The mythical Half-Life 3 has long turned into a meme: at every conference, players are again and again waiting for the announcement of the continuation of the adventures of Gordon Freeman, while Valve remains stoically silent. Nevertheless, thanks to developer comments and leaks, we know not only about HL3, but also about several other canceled projects in the universe. After talking about early versions of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, it’s time to talk about those games that never made it to release. Let’s leave projects outside the universe from Valve, so don’t wait for information about an unnamed voxel “sandbox” and role-playing game in the spirit of Skyrim, which at some point were in the studio’s work.
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Half-Life: Hostile Takeover
The original images have not survived, but enthusiasts are working hard to develop their version based on scraps of information available on the web | Source: moddb.com
Before moving on to what happened after Half-Life 2: Episode Two, it’s worth going back to 1999. At that time, Hostile Takeover was being created for the original Half-Life, for which 2015, Inc. was responsible.
Unlike the three released add-ons (Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Decay), Hostile Takeover offered not to look at the same events with different eyes, but to transfer the action to another research complex. Instead of “Black Mesa,” the plot was set in an adjacent processing complex, with the player taking on the role of a government agent, whom the series writer Mark Laidlaw described as “junior G-Man.”
The full version of the plot remains unknown, but there are some details that make it possible to roughly outline what is happening. So, for example, the main character worked for Ji-man, but what exactly the most mysterious character of the franchise wanted from him is not specified. At the same time, the players had to defend the research base from the military and, judging by the list of opponents, aggressive aliens.
Interestingly, the base was supposed to be different from the “Black Mesa”: from the outside, the adjacent processing complex looked like an ordinary industrial building, while inside it was actually a secret bunker with many underground tunnels. In one of them, by the way, a stable portal to Zen was planned – according to the idea, it was here that GG-3883 was mined, the very crystal, the experiment on which led to a resonance cascade and all the catastrophic consequences.
Alas, no files have survived, but it is known that during the development, emphasis was placed on the distribution of roles between minor characters. For example, in some situations, the player needed to guide workers to certain objects for repair, and not always directly: at one of the levels, for this, in a dark room, it was necessary to illuminate the path from afar with a flashlight. In addition, they planned to introduce several new types of opponents into the game, such as zombie monkeys and large houndays, as well as a full-fledged controlled tank and a Vortigaunt cannon that shoots a laser in the manner of aliens.
For some unknown reason, development was stopped and curtailed about three months before the planned release date.
Half-Life 2: Episode Three
Half-Life: Episode Three Official Concept Art
In 2005, Valve announced a sequel to the original Half-Life 2 called Half-Life 2: Aftermath. The events of the title were supposed to develop what was laid in the previous game, but less than a year later, the studio decided to change the approach and instead of one big expansion release three, breaking them into episodes. The first of them was released in December 2007, the second – in October of the same year. It seemed that the release of the third was a matter of time, but something went wrong.
Oddly enough, news about him appeared even before the release of the second episode. In 2006, Episode Three had a clear release date of Christmas 2007. About six months before the “release”, the studio confirmed that Gordon will once again become the main character of the game. According to rumors, her events were supposed to unfold outside of City 17. However, with the release of the second episode, players noticed an interesting oddity: while the first episode ended with a teaser for the next, the second was cut off by a cliffhanger. When asked why this decision was made, one of the developers, David Spreyer, replied that it not only allowed to focus on the tragic events of the final, but also freed the hands of the team, which did not need to follow clear expectations. In December, instead of the promised release, the team simply announced that the third episode would put an end to the story arc, but not the history of Half-Life itself.
By 2008, three official concept art had seen the light of day and a couple of dozen that had accidentally leaked into Andrea Wiklund’s portfolio. The developers claimed that the development was in full swing, and towards the end of the year videos appeared on the network allegedly with the gameplay of the alpha version of the game. Later, alas, their reliability was refuted – as it turned out, these are nothing more than fan cards.
Leaked concept art by Andrea Wiklund
Valve was silent until June 2009, when the announcement took place … Left 4 Dead 2. Fans were furious: it came to an open petition calling for the third episode to finally be released, and players were asked to boycott the future novelty. A few months later, Gabe Newell finally said a few words about Episode Three, albeit again without specifics: the head of Valve said that there is nothing to talk about the game yet and that the community should be patient – news will appear as soon as the company has something to share.
Interestingly, back in 2010, Newell claimed in an interview that elements of horror would return to Half-Life, and Gordon would forever remain “a simple guy with a tire iron in his hands” and would not receive any voice acting. But a year later, a house of cards called Episode Three collapsed: Newell announced that Valve was abandoning the episodic system in favor of major updates to existing games. The main reason for the refusal is prosaic: the episodes were supposed to be a quick and easy way to plug the hole between the full releases, but in the end, the production of the first and second took an unreasonably long time.
The “Real” Episode Three
A team of enthusiasts is engaged in the recreation of the game based on Epistle 3 – the project was named Project Borealis
The story of the third episode did not end there. All thanks to one person – Mark Laidlaw. The thing is that in 2017 the scriptwriter of the series posted a “fanfic” about Gertie Fremont, called Epistle 3. Despite the widespread gender change of characters and the change in all names, it turned out to be not so difficult to complete the material to the plot of a full third episode.
In Laidlaw’s version, after the events of the second episode, Alix and Gordon buried Eli Vance, after which they went in search of the Borealis in Antarctica with Dr. Mossman. On the way, their transport is knocked down, because of which the heroes have to travel on foot across the endless snowy desert. At the end of their journey, they find a ship capable of moving in space and time, the interior of which is stuck in several eras at once – from events that took place before the Seven Hour War, and to the distant future. And in one of the sections you can see the home world of combines.
After the team manages to gain control of the Borealis, Alix and Mossman begin to argue about how to deal with the resulting device. Alix hopes to use the ship as a kind of missile that can go back in time and fix everything in the bud, while Mossman insists on its usefulness for the Resistance in the present. In the end, the argument goes too far and Alix kills Mossman, after which Gordon agrees to a suicidal plan.
Of course, Ji-man intervenes in the matter: when it turns out that the plan is not only suicidal, but also simply impossible, a mysterious man with a suitcase saves Alix, but leaves Gordon to perish. Fortunately, Vortigaunts intervene to save the former scientist from certain death. Gordon finds himself outside space and time, after which he emerges into reality in the distant future.
Fans are working hard to recreate the episode on their own, but we will definitely not see this story from Valve.
Half-Life 2: Episode Four
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