So there's been a new spate of Half-Life 3 conspiracy theories has there? The gaming tinfoil hat brigade is seeing messages in totally unrelated non Valve developed independent games released through Steam you say? You spotted medical records for someone called Gordon Freeman on the receptionist's counter at the speech therapists your child attends?
Please tell me more.
Half-Life, along with it's sequel and their various expansions are great, great games. Games that others are compared unfavourably to. Games that, in the bright future where gaming has ascended into the realms of high culture alongside literature, ballet and opera, will be looked back upon and analysed as the catalyst for gaming's acceptance into the arty farty cultural circles. Games we will tell our grandchildren we bought on release day to impress them, whether we actually did or not. Games whose sequels we will patiently wait for and speculate about until we are old and grey.
Valve notoriously take their time when crafting Half-Life titles from the raw digital firmament. They don't rush. They take their time to get it right and the games appear when they are finished or not at all. It's a mantra that served them famously well with Half-Life 2. We waited ages, heard nothing, but we were given something amazing for our patience. Now Valve are doing it again.
The conspiracy theories show up to fill the vacuum of information. And information, I'm sure, is what any Half-Life fan is craving so long after the cliffhanger ending of Episode 2. We need to know what the grub like Advisors have to do with all this. We need to know what the deal is with that Aperture Science ship. We need to know if there's a version of GlaDOS on said ship. Most of all, we need to know if Alyx will be ok after the death of her Father.
Valve left us with so many questions. They told us the episodes came from the need to shorten the development cycle. They said there would be a third. Then they changed their mind. Valve lied to us, and we told ourselves it would be ok. Half-Life 3 would be here soon. It would answer all our questions. The years have passed, and we're still patiently waiting. If you're anything like me, you'll keep waiting until the day that Valve spring a release date on us.
I sometimes find myself wishing that Valve would continue the story with an ebook release. Something to tide us over whilst we wait for the main event. I applied some proper thought to it today, and realised that it probably wouldn't be much of a read, as so much of what makes Half-Life so effective is down to the level that the player inhabits the game's infamously silent protagonist. Here are a couple of imaginary sample passages to show you what I mean.
She cradled Ely in her arms and looked up at Gordon through her tears. "My father is dead," sobbed Alyx.
Gordon crouched down to her. Gravity gun in hand. He said nothing.
----
"We're approaching the Borealis." called Alyx, "Be careful down there. I heard everyone in Aperture's underground facility was murdered by their psychotic passive-aggressive AI. It released a deadly neurotoxin into the ventilation system and told them that it was doing so because they were all adopted. There might be a copy of the AI on board that ship."
Gordon looked down at the ship. He was silent.
----
The Advisor's voice arrived fully formed in Gordon's mind, "Is this your vengeance? This? You are little more than a puppet, a puppet whose strings are pulled by a being of which you know nothing. And I'm not talking about the G-Man."
Gordon scowled at the Advisor, then fired the gravity gun, impaling it with the iron pipe he'd been carrying. The Advisor's question went unanswered.
----
It's a bit one sided isn't it. All because of Gordon's silence. There really is no other way to continue the story, other than with another game. It couldn't work with any other medium. I'm starting to think that Gordon Freeman is actually a mute. He doesn't speak because he actually can't speak, rather than because he doesn't want to speak. At the very least, that would explain why all the supporting cast are so comfortable with his silence. They all know about his problem and don't ask questions because they know he physically cannot answer them. If we really think about it, Gordon Freeman is really on of the few famous disabled videogame protagonists. He's a mute particle physicist who doesn't let his inability to speak affect his interpersonal relations or his formidable prowess with a crowbar. It's quite inspiring really.
It'd be a real turn up if eventually Valve release Half-Life 3, and they tell us that Gordon really is a mute particle physicist who doesn't let his inability to speak affect his interpersonal relations or his formidable prowess with a crowbar. The way things are going at the moment, it's plausible. But I suppose we won't find out until Valve reward our patience and grace us with Half Life's third.
P.S It wouldn't surprise me if my mute Gordon ponderings wind up in a Half-Life conspiracy theory further down the line. In fact, I kind of hope they do.
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