Half-Life: Alyx is probably everyone’s most anticipated VR game this year and for good
reason.
The Half-Life series is one of the best-reviewed games of all time, and it’s been 13 years
now since the 2nd episode of Half-Life 2 came out.
So I think everyone is curious about what Valve will do with this one.
Let me start by saying that I’ve finished the game already, as Valve gave us early access.
So this video is my full review of the game.
I won’t spoil the new storyline in this video, of course, but I’ll talk about all
the VR game mechanics.
This video should answer your questions that you may have before buying like how it works
on different headsets and controllers.
Hey, everyone!
My name is Cas, and if you like to see more VR videos like this one, then subscribe if
you haven’t yet.
And we have a lot to talk about so join me beyond reality.
Half-Life: Alyx is set before the events of Half-Life 2.
You play as Alyx Vance.
A hacker and a mechanic who fights with her father Eli against the alien force called
the Combine.
The Combine has taken over the world and is depleting its resources.
Humans are subject to their cruel authoritarian police state.
So humans formed an underground resistance, and Alyx is one of its prominent members.
The first thing you might wonder is whether you should play Half-Life before you dive
into Alyx.
I, myself, hadn’t played the games before Alyx came out.
So I checked summary videos of the first game and then played the second game as far as
I could.
And I am happy I did!
You don’t need to have played the games, but knowing the story will help with appreciating
this new game more.
The game takes place in City 17, which has been one of the primary locations in previous
games, and it’s shockingly beautiful.
As an example, the first thing you see is the citadel, which is the Combine’s headquarters
on earth, and it’s incredible to witness the actual scale of the skyscraper and realizing
just how much power the Combine has.
Not only that, but every place that you move to is highly detailed.
This is probably one of the best looking VR games to date.
As you play Alyx, you’ll hear her voice throughout the game.
I love this as you can listen to Alyx’s thoughts too.
It makes you feel like you are getting to know her, and...
I may have fallen in love with her, but that’s another story 😉
Early in the game, you’ll also meet Russell.
Throughout the game, he’ll talk to you using a headphone and help out when needed.
He is the one who will give you the gravity gloves that work much like the gravity gun
in Half-Life 2, except you cannot shoot items away.
You can pull objects from afar towards you.
This works intuitively.
If you want to pick up an object, you point your hand towards it until you see it turn
red, and then you can pull it towards you using the trigger button.
This is helpful for easy loot collection and also in battle.
Early on, you’ll get a flashlight that is attached to your glove.
You cannot turn on the flashlight yourself, though.
It automatically turns on when it’s dark, and this is probably one of the few cons I
found in the game as the flashlight sometimes did not turn on in terrifyingly dark places.
Yes, Half-Life: Alyx keeps close to the original games.
You’ll explore City 17’s mostly alien-infested buildings and underground areas.
Some places are very dark, and when you hear the sound effects of something approaching,
your hair will stand on end.
There are many other things you might recognize from previous games.
For example, throughout your playthrough, you can find the iconic wall-mounted chargers
that you can use for health.
Except in Alyx, they are modified to make it work with your hand.
Interactions with the technology in this game are often mysterious and beautiful and is
another thing that is just a joy to look at in VR.
Underneath your gloves, you can find one inventory slot per hand to store items.
It is the first time I see inventory slots underneath the hands, and I think it is an
interesting choice.
Most games use body inventory slots, but often causes me to reach out for the wrong item
accidentally, but these slots under the gloves are hard to mistake.
Ammunition is stored by putting them over your shoulder, which is a familiar way to
store items in VR games.
Another thing I noticed right away is that the game is interaction rich.
Most things around you are grabbable, throwable, and breakable.
Most items have weight too.
Valve implemented fantastic hand animations here.
Whatever you try to grab, you can see your fingers realistically snap on the object.
So, many times, I’ve satisfyingly thrown a bottle on the ground just to see it break
as even that is polished.
Maybe I’m a bit of a weirdo here, but having this level of interaction encourages exploration
and increases immersion.
Before we move on, please leave a like on this video if you want to see more reviews
like this from us!
Half-Life: Alyx also features many returning enemies from the original games, like Barnacles,
Headcrabs, and Zombies, which can be pretty terrifying to go up against in VR, but also
a delight to see them in these enhanced graphics.
There are more returning enemies, but I won’t spoil that for you.
The game does also introduce a couple of new, crazy, alien enemies, that will challenge
you.
Combat is mostly shooting in Alyx.
Guns are all one-handed to keep one hand free for world interaction.
You can use your other hand for more stability, though.
Weapon switching is done by activating a floating interface with your gun hand.
You open it by hold pressing a button on your gun hand and then moving your hand in the
direction of the gun to select it.
This allows for easy switching.
Every gun has its own reloading mechanism.
Just like the original games, finding new weapons occurs every so often as you progress
in the game.
Ammunition is limited.
It is up to you to preserve your ammunition as much as possible, so you don’t run out
or it will be a very tense moment.
Luckily, you can find ammo if you explore, these are highlighted with a bright blue color.
It makes the job more fun because you can use your gravity gloves to throw boxes around
with a flick of the wrist to see if something is in it.
Exploration is further encouraged, as you can find resin, which is a sort of currency
to upgrade your weapons.
Throughout the game, you’ll find upgrade stations to add upgrades to your guns.
As Alyx is a hacker, you get a multi-tool that you need to unlock these upgrade stations.
It’s also used to unlock things like loot boxes and traps.
To unlock, you have to solve mini-puzzles that open up to you as holographic projections.
Valve made an enjoyable design choice here, as you’ll make use of your room-scale tracking
for this.
The multi-tool is also used as a tool to route electrical wires to unlock paths.
I did say Alyx is also a mechanic 😉
There are bigger environmental puzzles as well, which aren’t hard, and they don’t
make that much use of physics when compared to the puzzles in Boneworks.
I did expect more here from Valve, but the game makes up for it with its action-packed
combat and story-telling.
I guess that is where the focus was.
I think Valve implemented this game comfort-first.
One of the first things you might notice is that you don’t have a full-body in this
game, only two floating hands.
The more I played this game, the more I appreciate this implementation.
Let me explain.
Don’t get me wrong; a full-body looks and feels more realistic.
However, it also makes for some clunky collisions with objects as you bump against things around
you.
Especially when every object is physics-driven.
This happened in Boneworks, and it is the main reason I felt motion sick playing it.
This doesn’t happen in Alyx as there is no full-body, so your character won’t unintentionally
bounce around.
There are more comfort-first design choices.
For example, instead of a jump button, you will get a teleport button to shift to wherever
you need to go quickly.
This works for jumping over ledges, going through windows, etc.
This also works for ladders, but for the diehards, you can also climb it yourself.
You can choose from multiple movement styles: there’s continuous, shift teleport, and
blink teleport.
Continuous is the same as smooth locomotion, and here you can select for head or hand relative.
This all works well as I haven’t felt any discomfort at all.
I mostly play using continuous locomotion that uses my head for direction.
There are more comfort options, so I recommend checking it out to see what suits you best.
Further, in the menu, there’s also a save option.
The game allows you to save whenever you want.
You can also change the difficulty of the game from easy to extremely challenging.
And accessibility options are available as well, like choosing which hand is your preference
or even choosing to play with only one hand.
Streamers, please check the spectator options like camera smoothing as Valve has thought
about us too!
I’ve also tested the game on other VR headsets.
I’ve played on the Valve Index, Rift S, and HTC VIVE Pro.
They all work perfectly fine with the game.
Different controllers don’t matter for the gameplay.
Although, playing on the Valve Index controllers will feel cooler as you use the gloves.
This is why I mostly played with my Valve Index controllers.
So it took me about 13 hours to finish Half-Life: Alyx which has 11 chapters.
And I loved every hour of it!
There were many times that I’ve been horrified as I saw that I had to walk toward a dead
human hanging from the ceiling in an incredibly eerie scene…
Or just when the lights went out…
Still, I could appreciate how beautiful it all looked; it was like a movie at times.
I often gawk at the incredible views of the game.
The story is also absolutely intriguing to me, as I, for some reason, really enjoy post-apocalypse
stories.
Half-Life: Alyx is game where every moment is excellent, which makes even walking around
interesting to do, but if you are into alien shooting action like in the previous games,
then you won’t be lacking that.
I also think the VR implementation is fantastic.
Everything is designed in a way that makes the game comfortable without breaking immersion.
This is why I would recommend this game for any VR newcomers over Boneworks.
There isn’t a lot of bad things I can say about this game.
Most of the things I’ve mentioned were mostly nitpicks.
So I think Valve once again has set the bar high for future VR games.
I highly recommend it.
Half-Life: Alyx is now available on Steam for 53.99 US dollars or 50 euros.
Let me know in the comments what your impressions are of the game!
I would love to know.
And if you have any more questions about the game, you can also put them down below.
We are also live streaming the game tonight.
So if you can’t play the game or just have more questions then you can also join us there
tonight.
And thanks for watching once again and I hope to see you all in the next video.
A special thanks goes to our Right-Hand Patrons.
artArmin’s for his support!
Check out his Board Games VR on Steam.
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As always, VR on!