Could a Half Life 3 ever live up to expectations if it ever came to be?

A-V-B said:
I just want a conclusion to H2:ep2's cliffhanger ending written by Marc Laidlaw, with returning characters, consistent Half-Life-style gameplay, and better graphics. I don't want my mind blown. I just want a goddamn ending. I want Gordon and Alyx's revenge and then I'll be happy forever.
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This is me. I don't if the game doesn't reinvent the wheel, I just want it to be good and conclude the story
 
Fudo Myo said:
No. Valve should sell the licence to CD Projekt Red and then maybe.
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of all their ports, transfers, localizations and new developmental work, they probably have the least experience with first-person shooters.
...
...
... fuck it, let's see what they can do.
 
Do people even know what to expect? It doesn't matter, really, because if HL3 did come out, chances are it wouldn't be some phenomenal groundbreaking experience. And that would be all you'd need for a "this game is a disappointment!" narrative to get off the ground and gather momentum.
 
I guess it'll be like with Shenmue III at some point. The fans will take whatever they'll get just to finish the story (although Shenmue III won't even do that).
 
At this point I think that only 2 outcomes will be possible:
  • Amazing masterpiece that pushes the genre forward again: This is really hard to do, but the new Zelda for example seems capable to be doing just that in a series that had growin stale in the last 20 years, so who knows. Besides, there a history of other games doing this before, like Mario 64, OoT, DMC, Demon´s Souls...
  • Terrible worst game ever: Even if it´s a good game, if it falls short of amazing for just a thin hair it will be dropped into this category due to people comparing it to an unachievable, nostalgic memory of HL2.

It´s been so long that I no longer care, when/if it´s announced I´ll be following it with lowered expectations and wait for extensive reviews and opinions before jumping in.
 
Of course it could. The standards for FPS games these days are very low. All Valve has to do is introduce a some new mechanics and it would blow away many minds. And if Portal 2 is anything to go by then the storytelling in HL3 would be ridiculously good as well.
 
The expectation is for it to never exist, so just by coming out it would ruin thememes about it that aren't and never will be funny.
 
Yeah, the only expectation i have is that it is eventually released. So maybe I'm setting myself up for disappointment :(

You can't end ep 2 on that cliffhanger and not resolve it. That's fucked up Valve.
 
ThoseDeafMutes said:
I don't know what expectations people even have at this point. I don't doubt they could still make a well designed FPS campaign which had technically impressive graphics. What else are people expecting? The story in HL2 was ok, but kind of brief. None of the things that made HL2 mind blowing are mind blowing today, or even in 2007 when Episode 2 came out.
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Well none of the things in Half-Life 1 were mind blowing anymore in 2004 when Half-Life 2 came out and blew minds.. So that doesn't really work.



I HOPE they do blow it out of the park, but short of an Amazing Vive 2.0 game, I don't see it quite living up tho the hype. Though "Not living up to the hype" for HL3 still could mean it's a 10/10 game.
 
Personally, absolutely. If the game was announced to be in full development sometime in the next 6 years, that would already massively surpass any of my expectations.

I'd still say yes if we're just talking about the general opinion of folks on this website and a hypothetical teaser got released. People with half a brain won't correlate the amount of time that's passed since a previous entry in a series to the projected quality of the new entry when it comes down to it. Plus I think at this point most fans know HL3 basically has next to nothing done in terms of development.
 
Yes. Because at this point, not a single soul is actually expecting it. I hope DOOM being this huge popular hit lights a fire in their asses for real though. I so wanna know what a modern day take on Half Life would be like
 
It would get flooded with negative reviews for X reasons by the braindead fans of YouTube personalities after they watched the latest 30 minute monetized rant video
 
It still hurts, Half-Life was such a huge SP franchise. Probably my favorite games ever.
HL3 could live up to expectations, Valve isn't going to make SP games, but a studio like Naughty Dog or the team behind the Tomb Raider reboot could easily make it something good and tell an interesting story.

Oh, and also remaster the old ones. Black Mesa still hasn't completed the first Half-Life, at this tempo, the Half-Life games will be remastered in 30 years.
 
For some people? No. The years have created unrealistic expectations that will only lead to disappointment for them.

For me, I'd be happy with a new game with a similar world, tone and pacing as HL 2 + episodes.
 
No, and I genuinely think they shouldn't even try. Just drop HL and make a new IP (that was probably started as HL3).
 
Absolutely. If Half-Life 3 ever comes out I'm sure it will be stunning and it will redefine shooters for many years to come, just like the previous two games did.
 
They should just make the whole game and hire some critics to review it in house under an NDA. If it doesn't get 9/10 or 10/10 reviews then just rename it and tweak the story to make it completely different from the Half-Life series and release it anyways.
 
No, I honestly don't think it ever will. The expectations based off the hype are just too much for it to not be a disappointment.
 
For me personally, yes.

I love the world and the characters and simply just want more of them. Sure I enjoy the crap out of the gameplay of the first two, but my enjoyment of that in a possible 3rd game isn't really impacted by my excitement for it. My brain just doesn't work that way I guess.

So While everyone else is hating I'll still probably love it.
 
all it has to be is a clever fps adventure with cool set pieces and engaging characters. it doesn't have to reinvent the wheel for me to be happy. just Episode 3 would suffice for my tastes. it was never the genre-defining aspects of half-life or half-life 2 that dazzled me anyway--at least not consciously.

the half-life sense that you are in a place and valve is subtly guiding you toward your destination is really the sine qua non of the series to me. the nudging.

so yeah, it absolutely could meet my expectations.
 
I'd take a book, a comic, a fucking Immortal set for DOTA 2 with some text attached, anything at this point just to finish the damn story.

I'm sure if Valve ever did put out an actual Half Life 3 it would melt faces, because they faced this same sort of pressure with HL2 and absolutely nailed it. But at this point I just want closure.

Blobbers said:
Only if Naughty Dog made it.

A Valve-made HL3? lolno, even HL2 was a major step down from the first game
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On the other hand, I would rather it never exist and for us to be left in perpetual limbo rather than this.
 
A-V-B said:
Half-Life 1 sure as hell did. Doesn't anyone remember how many awards that game won? How many publications called it the best PC game of all time? It sounds funny now, but HL1 left one hell of a mark.
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Can you really call something the best of all the time in the year it releases? That's an honor that requires hindsight and age.
 
It need to push the genre and the technology forwards, like the previous ones did. Make the benchmark VR full-blown FPS and I think that is the ticket (and I think that's what Valve is exploring).
 
People always ask this, but do people really have high expectations in regards to innovation with this game? I think if they just released a super solid FPS that resolved the story of Half-Life people would be fine.

It's not like we've been promised any absurd graphical or technological advancements. People just want to know how the story ends or continues.

So, yeah. They could absolutely meet expectations.
 
Yes it can, because everyone currently has a different expectation. My expectations are the same as previous Half-Life games - a vector for new technology as well as challenging the notions of the genre with that. I'm fairly certain that such a thing can be done.
 
No. It may end up being a very good game, but unless massive fundamental changes were made to the gameplay in order to feel fresh and innovative yet familiar to players, I highly doubt it'd be the same ground breaking experience from over a decade ago.
 
People doubted that Half-Life 2 could live up to the expectations.

It shattered them.

Valve is smart enough not to do this until they know they can improve on what they've done.

I'm content to wait.
 
I'm sure they're capable of making a really good FPS game. Trying to argue that it should never come out because it can't live up to expectations is insane to me. If that's the case, just stop having insane expectations.

Like many others I just want to know what happens next. But whatever, since we all know Valve make more money than they could dream of just from Steam and their eSports games now, we'll likely never see it either way. But I don't buy they aren't doing it because they can't do it justice. I think they just don't care/need to/want to.
 
Yes? Why the hell not?

Some of you are insanely cynical.

What if they created a game that had a near fully interactive world? What if stuff splintered and broke properly? What if the game models looked next to real? What if the story continued in fresh, new, and exciting ways? The leap in quality in Half-Life 2 from 1 was HUGE (even though Half-Life 1 is still AMAZING and arguably better). There's so much Valve COULD do with their ambitions.

DoomGaze said:
People doubted that Half-Life 2 could live up to the expectations.

It shattered them.

Valve is smart enough not to do this until they know they can improve on what they've done.

I'm content to wait.
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EXACTLY.

St3v3 said:
No, unless it's a 10/10 game, but it's unlikely they'll drop a perfect game without all the usual bugs and issues we suffer through at launch these days.
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Valve releases pretty high quality/finished products and adds content later. Wouldn't lump common modern gaming trends with Valve.
 
No, unless it's a 10/10 game, but it's unlikely they'll drop a perfect game without all the usual bugs and issues we suffer through at launch these days.
 
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