After years of waiting, fans are finally convinced that Half-Life 3 is real and coming soon. I count myself among their number – enough signs point to the long-awaited, once-cancelled sequel being in development that it doesn't even seem like a cop-out anymore. This is real and hopeful.
My hot take? We'll know if Half-Life 3 has any juice within minutes of the game starting. No series opens quite like Half-Life, and if Valve can nail those first moments in Gordon's HEV suit, it'll be a good indicator that we're in for something special.
After two months of unprecedented hype, Half-Life 3 will probably not be announced until 2025
Don't get your hopes up for The Game Awards.
Inbound for Black Mesa glory
Valve has been a master of first impressions since its debut game. Half-Life's opening level, Black Mesa Inbound, is one of the most iconic missions in all of gaming. Valve drops the player on Gordon Freeman's tram commute to a desert laboratory in New Mexico, and leaves you there for minutes as you slowly make your way through your surroundings.
It's not a cutscene because you have full control of Gordon, and that control means you'll never lose focus if you take your hands off the keyboard. You survey the facility as Gordon does, and slowly make your way into the belly of the beast: a sprawling complex where you'll spend the next ten hours. It's as immersive an intro as I've ever seen, and the best game intros (like BioShock's entries in Rapture and Columbia) have used it as a base.
The same is true of Half-Life 2, which begins in motion as G-Man puts Garden on a train en route to City 17. It's the riff you should know in the first game, and the train ride ends as quickly as it begins. Now that you've arrived, it's time to uncover the city proper, as you walk off the train, past dystopian videos of Wallace Breen – who sold out humanity in exchange for the role of middle manager of the Combine – play as he narrates the horrors of life after an alien invasion. City 17 is a classic video game creation, with a combination of Eastern European architecture and exotic structures such as the citadel that now towers over the city.
Half-Life : Alyx also realizes the iconic power of that structure, and begins watching Alyx from her balcony. The game trades the in-motion set-ups of previous games because, in VR, strapping on a headset completes immersion much faster than a slow train ride. Instead, Valve gives us a city bustling with combine activity.
But before we get to that, we get to Alyx's hideout, a place full of doodads to show off the unique power of VR. There's a radio antenna to extend, plenty of pop cans to throw around, and dry-erase markers you can use to write on windows overlooking the city. It's a perfect encapsulation of the game's approach to play and quickly shows how many possibilities for new ideas this medium brings to the table.
beginning and end
Half-Life has been consistently good at the opening, but Valve has only gotten better at the end. Although the first two games have fairly lackluster conclusions, the episode was a slight step up, ending on the excitement of a train derailment as Alix and Gordon escape to City 17. But Episode 2 is one of the best and most iconic endings in all of video games. The cliffhanger closes the game (and, for more than a decade, half-life as a series), on a note of incredible disappointment, when the Combine mentor appears and kills Ellie Vance, leaving her daughter to cry over her dead body.
It was the end of Knockout and Half-Life: Alix drew his power from the reversal of that final scene. Alyx eventually reaches the strange, floating object suspended above City 17 to discover that it is a prison for the G-Man. He showed her a possible future where her father died, and Alix chose to change it, replacing herself in her father's place. Except instead of being killed, she's kidnapped, and Gordon and Ally finish the game determined to track her down.
This gives Half-Life 3 an interesting starting point. Instead of dealing with the consequences of Eli's death, Gordon will now work with Eli to find Alix. Valve struggled to follow up Episode 2 for years, but Alyx's ending feels like an infusion of energy that could propel Half-Life 3 into its opening hours. We know that Valve is now capable of great endings. And the developer has long been ranked best in openings. If it serves up an opener as instantly immersive as the previous three full-lengths, I'll know we're in good hands. I can't wait to see how a train rolls in.
A new half-life means I need a new PC
My five year old laptop just doesn't cut it.
