However, we have yet to see if Gabe Newell and co will get to do Half-Life 3 or not…

„It’s probably no surprise that many people at Valve have been wanting to get back to the Half-Life universe for a long time, and this experience has only reinforced that. In the process of creating Half-Life: Alyx, we’ve had to explore new ways to tell stories with these characters and this world, and we’ve discovered a lot of new gameplay experiences that go beyond what we’ve been able to do before. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see how people react to Half-Life: Alyx once it’s out, but we’d love to continue pushing forward,” David Speyrer, the game’s programmer and designer (who formerly worked on Half-Life 2, The Orange Box, and the two Left 4 Dead games) told The Verge.

However, Valve initially had different ideas: „We explored different franchises. We kind of ruled out multiplayer just because of the small audience for VR, and other issues as well with VR avatars and things like that. We settled on Portal or Half-Life as interesting. And Portal is so much about flinging yourself through space and through portals that we thought, ‘Well, we’re just going to make people sick with this game.’ A full-on Portal game seemed challenging, and then we looked at Half-Life and the DNA of that product and a bunch of the elements seemed enhanced by VR. Half-Life is about this cadence of story, combat, puzzle, exploration, interaction, environmental art–vistas, things like that. And they all seem to be enhanced or reinvented in interesting ways by VR,” Speyrer told Geoff Keighley in a video interview, which we embedded in yesterday’s reveal post of the game.

„Everyone at Valve is excited to be returning to the world of Half-Life. VR has energized us. We’ve invested a lot of ourselves in the technology. But we’re also game developers at heart, and to be devoting ourselves to a VR game this ambitious is just as exciting,” Gabe Newell, the head of Valve, wrote in a statement.

On Twitter, Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords) confirmed that his voice is in the trailer. Alyx will get a new voice: instead of Merle Dandrige, Ozioma Akagha (Plastic in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, Barbara Casey in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus) will take her role, and Greg Coomer explained to PCGamer that a new voice was necessary, as Alyx is younger than in Half-Life 2, due to this game being a prequel. However, Dandridge is not disappointed, as she wrote the following on Twitter: „I love her so much. I’m so glad fans will finally have this satisfaction. Thank you Valve for bringing Alyx Vance and Half-Life back to life. Congratulations and every success!”

Half-Life: Alyx launches in March on Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows’ mixed reality devices, and Oculus Touch (with a link cable to a PC). Those who buy a Valve Index by March 30 will get this game for free.

Source: WCCFTech, GameSpot, GameSpot, GameSpot

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