How Half-Life: Alyx Teases the Series' Future (Spoilers!)

SPOILER WARNING for Half-Life: Alyx. We’ll be avoiding all story spoilers that aren’t relevant to the tease itself, but know that we ARE discussing a scene from the very end of Alyx if you plan to keep reading.

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Half-Life: Alyx launched Monday morning, but it may already be setting up another Half-Life game – and it could be the proper sequel we’ve all been waiting for for over a decade.

As mentioned above, we are about to dive into spoiler land here, so turn back now if you don’t want to know anymore!

Also, if you DO plan on playing Alyx, I'd highly recommend holding off on reading this. It's a pretty awesome surprise to experience yourself.

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Avoiding any specific details that relate to Half-Life: Alyx’s story, the post-credits scene is likely a setup for a new Half-Life game to pick up almost exactly where Half-Life 2: Episode 2 left off 13 years ago.

In the scene, the player sees through the eyes of Gordon Freeman instead of Alyx Vance. It takes place just after the final moments of Episode 2, and Freeman is handed his signature crowbar as a character tells him “we’ve got work to do.”

It’s unclear if this is a setup for a Half-Life 2: Episode 3, a proper Half-Life 3, or – if it’s another VR-only game – something along the lines of “Half-Life: Gordon” in the same way we just got Alyx. Regardless, the message that Valve plans to finally continue this story feels fairly unambiguous – something they’ve even said in interviews recently.

If you do want all the spoiler-filled details (maybe you don’t have VR and just want to know what happens), then we have a full ending explanation here. Also be sure to check out our review of Half-Life: Alyx, and read Valve explaining why it never made Episode 3 13 years ago. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Tom Marks is IGN's Deputy Reviews Editor and resident pie maker. You can follow him on Twitter.

source https://www.ign.com/articles/half-life-alyx-tease-half-life-3