Fan-made, but with Valve’s blessing
Before Half-Life 2, the Black Mesa universe gave birth to three Half-Life spin-offs: Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay (and where Gearbox Software got its start). The average person might not know this because they were never treated with the same reverence that main Half-Life installments were; still, they exist and they all expand on the Black Mesa Incident.
At the end of the first expansion, Opposing Force, we were left with a protagonist who was very much in the situation of Gordon Freeman at the end of Half-Life. Corporal Adrian Shephard was detained by the G-Man, the closing screen saying he was pending further evaluation. We never got any closure to his arc.
Next month, we’ll get some. A fan has been working on a project he calls Half-Life: Prospekt and it’ll release on February 11 on Steam for the price of $10. The most notable thing about this is probably that Valve has given its approval for the creator to use the IP and assets and to sell it on its storefront.
Prospekt is said to take place in the Half-Life 2 setting of City 17 concurrent to the events that find Freeman at Nova Prospekt. At some point, it’ll also venture to the planet Xen — a contentious location among Half-Life‘s faithful fans. The game consists of 13 levels and will be about the length of Half-Life 2: Episode One (four hours or so).
Valve’s blessing for Prospekt isn’t an unprecedented move. In 2012, fan-made Black Mesa (a remake of Half-Life in the Half-Life 2 engine) also got the green light from Valve to piggyback off its property.
Huh! A Valve-Approved Half-Life: Opposing Force Sequel [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
