Half-Life 2 Episode 3 Plot Revealed

Surprised this wasn't posted here. Although probably found it from other media means by now.



Just note that names were changed so it's not officially Half-Life, but it has been updated by a fan. I'll link boht here:

Marc Laidlaw Epistle 3: http://www.marclaidlaw.com/epistle-3/

Jackathan correcting proper names to Half-Life universe: https://github.com/Jackathan/MarcLaidlaw-Epistle3/blob/master/Epistle3_Corrected.md

 

R.I.P. HL3 even more now.

 

Well, this is basically how HL2 Ep3 would have finished out. HL3 was supposed to follow suit. Obviously it didn't. But yeah, likely HL3 is completely confirmed... er... dead!

 

I think some of the plot for Ep3 was based on the canned plot of HL2 you can read about in Half Life Raising The bar.

 

Wow, what a bummer.

 

Laidlaw version would be truly canon to me. If ever Valve changes the plot I wont care. He gave us the closure we needed. More than us it gave him closure for sure. In any case we will always be indebted to him.

Boy oh boy the plot line was so amazing, in and out of space time and all and a dyson sphere in the midst of it all. Valve royally screwed themselves.

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Fairly satisfying to me, though I obviously would prefer to have played it instead of reading it.

 

Ditto

 

Unfortunately that's probably not true, they are probably making more bank from Steam and Dota than they would from HL3/HL2:Episode3 whatever it would have been.

The way valve is structured there would have to be a huge groundswell of people willing to slog through creating an essentially Single-Player game with very little chance of large-scale micro-transaction strategy. Think CS:GO, TF2, & Dota2 items they take cuts of from the Market. They are BANKING HARDCORE on basically NOTHING. I don't see it happening with the way Valve is currently configured.

The best chance it has is if Laidlaw and Wolpaw start a studio and Valve by some weird and unforeseen conseuqnce licenses it to another studio to build and they can just take their cut in steam sales. But then again... "Unforeseen Consequences.." are not rare in Half-Life.

 

They should just outsource it to someone else to make it. If they can't be bothered, it's a license with a sound history. They could capitalize on it easily by sourcing it to another company and just provide direction and some QC.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing that happen. If that studio could bring Laidlaw and Wolpaw and the gang in to help write it that would even be better.

I can't see Valve doing this, though. It's pretty much their only Single-player story based IP other than Portal. It was also what Valve was BUILT ON. If it wasn't for Half-Life and by proxy the Q/Q2 engine, those guys wouldn't even exist. Most of what they built was on top of id software stuff and acquiring tools built for id software engines. It is somewhat disappointing they aren't finishing the story any time soon, but I totally get why.

 

Nope. I didn't mean valve screwed themselves for money.

(Speculation) If they indeed have stopped hl team, led the team to resign and stuff, all they have done is royally screwed their name in history. If they have not given up, fine. Half life game and lore is more worth than money. I don't beleive all the talk about critical reviews for hl3 would hurt them. It has a massive fan base. If tomorrow they say they will make it in 1998 source engine, I will still buy it in a heartbeat. Its Half life we are talking about.

Just like blue shift or opposing force, valve should lisence it to third party and finish this mess they started. Its embarrassing for such a big company not to deliver on their promise, finish a cult story of HL2. How difficult is it to just finish a 5h gameplay third episode? Not a big deal to lisence. Alas no one will ever know the real story behind this embarrassing position unless somone inside leaks it.

 

I agree. It would be a huge financial success despite even if it will get lots of criticism. I always said that they should have at least just finished Episode 3 with the same game engine as Episode 2, but they kept always wanting to add newer tech to the damn game engine. Just make the damn game.

And if they themselves are not interested in making it, then license it out to someone that can. Hell, let CD Projekt Red do it.

 

I thought they released the plot to HL2:E3 a while ago though?


Edit LOL Hfm beat me to it.

 

Didn't Laidlaw state he was finished with HL?

Leave CDPR out of this! They still need to finish Cyberpunk 2077!!!

 

Yeah he did state that. But he is human. HL is his child. If Valve allows a reputed studio to lisence and make it, and if the company contacts Laidlaw I hope he says ok.

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Agreed. Also I'm not sure they'd be my first choice. Story aside, HL is a very straightforward, fairly linear shooter. Asking a studio like CDPR to do it would be like asking McLaren to build an economical sedan. They'd make something awesome, but it probably wouldn't be what people looking for that want. Give it to a studio that does shooters more.

 

Exactly!

 

I can bet the studio that made the first F.E.A.R will do the right job (good job is not imp). They know how to bring about the story, atmosphere, AI and map design.

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Yeah. Wouldn't u agree the only game that brought a legitimate update in AI, map design, story, atmos, graphics and sound was F.E.A.R 1? I can't think of any other game since HL2 that gave me the same level of cult enjoyment and analysis. think Monolith can do a great job making hl2 ep3.

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Plenty of nostalgia there. I might have to dig those out again.

 

I think you are on to something.
Back in the day FEAR was very impressive game, and its AI is still one of the best, even by today's standards.
You would think game AI would only get better and better with time, but unfortunately it started to go down the drain and most of the shooters today have a stupid AI...

 

I read a while back some developer comments (can't remember which dev) that these can be deliberate decisions. For example, if a game has a high volume of enemies, the AI intentionally is a little stupid to prevent the player from being overwhelmed. Another one was that there was a shift back to emphasizing mechanical skills (headshots) over tactics. I'm with you that it's not that great of a thing though, I like to have to outplay a smaller number of enemies rather than 360 noscope a lot of them.

 

Yeah, I heard that too, I think it was an article on PC Gamer or something, where devs talked about that.
I'm in the same boat as you, smaller amount of enemies, but smarter is better than lots of dumb enemies.
There are instances where lots of dumb AI works well, but for the most games I would prefer smarter AI.

 

Three games with intelligent AI:
Half life
F.E.A.R
Insurgency (if you havent played please do)

In all these games level design varied with no. of enemies. In both cases AI choice was independent of enemy numbers. AI thinks acts and makes choices, whether it's to survive, defend of be on offensive. Insurgency, AI actually flushes your position, create decoy diversion, and comes behind ur back!

But what you said its true. That's how devs are making choices based on target market.

 

In HL you almost didn't have a chance to experience a lot of the AI if memory serves. Reaction times and accuracy made is less likely for an enemy to even reach a flanking point. Agreed on FEAR and my limited experience with Insurgency.

 

I used to play a lot of Insurgency co-op, but local AI never struck me as bright. I did play it last a few years ago, so maybe they changed something.
One of my other favorite co-op games had a very interesting AI - SWAT 4. Sometimes enemy NPC would act very unpredictable. One moment NPC surrenders and them boom, shoots in the face as you get ready to cuff him/her and kills all hostages in the area. Love it. Always keeps you on the edge.

 

In insurgency AI is superior in co-op only. Also AI level is different in various servers. Have played few servers where AI plays literally like humans

Anyways hope Monolith productions reads our posts on Half life 2 ep 3 development!

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I doubt it. They are too busy with loot boxes.

 

I thought Insurgency was primarily multiplayer? No real campaign to speak of?

 

It has a very modular SP mode. Their next game has a full blown SP mode tho.

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Might try it out, it's coming next year, right?

 

So how is the AI good? Do you play against bots in multiplayer?

 

Yes. Co-op against bots. AI is phenomenal depending on server difficulty. I like C.O.N server.

Yea. Their next game using unreal engine hits next yr.


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