Featured Image Credit: Valve/Plasmeo
The Half-Life series is missing in action with whispers of a Half-Life 3 but no tangible evidence of its existence.
Valve doesn’t need to make new games anymore, as it’s already gaming’s top dog with the Steam Store and its countless sales keeping it afloat, much like Gabe Newell’s super yacht.
Gamers want more Half-Life anyway, though and if Valve doesn’t want to make a new entry, you best believe someone else will.
First-person shooters are missing their sauce nowadays. Very few AAA releases invoke the same feelings you’d get when playing Halo 3’s final campaign mission, or the multiplayer of GoldenEye 007 with friends.
Half-Life gave us those similar feelings, but the series is nowhere to be seen, so thank God FLAW is here to keep its memory alive.
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FLAW is a first-person shooter that’s out now on Steam, with a free demo for you to try before you buy.
In its own words, it’s “inspired by cult classics: Unreal, Quake 2, Half-Life and many others,” and sees players captured by a hostile boarding party who assaulted your spaceship.
Passengers from the Flaming Dawn are taken to a distant planet in the Outer Rim, which you must now escape as you attempt to get back to Earth.
Instead of trying to ask nicely, you’ll instead shoot first and ask questions later with a rather large arsenal of weapons. They’re very efficient at separating your captive's limbs from the rest of their body.
Looking through the pictures and images, there’s even a level that puts you behind the wheel of a cool space buggy, complete with a mounted gun that your fellow passengers can defend you with. It’s like the Warthog from Halo.
At the time of writing, FLAW is an early-access title, meaning there’s still a lot of work being done on it. For instance, one of the recent updates improved the pathfinding of enemy AI.
Due to this, you can expect it to be a little rough around the edges in some areas, but then again, that’s what the demo is for. To give you a taste of what the full game is like and whether it’s to your liking.
Even if you decide it’s not your cup of tea, you can still respect FLAW’s hustle. It’s inspired by some of the best first-person shooters in gaming history and could easily stand alongside them.
It’s also nice to see more games pay homage to the early 2000s. We’ve gotten so used to titles like Mina The Hollower emulating the Game Boy and Super Nintendo style that titles presenting themselves as long-lost PlayStation 2/OG Xbox games feel that little bit more unique and special.
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