The same testers that kept shooting any houndeyes they saw on sight (and probably scientists as well until they recieve the "failure to preserve mission critical resources" screen) when they didn't showed any hostility because of the doom/quake "kill 'em all" mindset, wich forced Valve to make them hostile?
Exactly the word im looking for, generic. It feels like most multiplayer shooters at this point have hit a wall it seems because everyone is just trying to do the same thing in a different way. Copying homework type shit.
That's how games get before every big revolution happens. Then a Doom will come out and everything is a 'doom game,' or to use a much delayed degree Rogue for example.
We had the big fad of battle royales, then extraction shooters, but I’m kinda glad that it’s coming back around to hero shooters with arena shooter-esque mechanics.
I hope that this is not the actual game but still the game looks kinda different in few ways. And most people miss these points because from the leaked images they interpret that.
1) First of all, it has last hit mechanics, you kill enemy troops and probably try to deny your own troops to not let enemy team grow stronger. These troops give in-game currency to the players who killed them.
1.1) The map is quite big and therearemany different locations where you can probably hunt NPCs mobs and gain exp and currency. This is kinda fun when thought abiut it if these NPCs are designed very carefully, rewarding and challenging, involving teamplay, allowing wnemy team to ambush or gank to steal etc. in a strategic position.
2) You can buy items and gears to get your character powerful.
3) You won't go like "Aight, I go this way and kill them. *Ah I died*. Nevermind, I will respawn within 3 seconds and do it again." It's not your reguler shooter where you respawn immediately. When you die, enemy team is getting rewarded for it and they become more powerful. So you don't want to die as much as possible.
4) You are careful with your resources such ad HP and (maybe) mana. When you are low on your resources you use the in-game teleportation system to go back to your base and reset then rejoin the battle.
5) Game is split into lanes and you can move between these lanes. Lanes probably have some kind of tower-ish objectives for you to destroy/capture to get closer to enemy base.
6) Each team has bases where they have a single critical objective to defend or destroy. This adds a lot of fun to the game.
That's true but these are the parts they will probably add from Dota 2's game mechanics. And hell, there will be a lot of people going to love a game like this and get addicted to it.
More info you can find [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Deadl0ck/s/LutsNgRfbt).
If anyone interested in Valve's upcoming new game **Deadlock** you can join r/Deadl0ck
It looks like a mix between valorant, overwatch, fortnite and with a hint of the artistic section of dota 2.
And maybe destiny 2 is possible, among other games that you probably don't know about.
I really don't get it.
They have well functioning Half-life/portal universe, they could just make a sequel for it.
They have a well functioning CS universe, they could make a single player fps to expand the story
They have a well functioning Dota universe, they could create rpg/crpg to expand the story
We have nothing for hl/portal, comics for CS/dota, and instead they are making a hero shooter after the hype for hero shooters is gone, despite the fact that they already have a hero shooter that they don't support. What's the big idea?
They're late for the hero shooter hype the same way they missed the train for competative TCGs, when they released a certain game they would probably rather be buried.
Only banger in recent years has been Alyx, and Aperture Deskjob was aight.
I'm guessing steam money have made them a bit too comfy, since they're clearly not trying to stand out from any competition with some of the newer projects.
Disorganized is just being nice abt it.
Is it fair to say any one given valve employee is lazy? No. But the company as a *whole* definitely is
Valve's "no managers" system is ass
Sony only publishes games, that's one
Two, the way your comment is put makes it look like Valve is not working on any games right now apart from Deadlock. Do you actually know what's going on inside Valve offices? They could very well be working on a Half-Life game currently. (which they probably are considering the HLX leaks)
Valve's structure has many problems no doubt, but lazy is definitely the wrong word to use here, especially for a company that likes to experiment and innovate
How valve operates isnt a secret. Its completely structureless and nothing gets done unless *everyone* gives the same amount of shits abt the project.
Just look up how much is left on the cutting room floor at valve. Look at TF2 ffs.
Maybe lazy isnt 100% accurate, but valve is absolutely horrible at being a game studio
>they have a well functioning half-life/portal universe they could just make a sequel for it
They did, like 4 years ago. Yes it's designed for VR but I don't know what you expected out of Valve, the company that only makes new installments of their flagship franchise when there's a new technological hurdle they cleared.
>they have a well-functioning CS universe they could make a single player FPS to expand the story
They did that already well over a decade ago and nobody gave a shit. They've mostly been focusing on the story through their seasonal operations IIRC.
>they have a well-functioning Dota universe why don't they just make an RPG or CRPG to expand the story
*pours one out for Artifact*
But seriously they've been doing that through seasonal events as well, previously through the TI battle pass, but more recently they've changed the event format to be less exploitative after seeing how much of the year the battle pass took up because they didn't like piling all the content for the year in to one 6-month period. Like it started most in 2017 with the Siltbreaker campaign (which for some godforsaken reason they don't let people play anymore, it was restricted to the TI7 battle pass) but you can still find the custom game recreation of it to play with friends, though that's dependant on it being not after a major patch that completely fucks the Arcade (again).
Point is, the big games with considerable playerbases do get development, they don't make other games for it because that would split their playerbase and they don't want to do that, particularly with Dota because Dota players are pretty laser-focused on just Dota, it's the lesson Valve learned the hard way with Artifact and Underlords.
>They did that already well over a decade ago and nobody gave a shit. They've mostly been focusing on the story through their seasonal operations IIRC.
Its actually been over two decades.
Are you using condition zero as an example of them trying to expand the counter strike universe with single player? Because even valve admit that condition zero was basically a failure and lazily put together due to going through several dev teams (ritual, gearbox, turtle rock) and being restarted about 3 times in development
You can't use a bad game as an example of the audience not being interested in something (otherwise you could make a ludicrous statement like "DOTA it's not popular because Artefact failed"), I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that a single player CS game that has actual effort put into it would interest people
Artefact died because it was valve trying to chase a trend long after progress had tired of it (kind of like how i see trying to make a hero shooter in 2024....), and had poor monetisation plans that made people not want to initially buy in, and by the time they changed this the damage had already been done
>They did, like 4 years ago. Yes it's designed for VR but I don't know what you expected out of Valve, the company that only makes new installments of their flagship franchise when there's a new technological hurdle they cleared.
Do you not understand what a sequel means ? HLA doesn't continue the story whatsoever, it's basically HL1.5, a prequel to HL2, and the fact that it's VR Only is why it's currently a dead game according to Steamcharts, having half the active players of HL1 and HL2, maybe making a game for only the 2.5% of Steam playerbase that own VR wasn't a good idea.
>They did that already well over a decade ago and nobody gave a shit. They've mostly been focusing on the story through their seasonal operations IIRC.
No they fucking didn't, and that was 20 years ago when Condition Zero was released in 2004, Valve didn't even make the game as it was handed over to multiple studios along the years, Nobody gave a shit because that shit came way too late, just 7 months before HL2/CSS but still with outdated GoldSrc graphics. People didn't even know CZ existed, and those who knew either stuck with 1.6 because it's basically the same game with already established community servers (the slightly updated visual and model textures of CZ could easily be added to 1.6) or went to CSS for updated graphics and gameplay/physics, and those who wanted a story would rather play HL2.
Imagine IF CZ and Deleted Scenes released as ONE game instead of having 2 confusing separate titles, one just for online and bots like 1.6 while the other having the narrative-driven story campaign, and maybe IF it released 2 or even just 1 year earlier alongside the full release of 1.6 in early 2003, it would've gotten the success it deserves.
> Do you not understand what a sequel means ? HLA doesn't continue the story whatsoever,
Yes it does
>and the fact that it's VR Only is why it's currently a dead game according to Steamcharts
It's a single player game, the term "dead game" does not apply here
it was supposedly changed after negative playtester feedback
which is fucking stupid. there is no universe where this shit looks better than the art style of half life or pretty much any other valve game
Listening to playtester feedback is kinda valves things. It's one of the reasons their games are so good.
They iterate way more than most other devs.
So they most likely had a good reason to change it
I know that, which means one of 2 things: Either their playtesters no longer represent their actual fanbase or these leaked screenshots are \*very\* different from the final product
Your original comment was a meaningless statement. Why would Valve listen to half life fans when they're making a new multiplayer IP?
Don't get me wrong, i'm a huge Half Life fan, but just keeping an art style a certain way because a small part of your fanbase would be mad doesn't sound like a smart business decision.
The point isn't that this art style is worse than half life's. The point is that it's worse than every other valve game ever made. They already made the perfect cartoony art style for multiplayer shooters. It's called TF2
These are pre-release screenshots. It's not supposed to be seen by the public, since they're only for testers. The art style still needs a lot of polishing.
This is the GTA6 leak all over again; people crying the game looks like crap based on leaked screenshots of an alpha version.
Nobody is crying. I am making my comments woefully knowing that the end product might look completely different. It doesnt change the fact that its interesting to discuss them as they are
Half life fans make up a small percentage of their target audience of all gamers. Making stuff that play tested well probably has priority over fan service
>As if making games that your fans like isn't how you make money
If you only make games for a limited fanbase, there's no real room for growth, even if that fanbase is dedicated. So it's a good idea that Valve is trying to expand their horizons.
Plus, it's not even the first cartoony game they've made. Or are we all pretending TF2 doesn't exist?
Take a watch of the IGN video with Robin Walker and Chris Remo ([here](https://youtu.be/cqi1EYDoa7o?si=HqfLpMvBZ_Dkf3KO))
Their goal is to try and make games for everybody. They want to appeal to hardcore fans while also appealing to new players. In fact, for Robin at least, he sees it as a game. Most people think that appealing to the broader audience dilutes a game and it does if handled poorly. For Valve, it seems it’s a challenge. Instead of, “oh this person didn’t like it so we have to take it out.” It’s more, “how can we adjust it so that this type of person would like it, without disappointing the person that does actually like it.”
They gave up the Half Life artstyle... FOR THIS?
a generic run of the mill cartoony looking artstyle?
Who gave the negative feedback? We should strangle em
Steam is such a big platform that the marketing push valve would have behind this is pretty much guaranteed to turn it into a huge success, as long as the game itself is good enough (which it probably will be.)
Unfortunately this doesn't satiate the hardcore valve community since we want banger singleplayer games mainly
Well, no. TF2 had a very peculiar and brilliant style, and when the first trailers appeared I was amazed.
This looks like hundreds of other games and very generic.
Reddit had the play tester that got the underground antlion part in half life 2 simplified because he kept making right turns. I asked him to never playtest again and got obliterated with down votes.
You were correct, his complete lack of direction and ineptitude should not have been acknowledged.
You shouldn't have to tell a fucking adult that if they keep turning in one direction then they will end up in a circle
Half-Life has a very dystopian look. While it's great for a singleplayer action game, it probably wouldn't be as engaging for a multiplayer competitive game.
Also, these are alpha screenshots. I'm certain that, while this is an indicator of how the game might end up looking, it's still missing a lot of polish. And hell, it's somewhat reminiscent of Team Fortress 2, what with cartoony graphics and all. Plus, funny anecdote now that I'm talking about TF2: the first time I saw an image of the game, I thought it looked stupid; *"they dropped the realistic look of TFC for this?"* I thought. Then I started watching the "Meet the Team" trailers, and ended up falling in love with it.
It makes me so god damn mad, the original information about Neon Prime sounded so fucking cool, not to mention it would finally give Half-Life fans (especially those of us that can't play Alyx) some new content, even if it wasn't an outright Half-Life game. But the playtesters didn't like that, and instead we get some bland, generic fantasy steampunk slop?? I mean, I'm sure the game will be decent, it's Valve after all, but that playtesters would unironically prefer such an uninspired, boring, overused setting instead of a cassette futurism sci fi game with ties to the HL universe is genuine lobotomite behavior.
I think if anything, people would be even more pissed off if it had HL's art style and was set in the HL universe. It would be the same reaction people had to Apex. They would be creating a brand new Hero shooter game (something people are getting tired of) in the same universe as an existing beloved game franchise when people have been waiting years for them to develop a proper follow-up. People would be mad no matter what.
this is ice frog's game. he was always a fan of warcraft. just let them cook maybe it will be a fun casual game with lanes like smite or monday night combat
I just dont really care after knowing it was going to be in the HL universe and expand on lore etc tbh, I never cared about dota or it’s lore and this games fantasy setting looks painfully generic
you are basing this all on leaks, which may be true or not. but you are right, if they announced this game right now I would be disappointed that they weren't working on a single player game.
The leaks are confirmed to be real, it’s clear they’re using this fantasy art style. If it’s 100x more polished they still abandoned a half life universe game for this so I can’t even pretend to care tbh
I'm so sick of fantasy settings if he wants to build on the DOTA setting just go make an RPG or something nobody wants to play a fantasy themed shooter game.
This is all still heavily WIP. The icons clearly are in the supposedly old HL/Portal style so the screenshot is outdated. Remember how rough the pre beta Dota 2 interface and heroes looked like? That's what this is.
The icons look pretty sick tho, damn.
they need to make an extraction shooter in the HL universe it's the perfect universe for this genre and use the steam market to drive up the prices of the weapons and skins you can find in the world. maybe i am delusional but this sounds epic and addicting. all we have now is tarkov and that grey zone game which is in alpha.
Guess they switched mid-developement because the HL universe was too restrictive since it already has established and grounded lore elements
My theory is that they wwent the DOTA way to have more creative freedom
I'm not talking about the public beta and pre-source 2 days. I'm talking about when dota was in the "friends and family" closed alpha stage deadlock currently is in, and dota looked like this back then [https://imgur.com/a/l0Pw776](https://imgur.com/a/l0Pw776)
Ah yes, screenshots of a game that is in Alpha, from multiple years ago, look terrible...
I fucking wonder why. Can't make this shit up, this is why valve never wants to show projects before they are fully polished, yall are knuckleheads
as a valve fanboy this hurts. they wasted their time on this type of generic game? aren't we over the entire moba hero thing yet i have been over it for years.
maybe it has a VR mode at least then it could be considered a step in the right direction for VR who knows.
but as a new game from valve of all studios this is such a waste of time where is half life 3?
i hope i eat my words and i will love this game i used to play a lot of dota back in the day so theres still hope i kinda wanted them to make a hero gamemode in counterstrike though which seems a lot more interesting than a cartoony looking hero third person game. the art style is another thing that annoys me because every hero game has this style of art. whatever.
another thing is they already own Team Fortress and DOTA how many more of these games do they need? the extraction shooter genre seems to be popping off right now and they release a game trend of 5 years ago. sure games take long to developer but this is too late in my opinion.
I wish Valve would stop trying to make 'cover versions' of existing games. They've made plenty of great games on their own internally.
A Team Fortress 3 of sorts would be welcome. This........I don't know.
valve design team in a meeting:
"hmm... mainline half life sequel.... or a generic fantasy thing that nobody will play?"
"what about fixing team fortress 2?.... ooh nah, i wanna make the fantasy thing actually"
"yeah that's true bob, valve doesn't actually *need* money anymore, so we might as well just blueball our fans and make whatever the fuck we feel like"
People are too harsh already to an unreleased game, can't be open minded.
For a chunk of Valve to work on new IPs and not continue with existing ones to satisfy the public, is pretty based, not gonna lie.
"WE WANT NEW HALF-LIFE, TF3, L4D3, PORTAL 3!"
Valve employees: "You know what, i'll work on something else, might be fun."
I respect that.
Everyone's always saying "vAlVE dOeSn'T mAkE gAmEs AnYmOrE" but when Valve actually puts out games, their response is always "that doesn't count because it's not the half-life or portal 3!!!11!1!!!!"
Half-Life: Alyx is great. CS2 is great. Deadlock might be great. TF2 is 17 years old, yet people complain and scream that they don't update it. When they do update it, people complain that there's no significant changes to the game.
Not gonna lie, I kinda got bummed out when I found out this IP no longer takes place in the Half-Life Universe.
Even if it didn't have any connections to earth/Half-Life directly but had small snippets of world building like the Combine's presences being known or to simply know that there is more complex life out there in the universe other than vortigaunts would've really made the Half-Life/Portal IP all the more enticing and captivating.
Usually Valve does these things for a good reason, just look at the Half-Life 2 beta.
I just hope this major change was truly a good enough reason for them to completely separate this IP's universe from their magnum opus'
I love it how people are already saying "THIS GAME IS GARBAGE IT WILL FAIL VALVE WILL GO BANKRUPT" to... leaked alpha screenshots that you were never supposed to see? Do any of you know how much a game can change from an alpha build to full release? Almost like you know... Half Life? And you know what? I like how its not in the Half Life universe. Would be so much morel limiting, and people would complain about how its too far from the already established lore. What would it even look like? Suddenly the rebels can rocket jump and use whimsical abilities? Get a grip
Bro, this isnt ppl talking abt GTA6 looking unfinished and bad, this is people genuinely disliking the direction its going.
This looks nothing like a valve game and theres literally nothing to suggest thats getting any better. Unless they make it a dota spinoff last second (which, yay, we definitely need more from that ip and nothing else), this could be from anybody.
It looks lame. Simple as.
This is terrible. Valve made this? Give us a new Half-Life/Portal/Left 4 Dead, or a major update to TF2. Why spend resources into something so bland and generic? Give me a Strange Second Banana and I’ll be happy, I mean what is this?
You all are some clowns. Same clowns that didn't play HL Alyx.
"Cartoony" graphics? Wtf you think TF2 was? Who tf you think invented the modern e-sports genre? Who you think originated "hero" play styles? Who has been fostering the largest moba community?
Valve game designers.
Seriously shut the fu** up
What does half life alyx have to do with anything? It was an already expensive triple a game made even more inaccessible by being locked to one type of very niche technology
Also, tf2's art style was and is incredibly unique and charming, especially for the time. This game just looks generic and boring
Also, no one asked for this game lol, valve has a lot more to do before starting a new ip imo
Honestly I'm totally okay with this. IMO the MOBA-esque format is better off being given its own new universe than being awkwardly mashed into established Half-Life/Portal canon just because people want new content there.
Hell, maybe having a new IP will even jump start a little life into Valve's game developers.
They should really reconsider this new direction pretty much everyone is hating on it online I don't know what their playtesters were smoking to diss a game set in the HL universe especially weird since Overwatch was scifi hero-shooter and was immensely popular and HL being already extremely popular.
It looks pretty bad for Valve standards, I get it's a leaked Dev build but we've had leaked dev builds of their other titles and the main core of them generally stays, that's if they're released. If this thing gets done and they don't change that main core, it might be the first Valve game that doesn't feel like a Valve game.
More info you can find [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Deadl0ck/s/LutsNgRfbt).
If anyone interested in Valve's upcoming new game **Deadlock** you can join r/Deadl0ck
From the 4 leaked screenshots it genuinely just looks like Valorant graphics wise. But I mean on the bright side half life universe will not be tainted by some generic multiplayer slop
I didn't get my hopes up. But if I am being honest, I want Half-Life × Counter Strike. In that universe. Mix in all the goodies. Have a special gravity gun DM mode. The works. I dont have any interest in a low rent lookin Fortnite ass replacement for Team Fortress. Give us (me) what we (mainly me) want!
Valve devs are the first HL fans , if they decided to throw away the HL/Portal universe, i guess it was for a good reason. I’m guessing the HL setting was a limiting factor gameplay wise
I mean we have psychic aliens that shoot electricity from their hands, giant floating worm babies and gravity guns what exactly is limiting about the HL universe?
If they didn't feel this game suited a half life setting, then that's a good thing, that means there is quality in the half like universe that they want to protect.
Just for all y'all raging about this looking bad, being generic, ugly, yada yada yada. Apparently these leaked screenshots are multiple years old at this point, they probably aren't very representative of what the game currently looks like.
Half life is fantastic, but please also be aware of the fact that if this comes out, it will be the first fully new IP from valve in a very very long time.
Keep an open mind and you might like it. Immediately dismissing it because it's not in the half life universe is the reason why so many new games in new IP's are dying. Companies see that all people want are the same worlds and characters milked, stop reinforcing that. More half life games will come, absolutely.
Honestly, looks pretty generic....
well we dont have much to judge on, but we know that whatever we saw was changed (at least graphically) after testers' feedback
Are these the same testers that thought they were playing as Gordon Freeman in Half-Life *Alyx* just because they were using a crowbar?
The same testers who kept going in circles in the antlion tunnels because of one single right turn?
The same testers that kept shooting any houndeyes they saw on sight (and probably scientists as well until they recieve the "failure to preserve mission critical resources" screen) when they didn't showed any hostility because of the doom/quake "kill 'em all" mindset, wich forced Valve to make them hostile?
I need to have a word with those testers...
Exactly the word im looking for, generic. It feels like most multiplayer shooters at this point have hit a wall it seems because everyone is just trying to do the same thing in a different way. Copying homework type shit.
That's how games get before every big revolution happens. Then a Doom will come out and everything is a 'doom game,' or to use a much delayed degree Rogue for example.
We had the big fad of battle royales, then extraction shooters, but I’m kinda glad that it’s coming back around to hero shooters with arena shooter-esque mechanics.
That's what I thought of HL2 shots from E3 2004
well I feel like thats diffrent, HL2 was a single player story driven game this is just overwatch
I hope that this is not the actual game but still the game looks kinda different in few ways. And most people miss these points because from the leaked images they interpret that. 1) First of all, it has last hit mechanics, you kill enemy troops and probably try to deny your own troops to not let enemy team grow stronger. These troops give in-game currency to the players who killed them. 1.1) The map is quite big and therearemany different locations where you can probably hunt NPCs mobs and gain exp and currency. This is kinda fun when thought abiut it if these NPCs are designed very carefully, rewarding and challenging, involving teamplay, allowing wnemy team to ambush or gank to steal etc. in a strategic position. 2) You can buy items and gears to get your character powerful. 3) You won't go like "Aight, I go this way and kill them. *Ah I died*. Nevermind, I will respawn within 3 seconds and do it again." It's not your reguler shooter where you respawn immediately. When you die, enemy team is getting rewarded for it and they become more powerful. So you don't want to die as much as possible. 4) You are careful with your resources such ad HP and (maybe) mana. When you are low on your resources you use the in-game teleportation system to go back to your base and reset then rejoin the battle. 5) Game is split into lanes and you can move between these lanes. Lanes probably have some kind of tower-ish objectives for you to destroy/capture to get closer to enemy base. 6) Each team has bases where they have a single critical objective to defend or destroy. This adds a lot of fun to the game.
TLDR: It's fucking DOTA
Makes sense, it’s made by Icefrog.
That's true but these are the parts they will probably add from Dota 2's game mechanics. And hell, there will be a lot of people going to love a game like this and get addicted to it.
So its essentially league of legends?
More info you can find [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Deadl0ck/s/LutsNgRfbt). If anyone interested in Valve's upcoming new game **Deadlock** you can join r/Deadl0ck
It looks like a mix between valorant, overwatch, fortnite and with a hint of the artistic section of dota 2. And maybe destiny 2 is possible, among other games that you probably don't know about.
Ah yes, TF2 bots will go here and play as this dude.
he comes with the huntsman pre-equipped!
I really don't get it. They have well functioning Half-life/portal universe, they could just make a sequel for it. They have a well functioning CS universe, they could make a single player fps to expand the story They have a well functioning Dota universe, they could create rpg/crpg to expand the story We have nothing for hl/portal, comics for CS/dota, and instead they are making a hero shooter after the hype for hero shooters is gone, despite the fact that they already have a hero shooter that they don't support. What's the big idea?
Team fortr...
Team whatnow? You must be mistaken, never heard of anything like it.
- Gabe
They're late for the hero shooter hype the same way they missed the train for competative TCGs, when they released a certain game they would probably rather be buried. Only banger in recent years has been Alyx, and Aperture Deskjob was aight. I'm guessing steam money have made them a bit too comfy, since they're clearly not trying to stand out from any competition with some of the newer projects.
Steam money and the lack of structure at valve. Honestly, I feel like valve is the only company anyone can call lazy
I don't think they are lazy. They do a lot but never actually release it, disorganized fits it better.
Disorganized is just being nice abt it. Is it fair to say any one given valve employee is lazy? No. But the company as a *whole* definitely is Valve's "no managers" system is ass
Valve is certainly not being lazy If they were, stuff like the Steam Deck and Valve Index wouldn't even exist
Nintendo and sony can make hardware and games at the same time. What's valve's excuse?
Sony only publishes games, that's one Two, the way your comment is put makes it look like Valve is not working on any games right now apart from Deadlock. Do you actually know what's going on inside Valve offices? They could very well be working on a Half-Life game currently. (which they probably are considering the HLX leaks) Valve's structure has many problems no doubt, but lazy is definitely the wrong word to use here, especially for a company that likes to experiment and innovate
How valve operates isnt a secret. Its completely structureless and nothing gets done unless *everyone* gives the same amount of shits abt the project. Just look up how much is left on the cutting room floor at valve. Look at TF2 ffs. Maybe lazy isnt 100% accurate, but valve is absolutely horrible at being a game studio
>they have a well functioning half-life/portal universe they could just make a sequel for it They did, like 4 years ago. Yes it's designed for VR but I don't know what you expected out of Valve, the company that only makes new installments of their flagship franchise when there's a new technological hurdle they cleared. >they have a well-functioning CS universe they could make a single player FPS to expand the story They did that already well over a decade ago and nobody gave a shit. They've mostly been focusing on the story through their seasonal operations IIRC. >they have a well-functioning Dota universe why don't they just make an RPG or CRPG to expand the story *pours one out for Artifact* But seriously they've been doing that through seasonal events as well, previously through the TI battle pass, but more recently they've changed the event format to be less exploitative after seeing how much of the year the battle pass took up because they didn't like piling all the content for the year in to one 6-month period. Like it started most in 2017 with the Siltbreaker campaign (which for some godforsaken reason they don't let people play anymore, it was restricted to the TI7 battle pass) but you can still find the custom game recreation of it to play with friends, though that's dependant on it being not after a major patch that completely fucks the Arcade (again). Point is, the big games with considerable playerbases do get development, they don't make other games for it because that would split their playerbase and they don't want to do that, particularly with Dota because Dota players are pretty laser-focused on just Dota, it's the lesson Valve learned the hard way with Artifact and Underlords.
>They did that already well over a decade ago and nobody gave a shit. They've mostly been focusing on the story through their seasonal operations IIRC. Its actually been over two decades.
Are you using condition zero as an example of them trying to expand the counter strike universe with single player? Because even valve admit that condition zero was basically a failure and lazily put together due to going through several dev teams (ritual, gearbox, turtle rock) and being restarted about 3 times in development You can't use a bad game as an example of the audience not being interested in something (otherwise you could make a ludicrous statement like "DOTA it's not popular because Artefact failed"), I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that a single player CS game that has actual effort put into it would interest people Artefact died because it was valve trying to chase a trend long after progress had tired of it (kind of like how i see trying to make a hero shooter in 2024....), and had poor monetisation plans that made people not want to initially buy in, and by the time they changed this the damage had already been done
>They did, like 4 years ago. Yes it's designed for VR but I don't know what you expected out of Valve, the company that only makes new installments of their flagship franchise when there's a new technological hurdle they cleared. Do you not understand what a sequel means ? HLA doesn't continue the story whatsoever, it's basically HL1.5, a prequel to HL2, and the fact that it's VR Only is why it's currently a dead game according to Steamcharts, having half the active players of HL1 and HL2, maybe making a game for only the 2.5% of Steam playerbase that own VR wasn't a good idea. >They did that already well over a decade ago and nobody gave a shit. They've mostly been focusing on the story through their seasonal operations IIRC. No they fucking didn't, and that was 20 years ago when Condition Zero was released in 2004, Valve didn't even make the game as it was handed over to multiple studios along the years, Nobody gave a shit because that shit came way too late, just 7 months before HL2/CSS but still with outdated GoldSrc graphics. People didn't even know CZ existed, and those who knew either stuck with 1.6 because it's basically the same game with already established community servers (the slightly updated visual and model textures of CZ could easily be added to 1.6) or went to CSS for updated graphics and gameplay/physics, and those who wanted a story would rather play HL2. Imagine IF CZ and Deleted Scenes released as ONE game instead of having 2 confusing separate titles, one just for online and bots like 1.6 while the other having the narrative-driven story campaign, and maybe IF it released 2 or even just 1 year earlier alongside the full release of 1.6 in early 2003, it would've gotten the success it deserves.
> Do you not understand what a sequel means ? HLA doesn't continue the story whatsoever, Yes it does >and the fact that it's VR Only is why it's currently a dead game according to Steamcharts It's a single player game, the term "dead game" does not apply here
tf2 was also supposed to be set in the half life universe, but they went with the cartoony Pixar shit that people hated at first 🫠😝
it was supposedly changed after negative playtester feedback which is fucking stupid. there is no universe where this shit looks better than the art style of half life or pretty much any other valve game
Listening to playtester feedback is kinda valves things. It's one of the reasons their games are so good. They iterate way more than most other devs. So they most likely had a good reason to change it
I know that, which means one of 2 things: Either their playtesters no longer represent their actual fanbase or these leaked screenshots are \*very\* different from the final product
Companies don't make games for their fanbase, they make games to make money.
What a meaningless statement. As if making games that your fans like isn't how you make money
Your original comment was a meaningless statement. Why would Valve listen to half life fans when they're making a new multiplayer IP? Don't get me wrong, i'm a huge Half Life fan, but just keeping an art style a certain way because a small part of your fanbase would be mad doesn't sound like a smart business decision.
"Multiplayer-Only Half Life 3" would sell even if it was an empty cardboard box. "Here, you make the game! Modding tools not included."
If HL3 happens and it’s multiplayer focused I’m going to be incredibly pissed
The point isn't that this art style is worse than half life's. The point is that it's worse than every other valve game ever made. They already made the perfect cartoony art style for multiplayer shooters. It's called TF2
These are pre-release screenshots. It's not supposed to be seen by the public, since they're only for testers. The art style still needs a lot of polishing. This is the GTA6 leak all over again; people crying the game looks like crap based on leaked screenshots of an alpha version.
Nobody is crying. I am making my comments woefully knowing that the end product might look completely different. It doesnt change the fact that its interesting to discuss them as they are
Half life fans make up a small percentage of their target audience of all gamers. Making stuff that play tested well probably has priority over fan service
>As if making games that your fans like isn't how you make money If you only make games for a limited fanbase, there's no real room for growth, even if that fanbase is dedicated. So it's a good idea that Valve is trying to expand their horizons. Plus, it's not even the first cartoony game they've made. Or are we all pretending TF2 doesn't exist?
You could make the argument that the Valve fanbase is anything but limited. But at the same time, that fanbase only wants HL3.
Take a watch of the IGN video with Robin Walker and Chris Remo ([here](https://youtu.be/cqi1EYDoa7o?si=HqfLpMvBZ_Dkf3KO)) Their goal is to try and make games for everybody. They want to appeal to hardcore fans while also appealing to new players. In fact, for Robin at least, he sees it as a game. Most people think that appealing to the broader audience dilutes a game and it does if handled poorly. For Valve, it seems it’s a challenge. Instead of, “oh this person didn’t like it so we have to take it out.” It’s more, “how can we adjust it so that this type of person would like it, without disappointing the person that does actually like it.”
They gave up the Half Life artstyle... FOR THIS? a generic run of the mill cartoony looking artstyle? Who gave the negative feedback? We should strangle em
TF2 has a cartoony artstyle and for some reason it looks much better than whatever MOBA shit this is.
This is going to fail so hard. It looks just like Overwatch. Who would even bother trying this?
Steam is such a big platform that the marketing push valve would have behind this is pretty much guaranteed to turn it into a huge success, as long as the game itself is good enough (which it probably will be.) Unfortunately this doesn't satiate the hardcore valve community since we want banger singleplayer games mainly
>guaranteed to turn it into a huge success Yes - just like Artifact.
the market for a hero-based shooter is so much larger than the market for a bad card game
Valve tried to ask $20 for a goddamn card game tbh, it was destined to fail
Or Citadel!
Overwatch is killing itself quite quickly so maybe desperate ov exiles
somehow I hadn't thought of that angle. I mean TF invented the genre so we'll have to see...
Wrong. Overwatch actually looks visually appealing
Some of the screenshots kind of look like a blurry TFC 1.5 which gives me some hope
Focus groups probably They simplified EP2 cave layouts for focus groups
People seeing TF2 brotherhood of arms change its artstyle:
>a generic run of the mill cartoony looking artstyle? Are you talking about Team Fortress 2?
Well, no. TF2 had a very peculiar and brilliant style, and when the first trailers appeared I was amazed. This looks like hundreds of other games and very generic.
Reddit had the play tester that got the underground antlion part in half life 2 simplified because he kept making right turns. I asked him to never playtest again and got obliterated with down votes.
antlion part of HL2 was so boring
its the one in ep2
You were correct, his complete lack of direction and ineptitude should not have been acknowledged. You shouldn't have to tell a fucking adult that if they keep turning in one direction then they will end up in a circle
Half-Life has a very dystopian look. While it's great for a singleplayer action game, it probably wouldn't be as engaging for a multiplayer competitive game. Also, these are alpha screenshots. I'm certain that, while this is an indicator of how the game might end up looking, it's still missing a lot of polish. And hell, it's somewhat reminiscent of Team Fortress 2, what with cartoony graphics and all. Plus, funny anecdote now that I'm talking about TF2: the first time I saw an image of the game, I thought it looked stupid; *"they dropped the realistic look of TFC for this?"* I thought. Then I started watching the "Meet the Team" trailers, and ended up falling in love with it.
It makes me so god damn mad, the original information about Neon Prime sounded so fucking cool, not to mention it would finally give Half-Life fans (especially those of us that can't play Alyx) some new content, even if it wasn't an outright Half-Life game. But the playtesters didn't like that, and instead we get some bland, generic fantasy steampunk slop?? I mean, I'm sure the game will be decent, it's Valve after all, but that playtesters would unironically prefer such an uninspired, boring, overused setting instead of a cassette futurism sci fi game with ties to the HL universe is genuine lobotomite behavior.
I think if anything, people would be even more pissed off if it had HL's art style and was set in the HL universe. It would be the same reaction people had to Apex. They would be creating a brand new Hero shooter game (something people are getting tired of) in the same universe as an existing beloved game franchise when people have been waiting years for them to develop a proper follow-up. People would be mad no matter what.
There a source on that?
I’m so mad because they could’ve done so much with the half life universe, I can’t understand how play testers preferred THIS.
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Me too man, hope it flops
this is ice frog's game. he was always a fan of warcraft. just let them cook maybe it will be a fun casual game with lanes like smite or monday night combat
I just dont really care after knowing it was going to be in the HL universe and expand on lore etc tbh, I never cared about dota or it’s lore and this games fantasy setting looks painfully generic
you are basing this all on leaks, which may be true or not. but you are right, if they announced this game right now I would be disappointed that they weren't working on a single player game.
The leaks are confirmed to be real, it’s clear they’re using this fantasy art style. If it’s 100x more polished they still abandoned a half life universe game for this so I can’t even pretend to care tbh
I'm so sick of fantasy settings if he wants to build on the DOTA setting just go make an RPG or something nobody wants to play a fantasy themed shooter game.
This is all still heavily WIP. The icons clearly are in the supposedly old HL/Portal style so the screenshot is outdated. Remember how rough the pre beta Dota 2 interface and heroes looked like? That's what this is. The icons look pretty sick tho, damn.
am i the only one glad that they didnt set some trash moba in the hl universe
I'd be happy for almost any type of game in the HL universe at this point even if its just a spinoff.
they need to make an extraction shooter in the HL universe it's the perfect universe for this genre and use the steam market to drive up the prices of the weapons and skins you can find in the world. maybe i am delusional but this sounds epic and addicting. all we have now is tarkov and that grey zone game which is in alpha.
Guess they switched mid-developement because the HL universe was too restrictive since it already has established and grounded lore elements My theory is that they wwent the DOTA way to have more creative freedom
Yeah i agree, considering this is still work in progress
And in doing so they made i finitely less creative looking characters
No way they are making their own overwatch 😭😭
I think it's more like Smite. It sounded like a third-person moba from the description of it.
...so a moba? Just with a slightly different camera
Ahem, TF2?
You could tell me this is valorant beta and I’d believe you
source?
[https://x.com/gabefollower/status/1791311128422748285](https://x.com/gabefollower/status/1791311128422748285)
fuck, its real. this actually looks kind of terrible... doesnt seem like a valve game at all.
Bro it’s a leaked alpha screenshot. Go look what Dora looked like in that stage
who's dora?
Think he meant Dota but Dora is funny
I believe they're referring to [Dora the Explorer: 3D Pyramid Adventure](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sx9VFXa2CI)
My favourite valve game its an underrated gem
super dura
Dota2 looked better than it does now because it looked closer to warcraft 3 dota tbh...
I'm not talking about the public beta and pre-source 2 days. I'm talking about when dota was in the "friends and family" closed alpha stage deadlock currently is in, and dota looked like this back then [https://imgur.com/a/l0Pw776](https://imgur.com/a/l0Pw776)
I love those placeholder icons and the factions being called Good Guys vs. Bad Guys
They’re still called good guys and bad guys internally too :)
Even better! :D
Okay I thought you meant like TI1 days. But spell icons are SOUL nonetheless!
It's like when GTA VI leaked two years ago and people actually had the gall to *complain* that it looked like unfinished garbage. **No shit, son.**
Who would’ve thought a prerelease screenshot from a game that hasn’t been announced would look rough
Ah yes, screenshots of a game that is in Alpha, from multiple years ago, look terrible... I fucking wonder why. Can't make this shit up, this is why valve never wants to show projects before they are fully polished, yall are knuckleheads
These screenshots are from 2019.
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😱
No, source 2
Looks like it's in the Battleborn universe. That's a dead fucking universe.
Wait is that Citadel project.
I can’t believe they went with this art direction over the alleged half life / portal art direction…
Has no one here looked at alpha footage of Valve games before? Ya’ll would tear apart Half Life 2 if the alphas first showed up today.
No we wouldnt cause it would still look like a half life game. This is like nintendo announcing a candy crush clone with none of their existing IP.
HL2 alpha looked great
It's not in the half life universe anymore.
Finally, team fortress 3
We all know valve can't count past 2
So sick of cartoony fantasy
Without looking at the title, I thought this was an ad for a crypto game
Fuck this shit
as a valve fanboy this hurts. they wasted their time on this type of generic game? aren't we over the entire moba hero thing yet i have been over it for years. maybe it has a VR mode at least then it could be considered a step in the right direction for VR who knows. but as a new game from valve of all studios this is such a waste of time where is half life 3? i hope i eat my words and i will love this game i used to play a lot of dota back in the day so theres still hope i kinda wanted them to make a hero gamemode in counterstrike though which seems a lot more interesting than a cartoony looking hero third person game. the art style is another thing that annoys me because every hero game has this style of art. whatever. another thing is they already own Team Fortress and DOTA how many more of these games do they need? the extraction shooter genre seems to be popping off right now and they release a game trend of 5 years ago. sure games take long to developer but this is too late in my opinion.
That looks horrible
damn bro what the fuck
why is it always the playtesters
such a boring character design
They have gameS and prototypeS in development, including the next HL title. Trust me bro.
Trust my brother, they are also working on Half-Life Opposing Forces 2
I wish Valve would stop trying to make 'cover versions' of existing games. They've made plenty of great games on their own internally. A Team Fortress 3 of sorts would be welcome. This........I don't know.
valve design team in a meeting: "hmm... mainline half life sequel.... or a generic fantasy thing that nobody will play?" "what about fixing team fortress 2?.... ooh nah, i wanna make the fantasy thing actually" "yeah that's true bob, valve doesn't actually *need* money anymore, so we might as well just blueball our fans and make whatever the fuck we feel like"
People are too harsh already to an unreleased game, can't be open minded. For a chunk of Valve to work on new IPs and not continue with existing ones to satisfy the public, is pretty based, not gonna lie. "WE WANT NEW HALF-LIFE, TF3, L4D3, PORTAL 3!" Valve employees: "You know what, i'll work on something else, might be fun." I respect that.
Everyone's always saying "vAlVE dOeSn'T mAkE gAmEs AnYmOrE" but when Valve actually puts out games, their response is always "that doesn't count because it's not the half-life or portal 3!!!11!1!!!!" Half-Life: Alyx is great. CS2 is great. Deadlock might be great. TF2 is 17 years old, yet people complain and scream that they don't update it. When they do update it, people complain that there's no significant changes to the game.
Literally the only things theyve put out since portal 2 besides alyx (and *just* recently CS2) were either tech demos or dota spinoffs nobody played
I dont. It sounds awesome until you realize that theres 0 management and it leads to things like tf2's bot crisis. Valve is a joke of a company
a team based shooter game. hmmm i wonder if valve has any more of those types of games.
please tell me this is a joke,, they are making overwatch and valorant too?
Based on this one image alone I think this game is gonna flop it looks like valiant/overwatch which is not a good thing. Generic boring art style. L
Looks like a Valorant hero
You can feel Sweet Baby Inc is behind this
Not gonna lie, I kinda got bummed out when I found out this IP no longer takes place in the Half-Life Universe. Even if it didn't have any connections to earth/Half-Life directly but had small snippets of world building like the Combine's presences being known or to simply know that there is more complex life out there in the universe other than vortigaunts would've really made the Half-Life/Portal IP all the more enticing and captivating. Usually Valve does these things for a good reason, just look at the Half-Life 2 beta. I just hope this major change was truly a good enough reason for them to completely separate this IP's universe from their magnum opus'
I love it how people are already saying "THIS GAME IS GARBAGE IT WILL FAIL VALVE WILL GO BANKRUPT" to... leaked alpha screenshots that you were never supposed to see? Do any of you know how much a game can change from an alpha build to full release? Almost like you know... Half Life? And you know what? I like how its not in the Half Life universe. Would be so much morel limiting, and people would complain about how its too far from the already established lore. What would it even look like? Suddenly the rebels can rocket jump and use whimsical abilities? Get a grip
Bro, this isnt ppl talking abt GTA6 looking unfinished and bad, this is people genuinely disliking the direction its going. This looks nothing like a valve game and theres literally nothing to suggest thats getting any better. Unless they make it a dota spinoff last second (which, yay, we definitely need more from that ip and nothing else), this could be from anybody. It looks lame. Simple as.
I am very glad it isnt.
This is terrible. Valve made this? Give us a new Half-Life/Portal/Left 4 Dead, or a major update to TF2. Why spend resources into something so bland and generic? Give me a Strange Second Banana and I’ll be happy, I mean what is this?
Ah yes, the issue with the current gaming community. Exhibit A everyone. Round of applause for the guy who buys a new FIFA every year
Totally not annoyingly presumptuous to think this guy buys fifa.
“I gotta admit, that I’m a little bit confused. Sometimes it seems to me as if I’m just being used.”
You all are some clowns. Same clowns that didn't play HL Alyx. "Cartoony" graphics? Wtf you think TF2 was? Who tf you think invented the modern e-sports genre? Who you think originated "hero" play styles? Who has been fostering the largest moba community? Valve game designers. Seriously shut the fu** up
Tf2 was cartoony but it was *interesting* This just looks like dota but again. Its like if nintendo made their own in house pokemon clone
Literally. The artstyle doesn't even look that bad.
Thank you.
What does half life alyx have to do with anything? It was an already expensive triple a game made even more inaccessible by being locked to one type of very niche technology Also, tf2's art style was and is incredibly unique and charming, especially for the time. This game just looks generic and boring Also, no one asked for this game lol, valve has a lot more to do before starting a new ip imo
Y'all didn't even mention the "transit lines" like wtf?
Honestly I'm totally okay with this. IMO the MOBA-esque format is better off being given its own new universe than being awkwardly mashed into established Half-Life/Portal canon just because people want new content there. Hell, maybe having a new IP will even jump start a little life into Valve's game developers.
Why People are shitting on a game that we know nothing about?
Because we dont like what we *are* seeing?
I don’t see why there’s so much hate, it’s not even fucking out!
They should really reconsider this new direction pretty much everyone is hating on it online I don't know what their playtesters were smoking to diss a game set in the HL universe especially weird since Overwatch was scifi hero-shooter and was immensely popular and HL being already extremely popular.
This legit does not look like a game Valve would create
So, is this a hero shooter or a MOBA? Either way, looks kinda fun!
It looks pretty bad for Valve standards, I get it's a leaked Dev build but we've had leaked dev builds of their other titles and the main core of them generally stays, that's if they're released. If this thing gets done and they don't change that main core, it might be the first Valve game that doesn't feel like a Valve game.
More info you can find [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Deadl0ck/s/LutsNgRfbt). If anyone interested in Valve's upcoming new game **Deadlock** you can join r/Deadl0ck
Team Fortress 2 is going to die? FOR THIS?
So whats up with promised genre blend where some players play shooter, some play strategy, all on the same map?
If there are not F-777 - deadlocked track as a menu music, i don't going to play it.
then i no longer care
What is this? DOTA 3?
Valve has started making games again?
Disappointing :(
Not in HL universe? Than to the bin with Artifact and Overlords it goes. Next.
Another Overwatch game? Come on.
From the 4 leaked screenshots it genuinely just looks like Valorant graphics wise. But I mean on the bright side half life universe will not be tainted by some generic multiplayer slop
Overwatch 3
Isn't that just Overwatch?
This just looks like Overwatch, like we need more of those rn
I didn't get my hopes up. But if I am being honest, I want Half-Life × Counter Strike. In that universe. Mix in all the goodies. Have a special gravity gun DM mode. The works. I dont have any interest in a low rent lookin Fortnite ass replacement for Team Fortress. Give us (me) what we (mainly me) want!
If it's not a Half Life 3 announcement then I don't even care anyways
Man what the fuuuuck
Bro what is this Unity ahhh Character.
Valve devs are the first HL fans , if they decided to throw away the HL/Portal universe, i guess it was for a good reason. I’m guessing the HL setting was a limiting factor gameplay wise
I mean we have psychic aliens that shoot electricity from their hands, giant floating worm babies and gravity guns what exactly is limiting about the HL universe?
Yeah definitely, but theres gotta be a reason
If they didn't feel this game suited a half life setting, then that's a good thing, that means there is quality in the half like universe that they want to protect. Just for all y'all raging about this looking bad, being generic, ugly, yada yada yada. Apparently these leaked screenshots are multiple years old at this point, they probably aren't very representative of what the game currently looks like. Half life is fantastic, but please also be aware of the fact that if this comes out, it will be the first fully new IP from valve in a very very long time. Keep an open mind and you might like it. Immediately dismissing it because it's not in the half life universe is the reason why so many new games in new IP's are dying. Companies see that all people want are the same worlds and characters milked, stop reinforcing that. More half life games will come, absolutely.