It was in 2017 that Marc Laidlaw, the lead writer of Half-Life franchise before his departure from Valve in 2016, decided to post online what looked like the plotline Half-Life 2: Episode 3. The long-promised but missing installment that would have continued Gordon Freeman"s crowbar-wielding escapades.
While Valve didn"t seem very interested, at least at the time, in continuing its hit franchise, a fan group quickly formed around the idea of making the lost episode via a community effort in Unreal Engine 4. Project Borealis, as it went on to be named, has been in development since 2017. While it started strong, by 2020, updates on the project"s progress stopped entirely, but in 2022, it came back to life with a small teaser. And now, its development team has something special for fans.
Project Borealis is now an Unreal Engine 5 project, and an official demo has gone up featuring "Prologue" episode.
Described as a 10-minute experience, it has players going back to the iconic stage of Ravenholm, but this time covered in ice, and with plenty of more dangers lurking in the dark:
Step into a Ravenholm transformed by time and the elements. The once-familiar town now lies buried under a blanket of snow, hiding the past and new present dangers beneath its pristine surface. As you navigate through this hauntingly beautiful landscape, you"ll encounter some classic enemies reimagined and completely new secrets hidden within.
The global team of volunteers developing the project, Icebreaker Industries, touts this as a showcase of what it has accomplished over the years, even through a complete engine change. Faithfully recreated movement and gameplay mechanics from Half-Life 2"s Source Engine and even an original score is a part of this Prologue episode.
Project Borealis: Prologue is now available on Steam for free. As for when can fans expect to play the complete Episode 3 experience, the team does not have a release window for that just yet. When it does come out though, it is slated to be a free game just like the Prologue.