Gabe Newell states Half-Life 2: Episode 3 didn't take place since he was ‘baffled'
/ Valve's co-founder states he might never ever determine ‘why Episode 3 was pressing anything forward.'
By Wes Davis, a weekend editor who covers the current in tech and home entertainment. He has actually composed news, evaluations, and more as a tech reporter given that 2020.
Nov 16, 2024, 5:55 PM UTC
Unsurprisingly, the other day's huge Half-Life release wasn't the follow up to Half-Life 2 and even the 3rd Half-Life 2: Episode entry, however a 20th-anniversary upgrade to Valve's famous 2004 video game. And offered what studio co-founder Gabe Newell needs to state on the topic in a 2-hour documentary that the business launched in tandem with the upgrade, it appears less most likely than ever that we'll be seeing either follow-up anytime quickly.
Newell discusses what he calls his “individual failure” near completion of the video (at this timestamp):
You can't get lazy and state, “oh, we're moving the story forward.” That's copping out of your obligatiion to players? Yes, obviously they enjoy the story. They like numerous, numerous elements of it. Sort of stating that your factor to do it is since individuals desire to understand what occurs next … you understand, we might've delivered it, like, it would not have actually been that tough. You understand, the failure was– my individual failure was being baffled. Like, I could not find out why doing Episode 3 was pressing anything forward.
That's not to state the business didn't attempt One concept for Episode 3 consisted of an “Ice Gun” that Engineer David Speyrer states in the documentary would've let gamers spray “amorphous shapes” that might act as barriers, platforms, or perhaps “Silver Surfer mode” courses that they would shoot in front of themselves to cross spaces. Speyrer likewise discusses “blob” opponents that might move through grates or divided into smaller sized “head-crabby things.”
Speyrer and other Valve workers included in the video echo Newell's belief that they simply could not come up with concepts that appeared worth a brand-new Half-Life video game. Among its level designers stated something comparable in a 2020 IGN interview. He likewise blamed “scope creep”– the propensity of a task to gradually grow beyond its initial strategy– and the business wishing to start on establishing the Source 2 engine that drives VR prequel Half-Life: Alyx
“Newell sees Half-Life 2 as an engine, a platform, or at finest an entire market unto itself,” video gaming reporter Geoff Keighley, who Newell when offered an essential card for Valve's studios and informed to “do whatever you desire,” composed for Gamespot in 2016. Innovative blocks aside, maybe Valve simply has a lot of larger fish to fry
