Summary
- A new appID was found on SteamDB for an unannounced Valve game with a multiplayer server.
- Fans think that it might be the leaked ‘HLX’, believed to be Half-Life 3.
- The multiplayer element could simply be Half-Life 3 Deathmatch, a mode the first two games also had.
Half-Life fan u/Stannis_Loyalist and SteamDB creator xPaw have discovered an unannounced Valve game on the Steam backend, which even has an accompanying multiplayer server.
Many assume that this is “HLX”, which reportedly entered the playtesting phase last year. If you’ve been hunkering down in a dumpster like a certain Unforeseen Consequences scientist, HLX is believed to be Half-Life 3, a non-VR sequel to Alyx and Episode Two, putting us back into the HEV suit of Gordon Freeman.
As u/Stannis_Loyalist explains, we know that this is a Valve multiplayer game because all of its past multiplayer Source 2 projects have an IGC_Version client and server, which this listing also does.
Whether this SteamDB listing really is HLX, however, is unclear. And what that would mean is also a complete mystery. It could point to an imminent reveal, explaining G-Man actor Mike Shapiro’s cryptic New Year’s Eve tease, or the appID could sit there for months, receiving update after update, without explanation.
It’s worth taking this with a heap of salt, to say the least. But if it is Half-Life related, the multiplayer element is an interesting new detail.
Half-Life 3 Deathmatch Confirmed?
If you hear ‘Half-Life 3 multiplayer’ and panic that the server is for a tacked on live-service mode, don’t worry. It probably isn’t that. The first two games include a separate Deathmatch mode, which even laid the foundation for the immensely popular Sven Co-Op mod.
Half-Life 3 could follow suit with its own Deathmatch component, hence the server. But that is speculation about a multiplayer component for an unannounced Valve game that may or may not be a leaked sequel. Like I said, heap of salt.
Or Is It A New Valve Game?
As some point out, the update history for Half-Life: Alyx’s appID dates back to 2016, three years before it was announced, whereas HLX is reportedly far enough along in development to have begun playtesting.
That seems to throw a crowbar into the theory that this is Half-Life 3 and not a new, unannounced project, since it’s unlikely that Valve would set up the appID so late. But it’s also worth noting that the Half-Life Alyx appID was only made public in 2019, so perhaps this more recent discovery isn’t as new as we think.
At the very least, the appID has stirred up a conversation among Half-Life fans that doesn’t involve scouring an actor’s album for hidden numbers. But if the ARG theories didn’t make it clear enough, it’s always worth tempering expectations when it comes to Half-Life leaks. Nothing is confirmed until Valve says so, and even then, not until it’s in our Steam libraries.
Half-Life
- Released
-
November 19, 1998
- ESRB
-
M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language
- Publisher(s)
-
Sierra Studios