Terrified of the number 3, and many of their most famous games lack sequels after the 2nd entry, despite fans’ waiting years, some Valve games out in the wild exist that audiences may not know about that were actually in development, or even completed that were never released. Thanks to The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx, Valve fans were permitted to see the inside of the titan of the game industry, and some of their shelved projects.
Some fans might be upset to know of these canceled Valve games and imagine a different future in which they would have experienced some of these games themselves. Valve seems to always know what they are doing when it comes to the gaming market, so to see Valve games that were canceled is a sore subject for many, especially Half-Life fans.
7 Left 4 Dead 3
It’s no secret that Left 4 Dead 2 has been long awaiting a sequel for years. Fans adore the Left 4 Dead series and for good reason. Few games have been able to achieve the replayability and joys of Left 4 Dead 2, in which players are tasked with shooting, slashing, and destroying countless zombie hordes through many unique missions in a co-op game.
Despite many developers from Left 4 Dead 2 leaving for spin-offs and inspirations, a Left 4 Dead 3 has never come to light. Few details exist about the actual Left 4 Dead 3, which include the advancement of the Source 2 engine that allowed an open-world game set in Morocco, with hundreds of zombies on screen at once.
6 Half-Life 3
The number 3 is sacred to Half-Life fans. Players desperately want to get their hands on the third entry to the mainline game. Yet, it seems that spin-offs are all that can be had. Fans may have been teasing a continuation of Gordon Freeman’s story in Half-Life: Alyx, but Half-Life 3 is still a dream to many, with multiple versions around.
Half-Life 3 was apparently in development for just a year before it was shut down. The little details surrounding the game have plagued the internet for years, but apparently, a procedurally generated world would have assisted with the story to create a replayable experience.
5 SimTrek
VR has been the latest conquest of Valve, and SimTrek was set to be a sci-fi experience fully enjoyed through VR. Details are scarce, but Valve brought in the development team from the Kerbal Space Program. This game was shelved during the production of Half-Life: Alyx, but based on its name and the team, it’s safe to assume a few things.
Perhaps SimTrek was set to be a game where players build their spacecraft but in a VR space, or, it could be a space exploration game. The name ‘Sim’ and ‘Trek’ implies a simulator game, perhaps inspired by the iconic Star Trek series.
4 Shooter
There’s nothing wrong with a theme park experience, and Shooter sought to bring that enjoyment to players when it welcomed them to Valve’s stellar VR. Shooter was supposed to feature assets familiar to Half-Life 2 players, in which fans would fight through short areas for some quick and intensive gunfights.
However, considering Shooter was scheduled to release alongside The Lab, the delay saw the game never release because it was not ready. Players would have seen themselves in a Half-Life world, but without the story they desire from a continuation.
3 A.R.T.I.
One of the more ambitious titles under Valve’s banner would have been A.R.T.I., a game where players would commit themselves to destruction and creation equally in the vein of games like Minecraft. However, the game featured many changes, and little remains of the project. It was later canceled after being pushed to a VR game, as Valve put everything they had into Half-Life: Alyx.
As a voxel-based game, players would have free reign with A.R.T.I., and the possibilities are forever under the rug since the cancelation of the game. It’s yet another of Valve’s “what if?” scenarios, and another project that fans will never see.
2 RPG
Valve has proved itself a great developer. Even if it takes years, and many of their projects become shelved, their work speaks for itself. Their project, codenamed ‘RPG’, was going to draw inspiration from some incredible and iconic games, like The Elder Scrolls and Dark Souls. However, the ambition of the project was too high, especially when combining elements of iconic RPG games, thus, RPG, never left the conceptual stage.
The experimentation on RPG was later turned into a single-player concept, based on the DOTA character, Axe. However, this project was also shelved. It would be great to see Valve pursue their own RPG, but it’s looking rather unlikely at this point.
1 Borealis
Many elements of the Half-Life franchise remain a mystery to players, like the Borealis ship. The spectacular nature of the Borealis comes from the fact that it crossed the franchises of Portal and Half-Life, thanks to existing in a Half-Life game with the creation of Aperture Science. However, even more intriguing, was the fact that the Borealis disappeared, with its secret forever unknown.
Valve was set to explore the Borealis with a game of the same title. This VR game was going to take place on the ship, exploring the timeline between Half-Life and Half-Life 2. However, with no gameplay details revealed, or a fleshed-out story, Borealis remains as mysterious as its namesake.