Let's keep our fingers crossed that Half-Life 3 isn't VR

Half-Life is known for making huge leaps with each new game. In the past, Valve was only interested in reviving the franchise if it could do something fresh and innovative. That makes the pressure to return to the series – which Valve is currently doing with a new game codenamed Project White Sands, according to data miners – overwhelming.

Half-Life has always evolved

The first game was a breakthrough for first-person shooters, combining environmental realism with a heavy emphasis on narrative, creating a template that triple-A shooters have followed for decades. Half-Life 2 took the first game’s rudimentary physics – which let you do simple things like push boxes around – and took them to the next level, with physics-based puzzles and the iconic Gravity Gun, which let you pick up and hurl objects in the environment. Half-Life: Alyx built on both, but transplanted the action into virtual reality, making for an immersive, spooky experience that offered more expressiveness and freedom in interacting with its world than any shooter I’d played before.

Every Half-Life is a milestone. But as senior picture editor James Troughton recently argued, Half-Life 3 doesn’t have to be. The long-awaited FPS that has achieved mythical status in the 20 years since Half-Life 2 finally seems to be in development at Valve. The ending of Alyx strongly suggested we were on the way there, and the Valve developers, speaking in Geoff Keighley’s interactive article The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx, talked about how developing the spin-off had brought them to a point where they were “no longer afraid of Half-Life.” The ending of Alyx perfectly set up Half-Life 3 while perfectly evading expectations built up over a decade. I can’t wait to finally get my hands on Valve’s long-awaited sequel, and I’m excited to see what the team does too. My only request is that Half-Life’s return doesn’t happen in VR this time around.

Alyx being in VR made sense. After so long without the series, Valve needed something to pull it out of years of inertia. Experimenting with VR technology while preparing for the launch of the HTC Vive set Valve on the path to developing Half-Life: Alyx, and that process led the company to develop its own VR headset, the Index, for which Alyx was the flagship technology. Virtual reality was key in the journey back to Half-Life, and if the choice was between no Half-Life or Half-Life in VR, I was happy to play Half-Life in VR.

Half-Life Alyx Eli hands Gordon Freeman a crowbar in front of a dead Avisor and a DOG

What would Half-Life 3 even look like now?

We analyze the canceled Half-Life games and learn how the ending of Alyx could change the course of Half-Life 3’s story.

If VR is not the future, what is?

But VR just doesn’t fit into my life, and considering how small the VR market is, there are plenty of aging Half-Life fans who don’t even own headsets. If Half-Life 3 becomes a VR exclusive like Alyx did, I’ll find out, find a seat, and play it. The series is so important to me that I wouldn’t miss a game just because it would be inconvenient to play. I can’t say that about 99 percent of the series I’ve played, so that’s a huge credit to Valve.

When I suggested this article, James suggested that a Half-Life 3 that is playable both in and out of VR would be the best option, and I don’t disagree.

But I’m more interested in seeing Valve innovate in game design than innovate in new technologies. The next Half-Life could be a VR or Steam Deck exclusive, but wouldn’t it be great if Valve explored creative new level designs and mechanical ideas instead? So many cool things have happened in the first-person space since Half-Life 2: Episode 2. Walking simulators like Gone Home and What Remains of Edith Finch, first-person horror games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Outlast, boomer shooters like Dusk and Amid Evil, cool high-concept indie games like Superhot and Metal: Hellsinger, speedrunning FPSes like Neon White and Anger Foot—there have been so many innovations that have pushed the genre forward in small steps.

Alyx with her hands raised in front of Combine soldiers in Half-Life: Alyx

Half-Life has always been an innovative series that pushed the industry in bold new directions. Since Half-Life 2, indie games have followed in Valve’s footsteps without relying on new technology. If Valve really wants to impress with Half-Life, it doesn’t need new technology, just new ideas.