A Half-Life 3 with Procedural Generation Was Briefly in Development at Valve

Valve Half-Life 3 procedural generation Half-Life: Alyx canceled projects revealed in Half-Life: Alyx - Final Hours by Geoff Keighley

The details of many past canceled Valve projects, including a version of Half-Life 3 with procedural generation, have newly come to light. This information comes from Geoff Keighley’s Half-Life: Alyx – Final Hours released today on Steam, an interactive storybook of sorts that has 15 chapters chronicling Valve and its development over the past decade.

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In it, Keighley noted that Valve had a project that was referred to internally as Half-Life 3 around 2013-14. The game “didn’t get very far” before its cancellation, which stemmed in part from its running on the Source 2 engine — the engine wasn’t finished being built yet when that project was in development. Part of Half-Life 3‘s gameplay was supposed to draw from Left 4 Dead, particularly in its procedural generation aspects. For instance, a basic objective like rescuing a prisoner could be randomized by constructing a different building with different paths and enemies for players to navigate each time.

Other known canceled projects beyond this Half-Life 3 include an open-world Left 4 Dead 3; an RPG inspired by The Elder Scrolls, Dark Souls, and Monster Hunter; a Minecraft-like voxel creation/destruction game called A.R.T.I.; two VR Half-Life projects codenamed Shooter and Borealis, and more.

However, due to the positive critical and commercial reception that Half-Life: Alyx received, Valve actually wants to move forward with the franchise. This includes more full-scale Half-Life games on traditional platforms. Another game in this series would be a huge undertaking, but Valve designer Phil Co said, “We’re not afraid of Half-Life no more.”

Half-Life: Alyx – Final Hours is now available on Steam for $9.99. Half-Life 3 is not.


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