Gordon Freeman had a robotic arm during the development of Half-Life 3 that let you control the elements in the game -- fire, water, etc -- with developer Valve is pushing the boundaries of realism with the game according to the latest leaks.
In a new video by Valve insider Tyler McVickers, we're learning that post-human Gordon Freeman concept art from a version of Half-Life 3 that was in development between 2013-2015, sporting a robotic arm that was attached to his side. What's the robotic arm for? It would allow players to control temperature, fire, water, and more with the first parts of Half-Life 3 levels teaching players how to use Gordon's new abilities.
This would've been the 'rubicon' of Half-Life 3, a truly next-generation physics engine within Source 2 that is essentially simulating basic thermodynamics that would allow for a level of control of the environments and geometry of the levels that had never been seen before in a Half-Life (or any) game.
McVickers dives deep into some of the updates to the Source Engine thanks to the release of Valve's new shooter Deadlock. In a recent update to Deadlock, features are coming through that see the return of 'surface attributes' which is something that have always existed inside of the Source Engine, effectively creating different behaviors for different geometry based on what that geometry is supposed to be simulating is that surface concrete or metal or wood and how should it react to player input.
Half-Life 3 would have surfaces and flash points that have realistic heat conductivity, that would realistically react to how the material is lit on fire, or covered in water. Surfaces directly... surfaces indirectly, surfaces further away all reacting differently depending on the flash point of the heat... incredible stuff so far.
So for example, if you used a container of gasoline and set a fire, that fire would react differently depending on the surface you put it on. Spill it all over the road? Grass? Wood? A house? The fire would react realistically, and the environment would react like it would in real life: wooden structures burn quickly, metal and roads would not melt away with a regular fire.
NPC + AI behavior in Half-Life 3: This is something Valve nailed so well in the original Half-Life, was the enemy AI... but in Half-Life 3, it looks like the developer has been cooking... cooking well for many yearsr now. The new NPCs in Half-Life 3 would react to you based on the weapon you're holding... using a crowbar? Well, they're not going to be intimidated, a pistol... alright... a shotgun or rocket launcher? They're going to run for cover.
The new NPC AI will not only react to the weapon in your hand, but they'll react to the dynamic environment... so say you shoot a gas bottle and the side of a house explodes and sets the environment around it on fire, the enemy AI isn't just going to run into the flames, they'll react to those real-time changes in the environment, in real-time themselves.
I am definitely hyped to see what Valve is cooking for Half-Life 3, as a long-time fan of the franchise. The first game was an absolute gem, but Half-Life 2 changed things so massively with a reactive environment. Being able to pick up things in the environment and see the enemy AI react to it (remember at the beginning of Half-Life 2 if you threw rubbish on the ground you'd be told off for it, punished... this new Half-Life 3 enemy AI is an entirely new level on top of that).