The prologue of Project Borealis - Half-Life sequel by fans - has been released on Steam

The fan team Icebreaker Industries has released a free prologue for Project Borealis — a game based on the unused script for Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

Seven years after its announcement, the team introduced a ten-minute game built on the Unreal Engine 5. The plot is grounded in the story of Epistle 3 by former Valve writer Marc Laidlaw, where the main character is Gertrude Fremont — a gender-swapped version of Gordon Freeman.

After a series of active updates, the project came to a standstill in March 2020. The only sign of life was a short video featuring a crowbar in the snow, published in 2022. In September 2023, the team announced the transition to Unreal Engine 5 and the upcoming release of the prologue.

The action takes place in the snow-covered Revachol. “Once a familiar city, now buried under a blanket of snow that conceals the past and new dangers beneath its pristine surface,” it states on the game's Steam page.

“Switching to Unreal Engine 5 instead of the Source engine forced us to recreate the movement mechanics, physics, combat system, and atmosphere of Half-Life 2. We wanted to ensure we were heading in the right direction,” explained the studio director Postulio to PC Gamer.

The prologue showcases updated graphics, replicates classic Half-Life 2 mechanics, and features an original soundtrack. A copy of the original game on Steam is required to run it.

Source: Eurogamer