Summary

A reliableValveleaker has released a new video focused onHalf-Life 3that suggests it won’t go for an open-world approach and will instead have expansive zones similar toUncharted 4.

For a very long time, the existence of a third Half-Life game has been nothing but ahope and dream for fans of Gordon Freeman’s iconic first-person outings. Valve has infamouslybeen unable to count to three for a long time nowand even thoughHalf-Life: Alyx gave us the closest thing to a sequel, we’ve all been waiting for the long-awaited confirmation from Valve.

Over the past year or so, though, Half-Life 3 has seemed much less like an impossibility turned into a meme and actually looks like it might one day release. Valve has dropped some big hints that Gordon could return in the future (including showing off footage of Episode 3 for the first time) and dataminers have found plenty of evidence that a new game is in the works.

Half-Life 3 Leak Suggests It Won’t Be Open-World

One such dataminer is Tyler McVicker, a reliable Valve source who has been talking about Half-Life 3 and revealing behind-the-scenes details for quite some time now.McVicker recently released a new video about Half-Life 3 titled, “Valve Isn’t Trying To Hide HL3 Anymore”, which shares some new datamined info.

As reported by Metro, McVicker’s video claims that updates that have been made to some of Valve’s games, such as Deadlock, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike 2, feature files that he’s certain are related to a new Half-Life game. Some of these include mechanics and systems from Half-Life 2 that have been updated for a new game, alongside a shotgun sound that could be being tested “at a very low level”.

One of the most interesting parts of the video is when McVicker talks about Arty, a cancelled Valve project which is seemingly influencing some of the features in Half-Life 3. After discussing that, McVicker clarifies that Valve is aiming to up its physics game and that some of the features that some have taken as being indicative of an open-world aren’t that at all.

It’s open-linear, more akin to Uncharted 4 and not at all like Fallout. - Tyler McVicker

Instead, McVicker says that Half-Life 3 is likely going to be “open-linear” and approach missions in a similar way to Uncharted 4. For those that don’t remember, Uncharted 4 had several levels that allowed a bit more freedom, which is what Half-Life 3 is seemingly going to imitate. For anyone worried Valve would be making it open-world for no reason, it looks like that won’t be the case.