by Toussaint Egan

Earlier this year, rumors began to swirl that Valve, the monolithic digital distribution company, speculative tech incubator, and occasional video game developer, was finally working on the long-awaited sequel to Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the latest chronological entry in the venerable first-person shooter franchise, which ended on a devastating cliffhanger over… checks calendar … 18 years ago. 

In the wake of Valve’s recent announcement of a new suite of SteamOS-powered gaming hardware due early next year, a proper Half-Life sequel announcement appears to be nigh. Which brings us to today, the day after the Twelfth annual Game Awards, an industry event known for premiering high-profile games developed by major AAA studios where many cool new games were announced.. none of which though were Half-Life.

Outside of Valve,however,  there are those who are keeping the Half-Life franchise alive in their own way: artists and fan animators who have taken upon themselves craft their own stories in the Half-Life universe set on the periphery of Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance’s saga.

Today, I want to highlight one in particular: Richard Makk, a.k.a. “The Parry God.”

Based in Budapest, Makk is a YouTuber and animator who has been producing “Machinima” fan films of games such as the Dark Souls series, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Deep Silver’s Metro 2033 Redux since 2018. Machinima is a portmanteau of “machine” and “cinema” that refers to a genre of online animated narrative films produced using recorded footage from video games. Machinima animators are predominantly fan artists who, through the re-use of copyrighted materials, create their own stories set either within the universe of their favorite games or wholly original works that are nonetheless indebted to the aesthetic of their source material (see: Red vs. Blue).

In 2021, less than a year following the release of Half-Life: Alyx, a 2020 VR-exclusive prequel to Half-Life 2 that in a timey-wimey twist partially retconned the cliffhanger of Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Makk began creating fan-made short films set within the Half-Life universe. Makk’s films quickly gained notoriety among the online Half-Life fan community for their impressive cinematography, evocative music choices, and patient fastidious attention to the minutiae of the Half-Life: Alyx’s detailed environments. This is Half-Life, but as seen and depicted through the eyes and lives of the human survivors and alien aggressors who populate its world, not the messianic hero’s journey of the “One Free Man.”

Over the next two years, Makk would go on to produce over 16 animated shorts set in the Half-Life universe. His films tap into the qualities that have made Half-Life one of most enduring franchises in the medium of games despite its uncertain future, with diligent focus on the aesthetic and mood of the occupied Eastern European metropolis of City 17, its perpetually beleaguered and beaten human population, and the gas mask-wearing transhuman footsoldiers of the “Combine” who reign with unfettered impunity and violent supremacy.

After such a long time in between installments, it’s easy for people to forget why anyone cared or still cares about the Half-Life series, especially those who have never played through it before. Makk’s films tap into the enduring appeal of the characters and locations Valve conjured into being more than two decades ago; of the intimate stakes of a small and outgunned human resistance fighting bloodied tooth and nail against an colossal, extradimensional dimensional war machine hellbent on reducing them into either chattel or offal. It’s a beautiful and terrifying universe of uncommon dimension, depth, and emotional verisimilitude.

Makk’s body of Half-Life animation would ultimately culminate with the 2023 release of “Patient Zero,” a 7-and-a-half-minute short film depicting a group of human resistance members holding out against a siege of Combine soldiers on the outskirts of City 17. It’s an exquisitely well-paced work of action cinema, elevating a small-scale skirmish between enemy factions into an emotionally charged cat-and-mouse spectacle of gunfire and survival. 

Shortly after the film’s release, Makk was hired as a level designer at Fun Dog Studios, the Washington-based indie studio behind The Forever Winter, one of my favorite games in recent memory with its own confluence of unconventional inspirations and savvy worldbuilding. While I’m disappointed that the frequency of Makk’s posts has slowed, I could not be more elated at the fact that his talent is not only being recognized, but by a talented studio whose work I so passionately believe in.

I don’t know if Valve will ever break free of the paralysis of conceptual scope creep that has dogged the Half-Life franchise for the past two decades and deliver a new installment that can square the circle between concluding the storyline of the Episodes while opening a new chapter going forward. I also don’t know when, or if Makk will release a new short set in the Half-Life universe. But what I do know is, that as long as the creators and artists that Half-Life inspired continue to grow and create, the fire of the series’ legacy will never truly burn out.