1up.com has announced a new feature called "Valve Week," in which they spend the week (starting today) looking at Valve software, its products, and what both have done and will do to the games industry. They're promising behind-the-scenes access and exclusive content.
Today's special is a look ahead to Half-Life 2 expansion pack Aftermath. It's being billed by Valve as an essential part of the Half-Life story.
Maybe it's the jaded gamer in us, but the article leaves one with the overwhelming sense not of new ground broken in innovative storytelling, but of a simple desire on the part of Valve to extend the life of what has become a very successful games franchise. The designers are quoted by 1up as trying to keep gamers from ever coming to a point of closure in the story that would allow them to say, "Oh, ok, well I'm done with that."
In other words, Half-Life's unresolved questions will never be answered. The Half-Life game universe will be serialized endlessly because the game's designers believe (and probably rightfully so) that plot is one of those elements that other FPS games don't even pretend to service.
Some fans of serialized science fiction might find this all very exciting. Star Trek fans, for instance, certainly enjoyed the series in part because it continued on for, like, ever. Has-been Robert Jordan fans like yours truly, however, have grown a little tired of stories that never end.
