Half Life: Portal - the next major Valve release?

vadeg

Let the baseless conjecture begin

As one of the most important, genre-defining FPS series ever created, the Half Life rumour mill is always in business, with rumours still flying fast and thick of a 2012 announcement of the next series instalment. Just like in 2011, in fact. And 2010. Every year since 2007, really.

So, to get in the spirit of things, I'm going to throw my hat into the ring and explain why I think the next instalment of the series could involve a Half Life/Portal mash-up:

The gravity gun isn't innovative anymore

Remember the see-saw physics puzzle near the start of Half Life 2, or the security guard who makes you pick up a tin can and put it in the bin? The only reason those made it into the game was because Valve wanted to show you what their fancy new Source engine could do. The entire game after that point involved crowbarring people in the head; sure, you could use the gravity gun to buzz-saw zombies in half or throw crates at soldiers, but aside from a laborious crane-swinging segment, it didn't add much besides pleasant realism to an otherwise excellent shooter. Half Life 2 is a victim of its own success; like its predecessor, it still shows lesser titles how those elements of gameplay should be done, but even the brainless shooter known as Bulletstorm had a fun take on throwing ragdolls around. Half Life needs something fresh, which, two games later, Portal still is.

Actually, nothing in Half Life 2 is innovative anymore

NPCs who chat to you as they walk around? Even Bethesda got their arse in gear on that count. Integrated story and gameplay? It's a poor game that can't manage to do so even a little bit (JRPGs notwithstanding). Hurling boxes at civilians? Come now. While Half Life 2 is still tremendous fun and mandatory playing for any gamer or developer, its sequel won't be an innovative trend-setter without something fresh to define it, and a true FPS environment is territory that Portal hasn't dared to tread yet.

The portal gun totally works in a Half Life setting

Portal is great, but it completely eschews the traditional FPS run-and-gun mechanics in favour of full first-person puzzle solving. On the flip side, this sensational mod for Half Life 2 not only does what others couldn't (Garry's Mod never implemented portal gun support on the grounds that it was a technical nightmare, despite running on the same engine), it also makes certain parts of Half Life 2 incredibly easy.

Too many enemies? Fire a portal behind them and chuck a grenade through. Can't be bothered fighting your way up a skyscraper? Start thinking with portals, boy! The Portal Mod is practically cheating, and it shows that there are many more applications than mere test chambers. Combined with a gravity gun, a pair of players could be hurling explosive barrels across the map like pros. The portal gun breaks Half Life 2 because the game wasn't designed for that kind of technology, but a tailor-made experience - especially in open maps or multiplayer - could be among the most exhilarating and mind-boggling experiences that gaming has ever produced.

They keep teasing it, damn it

Aperture Science logos make their appearance close to the end of Half Life 2: Episode 2, while Portal is filled with snarky references to Aperture's rivals at Black Mesa. Since the key to stopping the Combine appears to be in the hands of a long-lost Aperture invention, why not go the whole hog and let the two organisations combine? Even if it amounts to a relatively detached merger, like when Chell negotiates the dilapidated, long-dead test chambers of decades past in Portal 2, it would add diversity and flavour to the slightly more conventional Half Life setting.

Of course, none of this may come to pass, although in a world where Geordie Shore exists I'm willing to believe anything. However, in the interest of balance, here's why Half Life: Portal probably WON'T happen:

The two games are a universe apart

Which is odd, given that they're part of the same universe. Nonetheless, Half Life's grimy, dystopian nightmare is surprisingly incompatible with Portal's humour-drenched cleanliness, and there's only so far that the two can be mashed together before they lose their respective souls.

Valve don't like repeats

In the wake of several wildly successful memes, Valve did an excellent job of ignoring non-existent cakes and radios permanently tuned to Latin music stations in the Portal sequel. And while the terse relationship between Aperture Science and Black Mesa made for some funny one-liners, the joke could well wear thin over the course of a game. Valve like to keep things fresh, funny and memorable, and a crossover could jeopardize their excellent track record.

They also like changing things up

They created four innovative single-player FPS games, as well as taking control of two multiplayer mods to create a pair of wildly successful online games (Team Fortress and Counterstrike), as well their own property Left 4 Dead. A Portal/Half Life mashup could fit into that legacy extremely well, but it also fails to do justice to their inventive and eclectic past.

Half Life: Portal might not be a big enough step for Valve, but with enough imagination it could take on an identity all of its own, strong enough to stand tall as more than a re-imagining of past ideas. I'd like to think the latter, and as such I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that this particular prediction turns out to be right.