Half-Life 3 is a game the internet has always wished for, and since then, the existence (or nonexistence) has been a joke around every corner. But did you know that there was actually another Half-Life in development at one point?
According to a reporter on ValveTime named Barnz, "On March 24, 2017, an unknown individual leaked the original map files for the Half-Life 2 episodes […] [including] a map from the canceled Half-Life 2 episode which was being developed by Junction Point Studios."
This Half-life 2 "Episode 3" was supposed to release after Episode 2, but it never came to be. Not technically Half-Life 3, but it was an official Half-Life title that never saw the light of day.
Further down in the report, a description reads:
"This map appears to be from the cancelled Half-Life 2 episode which was being developed by Junction Point Studios in late 2005. It takes place in a snow-themed version of Ravenholm which includes small puzzles, scripted sequences, and fights. This game is not related to Arkane Studios' cancelled Episode Four, also known as Return to Ravenholm, which would have also take place in the town.
It is implied that the player crashes into a warehouse in a gondola. He wakes up in a room with two unique characters named Duncan and Scooter. There is a train station and buildings nearby. A group of rebels and Combine Soldiers fight on the streets."
A canceled title of a long-lived rumor. How did this go unsurfaced for so long? What does this mean for the future of Half-Life? Or is it just a fossil dug up for a museum?
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