Development of the next Half-Life game

Half-Life 2: Episode Three will be the third and final installment of the Half-Life 2 episodes trilogy story arc, after Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

Development


Like other Half-Life 2 episodes, Episode Three will likely follow the adventures of Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance. Parts of the episode will probably be set farther north, possibly in Arctic conditions. Valve has said that they intend for each episode to highlight a major new feature or gameplay design element. In Episode One, this was the interaction with a well developed NPC, along with full implementation of the Source's HDR lighting system. In Episode Two, this was creating large outdoor environments, high scale battles previously unseen in the Source engine, performance and rendering enhancements to the Source engine to accommodate multi-core processor architecture and a new cinematic physics system to create large physics-based events. According to a video involving Gabe Newell and two interpreters discussing deafness and video games with a small audience of hearing impaired people, it seems that part of Episode Three's new gameplay and new Source engine features will include a deaf character and that the game will include better support for hearing-impaired players.

It has been stated that Episode Three will be the final episode of the Half-Life 2 universe story arc, but not the end of the Half-Life franchise. However what happens next for the franchise is currently unknown.

In an October 2008 interview, Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi stated that news or an announcement of Episode Three might be revealed near the end of 2008. That however did not happen. Lombardi also stated that the distance between this release of the previous title, Episode Two, will be longer than the distances between Half-Life 2 to Episode One and Episode One to Episode Two.

In a March 2010 interview, Gabe Newell hinted that they intend to return the Half-Life franchise to its psychological horror roots by exploiting the fans' deepest fears, which he summed up as "the death of their children" and "the fading of their own abilities". In an April 2010 interview, Newell stated that Gordon Freeman will go unchanged in the next Half-Life game - he wants him to "largely remain an arm and a crowbar". There also are no plans to make him a talking character, as "right now, making your companions more interesting and compelling seems a more fruitful avenue to explore." In both of these interviews, Gabe never explicitly said he was referring to Episode Three, adding further mystery to the future of the series.

Shortly after Alien Swarm was released, unused hint nodes were found in the SDK, under the names "Ep3 Blob Shake Position", "Ep3 Fire Cover Position", "Ep3 Brain Cover Position", "Ep3 Brain Regenerate Position", "Ep3 Spit Position", "Ep3 Spawn Generator Position", and "Aperture: Nest". Given the prefix "Ep3" and the use of the name "Aperture", they may be related to Episode Three's development.