Half-Life 2 Episode 3 Outline Shows What Might Have Been

Like many gamers, I put so many hours into the Half-Life franchise that I can’t count them all. I’ve waited for many years for Valve to offer up the next installment in the franchise and I’m not sure that will ever happen. Marc Laidlaw was the Valve guy in charge of writing the first two installments in the franchise and he did a fantastic job, he was also lead writer on Half-Life episodes 1 and 2.

He recently took to twitter and posted up something he called “Epistle 3” via a link and if you look at it, fans of the franchise can certainly figure out what it is. This is the rough outline for Episode 3 that never happened. The outline takes the form of a letter and names have been changed presumably to save him any legal action from Valve.

I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering exactly why Valve never pulled the trigger and made another game in the franchise, maybe it will land in the years to come. Valve had confirmed way back in 2006 that a third episode in the Half-Life 2 world was in development. At that time it was said to be the last of the trilogy and available by Christmas 2007 reports GameSpot. Clearly, that never came to be.

The why remains a mystery, but the nostalgia created by Laidlaw and his post is strong. About a year ago a Half-Life 3 poster was spied hanging at Gamescom 2016 and no new news of the game has surfaced since then. Laidlaw’s blog can be accessed here to read the letter, but it has been up and down due to the crush of people trying to visit the site and read the letter.