Half-Life 2: Episode One and Episode Two writer Chet Faliszek tells fans that he has no intention of returning to the series, at least to deliver on the long-awaited Half-Life 3.
Faliszek, who recently laughed at the notion that Valve had finished the crunch period of Half-Life 3’s development, claimed that making the mystical third game would be “incredibly easy” as “the plot could go anywhere” from the last game’s finale.
The veteran Valve developer urged fans to not read into their discussion that the third game is absolutely in-development. “I’m not trying to say anything, okay?” they stressed in a recent video. In fact, the developer explained that they wouldn’t want to be in charge of spearheading the third game.
“When people ask me, ‘Oh, man, don’t you wish you could? [I say] no! NO! I almost never want to touch something that already has some kind of lore, or some kind of back-history about it, not even like Left 4 Dead or anything. I don’t want to touch anything old. I don’t have to have people who remember stuff better than I do yelling at me about changing some history or lore from 50-years-ago at this point”.
At one point, Faliszek was in talks to work with Bungie, but was turned off by the amount of lore they’d have to balance. “That lore terrifies me,” he added. “I have no idea. I don’t know that much lore about my own life, let alone your game’s”. He continued: “any sequel to me is just a disaster nightmare that I never want to do”.
The Half-Life 2 writer concluded that returning to work on Half-Life 3 is something he absolutely does not want to do. “I don’t want to touch that with a 10-foot pole,” the writer said. “Or even a grav-gun separating me from that 10-foot pole. A grav-gun to a 10-foot pole, I wouldn’t do it, I wouldn’t do it with Dog’s arms”.
While Half-Life has not seen a flatscreen entry since 2007’s Half-Life 2: Episode Two, 2020’s VR game Half-Life Alyx continued the series’ narrative alongside acting as a prequel. Without spoiling any details, the VR game pushed the series’ events forward, carving a new path forward for the (hopefully) eventual Half-Life 3.
While there has been no official mention from Valve for the third mainline Half-Life game, there is evidence that a new game in the series is in development. Codenamed Half-Life X, Valve is reportedly working on new technologies to push the series forward. Some rumours have claimed that the next game in the series will release alongside the upcoming Steam Machine, but there’s little proof that is the case.
