Valve put out a doc for Half-Life 2’s 20th anniversary last weekend, and actually showed footage and concept art from Episode 3. So naturally my feeds started buzzing with “Episode 3” news.
Almost 20 years on, I’m pretty over this idea of more Half-Life at this point, though it would still be pretty seismic if this thing ever DID drop. But hearing “we couldn’t find any cool new mechanical tricks and didn’t feel like making a game just for the story” is such a wild take after ending Ep 2 on a cliffhanger.
honestly though, its not a bad reasoning. rather have game that is good than a game thats just a plot closer.
But…. why not both?
It’s an argument somewhat lessened by the fact that they weren’t exactly pushing the boundaries of gameplay innovation with the episodes. That said, I don’t really think that they would have ended Episode 3 with much of anything in the form of real closure, so I’m not actually *that* bothered it never came out.
What not enough people realise is that story in video games can be great slash important, and there are some of us who’d rather be able to enjoy even a mid story with good gameplay than a good game with no story BotW and TotK are two of my least favourite Zelda games because their stories were crap compared to past entries in the franchise. I don’t enjoy most open world games because I’ve never seen one where the story was engaging. Xenoblade style is the closest I’ve gotten to enjoying an ‘open world’, and I love those games. “Just… Read more »
Well, “Epistle Three” (the draft made for Episode 3 published on the author’s site – you can google it) was neither good or bad. If it would become the Episode 3, as intended, it would probably be a bit underwhelming compared to the previous instalments. I felt slightly disappointed by it (didn’t explain much), but it was the first draft that never got to be further worked on.
At this point we cannot confirm or deny any connection to the crowbar throwing of last comic.
At this stage, as much as people say they want it… I think it’s better left alone.
It’s had almost two decades of hopes being built, expectations being grown, and anticipation going rabid. There is no version of Episode 3, with any amount of polish or features, that could remotely live up to the hype now.
Let sleeping dogs lie, I say. Better to have Half Life sat on its pedestal forevermore than to take it down with a sequel that could never meet fan’s expectations.
From a gameplay perspective, if it’s a fun game without a lot of bugs they’d be fine.
From a story perspective however.. The kind of overarching story that HL employs relies heavily on the mystery. It’s *really* fucking hard to end a story like that well. It’s really easy to explain too little, making it unsatisfying, or too much, making it mundane. This is aside from the fact that it’s really easy to have your story “jump the shark” in this scenario.
Unpopular opinion, but I find the Half Life series to be overrated. They were good games, sure, but not epic, much less genre-defining experiences some people make them out to be, like Ultima Online was for MMOs or Doom for shooters.
I’m yet to meet a gamer where another HF installment is in their top 5 most wanted sequels to buy.