Concerns and Thoughts over future Half Life game/s/

sharkyshu

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Okay, so I want to share with the rest of you guys some concerns that I have about futre HL games.

So we all know there won't be Episode 3. Valve are done with the episodic thing, so what we will get some day is Half Life 3. Probably with a brand new revolutionary engine - Source 2. Here is my first problem. If Source 2 is ground breaking as Source was back in 2004 wouldn't that make everything different? Would future HL game keep the same feeling I had back in the day when playing HL2 and its episodes for the first time? How are Valve going to make that connection between the "old" and the "new" in terms of story, characters, gaming experience, etc. ? Because that situation is not like the one between Half Life 1 and Half Life 2. (where they were two completely separate games) Here the story ends with a massive cliffhanger (Ep2) and the episodes themselvers weren't exactly a whole game like HL2 (to me at least) I would have loved to see Episode 3 with the Source engine once more, conclude the three episodes , then move on to HL3 or whatever. Only then would I feel okey with a new engine and new gaming mechanics. Don't get me wrong, I would love to play whatever future HL game, but it is just a feeling that Valve stopped just before the end. Also I think that the next HL game will be the last. It's only logical - conclude the story and end it there. Maybe that is why Valve is going to make it "new and shiny". Go out with a bang, maybe? When I was younger I always imagined the future ot HL beyoned the story of HL2, what will Freeman's next task be? But now I feel that whatever comes next for HL franchise will be the last.

That being said here comes my second concern - time . No, not Valve time , normal time. Times change. Gaming too. Gamers age. I grew up with Half Life, Star Craft, Dibalo, etc. Later on continued with my favoruite game ever - HL2. By now most of modern gamers weren't even born in 99 .... so how is Valve planning to introduce HL to newer generations?. Gaming is much more fast-paced than it used to be. How is Valve going to fit in all this? The majority of people that future HL game will be introduced to are not going to be the same people back in 2004. Yes some of us won't forget HL, but I think many people from the old days will move on from waiting next HL game or gaming for that matter. As I said people age. The responsibilities you have change in time ..... so you put certain things behind - gaming maybe one of them (of course this is strongly individual). Will newer generations experience the same thing we did back in 2004 through 2007 with Half Life 2 and its episodes or will it be something completely different?

And the last thing I want to adress is the social element in games (HL in general) . So Valve stated that "we are done with single-player games as we know it". That got me thinking. Okay when I hear Half Life, what is my association - > immersive single player experiance. So future HL game in my opinion shouldn't focuse too much on the social element in single player mode. I don't want pop ups ti know who is online or what is he playing when I am "in the zone" with my game (HL in particular). Of course I don't know what Valve means by this but Single Player is pretty self-explanatory. SINGLE - me and my game nothing else. That's why I am against any achievemnts poping up every two damn seconds - "you killed n of enemies", "you jumped", "you did this, did that" .....

I wanted to adress this issues for a long time now, I hope you guys tell me what you think.

Thanks!
 
just wait. Its Valve. Not some random developer. They know what they want to do and what they are doing. There is a reason why they didnt make HL2EP3 with Source 1.
 
I agree with the OP completely. Sort of had the same idea myself, to write about this on some Valve forum. I think that it will be difficult for Valve to do a proper sequel to HL2, (or its episodes) given how different the market looks today. Also I do not agree with the previous poster, while I am a big fan of most of Valve's work, I do think that Valve intended to make Episode 3, but that there was some kind of major internal conflict within the development team that derailed the entire franchise for a very long time. I am sure we will see a HL3 game some day. But will it be the game us "hardcore" HL-fans want? probably not.
 
If EP3 released right now, with the same engine and gameplay mechanics as HL2 and episodes, it wouldn't get anywhere near a 90 metacritic rating that the episodes got or the 96 that HL2 got.

Also I'm not sure how a HL3 would be received, especially in an era with interactive movies like TLAU, Uncharted, that new Tomb Raider and every modern Quantic Dream game ever released.
 
Also I'm not sure how a HL3 would be received, especially in an era with interactive movies like TLAU, Uncharted, that new Tomb Raider and every modern Quantic Dream game ever released.

Half-Life aside, you paint a bloody depressing picture of the future.
 
If EP3 released right now, with the same engine and gameplay mechanics as HL2 and episodes, it wouldn't get anywhere near a 90 metacritic rating that the episodes got or the 96 that HL2 got.

Also I'm not sure how a HL3 would be received, especially in an era with interactive movies like TLAU, Uncharted, that new Tomb Raider and every modern Quantic Dream game ever released.


HL3 will be third person you mean?

Ridiculous speculation on this thread. What about Bioshock Infinite for example? Or Metro Last Light.

whatever this thread is ridiculous.
 
SpotEnemyBoats was saying HL3 might not be received well due to being released in a time with several big name third-person action/adventure games. Aizawa recognized that those games aren't anything like the HL series, and was jokingly trying to understand how HL3 would be related at all to them in order to invite such a comparison.
 
I don't think a comparison was being made to those games. How could there be? We have no idea what HL3 will be like. He was just saying the HL series has always been a linear and cinematic experience, which has become very common for singleplayer games lately. Like, the linear cinematic experience has evolved (for the worse, in his examples) while Valve has been away.

I'm not sure what third person has to do with it. There are many first person cinematic linear games that have the same dumb gameplay.
 
Nobody expects HL3 to be revolutionary in terms of gameplay, genre or anything else. HL has always been a linear, static, single-player ego-shooter with quite solid enhancements in terms graphics and level design, story-lining, immersion (visual and acoustic), a.i. HL doesn't have to (re)define a genre or has to compete against other games. The concerns just arise as everyone has to much time (without any false-positive annoucements) to think about what could be or not. Even if, like all HL titles before, next HL just has to bring a story to an end that is not that difficult. It doesn't matter if new or old player, if concept will stay exactly the same as it was before, it will work. Yes, it will showcase some things of physics, or graphics or both, as it has done before. Yes, single-player co-op will be fed from L4D experiences perhaps. And yes, HL will work for most of us.
 
Well HL is famous for just that - redefing first person shooters. I am hoping that we will see something that's never been seen before. That's how HL 3 will live up to expectations. (I think)
 
I don't think a comparison was being made to those games. How could there be? We have no idea what HL3 will be like. He was just saying the HL series has always been a linear and cinematic experience, which has become very common for singleplayer games lately. Like, the linear cinematic experience has evolved (for the worse, in his examples) while Valve has been away.

I'm not sure what third person has to do with it. There are many first person cinematic linear games that have the same dumb gameplay.


This, pretty much.
 
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