While Half-Life 3 remains in limbo and writers keep abandoning Valve, the future of the franchise looks very dark. But not all is bad news, because this time we come across Half-Life: C.A.G.E.D., a free mod for Half-Life developed by a former Valve employee.
While Valve Software cannot continue Half-Life the way they would like, some former employees seem to be returning to the franchise after their retirement. About a month ago, Marc Laidlaw, writer of Half-Life, published a work titled "Epistle 3" that details the story of Half-Life 2: Episode Three that he imagined during his time working at Valve, albeit with different character and place names. And now Cayle George, a former Valve employee, has released Half-Life: C.A.G.E.D., a free mod for Half-Life.
Available through Steam, Half-Life: C.A.G.E.D. is a brief episode full of action and environmental puzzles for a single player, set in a prison from which you must escape. But it won't be easy, because the soldiers and scientists you cross paths with are tough enemies. It's a fun mod, yes, but it also has its flaws. C.A.G.E.D. lets you briefly play with some of Half-Life's best weapons but it's terrible to see how the SMG struggles to hit a soldier less than ten meters away, or the use of the shotgun, which ends up being a pale shadow of what shotguns represent in video games. In fact, it's more likely that the pistol ends up being your faithful friend throughout the adventure.
Cayle George worked with Valve, Monolith, and Guerilla Games, and was a designer on Portal 2 and Team Fortress 2, in addition to being a Half-Life modder before that. The episode comes with developer commentary, along with a soundtrack by Lazerhawk. Developed by Cayle George together with Future Games Select, Half-Life: C.A.G.E.D. is available for free download on Windows through Steam, but you need a copy of Half-Life to play it.
Official site: Half-Life: C.A.G.E.D.
