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by zavertnik
947 days ago
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(no spoiler) From a storytelling perspective, Half Life 2 Episode 2 (the last mainline Half-Life game which Half-Life 3 was expected to be the sequel for) sets up Half-Life 3 as a proper ending to the game's story and confirmed by Mark Laidlaw's release of Epistle 3. I can see why they wouldn't want to rush quickly to the exit but at the same time, HL2E2 left them without much wiggle room. This issue alone is addressed in Half-Life Alyx. From Valve's perspective, the Half-Life property is pretty valuable and its served them well as a means of demonstrating the newest source engine updates with a ton of hype bootstrapped because it is Half-Life. Despite it's popularity, Half-Life is a delicate property in the sense that the story hinges on a lot of unknowns that are not revealed straight forwardly, similarly to LOST, the lack of detail stokes that mystery to the audience's delight, because they know there will be a big payoff that explains these mysteries at the end of the tunnel. That's a lot of pressure for the writers room @ Valve, especially so considering the development process of the game engine/assets itself. It works for Valve. It sucks for fans, but the alternative is ending the property early or extending the property far beyond its intended shelf life. As long as I live to see the end of the narrative, I'll be happy. If not, then valve pls fix. |
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They have noone else but themselves to blame for writing themselves into a corner. LOST is another example why you should absolutely not write a Mistery without knowing how it plays out before releasing the first part. Most importantly, it does not excuse their shitty cummunication about the development status of Episode 3 - to this day they have not formally acknowledged its cancellation. And all the vague hints at a sequel throughout the years which amounted to nothing are just abusive. Any hack can use the unknown with a promise of a future reveal to lure an audience but if you don't even have what you promise to reveal yourself then you are not better than a snakeoil salesman. Selling a promise you don't know you can keep is a scam, simple as.
Although with valve specifically I don't even believe that they couldn't manage to tie the story up but rather that they can afford not to - because they have found a more profitable business in selling other people's games as well as a few gambling simulators of their own rather than making single player games themselves. That alone would be sad but at least understandable - what's less OK is gaslighting their fans instead of coming clean about their plans.
> As long as I live to see the end of the narrative, I'll be happy. If not, then valve pls fix.
Good for you but many fans have died waiting for a sequel. Many more have moved on.