Half-Life 3 Is In Works and Playable

According to the latest rumors, Half-Life 3 could already be completely playable and still appear in 2025. Accordingly, the game is tested intensively and could possibly be announced this summer.

Half-Life 3 supposedly “playable from start to finish”

After almost two decades of waiting there is new hope for fans of the legendary Half-Life series. According to current rumors, the title developed under the code name “HLX” should already be completely playable and could be published this year. Half-Life 3 has long been considered the “white whale” of the game industry.

Although the game was originally announced for 2007, this date passed without publication, and Valve was silent for years. With Half-Life: Alyx returned the 2020 series, but as a VR title. The end of Alyx already pointed out to a sequel, but there were no concrete information.

“Intensive Playtesting”

The well-known Valve insider Tyler McVicker reports in one Q&A video (via Engadget) that Half-Life 3 is now in an advanced development phase. “It is playable – from the beginning to the end. Point,” said Mcvicker in his live stream. He also reported that Half-Life 3 was tested “religious and so wide”. The development has progressed as far as ever before in previous attempts. According to McVicker, the game could be announced in the summer of 2025, with a possible publication in winter. In contrast to Half-Life: Alyx, however, it should not be a VR title, but a traditional game.

Connections to the portal universe

McVicker also indicates that Chell, the protagonist of the portal series, could appear in Half-Life 3. This would increase the connection between the two series, which already share the same universe. In Portal 2 there was already an important Easter Egg that referred to a now rejected version of Half-Life 3. Originally, a younger version of Chell in Half-Life 3 was to occur to explain how it got into the experiments of Aperture Science.

How exactly Chell could be integrated into Gordon Freeman’s story remains unclear. The development history of Half-Life 3 is characterized by several attempts and setbacks. After the cliffhanger end of Half-Life 2: Episode Two in 2007, Valve originally planned to continue the story in a third episode. But episode 3 has not (so far?). A possible current background: The source 2 engine, which has been under development since 2015 and made her debut with Dota 2, could finally be mature enough to serve as a technical basis for half-life 3. Half-Life: Alyx already used this engine and impressively showed what it is able to do.