We ask the makers of Opposing Force and Blue Shift whether they’d help Valve with Half Life 3.
Borderlands 2 is looking fantastic, if you can’t tell from our latest hands-on with the looter shooter sequel, however there’s one game that we’d really love Gearbox to return to and that’s a sequel to the first Half Life expansion, Opposing Force.
Rather than placing players in the boots of ass-kicking scientist Gordon Freeman, Opposing Force cast players as Shephard, a member of an elite Marine regiment sent into Black Mesa to combat the invading alien threat. That’s really only half the story though as the protagonist had multiple encounters with the G-Man and played a key part in a lot in events that have shaped the Half Life universe.
This boxart still gives us goosebumps.
So like a budding fanboy we asked Gearbox’s VP of marketing Steve Gibson, what would happen if Gabe Newell decided to head down to their Texas HQ and enquire whether Gearbox would like to produce another campaign set in the Half Life universe or better yet help get Half Life 3 out of the door.
“Man…yeah! If they came to us? You listen if Valve come knocking,” explained the former president of Shacknews, who is now one of the most prominent public voices at Gearbox.
“The success that Gearbox had could be very heavily attributed to what we did with Opposing Force. Those guys helped us get our foot in the door of this industry, so yeah we’d listen.”
In total Gearbox has produced two expansions in the Half Life universe, Opposing Force and Blue Shift – the later of which focused on Gordon Freeman’s chum and long suffering security guard, Barney Calhoun.
Frankly at this point we’d take any Half Life experience, even if it doesn’t have direct input from Valve. Gearbox has already shown that they have a genuine talent crafting stories in the universe shared by Portal and Half Life, and with Valve currently busy pursuing other projects like DOTA and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, we wouldn’t be against the makers of Borderlands and Brothers in Arms picking up the slack. Far from it…
Tags: Gearbox, Half Life, Valve
Company of Heroes 2, Batman: Arkham Origins, Grand Theft Auto V, Watch_Dogs, Beyond: Two Souls and Night of the Rabbit previews.
Download Now!
