What do you want Half-Life 3 to be?

[Lord Garnaat]

Finished and good. I don't care about anything else. I don't care if it's an FPS, I don't care if it wraps up every loose end, I don't care if it does nothing but advance the plot forward one single iota and then end. It could be a first person real-time strategy Dance Dance Revolution/racing game for all I care, just so long as it's done, and it's really, really good.

 

[AT God]

I want all new weapons. I got tired of the weapons in the Source HL2, the gravity gun is the only exception but even then it does get a little boring. I would like to see the crowbar and gravity gun return and that is it. I would really like more weapons, I preferred the obscure weapons from the original HL expansions over the homogenized basic weapons in HL2. I hope they keep the big area vehicle sections, including one or two of those would be great.

Better enemies, I like the combine as an idea but playing through the games again they seem to be just copy pastes for the standard FPS enemy we see in all the military shooters. I hope they bring back some more Xen creatures or at least Xen-esq creatures. Some more giant enemies would be welcome, Stryder-like fights were fun except I hated running around looking for rockets so maybe some giant enemies that can be wounded through normal bullets as well.

Finally, more variants on the headcrab. The poison ones are so horrifying I think Valve should explore the idea of making more head crabs.

And at least some portal gun combat. Maybe during a visit to Aperture, I want to use the portal gun to trip enemies and send them to their deaths.

Edit: As for people who want an announcement. Rumor is that Valve is going to make a new engine first so whenever the new engine comes out, then an announcement will be more likely. However companies work on games without announcing them all the time. One example I can remember is Deus Ex: HR. In an interview, the guy who did the main characters voice said he was recording for 4 years but the game was only announced 2 years before it was released.

 

[Weaver]

At this point, I would just take Episode 3 to finish the goddamn story.
I can be an hour long, I don't really care; I just want to know what happens.

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

By now the best way for valve to handle HL3 is by announcing and subsequently releasing a game called "Half Life 4", and act like 3 is old news, with all the "wait, you haven't played that?!" comments to boot. The game's story would be an aftermath scenario, in which characters keep referring to events that happened in 3, with enough detail to make you want to play through them, but vaguely enough that it keeps it's mystery. HL4 would completely close the story, and valve would "forget" about the franchise. When the credits roll, they would be overlayed on a picture of Gabe Newell's expressionless face, and there would be no music, just headcrab sound files playing, with an occasional wail of suffering.

it would be horrifying. and glorious.

 

[thehermit2]

I kind of want Half Life 3 to be the last installment in the franchise. It seems like Valve is less interested in direct game development and more interested in creating a platform for others to release their games. Which is sad because they are really good at game development (if not punctual).

I would like Half Life 3 to be just like Half Life 2 and the episodes but with flashier graphics and new but not significantly game-changing gameplay mechanics, and as always designed with an eye towards making community modding easy. I think a community level builder like the one for Portal 2 would be a bit much to ask (although it would be awesome), but I would like to see something the Skyrim modders can get behind. No idea what that would be.

It seems like Valve stopped talking about Half Life 3 around the time the Left 4 Dead series and Portal 2 hit the market. Both of these represented serious new developments in gameplay mechanics. The Portal series showed a puzzle-themed FPS could succeed, and the Left 4 Dead series successfully implemented both dynamic enemy placement via an AI director and cooperative play. I don't see Half Life 3 as a puzzle game or co-op, but I am really intrigued by the idea that they might adapt the Left 4 Dead method of directed enemy placement to create a shooter that is different every time you play it. I don't think I've seen this mechanic implemented in any other shooters.

The storyline may have written itself into a corner, game-development-wise. It seems you and Alyx are about to fly out to an ice station looking for a magic MacGuffin. This is the setup for a hackneyed horror game, and I'm not sure how long it will last as a linear shooter or sandbox shooter. The MacGuffin would almost have to be a teleporter/portal or a time machine just so they can get out of that environment while still maintaining the every-moment-of-every-day storytelling style of Half Life 1 and 2. My guess is time machine; they already hinted at this in Half Life 2 with the accidental discovery of a "very slow teleporter". I wouldn't be surprised if Half Life 3 ends with you running and gunning through a beautifully rebuilt version of Half Life 1, trying to prevent the cascade whatever that caused the whole mess.

 

[00slash00]

I want the game to be cell shaded, I want them to hire the worst English voice actors they can find (just get the English voice cast of Inuyasha), and I want it to be a rhythm game like Space Channel 5. Scratch that, I want it to BE Space Channel 5, with Gordon Freeman's face crudely pasted over Ulala's. I love Half Life, but what I love even more is enraged fanboys

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I want something that clearly wasn't designed using Half-Life 2's engine, I want a game that was designed to fix the problem with Half-Life 2's engine.

How about a larger weapon choice than the same ten weapons? How about more enemies than Combine-zombie-gunship-antlion then repeat? How about vehicle controls that aren't incredibly unresponsive and flighty? And larger map sizes without walking through loading screens after every doorway? Gunplay that isn't incredibly boring or unsatisfying? (There's a reason a lot of people don't play Half-Life Deathmatch). Physics puzzles that don't rely on seesaws or throwing tons of grenades?

I think I have to put Episode 2 as my favorite of the recent Half-Lifes (not of all Half-Life, because Opposing Force is too good). At least Episode 2 tried with more open-ended maps (the Stalker finale or the Antlion cave) and having ultimately much stronger set pieces, like the Antlion cave attack or the Combine ambush in the farmhouses.

 

[Von Dean]

released?...

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I want to be able to move and shoot guns. That pretty much covers my desired mechanics.

1) A voiced Gordon Freeman. Booker Dewitt from Bioshock Infinite kind of rammed home how much I like a protagonist character who actually responds to what's going on around him.

Personally I like the fact that Gordon is silent. It lets you imagine what he would say, and what kind of person he really is. The NPCs never really talk about his personality leaving it up to you to decide.

Heck, I thought HL2 was a better role playing game than most RPGs. Second time I played it I imagined Gordon as being some shit talking black guy, that was fun.

 

[NiPah]

No matter what it ends up being, Half Life 3 is going to be a huge disappointment to all the rabid fans that like to shit talk Gabe everytime he announces something he is doing that ISN'T HL3.

I don't remember him ever saying that it was coming, or even coming soon. Now that most of you have hyped this game (that doesn't even exist, yet, maybe) to incredible levels, there is no way that it is going to live up to what you think it should be. Same thing happens with Zelda superfans. They see ONE screen, and then hype the game up to heights that inevitably disappoint.

Wow, at just the hint of a conversation about Half Life 3 the valiant realists take it upon themselves to remind everyone how shit it will be. Keep up the good fight mate, you anti-super fans are pretty much the reverse of fanboys and just as annoying, for every "this game will be great" you'll be sure to tell them how bad it will be, always with the quick reminder of DNF (haven't seen that jewel mentioned in every damn HL3 thread).

Just like the HL3 super fans (who for some amazing reason never show up) I'm a little worried about how sad you'll be if HL3 if it's not as bad as you suspected it to be, I mean you've pretty much devoted a chunk of your life waiting for this game to come out and be shit I'm honestly worried a bit.

 

[Jacco]

I'd like it to have a good story.

Half-Life 2 had some great voice acting and a couple decent characters but the story completely fell flat. I wasn't invested in it at all but rather the music and environments and action pushed me through the game. Although to be honest the pacing is terrible IMO. You tend to stick around in an area or section long after it starts to wear thin.

If HL3 can offer an engaging story and tweak it's pacing it would be worthy follow up in the franchise. Nostalgia goggles make this game an immediate failure though as people state. That doesn't mean it's not worth creating. It just means die hard HL fans will endlessly nerd rage while people new to the series might become new HL fans.

Half Life 2's story wasn't terrible. I think the reason it "fell flat" was because it was such a massive change in feel and environment from HL1 without explanation. It was jarring and sudden (which is, to be honest, bad story telling in general).

It was just very "generic shooter". It was just one environment to another without rest. No surprises (suddenly having to put one in Wrex's head), no epic WTF moments (being attacked by the Flood for the first time), just "shoot a bunch of guys here and then go there and shoot some more guys and that zombie."

But I agree. I'd like to see it have a well thought out and fleshed out story that is worthy of my time. That ties up all the questions and loose ends and has twists. Perhaps the Combine really aren't as bad as they seem? Or maybe their entire organization is all smoke and mirrors and they really aren't powerful at all.

 

[Moloch Sacrifice]

What boggles my mind is that valve has said nothing. People talk about the hype train, a la duke nukem, that came through the station with announcements and the openings of preorders many times through its development hell.

Valve has said literally nothing, aside from "no comment," for years.

Nothing.

The HL3 hype has been entirely created by the community.

I wonder if this approach to dealing with the public is a product of the company's structure. Whilst I'm all for the amazing creative environment that has been created, unless someone actively decides to take one for the team and be the one to announce that the most hyped game in this decade is not currently being developed, then it's not going to happen. The s**t can't roll downhill if there's no hill.

 

[Vigormortis]

Mmm-mm-mm. Yes, there's nothing quite like a Half-Life themed thread to bring out the usual haters and the "stop liking what I don't like" people.

And fortunately, this one has not disappointed. Their complaints are like ambrosia.

Anyway, what I'd like to see in Half-Life 3 is.....what ever the hell Valve wants to put it in. They've made a point of adding things we've never really seen before into their Half-Life games. So I'd expect, nor desire, nothing less.

Or, to put it another way: I expect the unexpected. Anything less would be a letdown.

What boggles my mind is that valve has said nothing. People talk about the hype train, a la duke nukem, that came through the station with announcements and the openings of preorders many times through its development hell.

Valve has said literally nothing, aside from "no comment," for years.

Nothing.

The HL3 hype has been entirely created by the community.

That's not entirely true.

Valve has confirmed, several times, that they've been actively working on it. In fact, their most recent instance was just last year: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/04/23/gabe-on-ricochet-2-delay-but-he-doesnt-mean-ricochet/

This is not to say they've been actively hyping the gaming communities over it. No, they've only just said they're 'working on it'.

 

[Xdeser2]

A turn-based tactical RPG about androgynous protagonist and his annoying flying dog who accompanies him on a trip to mars while fighting space pirate nazis out to control the supply of martian rocks being sold on Earth.

Or...

You know, a well paced FPS with a cool narrative and some fun weapons. That could work too.

 

[SomeGuyOnHisComputer]

I wouldn't mind seeing Half-Life innovate, but not to make it closer to CoD or any other shooter. Part of the reason I like Half-Life 2 is the fact that it feels oldschool. Homogenization in the name of innovation needs to fucking stop already. Develop a new gameplay mecanic, the complements the grav gun and the science theme, don't give me health regen.

 

[Dalisclock]

1. Finished.

2. Satisfactory end the plot arc set up in Half Life 2.

I mean, I can see how this is going to be tricky considering they've resolved most of the plot threads(and eliminated city 17, not to mention shutting down the combine superportal), but they still have Dr. Mossman, the G-man's deal and the Aperture science ship to deal with.

That should be enough to build a 4-6 hour game from, as long as the gameplay makes that a fun 4-6 hours.

 

[JagermanXcell]

I want Half-Life 3 to have Gabe as playable character, with a witty one-liner every kill he gets.... or NPC... like the best NPC, where you can Social Link and strengthen his and Gordon's beautiful friendship... and then G-Man is the final boss and you dual with jetpacks.
oh yeah, and exist. *sigh* I'm just kinda running off my


of Half-Life 3 at this point.

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

I want to fight an army of mantis men. Is that too much to ask?

 

[Guy from the 80's]

I just dont care anymore. Its been 9 years and I've completely lost interest. The episodes were bland and not that exighting. Its like reading a book and stop reading half way through and then expect to continue reading nearly a decade later. Just not going to happen.

 

[Bertylicious]

I think Gordon Freeman should be voiced by Jon St. Jon and be re-titled to "Half Life Forever".