One of the more famed jokes among video game fans is that Valve doesn’t know how to count to the number three. There will probably never be a so-called Half-life 3and Half-Life 2 the episodes stopped at two. But thanks to a novel document, we have a reason why we never got there Half-Life 2: Episode 3.
In Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Documentarypublished last week on YouTube, past and present Valve developers present the history of this classic shooter. The philosophy of the episodes that accompanied the main game was “do more with less.” So Episode 1 had Alyx follow you throughout the game as an energetic companion and players first encountered Hunters Episode 2.
Technology continued to be at the center of events Episode 3 it looked really ambitious in terms of features. Developers interviewed for the documentary said they had some concepts in mind for the final installment, such as setting the action in the Arctic with a novel ice cannon that would allow for the creation of shapes such as ice walls and shelves, and that it took about six months to develop months. However, due to all these features, it will still be a few years before it can be released.
Then 4 left dead became a priority. The valve fell off Episode 3 work on it, but once it was finished, the developers felt it was too tardy to go back. Valve engineer David Speyrer said it was “tragic and almost comical” that “it took long enough that before we even considered going back to Episode 3, argued along the lines of, “Well, we missed it. Now it’s too tardy.
It was also discussed that the team would need a novel engine for the final episode, although Spreyer stated that in hindsight this was “very wrong”. Valve founder Gabe Newell said that simply moving the story forward is not enough.
“Yes, of course they love the story; they love many, many aspects of him. But you could say that the reason you do it is because people want to know what happens next… We could ship it, it wouldn’t be that hard. My personal failure has been embarrassed. I couldn’t understand why I was doing this Episode 3 pushed anything forward.”
In addition, a relatively petite team of developers was interested in other technologies. Ultimately this would lead to Half-Life: Alyxa spinoff exclusive to VR.
The documentary also includes other fun tidbits about fan-favorite elements of the game and how it came about. Here is a partial list.
- In the beginning, the game was much darker visually, especially in the early concept art.
- The team felt Half-Life 2 moved away from its more horror roots and the iconic Ravenholm level was born.
- The Half-Life 2 the hovercraft was a great way to get around, but the game testers didn’t want to stay on the boat, so Valve had to create rewards and missions to thank these players.
- Valve almost went bankrupt before the game even came out, thanks to a distribution-focused Vivendi lawsuit. However, an intern who knew Korean after reading some of the documents concluded that Vivendi had engaged in illegal activities, leading to Valve halting the lawsuit.
- The game, exclusive to Ravenholm, was developed by Arkane Lyon.
