Valve is capable of more than they think: Half Life 3 and establishing the new gaming zeitgeist instead of trying to capture the current one Oruç Dim Follow Jan 30, 2019 · 4 min read

Valve released Half Life in November, 1998, to immense critical acclaim: It still is the narrative blueprint for lots of FPS games released today. If you play the first Half Life today, you might think that ‘it is just an FPS game’, but it is actually vice versa, which means that modern FPS games’ narrative structure (comprised of set pieces, meaningful downtime to make the action more impactful, a slow start to action, thematic shifts between levels to make it more interesting) came from Half Life. It is safe to say that Half Life nearly single-handedly established the zeitgeist of that era and ushered in a new age of gaming, especially in terms of narrative and design in action-oriented titles.

Same thing happened in 2004, when Valve released Half Life 2, albeit admittedly to a lesser degree: It had a intriguing, a 1984-like setting, a revolutionary physics system, an engaging story that begun in medias res, tutorials baked so well into the game they never broke immersion, a good multiplayer component that made use of the new physics engine, and the list goes on. After its release, we started seeing more and more games incorporating a physics engine, and some even making it a part of their core gameplay, just like Half Life 2. Today, physics engines are a given in our games, something that they just have and surely they made the game worlds much more immersive than before. In addition to that, they released Half Life: Episode 1 and 2 in 2006 and 2007, respectively; and by doing so they encouraged the gaming industry about creating episodic content (although they promptly abandoned the model themselves, never concluding the story of the Half Life 2 episodes).

After changing the gaming climate so much back in those days, what does Valve do in 2019? Currently, they are trying to capitalize on the Battle Royale fad by implementing a mediocre Battle Royale mode into Counter Strike: Global Offensive. They have been much bigger for 10 or so years than they were in 2004, in other words, they are at their peak in terms of industry influence, and to capture the current zeitgeist, what they come up with… is a game mode that is a mediocre imitation of a trend. Talk about a financial success, but creative downfall.

The funny thing is, if all Valve wants is more money, nothing will bring them more money than breaking tradition and establishing the new spirit of the age. Imagine that Valve releases Half Life 3 today and, through it, redefines the gaming climate in terms of both single player and multiplayer: They did it twice, and surely they can do it a third time. They have the resources for it, they can hire the creative talent easily if they are currently lacking in that area due to their current mindset, and surely they have the market power and influence to make it a success. This is not even a gamble for Valve, Half Life 3 is a sure-fire money maker.

With the Epic Game Store looming over Steam and slowly but surely closing in on their market share, Valve needs that ‘something extra’ to keep their customers in their ecosystem in the long run. Imagine a Half Life 3 that has single player, coop and multiplayer game modes with lots of extras you can buy for each mode (not necessarily microtransactions, but in DLC format). If Valve keeps providing content, just like they do with CS: GO, it means they have a new cash cow in their hands with the multiplayer component of the game. So, to summarize, by releasing Half Life 3, they would have a new hook to keep their userbase in their ecosystem, they would have a new cash cow with the DLCs for every game mode, and they would have continued or completed Half Life’s story, and, lastly, they would have -hopefully- established the new gaming zeitgeist, which is a lot better than trying to play by someone else’s rules and releasing mediocre game modes in order to ‘not fall behind the curve’. Four birds with one stone.

Giving Freeman the send-off or continuation he deserves benefits Valve as much as it satisfies the gamer. I believe that Valve is not aware of the true potential of the series as they see it as mainly single player and narrative focused, but Half Life universe is capable of much more, if given the chance.