The third entry in Valve’s classic first-person shooter series, Half-Life 3, allegedly exists, and it features a semi-open world.
Content creator Gabe Follower posted a brand new video on his YouTube channel, in which he goes into detail about the development challenges and future direction of the Half-Life franchise, particularly focusing on the elusive Half-Life 3 and other related projects at Valve.
According to Follower, during a closed video conference in October 2020, Gabe Newell discussed the difficulties Valve faced while attempting to develop a full-fledged entry in the Half-Life series. The content creator mentioned that the developers encountered significant issues with the Source 2 engine, which was not sufficiently developed for a project as large as Half-Life 3. As a result, every time the team hit a dead end, it led to frustration, and eventually the team members would part ways. Some developers wanted to switch to other game engines like Unreal or Unity, while others insisted on refining Source 2 before revisiting their original work. The release of Half-Life: Alyx was a crucial test to push the limits of the engine and was successful enough to allow Valve to focus on further improvements and future development.
Follower further mentioned that, in 2021, a credible source shared internal information about Valve’s projects, which aligned with previous leaks. This led to the release of a video that accurately described “Neon Prime” and provided details about HLX, which is considered a direct continuation of Half-Life: Alyx and could likely be Half-Life 3. Initially designed for VR, the project later transitioned to non-VR. Development began shortly before Half-Life: Alyx was announced, particularly when the ending, which linked to Half-Life 2: Episode Two, was being written.
As per the content creator, numerous advanced technologies and mechanics are being developed for Source 2, which are likely intended for the unannounced title. This includes gravity manipulation, which will affect the entire environment and give rise to new gameplay possibilities., advanced AI and behavior, which will allow NPCs to react to the player’s actions and engage in more realistic and expressive interactions, and procedural animation, particularly in speech and facial expressions in order to improve the realism of character interactions. Lastly, Half-Life 3 is said to feature a semi-open world with dynamic weather, day-night cycles, and advanced vehicle systems.
Recently, Actor Natasha Chandel’s resume on her website mentioned a game codenamed Project White Sands, which is in development at Valve. Content creator Tyler McVicker believes this title is in fact Half-Life 3.
