Let’s face it – we’re not going to play Half Life 3. Heck, we didn’t even get to finish the Half Life 2 saga, which started 13 years ago.
Well, now we can do the next best thing – read the story of Half Life 2 Episode 3.
Ex-Valve scriptwriter Marc Laidlaw just posted a short story, called Epistle 3, on his personal website. While the character names and even genders are all different, this is obviously the story Laidlaw envisioned for Episode 3.
Uhm… Spoilers ahead?
Gordon Freeman, or should I say Gertrude Fremont, flies to Antarctica to locate the Borealis (Hyperborea in the story), an Aperture Science ship. After their seaplane crashes, they discover the Borealis is out of phase with time and space. Eventually they board it, Judith Mossman dies, Alyx is taken by the G-Men, and Gordon almost dies as the ships hurls into fiery doom.
There’s one particular scene where the group fights aboard the Borealis as the ship shifts through several times and locations. It sounds like it could have been an incredible set piece for an incredible game.
Laidlaw previously worked on the story of the original Half Life, it’s expansions, and Half Life 2. It’s safe to say he had an idea what the story of Episode 3 would be like, if it ever saw the light of day. Since that wasn’t the case, it’s pretty cool of him to release that information to the public like that.
We can’t actually say that this is the canonical story of Half Life 2 Episode 3. Laidlaw left Valve in 2016, so by now this short story is nothing more than fan-fiction.
Still, maybe this could offer just a little bit of closure for Half Life fans.
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