Half-Life stays one of many nice FPS game tales. From the dank, claustrophobic mystique of Black Mesa, to the expansive, sci-fi highway journey of Metropolis 17 and Half-Life 2, Valve’s shooter is a masterclass in packing narrative and character into the smallest visible particulars. Half-Life Alyx marked the primary time in some 13 years that Valve formally expanded on the HL canon, however now, with Half-Life 3 presumably (hopefully) nonetheless on its manner, PCGamesN has an unique interview with the writer of a brand new Half-Life novel. A companion to Half-Life A Place within the West, the fan-made comedian that launched on Steam again in 2016, Half-Life Part Transition is a big work of some 600 pages, and it’s scheduled to reach earlier than the tip of 2023.
“So, Part Transition is a Half-Life novel,” writer Ross Joseph Gardner explains. “A really prolonged, presumably mad, piece of fan fiction, it serves as a prequel to our Half-Life comedian, A Place within the West. However the novel stands very a lot by itself. A Place within the West takes place between Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Part Transition takes place in the course of the first levels of the Mix occupation, following two characters, Ray and Gemi, who should navigate this unusual and terrifying new world while being drawn right into a conspiracy that reaches all the best way again to Black Mesa.”
Whereas not an official Valve collaboration, Gardner says that Valve is “conscious” of Part Transition and is aware of that it’s being launched. Whereas the central characters are all Gardner’s personal, many recognizable heroes – and villains – from each the unique Half-Life and Half-Life 2 make a return.
“My intent was to concentrate on new, authentic characters,” Gardner says, “however a number of of the sport’s solid do certainly pop up right here and there. I’ll take any likelihood I can get to write down dialogue for Physician Breen. And in Part Transition, Alyx Vance is a vital piece of the story, though she’s talked about greater than seen.”
“An excellent chunk of Part Transition takes place in Metropolis 17, however not as we all know it – it’s about how town transforms into what we see in Half-Life 2. However it’s a really wide-ranging novel; we see Paris, America, and infrequently, entire different worlds. I wished it to really feel very expansive. I like the cosmic facets of Half-Life and really feel the video games have largely uncared for them of late. So, I wished to go to among the weirder locations solely ever alluded to.”
Starting in the course of the Black Mesa incident, Part Transition even options an look of the mysterious and at all times sinister G-Man. After 25 years, we’re nonetheless undecided precisely who G-Man works for or why he’s so fascinated with Alyx and Gordon. Gardner says he initially wished to keep away from G-Man, however needed to embody the malevolent house bureaucrat as a result of he’s central to the event of one in every of Part Transition’s characters.
“One factor I used to be very acutely aware of doing was making an attempt to inform an authentic story,” Gardner says. “I wished it to really feel prefer it was a part of the video games, that readers may think about it becoming in, however I took many, many liberties with the supply materials. My preliminary intuition was to avoid the G-Man altogether, however his relationship to one of many characters is so important I ended up weaving him in in a fairly large manner. Hopefully followers prefer it.”
Gardner is presently within the strategy of modifying Part Transition and is planning to launch the e-book someday in both September or October. “What mattered is that the spirit of Half-Life was maintained”, the writer concludes. “If I’ve succeeded in that, I’ll be glad. However we’ll see.”
Gardner additionally shares with PCGamesN an unique extract from Part Transition. Should you’re excited concerning the prospect of an enormous Half-Life novel (and who wouldn’t be?) you will get a style of the upcoming e-book under. It particulars the assembly of G-Man with a strong Vortiguant referred to as the Auspex:
His consciousness trickled into a well-known inky blackness the place no thought was permitted and never a fraction of time was at liberty to move. The Nowhere Place, the place he was saved between assignments.
Then got here the fragile voice of a kid. A human youngster, to make sure, however the Auspex would recognise that smooth tone of innocence regardless of the species. And with that thought – the straightforward information that thought was even attainable – he realised he was not the place he had anticipated to be in any respect.
He turned to see a little bit woman stood a number of ft away, one other human standing vigil over her. A human with pale pores and skin and clothed in blue. However the Auspex knew this was not a person. Knew that this was actually his employer, disguised in order that he may stroll freely over the Earth. The Auspex was haunted by an altogether totally different kind, though he couldn’t say if that was any nearer to the essence of the phantom than the human vessel earlier than him. It was the eyes that gave it away. They have been at all times the identical. Blue-green pits that burned with chilly hearth. These eyes discovered the Auspex, a sinister smile unfold thinly beneath them.
Worry took to the Auspex’s coronary heart, prefer it had the primary time, some three centuries in the past. He wished for the kid to flee, however she didn’t but know to be afraid, her hand pulling playfully on the blue trouser leg of the person who was not a person. The phantom turned his eyes away from the Auspex and to the kid, and because the phantom’s pale hand reached out and clasped hers, the scene blinked away.
Should you’re a giant Half-Life buff, make a journey by way of the heyday of shooters with among the greatest old games. You may additionally wish to meet up with what happened to Half-Life 3, which might be right here…finally.
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