Former ‘Half-Life’ writer revealed details on missing episode

Ten years is definitely a long time to leave fans hanging and for Valve, it’s exactly what’s happening.

Since Half-Life 2: Episode 2 dropped more than ten years ago, many have optimistically hoped that a subsequent episode was on the cards but as the years went by, that hope slowly dimmed down until last Friday when former lead writer Marc Laidlaw loosely revealed details of what could have been Episode 3.

According to Laidlaw’s blog post, he wrote a short story which outlined the entire narrative for Episode 3. The original story has thus been updated, changing character names like Gordon Freeman to Gertie Fremont and Alyx Vance to Alex Vaunt.

Below is an excerpt from Laidlaw’s blog post, titled Epistle 3:

“To begin with, as you may recall from the closing paragraphs of my previous missive, the death of Elly Vaunt shook us all. The Research & Rebellion team was traumatized, unable to be sure how much of our plan might be compromised, and whether it made any sense to go on at all as we had intended. And yet, once Elly had been buried, we found the strength and courage to regroup. It was the strong belief of her brave son, the feisty Alex Vaunt, that we should continue on as his mother had wished. We had the Antarctic coordinates, transmitted by Elly’s long-time assistant, Dr Jerry Maas, which we believed to mark the location of the lost luxury liner Hyperborea. Elly had felt strongly that the Hyperborea should be destroyed rather than allow it to fall into the hands of the Disparate. Others on our team disagreed, believing that the Hyperborea might hold the secret to the revolution’s success. Either way, the arguments were moot until we found the vessel. Therefore, immediately after the service for Dr Vaunt, Alex and I boarded a seaplane and set off for the Antarctic; a much larger support team, mainly militia, was to follow by separate transport.”

You can read the entire blog post on his website here.

One can imagine this is what would have transpired during the last ten years following events that occurred in Episode 2. This perfectly tied up loose ends between Episode 2 and 3, which subsequently would have left a clean slate for new writers to take on the mantle and produce what then could have been the sequel, Half-Life 3.

But as we all know, this never happened…

Laidlaw’s post reveals some cryptic messages toward fans of the series as this would have been Laidlaw’s swan song.

“I no longer know or recognize most members of the research team, though I believe the spirit of rebellion still persists. I expect you know better than I the appropriate course of action, and I leave you to it.”

Since then, Valve has responded by releasing Half-Life 2: Aftermath mod for PC which includes content intended for the lost episode. The content included new maps, 11 new levels that were developed between 2012 and 2013 and new weaponry. And while this can give Half-life fans a bit of joy, this is as close to Episode 3 that most fans will get to.

Will Valve finally give Episode 3 a green light after ten long, agonising years? Or has the “Half-Life” dream died? Let us know in the comments section below or follow Xbox Players SA on Facebook and Twitter.