still, there’s a lot of great ways for Valve to finish off the spectacular story that was set up in Half-Life 2 way back when in 2007.
2020’s Half-Life: Alyx, a prequel exclusively for virtual reality, marked the first entry into the franchise for a long time. But it’s not a full sequel in the way that fans were hoping for. Fortunately, in an interview, Valve’s Robin Walker said that the franchise still has a future, stating: “we absolutely see Half-Life: Alyx as our return to this world, not the end of it.”
While this isn’t a confirmation of definite plans for Half-Life 3, it’s enough to give fans renewed hope that this long-dormant series is going to continue in one form or another. Here’s everything we know of and hope for in another fully-fledged Half-Life game.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The long-awaited, and long-absent, continuation of the Half-Life saga
- When does it come out? With nothing officially announced, it won’t be anytime soon
- What can I play it on? Only time will tell
Half Life 3 release date and platforms
Back when Valve announced Half Life 2 would be getting episodic sequels, it revealed that there were plans to release three of them over the course of the following few years. They would together form what was essentially a third Half Life game. The idea was that development on an episode wouldn’t take as long as a full sequel, so fans could continue Gordon Freeman’s adventure sooner – albeit in smaller quantities.
Half Life 2: Episode 3 was never released, and over time people eventually just started referring to it as Half-Life 3 – assuming that Valve was working on a fully-fledged sequel rather than a brand new episode.
In a 2020 interview with IGN, Valve explained why Half-Life 3 never emerged as its own release or a shorter episode.
After a difficult six-year period which saw Valve developing Half-Life 2 and its Source game engine concurrently, level designer Dario Casali said that the team didn’t want to repeat this, stating that “I think our main take away from that is ‘get some stable technology and then build a game on top of it.”
Instead, the team decided to work on smaller, episodic releases, with Episode 1 releasing in 2006, followed by the infamous Episode 2 in 2007. When it came to Episode 3, however, Casali explained that “We found ourselves creeping ever forward toward ‘Well, let’s just keeping putting more and more, and more, and more stuff in this game because we want to make it as good as we can, and then we realized these episodes are turning more into sequels.”
In another IGN interview with Valve’s co-founder Gabe Newell who said that “Half-Life games are supposed to solve interesting problems“ and that the studio doesn’t just want to release Half-Life games in order to “make the quarterly numbers.” When it comes to a new Half-Life game, then, Casali says that Valve is “looking for what is going to make that next big impact.” Making a big impact would, therefore, require exciting new technology or a new engine.
Half Life 3 story and setting
Although Valve never released its third episode or a sequel, some information has spilled out over the years. How much of it is still relevant is unclear, but Gabe Newell did confirm that players would retain control of action hero physicist Gordon Freeman. The end of Half-Life: Alyx certainly suggests that this will still be true of the next release. Newell later stated that Gordon would go unchanged in Episode 3, as it was then known, so he would “largely remain an arm and a crowbar”. Newell also confirmed that he will never speak, since his companions are a “more fruitful avenue to explore”.
Doug Lombardi, Valve’s VP of marketing, also confirmed that the story would not return to City 17 and that the developers had put a lot of work into “creating a natural progress of topography and climate”.
Newell also confirmed that Episode 3, as it was then known, would finish the story arc that began in Half Life 2. While he spoke of the possibility of a fourth episodic instalment, he confirmed that it would be stand-alone and developed outside of Valve. It was later revealed to have been in development at Dishonored developers Arkane Studios and titled Return to Ravenholme. Unfortunately, it was cancelled.
Former franchise writer Marc Laidlaw also confirmed to PC Gamer that Episode 3 wouldn’t have had a definite conclusion, much like Half Life and Half Life 2. The plot summary that he later released appeared to confirm this.
Half Life 3 gameplay
Half-Life: Alyx is a VR-exclusive release and has quickly become a “watershed moment” for the platform, showing its true potential.
If another Half-Life title was to be released, then would it be on VR? Well, that remains unclear, and Valve remains non-committal. In an interview with PCGamer, Dario Casali said, “At this point, we don’t really know what [another Half-Life game] would be—we don’t know if it’s going to be another VR title. We don’t know if it’s going to be a non-VR title.”
With the release of Half-Life: Alyx being so recent (though the game seems to be going down very well), the team is biding its time: “The best thing we can do at this point is to gauge the response to this product. How are people able to enjoy it? How many people can we get into the VR platform? [Are] people saying that VR is now this essential part of Half-Life? We really don’t know those answers until we put the game out and we start listening.”
Certainly, at the moment, VR is a more limited platform in terms of its user base, and if a fully-fledged Half-Life 3 were to be released, it’s possible Valve would want to make it available to as wide and audience as possible. This all remains speculation, however, and we won’t know for sure what the future holds for the series until Valve confirms its intentions.
Half Life 3 news
Leaked concept art
Despite the fact that Valve has seldom spoken about Half-Life 3, let alone released gameplay material, we have had a fair bit of concept art hit the net over the past 13 years. While it’s not quite the same as in-game renders of a trailer, it’s still something. Normally it might give us some hints at what to expect, but given the amount of time since the art first surface, the nature of the game is likely to have drastically changed.
Unfortunately, we can’t link to it here, that none of the leaked concept art has been confirmed or verified. In fact, most of it has since been taken down from the internet.
Reddit AMA
In January 2017 Gabe Newell went onto Reddit to take part in an AMA (Ask Me Anything), which fans naturally used to ask some questions about the future of the Half Life/Portal universe. He did answer a few of them, though he didn’t reveal a whole lot.
So there you have it, Half-Life 3 is likely a very long away from release, if it ever releases at all. For a look at what games you will definitely be playing soon, visit our Upcoming games release calendar for 2023 and beyond.