This article contains major spoilers for Half-Life: Alyx.
After finishingCrow Country, a game with a great ending, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it takes to make a memorable, exciting, or emotionally resonant conclusion. I’ve got a piece in the works on why that specific finale works so well, but it got me thinking about the endings that have stuck with me the most.
What Makes A Great Video Game Ending?
Personally, I like ambiguity.The Last of Us' final scene has long been my favorite game ending because it feels conclusive while leaving the characters, and audience, in limbo. It put a bow on Joel and Ellie’s arc — for years, some fans voiced opposition to the mere idea of a sequel — but it still left a lot of questions open.The Last of Us Part 2ends on a similar note, and I suspect if the eventual third game ends with a cut-and-dry happy or sad ending, it won’t feel like The Last of Us.
Half-Life: Alyxhas another all-timer video game ending for similar reasons. It pays off on its set-up while raising all kinds of questions. The primary reason I’m excited to play Half-Life 3 is that I want to see how it continues the story after Half-Life: Alyx’s mic drop-worthy final moments.
Returning To Gaming’s Most Iconic Cliffhanger
Alyx ends where its predecessor,Half-Life 2: Episode 2, ended 13 years before — with a major twist. Having made it to the prison chamber above City 17 where Alyx believes Gordon Freeman is being held, Alyx instead finds and frees the G-Man. The mysterious interdimensional bureaucrat grants her one request (“a nudge”) in exchange for “coming all this way”. Alyx asks if he can force the Combine off the Earth, but that’s a “considerably large[r] nudge” than the G-Man, and his mysterious employers, are willing to perform.
The G-Man suggests that he could instead alter the course of future events that Alyx doesn’t yet know about, showing her the moment at the end of Episode 2 when her father Eli is killed by a Combine Advisor. Alyx chooses to change this timeline, reversing Eli’s death. But, as you might have guessed, there are “unforeseen consequences,” and Alyx is conscripted by the G-Man, placed into the same stasis where Gordon was kept between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2.
Half-Life: Alyx Seemed Like A Promise That One Day We Would Play Half-Life 3
Valve traded one cliffhanger for another. Four years ago, I read this ending as a statement of intent. Valve really would, finally, make Half-Life 3. Four years later, there’s been no visible movement on that front. That might not mean anything — Alyx was announced just four months before its release — but I’m ready to hear something, anything. That’s partially because I love the Half-Life games and want to play another one, but also partially because actually playing Half-Life 3 after all these years would feel a little like getting a unicorn for Christmas.
But mostly, I want it because that cliffhanger was really good and I want to see it pay off. Who took Alyx? The Combine makes the most sense in Eli and Gordon’s context, but how does that line up with the G-Man having imprisoned her? He’s employed by a different shadowy organization altogether. What will happen next, and what will Valve, after 17 years and counting, consider worthy of the title Half-Life 3? How will it make a concept that could uncharitably be described as Alyx being a damsel in distress as interesting as Alyx makes it feel? I don’t know. But I pray that Half-Life 3 ends up being more than gaming’s longest anticipated sequel — twice in a row.
