The Trouble with Trilogies, or Why Valve Can't Count

Channel:

Cinnamon Noir

Subscribers:

1,120

Published on August 17, 2021 10:19:56 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOMNQE3sUXM

Game:

Half-Life 2 (2004)

Category:

Vlog

Duration: 21:13

136 views

9

A little more than a year ago, Valve released the first new Half-Life experience in more than a decade, the VR-based Half-Life: Alyx. This game got a lot of hype around its release, not least from the legions of Half-Life fans who had been waiting anxiously for a continuation of one of gaming's most legendary unfinished stories.

There was just one problem...Half-Life is *still* an unfinished story. In fact, Half-Life: Alyx didn't advance the narrative of the "trilogy" at all; it's actually set in between the original and Half-Life 2, meaning it's not even properly a sequel. All those fans who've been waiting for more than a decade can just keep waiting, apparently.

All this made me curious about a few things. Why would Valve make another Half-Life game when it could so easily be construed as a slap in the face to their fans? Why do they seem so unable or unwilling to finish any major story that they begin, not just in Half-Life but in all their franchises? And speaking more generally, why are there so few self-contained trilogies in pop culture and so many "trilogies" that are basically just the first three entries in an ongoing saga?

I'm either going to find out, or explode into a fountain of caffeinated fury on the way to not finding out. Let's see what happens.

Thanks for watching, everybody!

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