I think part of the issue is Half-life 1 & 2 were groundbreaking in terms of level design and storytelling in a FPS. It wasn't just about completing a maze, that was why Half-Life was so beloved there was nothing like it really before. Half-life 3 would just be like every other FPS game now, the trail has been blazed.
> Half-life 3 would just be like every other FPS game now
Artistically, aesthetically, nothing quite compares to the Half Life universe in other FPS games. A lot of people would be happy with just another chapter to explore.
There are too many open world boring grinding simulations nowadays.
Black Mesa was just a remake of Half Life 1 and it was so much more fun and immersive than any recent FPS game that I have played.
I think a lot of the special sauce with the Half Life games is their "Show don't tell" approach to game design.
You load up the game, watch an intro (for games after HL1) and boom you're in the game. Nothing is going to appear on your screen beyond your HUD except for one time tips when acquiring a new weapon and chapter titles when progressing to a new level. Everything happens in real time and everything always happens from the POV of the player. There are no cut scenes, there are no cinematic transitions, and the player's POV is never intercut with cameras/external perspectives.
It makes the games feel grounded and more cinematic, IMO. Its a game design language that really puts the onus on the player to witness the story and game for themselves. When I play a Half-Life or Portal game, I feel like I'm discovering the story as I play, while other games often feel like I'm being presented or shown a story as I play. The execution is more nuanced than that, but the game's simplicity makes it difficult to focus on anything other than the story and world within the game.
When you look at the stories of each Half-Life game, each game tends to follow the same structure with the same kind of plot points. But for me, it never feels repetitive because the experience of witnessing the story is different for each game. Of course Half-Life isn't the only game that does this and this of course isn't the only reason why Half-Life has been enshrined as one of the GOATs.
The underlying content of the game, its aesthetic, the textures and models, sound design and score, voice acting, ect. all are great in Half-Life, but I wouldn't say that Half-Life is the best at any of these things. I also wouldn't say the game's narrative is the best of the best either. Despite this it remains my all time favorite game franchise, possibly/probably because I grew up with it but also because the game does a fantastic job of using that underlying content to give little clues. Everything feels like it has a purpose, whether it is apparent in the moment or not.
But I am just a storyteller that happens to be a barely competent programmer with absolutely no experience in game development, so all of this is just my opinion based on my own experience!
Absolutely agreed overall, Half-Life's dedication to maintinging the player perspective is something many modern games could learn from. So many games are too focused on providing a cinematic experience of their story that they end up taking freedom away from the player with cutscenes where the character acts exactly like the designers want rather than how the player would. In a sense, cutscenes are a crutch that is too often used to force (or skip over) story developments that make no sense.
> You load up the game, watch an intro (for games after HL1)
HL1's train is also an intro that you more or less watch even if you can move around a bit and choose what to look at. Same for Opposing Force's helicopter flight but you are even more restricted: no more movement, only limited camera rotation. Kinda sad that they stripped away even that in the later games but I guess HL1 had the benefit of not having to show what happened previously.
> It makes the games feel grounded and more cinematic, IMO.
I don't think cinematic is the right word here - rather the opposite: HL feels much less like watching a movie.
You're right that if Valve made Half-Life 3 today it would be just like any other FPS - and Alyx does back up those concerns. But that doesn't mean that it has to be like that. Even just making Episode 3 with little technical and design changes from the other HL2 entries would be a breath of fresh air today. And that's just the bare minimum possible - there are many things about games that are still incredibly primitive.
