Valve very famously can’t count to three. The Seattle-based developer and Steam creator could stake a serious claim to boasting more iconic series than any single developer, but they all stall out after two mainline entries.
Left 4 Dead hit in 2008, Left 4 Dead 2 improved on the formula one year later, and then nothing followed for 15 years and counting. Team Fortress Classic took multiplayer gamers by storm in 1999, its sequel bettered that foundation in 2007, and then nothing for nearly two decades. Portal arrived in 2007, an acclaimed sequel followed in 2011, and there’s been little movement for over a decade. Half-Life — the most legendary of its franchises — has still only enjoyed two proper numbered entries since its 1998 debut.
Counter-Strike has also only had two numbered entries, but Counter-Strike 2 is generally considered the fifth iteration.
From HL: Alyx To HLX
But recently, Valve has been inching closer and closer to finally counting to three. A game called HLX has been found in the files of various Valve games, and it is widely believed to be Half-Life 3. Many leaks and teases from a number of reliable sources point to the sequel being real, in development, and on the way. And, it seems that just as Half-Life reaches 3, the series may end. Reliable Valve leaker Gabe Follower has said that it looks like HL3 may wrap up the series’ central story.
“I understand that this may upset some people, and I don’t really like it, but Half-Life 3 will be the end of Gordon’s adventure,” Gabe Follower said in a YouTube video. “Maybe we will [get] some spin-offs in the Half-Life universe in the future, but the story arc of the main characters will end in the finale of the game.”
If this is really the end of Gordon’s story — and given that Valve has served up remixed versions of the same cliffhanger ending twice in a row, it probably should be — I’m fine with that. It can be hard to see things end in video games because they so rarely do.
The series I played on my Sega Genesis and N64 back in the day, like Sonic, Mario Kart, Zelda, Pokemon, and 3D Mario, are still getting new entries. The games I loved at the time that haven’t received sequels, like Ristar, didn’t return because they didn’t sell. It is vanishingly rare that a game doesn’t get a follow-up because the developers believe the story is complete, and all too common for promising series to get cut off at the knees because they didn’t perform commercially.
Endings Are Too Rare In Games
It would be incredible to see Valve close Gordon’s story and really leave Half-Life alone, because it just isn’t done. Nathan Drake’s story might be done, for example, but Naughty Dog also released a spin-off starring characters from the same game the next year, and there have been persistent rumors for years that another Sony studio will eventually pick up the mantle.
That wouldn’t happen with Half-Life because Valve is Valve. It doesn’t belong to a publisher that needs to worry about important IP lying fallow. It is the publisher, and makes far more money than one game could ever bring in by owning the means of digital distribution. Even if it never makes a game again, it’ll do just fine.
It makes me wish we could see more conclusions in games. Games tended to be greeted with “what’s next?” even more than movies — where franchises indisputably rule the box office — because in games sequels aren’t a necessary evil, they’re just necessary. The good Assassin’s Creed lays the foundation for the great Assassin’s Creed 2. The janky but cool Uncharted sets the table for the universally beloved Uncharted 2. The best Zelda (per Metacritic, and per five-year-old me) arrived 12 years in. The actual best Zelda arrived 21 years in. This is an iterative medium, and getting to greatness tends to involve making some okay stuff first.
So, if you’re Larian circa 2013, I’m not talking to you. Keep going and make those games everybody loves. But Valve isn’t Larian. It knocked it out of the park with its first at-bat. Half-Life was an instant classic, and many of its games since have enjoyed similarly revered status. When you’re that successful, that early on, it’s okay to let things end. Not just lay fallow, as so many game series do between entries, but actually end. If Valve is really wrapping Half-Life up, I applaud it. Now do Portal 3.
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