Half-Life in virtual reality? Valve: We're not saying „no”
Jeep Barnett from Valve has commented on the use of VR in an interview with Kotaku, suggesting that it is possible to transfer the Half-Life franchise into virtual reality.
Valve's disclosure of new information about virtual reality devices and the official confirmation of the existence of Source 2 engine has caused quite a commotion in the gaming community. It has also revived speculation about the possible development of the third part of the cult series Half-Life. Kotaku has decided to ask about the discontinued games cycle during an interview with Jeep Barnett from Valve. His replies suggest that although the company has already conducted some VR experiments using the characters, world or ideas related to Half-Life, nothing has been decided so far:
”We're not saying 'no', but we don't know what the right thing is [yet – author’s note]. Our most precious resource is time, and we don't have enough time for people to do everything. Would we like to make all of our franchises in VR? Absolutely. But we don't have enough time or people. So we have to figure out what's the best fit, what plays to the strengths of VR.”
Barnett also stressed that such experiments often result in completely new games being created, as it was in the case of the first Portal game that was developed on the basis of the Half-Life series. According to Valve programmer, Portal's tech demo – shown at GDC behind closed doors – was a good example of a game "fitting" well within virtual reality. He added that a version of this demo will be available upon the release of the RE Vive device developed by Valve's partner – HTC.
As Barnett's words suggest, the studio is currently experimenting with implementing different ideas in virtual reality, both in terms of existing franchises (apart from Half-Life he also mentioned the Left 4 Dead series and Dota 2), as well as completely new productions. With regard to the latter, he pointed out two creations: a shooter with a cover system, based on the Time Crisis series and a title in which the player's task will be to escape from a room. So far these are only plans and Valve still shies away from deciding which of these ideas deserves a chance:
”Is Half-Life a good fit? Is Left 4 Dead a good fit? Is a new franchise a good fit? I don't know yet. We're really trying to cover the broad spectrum of what we could do, and then we'll start focusing on spearheading that.”
Let's sum up: Half-Life 2 published in 2004 had two additional episodes, the latter of which, having appeared in 2007, clearly indicated that we can count on a continuation. However, Episode 3 was postponed indefinitely and there is little chance that after more than 10 years since the release of the original game Valve will resume the works. In recent years, the topic of continuation of the series has made an appearance several times, but many people have already given up hope. However, taking into consideration the fact that the company has so far been reluctant to share any thoughts about the continuation, Barnett's revelations are, all in all, good news for those who are still waiting for Half-Life 3 to ever see the light of day.
