When requested to clarify why Valve by no means made Half-Life 2: Episode 3 for the current twentieth anniversary documentary, Gabe Newell stated that he “could not work out why doing Episode 3 was pushing something ahead.”
For the Valve founder, the Half-Life video games cannot simply push Gordon Freeman’s story ahead. They must push videogames ahead in a method or one other. So, if Half-Life 3 ever occurs (or Episode 3, however that ship has most likely sailed), what would it not ‘push ahead’?
It is a query that hasn’t gotten simpler to reply within the time since Valve cancelled Episode 3.
The unique Half-Life modified the best way tales have been advised in video games, increasing on potential for narrative FPSes solely hinted at by Unreal, and was nigh inarguably the finest recreation of its variety in its day. After which Valve by some means did it once more with Half-Life 2, breaking new floor for the narrative FPS with its novel physics and top-shelf dramatic storytelling.
Lastly, though it wasn’t the massive numbered entry folks may need hoped for, Half-Life: Alyx was one more technological marvel that helped show the potential of VR.
Assuming that ‘VR once more, however even higher’ is not the plan for regardless of the subsequent Half-Life factor is (though rumor has it that Valve’s bought an all-in-one headset coming), there are just a few prospects for the place Valve’s consideration lies, a minimum of by way of technological innovation.
Over a decade in the past, Valve toyed round with the concept of biofeedback in video games, an concept that also principally seems in toyish novelties at the moment, although it is gaining extra traction. Essentially the most putting instance from Valve was a demo of Portal 2 utilizing the participant’s eyes to manage in-game perspective, nevertheless it additionally tried a model of Left 4 Lifeless 2 the place stress ranges have been monitored to dynamically change encounters. It may be previous tech, however so is VR, which has had an extremely lengthy and sluggish journey towards mainstream enchantment.
After which there are the extra controversial candidates. Generative AI is a giant matter nowadays, and whereas its functions in gaming to this point have primarily been within the type of empty guarantees, there have been some discussions about how AI may be used to help growth in a considerate, temperate method.
There have additionally been efforts to include generative AI instantly into video games, corresponding to with the AI NPCs Nvidia has been demoing, however Valve must make big artistic and technical leaps to get that form of factor out of tech demos and right into a recreation in a method that’s truly good, particularly in a collection recognized for telling coherent(ish) narratives. Regardless of the breathless claims of the AI business, we do not even know if such a factor is feasible, even when Valve did secretly have some sensible machine studying division.
AI nonetheless feels too experimental to be the factor Valve is fixated on, though it appears affordable to guess that the developer may very well be engaged on one thing associated to procedural era that is not essentially tied to LLMs or machine studying.
Blockchain buying and selling is the opposite controversial current tech growth, and Valve does not enable it in Steam video games—it is bought its personal Steam Market, in any case—so it is an especially unlikely candidate for Valve’s pursuits.
One clue may be in Valve’s current {hardware} improvements: the Steam Deck and the Steam Hyperlink. Sport streaming and handheld gaming definitely seem to be they’re right here to remain when in comparison with another large traits, though it is arduous to think about how they could inform the design of a brand new Half-Life in a method that pushes issues ahead—handhelds have been round a very long time. Though, if Nintendo can promote me on the potential of Pleasure-Cons after movement controls have been so finicky for thus lengthy, possibly Valve could make magic occur with one thing solely the Steam Deck’s trackpads and paddles can allow.
I believe novel management inputs are all the time value exploring, whether or not we’re speaking a couple of bespoke arcade cupboard or the Playdate’s crank, and my instinct tells me there must be one thing that is solely attainable with a dual-trackpad-with-paddles setup. Or come to consider it, possibly what Half-Life 3 actually wants is a crank.
It is attainable that Valve is considering ‘pushing issues ahead’ ultimately that does not primarily must do with know-how—design, storytelling, construction—though tech has all the time been a giant element of Half-Life video games. Half-Life 2’s physics puzzles and characters who truly regarded one thing like human beings aren’t such a giant deal now, however they have been in 2004.
Even when Half-Life 3 by no means occurs, the primary two will all the time be among the many most celebrated and evocative video games ever created, so it is arduous to really feel underserved. Let’s simply hope they get crank assist quickly.
