Half-Life 2: Episode Three

Not to be confused with Half-Life 3.

Half-Life 2: Episode Three is a canceled first-person shooter game developed by Valve. It was planned as the last in a trilogy of episodic games continuing the story of Half-Life 2 (2004). Valve announced Episode Three in May 2006, with a release planned for 2007. Following the cliffhanger ending of Episode Two (2007), it was widely anticipated. Marc Laidlaw, the writer for the Half-Life series, said he intended Episode Three to end the Half-Life 2 story arc.

Half-Life 2: Episode Three
Concept art depicting the Borealis
Developer(s)	Valve Corporation
Publisher(s)	Valve Corporation
Writer(s)	Marc Laidlaw
Series	Half-Life
Engine	Source
Release	Cancelled
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

Valve released little information on Episode Three over the following years, and in 2011 Wired described it as vaporware. Valve eventually canceled it, citing a lack of direction and the limitations of the episodic format. They delayed development of a new Half-Life until their new game engine, Source 2, was complete.

Laidlaw left Valve in 2016. In 2017, he released a short story that journalists interpreted as a summary for what could have been the plot of Episode Three. It followed the protagonist, Gordon Freeman, as he journeyed to the Arctic and boarded the Borealis, an experimental vessel created by Aperture Science. After Laidlaw posted the story, fans launched several projects attempting to recreate Episode Three. After canceling several further Half-Life games, Valve released a virtual reality game, Half-Life: Alyx, in 2020.

Premise

Episode Three was to be the last in a trilogy of episodic games that would continue the story of the 2004 first-person shooter game Half-Life 2.^[1] Episode One was released in 2006, followed by Episode Two in 2007.^[2][3]

Valve's president, Gabe Newell, said he considered the trilogy the equivalent of Half-Life 3.^[4] According to Newell, whereas the original Half-Life (1998) saw the G-Man transform the protagonist, Gordon Freeman, into his tool, and Half-Life 2 saw Freeman being used by G-Man, the episodes would see G-Man lose control.^[4]

Marc Laidlaw, the writer for the Half-Life series, later said he had intended Episode Three to end the Half-Life 2 story arc, at which point he would "step away from it and leave it to the next generation". He planned an ending similar to previous games, with the player character, Gordon Freeman, left in "an indeterminate space, on hold ... So one cliffhanger after another ... I expected every installment would end without resolution, for ever and ever."^[5]

Development

See also: Unreleased Half-Life games

 

Valve president Gabe Newell in 2018

Valve announced Episode Three in May 2006, planning to release it by Christmas 2007.^[1] Concept art surfaced in 2008.^[6][7][8] Valve released little information in the following years; though Valve still discussed Half-Life, there was no clarity on whether further games were coming.^[9]

In 2009, reports surfaced that Valve was working with sign language and on a deaf character. Newell said that Gordon's companion, Alyx Vance, had programmed her pet robot, Dog, to use sign language, inspired by a deaf person she had a crush on.^[10]

In March 2010, Newell spoke of "broadening the emotional palette" of the Half-Life series, and said the next game may return to "genuinely scaring the player".^[11] In 2011, he said: "We went through the episodes phase, and now we're going towards shorter and even shorter cycles ... For me, 'entertainment as a service' is a clear distillation of the episodic content model."^[12] That year, Wired described Episode Three as vaporware.^[13]

Valve eventually abandoned episodic development as they wanted to create more ambitious games. According to the level designer Dario Casali, "We found ourselves creeping ever forward towards, 'Well, let's just keep 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."^[14] The designer Robin Walker said Valve used Half-Life games to "solve some interesting collision of technology and art that had reared itself". Working on Episode Three, they failed to find a unifying idea that provided a sense of "wonderment, or opening, or expansion".^[15] Additionally, Valve had started developing a new game engine, Source 2. As developing Half-Life 2 and the original Source engine simultaneously had created problems, Valve delayed development of a new Half-Life until Source 2 was complete.^[14]

"Epistle 3"

 

Marc Laidlaw, the writer of the Half-Life games until 2016

Laidlaw left Valve in 2016. He said later that he had tired of the first-person shooter genre and had become "less interested in trying to solve the story problems inherent in a Half-Life style of narrative".^[16] In 2017, Laidlaw posted a short story titled "Epistle 3" on his website.^[17] The story features characters with names similar to Half-Life characters, such as "Gertie Fremont" for Gordon Freeman.^[18] Laidlaw described the story as a "snapshot of a dream I had many years ago".^[17]

Substituting the characters with their Half-Life counterparts, "Epistle 3" has Freeman and the Lambda Resistance travel to the Arctic to board the Borealis, a ship with extradimensional technology that allows it to erratically travel through time and space, where they confront a myriad of alternative versions of themselves from different timelines.^[18] The group seizes control of the Borealis and sets it on a collision course with the heart of the Combine empire. They rig it to self-destruct upon impact, annihilating the Combine's home planet and crippling their forces, but the explosion is not sufficient to destroy the Combine or their Dyson Sphere. Alyx is abducted by the G-Man. Just before the Borealis explodes, Gordon is rescued by the Vortigaunts and transported into the far future, with most of the Resistance dead and the success of their uprising left uncertain.^[19][18]

Journalists interpreted the story as a synopsis of what could have been the plot for Episode Three, or for Borealis, another canceled project led by Laidlaw.^[20] Walker denied that the story had been Valve's plan for Episode Three, and said that it was likely just one of many ideas by Laidlaw.^[21] In a 2023 interview, Laidlaw said the story was not representative of Episode Three, as "all the real story development can only happen in the crucible of developing the game". He said he regretted publishing it, as he felt it had created problems for his former colleagues at Valve. He said he had been "deranged" and "completely out of touch" at the time.^[22]

Legacy

Laidlaw's "Epistle 3" story triggered a backlash from fans who took it as evidence that Valve had abandoned the Half-Life series. Some review bombed Valve's game Dota 2 on Steam.^[23] Project Borealis, a fangame based on "Epistle 3", was announced in November 2018.^[24][25][26] The team decided to switch to Unreal Engine due to the lack of updates to Source.^[27] Another team began development of Boreal Alyph, which did not follow "Epistle 3" as closely. They stated their commitment to using the Source engine, describing it as a "constant fight" to modernize the graphics due to the engine's lack of user-friendliness or documentation.^[27]

After canceling several further Half-Life games, Valve released a VR game, Half-Life: Alyx, in 2020.^[28] Walker said the team saw VR as a way to return to the series.^[29] Phil Iwaunik of PCGamesN wrote in 2021 that the cancelation of Episode Three may have benefited the legacy of Half-Life 2, citing the lack of cultural impact of Alyx and the "mystery, speculation and melancholy" of an unfinished sequel.^[30]

References

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2. "Half-Life: Episode One on Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
3. . Metacritic. Archived from the original on February 23, 2010. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
4. Bramwell, Tom (June 6, 2006). "Opening the Valve". Eurogamer. from the original on February 15, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
5. "Marc Laidlaw (Valve) - Interview". Arcade Attack. July 17, 2017. from the original on October 12, 2019. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
6. Ted Backman; Jeremy Bennett; Tristan Reidford (July 9, 2008). "Advisor". Into the Pixel. from the original on October 2, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2008.
7. Decker, Logan (July 10, 2008). "The first concept art from Half-Life 2: Episode Three". PC Gamer. from the original on June 16, 2011. Retrieved July 14, 2008.
8. Chris_D (June 27, 2012). . ValveTime. Archived from the original on August 4, 2012. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
9. "Whatever happened to Half-Life 3? The complete saga so far". PCGamesN. August 25, 2017. from the original on October 21, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
10. McWhertor, Michael (August 7, 2009). "Valve Studying Sign Language For Deaf Half-Life Character". Kotaku. from the original on August 22, 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
11. Brian Warmoth (March 26, 2010). . Archived from the original on March 29, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
12. Rob Crossley (May 9, 2011). "The Valve manifesto". from the original on July 9, 2013. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
13. Calore, Michael (January 3, 2011). "Vaporware 2010: The Great White Duke". Wired. from the original on July 28, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
14. Marks, Tom (March 23, 2020). "Valve Explains Why Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Was Never Made". IGN. from the original on March 23, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
15. "Why Valve Gave Up On 'Multiple' Half-Life 3s". Kotaku. 23 March 2020. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
16. Souppouris, Aaron (May 2, 2017). "Valve has no more 'Half-Life' writers left". Engadget. from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
17. Gilbert, Ben (25 August 2017). "The world's most anticipated game may never come out — so its writer leaked the story". Business Insider. from the original on August 25, 2017. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
18. Robertson, Adi (August 25, 2017). "Marc Laidlaw's coded Half-Life 'fanfic' is probably the closest we'll get to Half-Life 3". The Verge. from the original on August 26, 2017. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
19. Laidlaw, Marc (28 August 2017). . marclaidlaw.com. Archived from the original on 28 August 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
20. Machkovech, Sam (July 9, 2020). "Valve secrets spill over—including Half-Life 3—in new Steam documentary app". Ars Technica. from the original on July 19, 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
21. "Why Valve Gave Up On 'Multiple' Half-Life 3s". Kotaku. 23 March 2020. from the original on March 26, 2020. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
22. Peel, Jeremy (March 1, 2023). . Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on March 2, 2023. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
23. McWhertor, Michael (August 28, 2017). "Steam users are attacking Dota 2 because there's no more Half-Life". Polygon. from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
24. Bailey, Dustin (October 4, 2017). "Project Borealis aims to bring Half-Life 2: Episode 3 to life in Unreal". PCGamesN. from the original on December 28, 2017. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
25. England, Rachel (December 28, 2017). "'Half-Life 3' fan venture 'Project Borealis' is taking shape". Engadget. from the original on December 29, 2017. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
26. Peel, Jeremy (November 19, 2018). "Half-Life 3 is now in the hands of its community, in the form of Project Borealis". PCGamesN. from the original on November 19, 2018. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
27. Reeves, Ben. "The Race To Create Half-Life 3". Game Informer. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
28. McWhertor, Michael (November 21, 2019). "Half-Life: Alyx is Valve's VR-exclusive, full-length prequel to Half-Life 2". Polygon. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
29. Keighley, Geoff (November 21, 2019). "The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx - Behind Closed Doors at Valve Interview". from the original on November 21, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019 – via YouTube.
30. Iwaunik, Phil (2021-11-27). "What if: Half-Life 2: Episode 3 came out in 2007?". PCGamesN. Retrieved 2022-04-15.