2020 hasn’t been all bad, just mostly! But it did provide us with Half-Life: Alyx. A Half-Life virtual reality (VR) first-person shooter, developed and published by Valve. Events of the game take place between Half-Life (1998) and Half-Life 2 (2004). In this latest installment, you control Alyx Vance on a mission to confiscate a super-weapon belonging to the alien Combine. For a more in depth look at Half Life: Alyx, check out this article where we break down everything you need to know.
What’s next for Valve and the series?
We may have an answer to that question thanks to fellow video game journalist Geoff Keighley. Keighley recently wrote an ‘interactive storybook’ entitled “Half-Life: Alyx – Final Hours.” This “storybook” takes fans inside Valve Software to chronicle the company’s past decade of game development, including the return of Half-Life.
Spoiler Warning: Keighley’s “storybook” ends on a ‘what’s next for Half-Life’ note. And it seems that a majority of Valve’s Half-Life team wants to build a non-VR game. “Privately, most of the team hopes that the next big thing will indeed be a full-scale Half-Life game built not for VR,” writes Keighley, “but as a game accessible across all traditional gaming platforms.”
Seemingly, there may be two sides within the organization on whether Valve will commit to such a large-scale development project. One thing is for certain though, there’s more Half-Life in our future.
“Going from [Half-Life: Alyx] to a new big thing, which will be even bigger, is pretty exciting,” said designer and programmer, Tejeev Kohli. It remains to be seen what that ‘new big thing’ might be. Whether what’s next for Half-Life comes in the form of another VR game or a more traditional non-VR action adventure game, either one is fine by us.
As to what it might be?
Keighley might have provided one vary vague detail about it in his ‘interactive storybook.’ He mentions that at the opening of 2008, a “small team” at Valve started work on a “top-secret” project. It’s not much, but definitely something we can hold on to.
What exactly is an “interactive storybook,” you ask?
It’s described on Steam as a merger of, “a 25,000 word traditional story with 3D video game technology.” The product gives the customers a, “fly-on-the-wall perspective of Valve’s creative process.”
Interested in seeing that ‘interactive storybook’ written by Geoff Keighley, chronicling Valve and the development of Half-Life: Alyx? Check out Half-Life: Alyx – Final Hours available on Steam for $10. Want to play the VR game Half-Life: Alyx? Find it on Steam for $59.99.