Valve intent on giving players a good scare with next Half-Life

By Stephany Nunneley

Valve’s Gabe Newell has revealed that the studio intends to get back to scaring Half-Life players with the next installment.

Speaking in the latest issue of Edge (via CVG), Newell also said that the team plans to broaden the game’s “emotional palette”.

“That isn’t something we think about except as part of each project needing to respect the fact that simply repeating the past isn’t going to have the same impact now as it did then,” said Newell.

“I feel like we’ve gotten away from genuinely scaring the player more than I’d like, and it’s something we need to think about, in addition to broadening the emotional palette we can draw on.”

So what exactly would be scary for Half-Life fans?

“The death of their children. The fading of their own abilities,” said Newell.

Good. We need that in the next episode. Now give us the damn thing.

It’s a shame we’re not getting it this year.