This may very well be the closest thing we ever got to Half-Life 3, even if it was never intended to be a full-blown sequel.
Rumour has it that Valve had planned more Half-Life 2 episodes and perhaps even a few spin-offs, and some newly leaked images appear to be our only insight into the proposed games.
What is being widely reported as being Episode 3 (Episodes One and Two were developed by Valve) appears to have actually been a Half-Life 2 spin-off set within the same universe, but without explicitly continuing the story of the original episodes.
A huge file dump of original game files from Half-Life 2 has made its way online, and the folks over at Valve Time have combed through the data and discovered a number of unreleased maps that point to cancelled Half-Life 2 projects.
One of those projects could be a game that was once in development at Junction Point, the studio founded by Warren Spector, who was behind Deus Ex and System Shock.
The images show a snow-themed version of the Ravenholm map, and Valve Time makes it clear that it’s not related to Arkane Studios’ rumoured Return to Ravenholm, which was said to be unofficially known as Episode Four.
It’s clear that these images come from Junction Point’s proposed Half-Life spin-off, as the files have a “JPS” prefix in their names.
Valve Time also points out that some objects in the files are called “magnet” and “magnetisation”, which could refer to a Magnet Gun that Spector referred to in past interviews about the project.
Check out Valve Time’s more detailed analysis of the leaked files here.
