When Half-Life 2 came out it not only lived up to the legacy created by its predecessor, but created a league of its own. Everything about the game was perfect, and the series had thus revolutionized the FPS genre twice. Half-Life 3 is definitely in the works and there is good reason why Valve is so silent about it. In order to live up to the hype and expectations, Half Life 3 needs to be extraordinary and it has to be a powerful amalgamation of art and technology. “These things, they take time”.
1. Why there’s no EP3 till date
In 2007, Valve was in the process of developing EP3 and they had promised its release not long after EP2. The same year, Unreal Engine 3 and Cryengine 2 came out and they obviously shadowed Source engine, making it look inferior. Source wouldn’t even stand a chance to compete against these 2 engines, maybe that’s why they decided to withdraw their next episode. People had experienced games like Bioshock and Crysis, games that gave a whole new level of experience. Not much later, we started getting games from the Mass Effect series or the Call of Duty MW series, which brought an insane multiplayer. Eventually, Bad Company followed, along with various other smash hits. If Valve would have released the next Episode, they would have been disloyal to their fan base. Additionally, they would have been dropping the ball quality-wise, as the engine was not on par anymore.
2. Venturing into other IP’s. Growth of Steam
Although Source was getting old, its unique build allowed dev’s to put small upgrades to it. Valve had to develop new IP’s in order to expand. Portal and TF2 shipped along with the orange box, and the reason why there were 5 games included at the price of a single game was not only to make consumers happy and to gain popularity, but also to promote Steam. Whoever purchased the Orange box was forced to install steam, make an account and use the product. This was a clever strategy, and the guys at Valve proved that they are not only great game developers, but also powerful business-oriented individuals.
In order to grow, they had to make money. Left 4 dead was brilliant, and it not only sold units, but also attracted new players who had never experienced the gaemplay of a Valve game. TF2 became F2P and so did DOTA 2. Portal 1 was like a test bed – they witnessed the success and thus decided to give it an uplift, developing a full sequel with its own deep personality and story. As a platform, Steam also attracted many developers and their growth is estimated at 50% annually.
3. So much growth, but still no EP3 or HL3!
The gaming market and industry is a harsh environment. When you fail, you’re gone. Just look Piranha Bytes and their bankruptcy, or at ID software and how they got sold. This happened due to a lack of imaginative ideas. Doom 3 was the best game ID has ever worked on. On the other hand, Quake 4 was an entirely different story. Not that the game was necessarily bad, but it wasn’t great either. It was a standard shooter that often had the feeling of an IDtech 4 mod rather than a fully dedicated stand alone game. The engine was stale and it was clear that IDtech4 couldn’t render outdoor environments. The community hated it (probably because of exceedingly high expectations). It was sad to see the kind of treatment Quake received, as it was supposed to be the game that shifted the entire industry.
Following the Quake fiasco, Wolfenstein came out, and it was a blight! What was ID thinking? Wolf3D had a legendary stature that they at least needed to match, but instead, the reboot a pale shadow of the original. RTCW was such an amazing game and it had come out at the perfect time when IDtech 3 was at its peak.
Rage…causing rage!
Rage was a well-suited name for the id Tech 5 engine based game, mainly because anyone playing Rage on the PC felt exactly that – rage. Carmack apologized, its clear that they ran out of Ideas, there is no doubt that Rage had a stellar art direction but they failed in the presentation, they failed in the story department and they also failed technologically. Not only did the graphics looked outdated when released, the engine was riddled with technical issues. Because of these shortcomings, the company died out and eventually got taken over by other people that had seen the potential in their IP’s. Even now, as they are working on Doom 4, the company had to scrap the project and start over because it was not meeting the standards of an ideal FPS, nor did it retain the personality of a Doom from any angle.
4.Purpose of Steam OS and Steam Machines.
Valve is waiting for technology to reach a certain level, and they want to bring that technology, along with Half Life 3 to the living room once it does. This will expand their market presence and could also provide PC grade gaming with a chance of having an edge over consoles. The steam controller looks innovative as hell and will roll out eventually. This will bring more business to the company, modders will get a platform to showcase their creativity, indie developers will also get an opportunity to reach out to more people, there will be better deals and sales, and these will ultimately come to the benefit of gamers. Linux has great potential, uses less resources. Back in the day, ID software had seen the potential in PC gaming, when others believed that it was nothing more than a grey box.
We’ve only seen the hardware capabilities so far. The potential is there, and the possibility of a Source engine built specifically for a Linux OS sounds incredibly appealing. Half Life 3 especially optimized for Linux-based Steam Machines, with a well-built controller? Yes please!
5. Conclusion
Valve are honest to the fans and they are surely developing Half Life 3. They are just silent about it. Half Life 2 could have been better in many regards, but some awesome ideas were held back due to technical limitations. A good example would be the concept that the walls of the citadel were supposed to be an active AI, which could react with the environment. Many things had different mechanics but they never crossed the drawing board. Many more concepts were scrapped. Maybe source 2 will allow the devs to do things which were impossible to achieve with Source 1.
Valve’s pipeline is there to ensure that new ideas have room. The next Source engine may feature dynamic environments, in fact, everything will be dynamic. Physics will be very realistic. Imagine smashing an ice berg with a rigid object using the gravity gun. It will not only break the ice, but the fragments of ice that break off will melt in the water. The Half Life 3 AI promises to be so intelligent, that it will stop feeling like an AI and will start feeling like a human player. Features will include advanced NPC interaction, huge battles, a new type of lighting system, a new type of sound system that builds towards complete immersion, new animations, NPCs with unique personalities, multiple endings, dynamic story progression, open world game play with the feel of a single player narrative and dynamic choice effects.
They are taking time with Half Life 3, that’s for sure, but they are definitely working on a marvel that is going to bring about a gaming revolution once more.
Keep in mind that this is an opinion piece. I may be wrong in my forecast, I may be right in some aspects. What do you think about the future of Valve and Half Life 3? Share your thoughts, good or bad, and let me know!