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Half-Life Writer Shares His Scrapped Vision For Episode 3
Above is a presumed, but never fully verified piece of concept art from Half-Life 2: Episode 3. You can read more about Half-Life 3 here.
Marc Laidlaw, who joined Valve in 1997 and helped write and design Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and its two follow-up episodes, recently shared a short story on his website. The story outlines what would have been the full plot of Half-Life 2: Episode 3.
Laidlaw posted the story last night with familiar names, but has since updated the blog post to change names like Gordon Freeman to Gertie Fremont and Alyx Vance to Alex Vaunt. The story is presented from the perspective of Gordon Freeman writing a letter to one in particular about where he and Alyx Vance went after the events of Half-Life 2: Episode 2. Reading the synopsis and accounting for the names, all the major characters are addressed: Gordon Freeman, Alyx Vance, Dr. Wallace Breen, Judith Mossman and even the G-Man (Mrs. X, here). You can read the full blog post here which, fair warning, does technically contain full spoilers for Half-Life 2's presumably final chapter.
There is little reason to doubt that this is what would have transpired over the course of Half-Life 2: Episode 2. The next chapter in the Half-Life series has become an impossible internet legend in the years since the release of Episode 2. It's entirely likely that this is the closest we will ever get to experiencing the next Half-Life chapter.
[Source: marclaidlaw.com, @marc_laidlaw]
Our Take
This is not how I wanted to experience the third (technically fourth, I suppose?) chapter of Half-Life 2, but considering I have lost faith in that game ever releasing, this offers some closure on the story. It has a lot of awesome moments I would have loved to see fully realized, but learning what was supposed to happen next is better than nothing. It's worth noting though – Valve – that if you do ever decide to make this into a game, I will still absolutely play it, even when I know what is going to happen.
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