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HL2-Photo

It's been only shy of a decade since Valve released One-half Life two: Episode 2. Gamers take slowly come to grips with the fact that Valve is never going to make a Half-Life three, any more than information technology's going to brand a Left For Expressionless 3, or well, pretty much whatsoever other AAA game of note. Valve is a publisher, not a programmer, and it's focused on esports similar DOTA ii. Not a great situation.

Marc Laidlaw, the former Valve employee who was responsible for writing Half-Life, has released a full synopsis of the plot using renamed characters to avoid any kind of copyright infringement — but a brave soul has taken his blog post, shuffled in the correct grapheme names, and posted information technology online. The synopsis takes the grade of a letter, written past one Gordon Freeman to a person (not listed in the Pastebin version) referred to as "Beloved Playa." The start paragraph is below:

I hope this letter finds you well. I tin can hear your complaint already, "Gordon Freeman, we have not heard from yous in ages!" Well, if you lot care to hear excuses, I have plenty, the greatest of them being I've been in other dimensions and whatnot, unable to achieve you by the usual ways. This was the case until 18 months ago, when I experienced a disquisitional change in my circumstances, and was redeposited on these shores. In the time since, I have been able to call up occasionally about how best to depict the intervening years, my years of silence. I do kickoff repent for the await, and that washed, hasten to finally explain (albeit briefly, quickly, and in very little detail) events following 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 full general. As implied by the end of Episode Two, Episode 3 would've focused on the search for the Borealis, a vessel that could agree the central to allowing the Resistance (the group of humans and Vortigaunts fighting back confronting the Combine) to button the Combine off of Earth. Just the Combine has its own reason for seeking the craft — and it'due south not just to proceed humans from possessing information technology.

Borealis_Ep2

The Borealis, every bit seen in Episode Ii of Half-Life

The ending is surprisingly grim and its outcome was apparently meant to be the effective stop to Gordon Freeman's adventures. Equally Laidlaw writes: "Except [sic, likely 'wait] no further correspondence from me regarding these matters; this is my terminal episode."

Whether the long-term program was to create future HL games based around a new protagonist or not is something we'll never know. It's also not articulate if this blog post represents the last form of HL3's story, or just where Laidlaw was in the artistic process when the game was effectively put on ice. Valve was never shy about revamping aspects of a game's plot to make information technology menstruum meliorate; Tem Fortress 2 was originally a realistic (equally realistic every bit you can get in the early 2000s, anyway) game with standard military gear and uniforms. Valve didn't similar the manner the game was shaping up and revamped it with the vivid, stylized cartoon feel that withal remains today. Nevertheless, this blog post does offer some closure to the plight of Gordon Freeman, and what happened to him after the events of Episode Ii. Given that Valve is highly unlikely to ever make an HL3, it may be the all-time we ever go.