After four years, huge Half-Life 3 fan game is suddenly back from the dead, and playable soon
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It’s been 20 years since Gordon Freeman led the climactic assault on City 17, and you might be forgiven for thinking that Half-Life 3 will never, ever happen. Episode One and Episode Two were fantastic – likewise, Half-Life Alyx. But despite rumblings, hints, and rumors, Half-Life 3 remains one of gaming’s most enduring myths. Counter-Strike 2 happened. Deadlock happened. But the return of Valve’s greatest FPS game still feels, frankly, as far away as ever. On the contrary, Half-Life 3 – or at least, a would-be, fan-made version of Half-LIfe 3 – on its way, imminently. After four years of relative silence, the extremely ambitious Project Borealis is suddenly back, and there’s a playable demo coming soon.
A brief recap. At the end of Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Judith Mossman is on a mission to locate the missing container ship Borealis (which, based on an easter egg, originally departed from the Aperture labs of Portal and Portal 2). Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance intend to join her, but – avoiding spoilers here – they are unexpectedly waylaid. At one time, Valve was going to continue the FPS game series with further episodes. Eventually, the episodic format was dropped and the wait began for Half-Life 3. Jump forward 17 years, and here we (still) are.
But there’s a twist in the tale. In 2017, Valve legend Mark Laidlaw published a thinly disguised plot synopsis for what would have been Half-Life 2: Episode Three. Subsequently nicknamed ‘Epistle 3,’ it outlined what would have happened to Alyx and Gordon in the would-have-been sequel. Out of this, and, presumably, inspiration from the superlative Half-Life remake Black Mesa, Project Borealis was born.
Built by an 80-person team from the Half-Life community, Project Borealis was a fan-made version of Episode 3. Between 2017 and 2020, Project Borealis posted a number of updates – but then, it promptly went quiet. Sporadic images and examples of assets appeared on social media channels up until 2022, but then even these stopped. Until today.
Out of nowhere, Project Borealis has just shared a new teaser trailer. Even better, it teases an initial launch – dubbed Project Borealis Prologue – in fall of this year.
It may not be the actual Half-Life 3, but this looks like a very professionally made, convincing fan interpretation, and it’s based on official story outlines from Valve itself. Coupled with some of the other Half-Life 3 stirrings lately, there is, perhaps, reason to be hopeful after all. Time to pop the casserole back in the microwave…
Check out some of the other best old games, if you miss the halcyon days of the original Half-Life, or maybe get the full story on whatever happened to Half-Life 3 after 2007.
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