Project Borealis is a community-driven initiative supported by an international team known as Icebreaker, who has been working on this game since 2017. Their aim is to give fans a glimpse of what a follow-up to Half-Life 2: Episode 2 might have resembled. The narrative is reportedly inspired by a supposed outline from Marc Laidlaw, a previous writer at Valve, suggesting that it could include aspects that were initially meant for the next chapter in Half-Life 2.
Technical Showcase
The brief demo serves mainly as a tech showcase to demonstrate how the classic Half-Life gameplay can be adapted to the contemporary Unreal Engine 5. An accompanying video displays the full gameplay experience in 8 minutes (spoiler alert):
Within just a day of its launch, the demo has garnered 2,000 reviews on Steam, with the majority being positive. Yet, reactions on Reddit have been more critical. Players have pointed out performance issues, which reportedly affect even the newest systems, and the game's mechanics have also drawn criticism. Some users feel that the movement and shooting mechanics do not align with what is expected from a Half-Life title. Additionally, the term "prologue" has faced backlash, as many found it misleading due to the demo's limited nature.
Future of Project Borealis
At this point, it's unclear what the future holds for Project Borealis Prologue. Fans of Half-Life are left wondering whether they will have the chance to dive into the sequel next year. In the meantime, they can only enjoy Half-Life: Alyx, the latest addition to the Half-Life universe, which was released in 2020.
