This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of employ.

HL2-Photo

It's been just shy of a decade since Valve released Half Life 2: Episode ii. Gamers have slowly come to grips with the fact that Valve is never going to make a Half-Life three, any more than information technology'due south going to make a Left For Dead 3, or well, pretty much whatsoever other AAA game of annotation. Valve is a publisher, not a developer, and it'southward focused on esports similar DOTA 2. Non a keen situation.

Marc Laidlaw, the former Valve employee who was responsible for writing One-half-Life, has released a full synopsis of the plot using renamed characters to avert any kind of copyright infringement — merely a brave soul has taken his blog postal service, shuffled in the correct grapheme names, and posted it online. The synopsis takes the grade of a letter of the alphabet, written by i Gordon Freeman to a person (not listed in the Pastebin version) referred to as "Dearest Playa." The showtime paragraph is below:

I hope this letter of the alphabet finds yous well. I can hear your complaint already, "Gordon Freeman, we take not heard from you in ages!" Well, if you care to hear excuses, I have enough, the greatest of them beingness I've been in other dimensions and whatnot, unable to reach yous by the usual means. This was the case until eighteen months agone, when I experienced a critical change in my circumstances, and was redeposited on these shores. In the fourth dimension since, I accept been able to recall occasionally most how best to describe the intervening years, my years of silence. I do showtime apologize for the await, and that done, hasten to finally explain (albeit briefly, quickly, and in very trivial item) events post-obit those described in my previous game (referred to herewith as Episode 2).

I don't want to spoil the story, so I'll go on my remarks general. As implied past the end of Episode II, Episode Iii would've focused on the search for the Borealis, a vessel that could agree the primal to allowing the Resistance (the group of humans and Vortigaunts fighting back against the Combine) to push button the Combine off of World. Merely the Combine has its own reason for seeking the arts and crafts — and it'due south not just to proceed humans from possessing it.

Borealis_Ep2

The Borealis, as seen in Episode II of One-half-Life

The catastrophe is surprisingly grim and its consequence was apparently meant to be the effective end to Gordon Freeman'southward adventures. As Laidlaw writes: "Except [sic, likely 'expect] no further correspondence from me regarding these matters; this is my final episode."

Whether the long-term plan was to create future HL games based around a new protagonist or not is something nosotros'll never know. It's too non articulate if this web log post represents the terminal form of HL3's story, or only where Laidlaw was in the creative procedure when the game was effectively put on ice. Valve was never shy near revamping aspects of a game'south plot to make it flow improve; Tem Fortress two was originally a realistic (as realistic equally yous can get in the early 2000s, anyway) game with standard military gear and uniforms. Valve didn't like the manner the game was shaping up and revamped it with the brilliant, stylized cartoon feel that still remains today. Still, this weblog post does offer some closure to the plight of Gordon Freeman, and what happened to him after the events of Episode Two. Given that Valve is highly unlikely to always make an HL3, it may be the all-time we e'er get.