It wasn’t worth the wait.
Call me petty, call me pathetic, but I know it rings true for those who also waited.
I still remember watching the Borealis reveal in HL2: EP2, over and over again to fully sink in what I was watching.
The Aperture Science logo on full display, tying the Half-Life/Portal narratives together like a fancy bow. It left me with goosebumps each time.
A secret area in Portal 2 had us gazing upon the dock of the Borealis – a colossal chasm, as vast and empty as our expectations should’ve been. A bizarre place for merely an easter egg. It was no “easter egg” for some of us. It was hope.
How excited we were, yet little did we know: Valve would spend the next decade doing... absolutely nothing.
The fulfillment never came.
The whole incident was merely suspense, and nothing more. For the next decade onwards, Valve treated Half-Life as if it was the worst thing they had ever made.
It wasn’t the flagship series that brought them to stardom, it was a mistake. An embarrassing mistake that would never be gazed upon ever again.
The burning question echoed across the internet: “Where is Half-Life 3?” Nobody knew, certainly not Valve.
Even in hindsight, one is left utterly confused as to what went wrong. What had happened down the line that made them trip on their feet after such a long run of nobility?
One speculation for the deafening radio silence was fear that the game wouldn’t live up to the “hype”, but was complete silence really the better alternative?
Rockstar Games still managed to deliver a legendary sequel to Red Dead Redemption, even with their previous release being GRAND THEFT AUTO 5.
Others say there was no reason to keep going since they were making plenty of money. Such assumptions seemed ridiculous... at the time – surely Valve would not sink so low⸮
How foolish we were.
Eventually, something came along, but the end didn’t justify the means. Not to me. It shouldn’t have been enough for anyone, as ludicrously audacious as that sounds.
Some of us waited a long damn time (a lifetime for some). It isn’t like the only thing we did was wait, but we did invest some hefty faith that you’d follow through with such a legendary series.
If you couldn’t, you could’ve tried. It isn’t like Portal 2 wasn’t a theatrical masterpiece before you abandoned ship on singleplayer narratives altogether.
Just like any conflict swept under the rug, eventually it explodes... at least, that’s what I thought. I was hoping for something to explode with the fans. “Enough is enough” was all we needed. Fortunately for Valve, they had the perfect smokescreen with their TF2/CSGO/DOTA economy.
Now comes the part where I lose you, the reader: Half-Life: Alyx didn’t interest me.
It didn’t revitalize my faith in the series. It didn’t make me go “Valve is back!”, as much as I wanted to say it.
It didn’t feel like Half-Life, it felt like a poor attempt to sell nostalgia. It felt like kitsch. Nothing felt genuine, just a bunch of ham-fisted attempts at necromancy on parts of a soul that died long ago.
A decade is a long time to continually, and willfully, let someone down. One game just isn’t going to do it, and certainly not one that's nothing more than a retcon. CERTAINLY not one that’s merely an experiment for... Allah forgive me for uttering these words... Virtual Reality.
Call me petty, call me pathetic, but I know it rings true for those who also waited.
