Half-Life Alyx: is Valve’s rumoured VR game the long-awaited third main title?

Reports that computer gaming giant Valve is developing a new single-player virtual reality (VR) title have triggered a fresh flood of Half-Life 3 rumours.

A leaked transcript posted by an anonymous user on text storage site Pastebin allegedly details a conversation between Valve executives and a journalist about plans to revive the company’s hit first-person adventure title as a VR-only game.

This game, referred to in the transcript as Half-Life: Alyx, will reportedly feature Half-Life co-star Alyx Vance and will see players interacting more directly with the world around them.

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Valve has yet to comment on the leak, but fans are hoping the long-awaited sequel to 2004’s Half-Life 2 may finally be about to land.

What was said during the meeting?

According to PCGamesN, the transcript outlines an interview between Robin Walker, a developer on Half-Life 2, video game journalist Geoff Keighley and another, unnamed developer.

Keighley was reportedly conducting the interview for a new entry into his Final Hours documentary series, in which he follows the development process of new video games - including Valve’s Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 games.

The transcript does not identify which interviewee is responding to Walker’s questions but does reveal some key information about the new VR game.

One of the developers tells him that “we would love to be delivering a version of this that you could play with a mouse and a keyboard” but that the game “began as an exploration of VR” and will stick with that format.

Later in the interview, the developers began discussing what gamers will experience when they put on the VR headset.

“You can see their whole body - respond to the situation. You know, panicking, dropping clips on the ground as they fumble their weapons ‘cause a zombie’s in front of them, all these things, they’re just - it’s been really fun watching play tests,” they say.

Walker later claims that the game will be released in March 2020 and will be followed by a Final Hours documentary about its development.

Will it form the base of Half-Life 3?

It remains unclear whether the game will follow the events of Half-Life 2 or serve as a prequel to the series.

Valve said earlier this year that it was planning to launch a flagship VR title for its newly released Index headset - suggesting that the title won’t be a simple VR port of an existing Half-Life game, TechRadar reports.

On the other hand, one of the developer’s in the leaked transcript claims that the game may be used to test the waters, while hinting at more Half-Life games in the future.

“We want to put this out and see how the world reacts to it before we make any concrete plans about what we do next.”

Despite the lack of concrete news about the long-awaited Half-Life 3, the latest rumour has fuelled online speculation among fans.

Others are less convinced, however.