Half Life 3, is There any Point?

Last week was all about GTA, but some of you may have caught a glimpse on some news from Valve. They are reportedly working on a new engine, what is most probably, Source 2. For those of you who don’t know, Source is Valve’s video game engine. They have been using it since their conception and with tweaks and mods, it has even been able to survive a jump in generation. Without getting into a lot of nerdy detail, game engines are the building blocks behind a game. It is a piece of software that allows games to easily and quickly made. It is within an engine that games are created, making it easier to create physics and visual models, amongst other things. 

However, whenever Valve makes any announcement it always involves Half Life 3 speculation. If you don’t know what Half Life is, God help you. Since Half Life 2’s gripping ending in episode two, fans of the series have been clamouring away at Valve’s headquarters like the infected from Left 4 Dead, trying to get Valve to satisfy our thirst for Half Life. But yet, no luck, the last five years have been littered with all kinds of speculation of a sequel to Half Life 2 Episode 2, of which Valve has rarely commented. It seems that every E3, Gamescom and every other gaming event is filled with ideas about Valve’s appearance at the shows and what they may be unveiling. However, Half Life 3’s existence seems to be as elusive as that of the G Man.

I'm here one minute, gone the next...

Though the recent announcement of Source 2 may suggest that Half Life 3 could kick it off, the community seems to be disheartened. It would make sense that this is where Half Life 3 begins, a new generation, a new engine, just as with the original Half Life. Despite this, after five long years of anguish and disappointment, people seem to be giving up on the idea. It seems more and more likely that the game may never come, and maybe that’s the way it should be.

So maybe Half Life 3 should never be made (cue a roar from and angry mob of Valve fans at my door). Sure it sounds mad, but maybe it should stay a memory. Currently the Half Life franchise is untainted and amazing, heralding a change in the industry, a revolution. On its release some called it the greatest PC game ever made, and some would still maintain that. But making sequels is always a risk. Developers need new ideas that keep the series fresh (Modern Warfare 3 anyone?), while not angering fan-boys who love the quirks of the original. Sequels must keep current fans happy, while also attracting new ones to the franchise. This is a particular problem with strategy and simulation games, where current fans want more complexity, whereas new players want to be able to jump right in. You wouldn’t be mistaken for thinking that sequels are a cop-out in the media industry. The film studios have been using them for decades as a means to not producing totally new ideas, and video games have been doing the same.

The problem is, two factors can affect expectations of a sequel from its fans, the quality of the original and the length of time people are waiting, both of which only pile the pressure on Valve. When the original is of such a high quality, obviously people expect the sequel to be at least the quality of the previous. With Half Life 2 being called “the best PC game of all time”, its easy to see why this increases the expectation of HL3. Also, with five and soon to be six years gone by, people expect more. Technology advances, the developer continues to learn and expand on their knowledge. As people wait, they start to have imaginations and dreams of what a sequel may be like, what it may entail. Also, other high quality games come out, there is stiff competition, competition which only increases every year. We live in a world where mediocre video games no longer cut it. As fans we expect the best, and nothing less.

"Look Daddy, another modern time, realistic, fast-paced FPS"

We’ve seen games not live up to their hype, not make quite the same impact as the sequel. When the Modern Warfare part of the Call of Duty series was released, it was a huge hit (and still is). It changed the landscape of first person shooters just as Halo had done before it. It made modern, realistic gun fights cool and brought in shoot, quick kill, kill another million style play. Yet alas, after Modern Warfare 2, the quality dipped. Both Treyarch and Infinity Ward failed to innovate as they had before, the genre they had made popular had enveloped them, and turned them into “just another FPS”. Black Ops and MW3 were nowhere near to the standards of their predecessors, with Black Ops II having mixed reviews as to whether it has revitalised the franchise.

Games that have suffered from long waits have also suffered in poor quality. Most recently and notably appears to be Duke Nukem (it took) Forever (to come out). Duke Nukem 3D had a strong fan base back in the 90s and Duke Nukem Forever was an inevitability. However, problem, after problem, after problem meant DNF was almost dead and buried, never to see the light of day again. Of course, someone thought it right to bring it back, just as it was conceived back in the dawn of the dinosaurs. DNF was released as if it was supposed to be released ten years ago. The physics were clunky, the gameplay was dated and the ideas just weren’t fresh. The problem with making a game that was originally thought of a long time ago, is that it comes out as that game. Since the video game market is so dynamic, you just can’t do that.

The odds are stacked against Valve if they really do decide to make Half Life 3 (I’m not holding my breath for it though), chances are something about the game will mean it doesn’t have the same effect as Half Life 2. The probability is that it won’t impact the industry in the same way. The likelihood is, is that it won’t be the game we were expecting. But if there’s any company that can pull it off, it’s one that is dynamic, one that manages to stay ahead of the game, one that lives up to expectations. It’s the company that brought you Portal, Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead. It’s the company that revitalised PC gaming with Steam. If I’m to trust any developer to give Half Life 3 the justice it deserves, I’m glad it’s Valve.