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Half-Life Writer Marc Laidlaw Explains Why Series Shares Same Universe With Portal And Reveals Why He Regrets Leaking Game's Story

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

When speaking to RockPaperShotgun, Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw revealed that there was a canceled VR game that was known as Borealis (likely just a codename) and presumably, would've explored some of those connections. Laidlaw wasn't super thrilled with the idea of connecting Portal and Half-Life, noting that Portal needed art and Valve ended up drawing upon something that was "Combine-y". However, Laidlaw still did his best to try and create a story that would strengthen those ties.

"All we could do is then try to incorporate them somehow," said Laidlaw. "I felt like doing this made both universes smaller, but from a franchise branding perspective, that's a good thing. I eventually did come up with a scenario in which we could connect Aperture and Black Mesa, and we had Borealis lying around from the earliest days of Half-Life 2, so I thought maybe we'd end up with some cool lore and backstory in the long run."

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In 2017, Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw posted a story online that was very clearly an outline for Half-Life 3. He changed the names of the characters and such, but it was all very tongue in-cheek and anyone who had any familiarity with the series knew what it was. However, the most tragic thing about it was that it was posted because it was also clear that it meant Half-Life 3 would not see the light of day beyond this word doc. Speaking with RockPaperShotgun, Laidlaw expressed his regrets about posting the story as he was in an isolating place in his life and didn't fully think it through. He also noted that the story he wrote likely wouldn't have reflected the hypothetical game people would've played due to the way things change in development.

"Eventually my mind would have calmed and I'd have come out the other side a lot less embarrassed," he says. "I think it caused trouble for my friends, and made their lives harder. It also created the impression that if there had been an Episode 3, it would have been anything like my outline, whereas in fact all the real story development can only happen in the crucible of developing the game. So what people got wasn't Episode 3 at all."
 

Shut0wen

Member
Agree with him regarding portal and half life being connected seemed incredibly pointless and like he said it was a cop out because portal had no art
 

Xdrive05

Member
About the story leak,, that's what I figured. People took it as the verbatim story they would have played in a released HL3, but it was always just a first draft concept that would have been dramatically changed by the circumstances of development, and maybe even test audiences, or whatever Valve's refinement process is governed by.

Still glad he released it as it gives us something like closure to a story they'll never finish, even though it needs taken with that big grain of salt.
 

Kev Kev

Member
Half Life: Alyx was my sign that the series is still alive, and we'll see HL3 some day. But still... it's hard to imagine 19 year old me playing Half-Life 2, having one of the best game experiences of my life, would still be sitting here waiting for a sequel at 36.
 
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