Episode 3 of "Half-Life" is no more, which means fans have no choice but to settle with the could-have-been plot of "Half Life 2: Episode 3."
Former lead writer Marc Laidlaw on Aug. 25 released fan-fiction of his own work, a blog post detailing what could have been the plot of "Half-Life 2: Episode 3" if it had been produced by developer Valve.
To summarize, the plot follows the user's perspective as, together with Alyx and Dr. Mossman, they bury Eli Vance and ride a seaplane to Antartica, which unfortunately gets shot down, leaving the player to wander the icy wastelands for quite some time.
The user will eventually encounter the time-shifting and dimension-shifting Borealis, which flashes different scenes from different time zones and dimensions. In no time, the user's two companions end up fighting, with Alyx killing Dr. Mossman as an effect. It turns out that they have been disagreeing from the beginning: she plans on using the Borealis as a makeshift weapon against the Combine, while Dr. Mossman would like to give it to the Resistance.
The user goes with Alyx, which is a suicide mission until the mysterious G-Man makes an appearance, saves Alyx and leaves the player to their own devices. At this point, the Borealis is still hurtling towards an indestructible Dyson Sphere, and the player is saved by the Vortigaunts, who then delivers the user back into the Half-Life timeline, but several years into the future.
While the plot makes for a good story, it will, unfortunately, remain that way, as Valve has lost all the original writers of "Half-Life" and has chosen to focus on Dota 2 and other games.
The good news is, Lever Softworks has made a playable archive, having compiled all the leaked maps and prototypes from Valve. "Half-Life 2: Aftermath" gives players a shot at the lost opportunity called "Half-Life's" third episode.
