Half-Life: Alyx is Valve’s long-awaited return to the series that gave us the G-Man, the Gravity Gun, and Half-Life 3 memes. While it’s not Half-Life 3, Valve say that Alyx is very much a proper series entry and tease that there’s more to come.

“Half-Life: Alyx is a full-fledged entry in the Half-Life series, both in terms of the sheer amount of content as well as the importance and substance of its narrative relative to the rest of the series,” developer Robin Walker told Game Informer in an interview. “It’s a critical part of the larger story, and it does push that story forward.”

He added that “Half-Life means a lot to us, and it’s been incredibly rewarding to refamiliarize ourselves with its characters, setting, and mechanics. There are Half-Life: Alyx team members who have been at Valve since Half-Life 2, and quite a few who go back to the original Half-Life.

“There are also people on the team for whom Half-Life: Alyx is their first time working on this series at all – and many of them certainly hope it’s not the last. We absolutely see Half-Life: Alyx as our return to this world, not the end of it.”

As for why the game is in VR, Walker explained that developing The Lab helped them realize that players wanted more ambitious experiences akin to “full-scale triple-A” ones. “We thought we were in a position to help provide that. Now, four years later, there are a lot more developers who share these goals, and we’re hoping games like Half-Life: Alyx continue to encourage that even further,” he said.

Earlier this week, Valve dropped three gameplay videos for Half-Life: Alyx. All three were impressive and definitely felt like the ambitious “full-scale triple-A” experience Walker described. Like Half-Life 2 back when it released in 2004, it looks like Alyx will be one heck of a return to the Half-Life universe.

The game launches on Steam this 23rd March 2020.