I think I'll be most interested in a third entry if they have a campaign that brings story more to the forefront, while also allowing players to play a mode that strips most of the story out and plays more like L4D1 & 2. Like have a more dedicated and intricate experience crafted in, but also make it so each level can be played without as many NPCs or scripted events to allow players to jump in and out of levels without much baggage. I'm sure that one of the reasons it was always light on plot was because they wanted people to be able to play it out of order without much loss, but I think they should expand on the stories presented, so I think a good compromise could be found.
One thing I just thought of is maybe it should become even more of an anthology series. Each level was often presented as a mini story within itself, each having a movie poster representing it, and having a clear beginning, middle and end. So maybe they should pursue that further, maybe having a trilogy of "films" for three different groups of survivors (so 9 total), with a heavier focus on story that builds up seemingly unrelated plot threads to a grand conclusion. Maybe have three "finales", where the three teams are mixed up after a climactic event, resulting in the group dynamics changing as they work together to pursue their shared goals.
I really like that idea actually. Too bad if Valve is making L4D3, they are probably going to just do the same thing as with 1 & 2 with hats/crates/etc. I wonder if the reason Valve is so radio silent is because that even if they are ready to announce some games they have in development, maybe they really just want to try out an Apple like announcement to release timeframe. Like L4D3 or whatever will just randomly be announced one month before it releases, and they can get away with it because of how big Steam is.
At least Black Mesa will finally be complete next summer or if there minor delays at least sometime in 2017. I honestly feel like fans may have to make HL3, not by forming a development team around making a mod, but by slowly getting hired to and changing the culture of Valve from the inside. We may have to wait another decade or so before there are enough fresh faces who can join up with Valve partly inspired by Half Life and form a large enough development team to get the ball rolling again on that project. Maybe the older team members are just done with Half Life and we need fresh blood to breath new life into it.
I feel like the arguments saying HL3 can't ever live up to the hype and thus Valve shouldn't even bother trying anymore are just looking at things the wrong way. Look at DOOM 2016 as an example of a great revival of a dormant franchise that lived up to the legacy. Why can't the same happen with a Half Life revival?
Well, this sort of unintentionally switched into talking about Half Life, but what can you do when Valve is the subject? I was also letting out some of my thoughts on the discussion in.
this thread. So I guess I'll post some of this over there too.
