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The developers of Half-Life: Alyx want to make more games in the Half-Life series, and they want to make them "a lot sooner than last time." It's not quite 'Half-Life 3 confirmed', but it's probably as close as we've come in the last decade-and-a-half.
Speaking to IGN's Ryan McCaffrey in an upcoming episode of IGN Unfiltered, Half-Life: Alyx developers Chris Remo and Robin Walker were asked if, now that Alyx is complete, they were done with Half-Life for the time being, or energised to make more games set in the universe.
"I think much more the latter than the former, for sure", explained Remo. "It's really clear that people at the studio really, really like working in this universe, and have really enjoyed making this game. And, like, why wouldn't you, you know? It makes a lot of sense. As someone who's only been [at Valve for] a couple years, it is sort of amazing to come into contact with all this stuff that I recognise so deeply, but see what it means in a modern context. That's incredibly exciting, and paints all kinds of pictures - they're all hazy pictures, I don't know what any of them are, but it feels like people are very excited about the Half-Life universe, for sure."
Walker went further: "Yeah, I mean, hopefully everyone likes the game, and they want more of it. I can only really echo what Chris said. We've really enjoyed building this, it was a heck of a lot of fun to go back to and deliver on what, hopefully, everyone wanted from us. I hope we get to build more of it. I hope everyone didn't hate it and now we have to slink away and spend another 13 years trying to figure out what our next shot at the whole thing is. So yes, I hope you see more from us a lot sooner than last time."
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Neither will say the magic words - 'Half-Life 3' - but it's beginning to feel like we're closer to that near-mythical sequel than ever before. When Half-Life: Alyx was first announced, Walker told us that those who had made the original games were "thrilled to be back in the Half-Life universe again." Given how many Half-Life sequels have reportedly been cancelled in the years since Half-Life 2: Episode 2, the team is likely pleased to get a game out of the door, in the hopes that it means more will come.
Whether future games will finish Half Life 2's story, or continue it (Half-Life: Alyx is a prequel to that game) is still unknown. However, we know that writer Marc Laidlaw had a plot in mind for Half-Life 2: Episode 3, which included a Combine-surrounded, reality-phasing ship, and Wallace Breen's brain plugged into an enormous slug monster.
Of course, we have Half-Life: Alyx to enjoy first, and it arrives for PC-compatible VR headsets on March 23. We're running an IGN First on the game for the whole of March - so far, we've shown off a 9-minute chunk of the game, and Valve has broken down 13 minutes of gameplay for us too.
Later this month, we'll release the full, hour-plus interview with Remo and Walker that these quotes come from - it's very much worth staying tuned for that.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/02/half-life-alyx-9-minutes-of-gameplay-ign-first"]
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Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News, and he would quite like Half-Life: DOG. Follow him on Twitter.