There are currently three seperate Half Life games at various stages of development.
Getting the boring one out of the way, Half Life: Blue Shift 2 is essencially a simple expansion to HL: Alyx using some scraped ideas that didn't make it into the final game and won't fit in the other projects. It follows Barny very shortly after the Seven Hour War as he travels to City 14 after hearing that his wife may still be alive. At it's current state, the story is very weak, it has no Gman scenes, and is only about as long as Episode 2
The other two projects are Half Life 3 and Half Life 2: Episode 3. The latter is a non-VR direct continuation of the Half Life 2 story. It picks up with you and Eli entering the Arctic base to find the Borealis. After Gman took Alyx at the end of Episode 2, Eli has had a change of heart and instead of destroying it, intends to use the technology on the Borealis to destroy Gman and get Alyx back. There is a weird amount of Aperture Science schenanigans and slapstick for a Half Life game, including a prototype AI (not explicitly Glados but clear parallels) that essencially has multiple personality disorder due to having too many personality spheres infecting it's brain. I can't speak for this myself, but SUPPOSEDLY the vortigaunts are able to configure a found portal gun to enter and exit Gmans realm. Regardless of whether or not that's true, the game definitely ends with a second Resonance Cascade, likely due to the portal gun.
Half Life 3 on the other hand is infact a VR exclusive. I know much less about this one but you play as Alyx after being taken out of Stasis some time after the Borealis incident. Much like HL2 was to HL1, this game is meant to feel like an entirely new experience with a brand new setting, however I do know that you will be visiting both Xen and the Combine origin world. In the script, Alyx remarks that she remembers both being taken at the end of Alyx AND at the end of E2.
>ctrl f >no shepard fake as fuck.....................................
Luke Lewis
honestly that's what makes this sound realistic. Valve doesn't care about our boy.
Logan Foster
sounds cool user
Blake Green
And I should believe you because...?
Alexander Rodriguez
>ep3 hasnt turned into half life 3 nice >destroy gman >hl3 "plot" >obviously gordon and eli fail nice >hl3 >new setting and expereince like hl1 to hl2 instead of another direct sequel nice >it's alyx not gordon gay
i continue to stand by the idea that the episodes should have never happened, and half life should have stayed as an anthology series featuring gordon as the protagonist in each major installment, and the side games featuring the same scenario from other POVs, instead of HL1 turning into a setup for HL2 and the Combine story which seems to be all that half life revolves around now
Isaac Perry
THIS
Grayson Flores
This, the anthology style only works with Gordon as the MC, alyx has too much baggage and would just be getting about her friends and family the whole time I'd she got sent into the future
Leo Watson
>HL2E3 ends with a Resonance Cascade of not Xen, but Gmans stasis >HL3 opens up with a universe spanning Civil War >Every single spectacular person/alien/creature that Gmans employers had in stasis were released, and are now working in seperate teams for dominance over the galaxy. >Basically an all out war between the Combine, Humans/Vorts, Race X, and multiple other new alien forces being lead by these special individuals >Earth is right on the frontlines and Andrien Shepherd is in charge of the entire Earth's military
>There are currently three stopped reading. valve doesnt do threes
Bentley Sanders
A tad fanfic-y
Aaron Ramirez
Tyler pls
Joshua Mitchell
imagine the outrage if hl3 was announced as an VR exclusive
John Allen
There wouldn't be any outrage because according to non-VR owners, Alyx is just as good of an experience with a 2d mod, so there would be no reason to get angry
Jaxson Baker
OP is just as fanfic-y, because none of this writing is original or has the flavour that the original writing team had. Why did they have to bring Wolpaw in 2017 to rewrite HL:A, you think? It's because internal testers said that the Campo Santo version of the game was trash and was not Half-Life at all.
Christopher Moore
I wonder what the original Alyx script was about
Thomas Reed
Gordon is already knee-deep in the whole HL2 plotline, so I don't think you can start fresh with him. Alyx is the same. Valve should settle the matter with Gearbox and use Shephard as the next protagonist since he isn't tied down to the universe as much as any other character or simply create a new MC.
Not too different on the large scale. The main plot was still Alyx breaking into a Vault, except it was just some generic superweapon that Alyx destroys, so the game ended up being relatively unimportant within the overall HL storyline. There were also a bunch of extraneous subplots like collaborators and such that didn't really contribute that much to the main plot.
Wolpaw and Pinkerton cut out all the extraneous subplots that didn't really go anywhere, and also came up with the idea of putting Gman inside the Vault as a way to make the plot have real consequences on the overall HL storyline. Then after a while they came up with leading the player on into thinking Gordon was inside the Vault and then surprising the Player with Gman.
Cooper Carter
trash game
Jason Nelson
Am I the only one who doesn't care for Shepard? It's just some side grunt, yeh the game was decent but he isn't interesting or pivotal to the setting at all. I don't get the hype for him. Not to mention, Valve won't bother asking Mr Fuckface for anything because they don't have to and because Shepard is not that precious of a character.
>Gordon is already knee-deep in the whole HL2 plotline, so I don't think you can start fresh with him Just like how he was knee deep in the Black Mesa coverup and alien dimension plotline? Seriously, he gained enough infamy that the overall American government/military was specifically trying to kill him. You don't think that shit made it's way up the ranks of the HECU Marines and to whoever was in charge? And then you have Gordon travelling to Xen and fucking all that shit up.
HL2 could have ended with Gordon blowing up the Citadel and being placed in stasis again. And just like how HL2 was new but revolved around things caused by the events of HL1, HL3 could have been something new but revolved around things caused by the events of HL2, without being a direct follow up on "Humanity vs The Combine."
Gabriel Nelson
Wow you took the time to write all of that, just so I can tell you none of it will happen?
I'm in the same boat. I mean, he's fine, but he's just some soldier. The Race X on the other hand are my shit. I love their designs and I wish we got to see more of them
Robert Allen
I don't think gearbox owns the IP for Shepard. Why would valve willingly give them rights to certain characters to another company?
Brayden Hernandez
>HL3 could have been something new but revolved around things caused by the events of HL2, without being a direct follow up on "Humanity vs The Combine." This was the original vision by Laidlaw, but a lot of other devs who had worked on HL2 were upset about how much they had done on stuff that ended up getting cut from the main game and didn't just want to drop it all to come up with completely new stuff for HL3. The HL2 Episodes were supposed to be a compromise position where they would essentially "extend the HL2" plot a little bit in order to have an excuse to finish up and use all the cut HL2 content. However, by the time they shipped HL2Ep2, a lot of the devs were now already sick of HL2 stuff and now actually did want to make completely new stuff, and so you ended up having a "do we do HL2Ep3 or HL3" conflict, with an additional "what do we even do for an HL3" conflict, at basically the worst possible time.
Gearbox owns none of the expansion pack IP; it was part of the deal where Gearbox got itself separated from Valve. Randy is apparently still bitter about it to this day.
Kayden Sanchez
Holy fuck, this makes me despise Valve's whole "do whatever you want" style even more. Literally the most retarded fucking thing. Imagine if every game's development got halted or redone because a few goobers on the team complain that the shit they made in the game can't be reused for a sequel? Holy fuck talk about low effort
Jacob Rivera
Don't skip your pills user.
Caleb Diaz
Back when Valve was not made of money they had to watch themselves and make things work, but with Steam taking off they really lost touch with what makes efficient game development. They developed Alyx, true, but they weren't that rushed about it, and I think it sets a bad precedent because the consumers themselves already suffer from anticipation fatigue and the ype crowds that would have been there 3 or 4 years ago if they said "we have next half-life game" aren't there anymore. Also, treating Half-Life as some hallowed tech-messiah of a series that has to spearhead new innovations is fallacious, as first HL wasn't impressive technologically as it was design-wise and was much closer to the philosophy of creating fun gameplay, they only developed that way due to Gabe's obsession with tech once HL2 came around.
Camden Nelson
>they only developed that way due to Gabe's obsession with tech once HL2 came around. Another reason why you actually can justifiably blame Gabe for HL2Ep3 never happening.
In addition to having the chance to finish and ship a bunch of HL2 cut content, some Valve devs wanted to do the HL2 Episodes to just quickly ship fun new games without having to justify it as "the next huge leap in tech." However, after Portal became the darling of the Orange Box over HL2Ep2, Gabe doubled down hard on "next huge leap in tech," which helped cripple motivation to ship a HL2Ep3 instead of "next huge leap HL3"
John Johnson
>our boy Gearbox's boy
Andrew Young
The whole portal thing is below fanfic tier
Kevin Bailey
Yet in the end, I'd say they not only accomplished Gabe's vision but it was worth the wait afterall.
OP lying or not, you would be retarded to think they aren't going to use the borialis to tie the two stories directly into each other
Easton Baker
Fake and gay.
>Half Life 3 is VR exclusive Nope, specifically deconfirmed by the developers. You are gay.
Caleb King
They said Gordon's story will stay 2d
Asher Rogers
Fake.
The actual roadmap: 1. "HLB," another HLVR game mostly using HLA's assets, with Alyx as protagonist 2. "HL3," a flatscreen HL game, with Gordon as protagonist
As always with Valve, plans can change without warning. Lest we forget about "HL2Ep3 coming by Christmas 2007"
Thomas Adams
>actually expecting coherent lore and storytelling from Valve in 2020 I wish I had your faith, user.
Andrew Ross
>leak >posts chad user. As good as that sounds. And as possible for me to get both a pc and vr headset to run hl3 by that time. You are full of shit.
>It's just some side grunt, yeh the game was decent but he isn't interesting or pivotal to the setting at all. It's the perfect blank state for the player. I think Valve moved away from that idea in HL2 by making Gordon a some sort of saviour of humanity and stuff. Remember when you could kill random scientists or guards in HL1 almost without any repercussions? You can't do that anymore with Gordon, it's almost like he's a legitimate character now unlike Shephard who is still ambiguous. I agree, but I doubt G-Man would use him again for other adventures
I just want a decent conclusion for the guy. Being stuck in gman's cuck jail is a shitty end. It'd at least make some sense that gman would accidentally drop Adrian out of statsis because of the Vortigaunt's interference in EP1 and then let Adrian become a member of the resistance or some shit. Hell, have gman use Adrian as a deep cover agent in the combine army to fuck shit up or gather intel like Barney did with the civil protection.
Adrian being of military background makes him a character that can be used to tell unique stories and do different shit with the Half-Life IP, it's just a lot of wasted potential really that makes me upset.
