Valve’s Steam page currently lists a second mystery game alongside Deadlock, sending Half-Life 3 theorists into another frenzy of speculation.
Speculation about Half-Life 3 has been picking up steam over the past few months. G-Man voice actor Mike Shapiro ushered in the new year by posting a video in which he talks about the “unexpected surprises” in the stunning voice of the dimension-hopping Half-Life villain. Prior to this, evidence was found on the actor’s website that Valve was working on the “White Sands Project” – “White Sands” refers to the area of New Mexico where Black Mesa was supposedly located.
Now, Reddit user Relevant_Basis5444 has noticed that Valve’s Steam page under the “Upcoming Releases” tag (via Eurogamer) currently lists two projects. One of them is Deadlock, a third-person MOBA from Valve that is currently in development and technically unreleased despite thousands of people playing it right now. The other, however, is hidden from view. It’s worth noting that Steam developer pages may hide games from view depending on your filter settings. But this mysterious game remains hidden even with all filters turned off.
Fans willing to view any unusual behavior from Valve as evidence of Half-Life 3’s development naturally assumed that this hidden game was Gordon Freeman’s long-awaited third adventure. But it’s worth keeping in mind that it could actually be anything, as suggested in the comments to the original Relevant_Basis post. Some users are speculating that this supposed spin-off game is the result of a good old-fashioned bug, while others are pointing out that the second game could be In the Valley of the Gods, a sequel to Campo Santo Firewatch that was in development before the studio was acquired by Valve . However, Campo Santo has its own Steam page that lists In the Valley of the Gods as an upcoming game, so that’s unlikely to be the case.
Another possibility comes from user Accurate_Till 7811, who points out that archive.org on Valve’s Steam page listed “Steam Gift Cards” in the upcoming releases section back in December (even though gift cards could be purchased on Steam during many years). Interestingly, Steam Gift Cards are the only item listed as upcoming on the page, with no mention of Deadlock in the next tab next to Gift Cards.
At this point, the most logical explanation is that the second game is an outdated list of gift cards that Valve hid from view when it updated its upcoming games to publicly include Deadlock on the list. This could be a new game, but there is no further evidence to support this other than Shapiro’s cryptic tweets and links to HLX that were discovered by data miners. And even if it’s a new game, that doesn’t mean it’s Half-Life 3. Remember, Valve works in mysterious ways and rarely does what is expected.
While Half-Life 3 remains elusive, Valve has released a lot of information related to the conclusion of Half-Life’s story in recent months. In its 20th anniversary documentary, the company revealed that the canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 3 featured an ice cannon, “sort of like a Silver Surfer mode.” Gabe Newell also admitted that he was “confused” about how to approach the third episode, adding: “I couldn’t understand why making a third episode was moving anything forward.” As with Alyx’s VR origins, this is the key ingredient that Valve must justify for any Half-Life-related endeavors, and until Valve finds that revolutionary idea or technology to wrap Half-Life 3 in, it will remain nothing more than wishful thinking. thinking.