Valve Talks About Half-Life 3

There has been rumour after rumour surrounding the Half-Life series, ever since launch back in 1997. Valve hasn’t strictly confirmed nor denied the development of Half-Life 3, but yet more rumours have been doing the rounds on Reddit that a script has been finished, but it won’t be released ‘due to fear’.

When Reddit users reached out to Valve’s Marc Laidlaw, his responses were, interesting.

“I can’t comment on Valve’s internal process, but I can say that it sounds like someone is trolling. Anonymous sources have been posting speculation masquerading as inside knowledge since the Half-Life 1 delay in 1997. If that’s any comfort, please rest assured that in my experience at Valve, fear is the last thing that would ever drive a decision about what to work on”. 

One user asked “If the story is finished, why not release it as a book or a comic”, Laidlaw responded with “There’s a misunderstanding that I’ve always tried to address straight on when this question comes up, which is that a Half-Life story can somehow exist outside of a game. It can’t. The story is created through the process of trying to figure out how to best use the features of the engine within the interesting set of constraints it poses”. 

“The story is a part of the game. It doesn’t exist as a separate script that is handed off to game designers which they are expected to somehow make compelling through puzzles and combat”, he continued. He then finished off by saying “The story develops while trying to solve the problem of how to make a fun game. It’s like saying ‘Why don’t you write a sonnet that’s a novel?’ The Half-Life story is really only as good as the game that lets you play it”.

I don’t quite know what to make of that, has the script been finalised and they’re just waiting on a new game engine to produce it? Is this just a load of lies trying to keep the fire burning? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Thank you to TweakTown for providing us with this information.