It sadly became clear last month that Half-Life 2: Episode 3 will never happen in an official capacity from Valve. However, along with the cryptic revelation from former Valve writer Marc Laidlaw came a sort of… relief… and with it, a call-to-arms to the community.
One fan, Brendon Chung of Blendo Games, has fashioned his own interpretation of Laidlaw’s story: a Source mod called Tiger Team.
As the brief description on itch.io explains, the mod is based on the “Epistle 3” write-up from Laidlaw.
Laidlaw’s post, which gets meta enough in places you can’t help but suspect it — at least partially — refers to the troubles he and others faced at the developer trying to make Episode 3 happen, caused quite a stir when it was published last month.
The post heavily suggested a passing of the torch to the community to make the next instalment in Gordon Freeman’s tale, a responsibility some, such as Chung, took to heart.
If you’re not in a position to try the mod — which is more of a highlight reel of Laidlaw’s ideas, rather than a fully-fledged game — there are video playthroughs available, such the one below.
I think it’s unlikely we’ll get a complete telling of Episode 3 in mod form. Instead, I see more concise interpretations, some borrowing significantly from Laidlaw’s story and others taking more original routes.
Which is kind of neat, in a bittersweet way.
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