Half-Life 3 Leaks Reveal That Key Half-Life 2 Mechanic Will Return

More details on ‘HLX’, which is widely believed to be Half-Life 3, have surfaced in the newest Counter-Strike 2 update.

Dataminer and leaker Gabe Follower, who reported on the HLX playtests last Winter, found several strings that reference thumpers and antlions, the insectoid Xen aliens who burrow underground and hunt targets using the vibrations of their footsteps.

HLX is reported to be in the final stages of development.

They’ve reappeared in every Half-Life game since their debut in 2004, with the episodes introducing acid-spitting workers and squishy grubs, while the VR spin-off Alyx ground those same grubs at healing stations. It even featured a slower variant of the usual antlion soldiers towards the end of the game. Thumpers, on the other hand — the Combine stations that keep antlions at bay — haven’t been seen in over 20 years.

What Does The Return Of Antlions Mean For Half-Life 3

Like their real-world counterpart, antlions are typically found in warmer regions, which is why we uncover so many thumpers along the coast and outside Nova Prospekt. They only burrow into City 17 itself when the Combine infrastructure collapses, and in the colder White Forest region, we mostly find them underground in abandoned mines.

Episode Two ended on a cliffhanger that teased a trip to the Arctic in search of Aperture Science’s interdimensional ship, the Borealis, and footage Valve shared of the cancelled Episode Three confirms that we would have indeed visited the polar region.

Some fans have taken this new HLX leak to mean that Valve scrapped any plans to send Gordon Freeman to the Arctic, given how inhospitable it would be to antlions as we know them. But there are a couple of things worth considering here.

There are also references to “Food”, “Gravity Force”, and vehicle hitgroups, likely for HLX as well.

Even if we do visit the Arctic, it won’t be the only region in the game, and other leaks point to the return of Xen and its inhabitants, like the houndeye. We may see antlions in the borderworld, or perhaps the Combine have genetically modified a new breed better suited for colder climates, much as fans speculate they did with headcrabs to create poison and fast variants. Either way, the return of antlions doesn’t mean anything for the Arctic.