Certain projects which developer Valve was rumored to be working on for some time now have surfaced to birth more speculations.
According to known Valve insider Tyler McVicker (previously known as Valve News Network) earlier today, datamining the recently released Aperture Desk Job game has uncovered references to a Half-Life: Alyx sequel, a remake of the camera-based Portal game called F-Stop which was scrapped in favor of Portal 2, and a Source 2 update for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
The datamining also unearthed references to Citadel, a new first-person shooter which was rumored to be in development back in 2019. The game is said to take place in the Half-Life universe and blends action and strategy elements of Alien Swarm and Left 4 Dead. There will apparently be real-time tactical elements as well to create a hybrid class-based cooperative experience.
Aperture Desk Job was released for Steam Deck last week as a free-to-play short in the Portal universe. Its game files including references to other projects should not be taken as a guarantee that Valve is actively working on all of the aforementioned games. Citadel though could possibly be a different story.
McVicke noted that Citadel appears to be in advanced stages of development based on “a significant amount of Citadel code comments” inside Aperture Desk Job—too many to read through. There are files pointing out abilities and bots where the former includes weapons, weapon upgrades, grenades, and buffs for allies. Bots come in “many different classes” and can be given weapons and abilities before being deployed by players in the game as they watch over the entire map from a top-down perspective.
Citadel was previously rumored to be a project Valve undertook after scrapping Half-Life 3 for Steam Deck. Those are really tall claims since that essentially means the fabled Half-Life 3 was at one point considered for the new handheld console. It will be up to fans to decide if Citadel is able to scratch that Half-Life 3 itch if the game ends up on Steam Deck.
