Writer Half-Life puts story of Episode 3 online
Writer Marc Laidlaw has put the story of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 online. The third expansion was never released. Laidlaw worked at Valve between 1997 and 2016, writing the stories for the two Half-Life games and was the lead writer on Episodes 1 and 2.
Through a tweet Laidlaw announced that he has put Epistle 3 on his website. The website is not available, probably due to overload, but the text can be read via the Google cache, for example.
In the text that Laidlaw has put online, the names of characters have been replaced. For example, the text is about Gertie Femont, Alex Vaunt and the Disparate. Those names are the modified versions of Gordon Freeman, Alyx Vance and the Combine. There is a modified text on GitHub, in which all names have been corrected.
The story of Episode 3 seems to revolve largely around the Borealis. That’s an Aperture Science ship that should have been in Half-Life 2 and was present in betas of the game. In the final version of the game, the location was dropped.
At the end of Half-Life: Episode 2, Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance are about to leave for the Borealis. In the third episode, they are faced with the choice of saving the ship and deploying it to the Resistance or having it head for the Combine and detonate in the process.
Marc Laidlaw left Valve in early 2016 to start writing his own books. Afterwards, the other writers involved in the Half-Life games also left the developer. In May, Chet Faliszek was the last writer to say goodbye to Valve.
Dearest Player,
I hope this letter finds you well. I can hear your complaint already, “Gordon Freeman, we have not heard from you in ages!” Well, if you care to hear excuses, I have plenty, the greatest of them being I’ve been in other dimensions and whatnot, unable to reach you by the usual means. This was the case until eighteen months ago, when I experienced a critical change in my circumstances, and was redeposited on these shores. In the time since, I have been able to think occasionally about how best to describe the intervening years, my years of silence. I do first apologize for the wait, and that done, hasten to finally explain (albeit briefly, quickly, and in very little detail) events following those described in my previous letter (referred to herewith as Episode 2).
Beginning of Episode 3 Story (Corrected Version)