Last October I took part In Half-Life 3 playtest and it was awesome! Each of us got up to 2 hours to fuck around with different mechanics.
There wasn't any actual story level, but rather a sandbox for different features.
First thing I noticed: body damage system is insane—you can literally carve holes into enemies by shooting the same spot over and over
gore is fully dynamic, limbs come off depending on caliber, Combine soldiers don’t just ragdoll, they react—grabbing wounds, crawling away, even calling for help
environment damage is legit too, shoot pipes, walls, debris, it all reacts, and enemies react to. Reminds me heavily of Euphoria engine from GTA4/RDR2
weapon system is an expanded version of Alyx's upgrade system
shotgun could be modified into pump-action (slow, high damage) or semi-auto (faster, lower damage), other weapons had similar tuning options
enemy AI is completely different, feels next-gen
Combine soldiers take cover, throw grenades, kick them back—one even jumped on a grenade to save his squad
enemies have states: healthy, damaged, unconscious, dead
if a soldier goes unconscious, others provide suppressing fire while one tries to drag him to safety
wounded enemies either get aggressive or defensive based on their numbers—if they’re alone, they panic and retreat, if they’ve got backup, they push harder
we got to test a dev-only weapon that manipulated temperature of objects
cold metal floors become slippery, and if you have jump boots, you'll slide on it. Low level enemies will stumble there, while elite Combine will walk slowly, but will shoot you without issues.
heated metal floors made Antlions avoid stepping on them
you can see Gordon’s legs—he’s got some tech boots that we could modify
only two options in the test: high jump mode or anti-slip mode for ice
After the playtest we've talked to some people and they told us, that they don't have a set deadline, but depending on how it goes, we can see the game very soon

Back | Go to board

Board:

/v/

Thread:

Half-Life 3 Playtest