I really wish VR was accessible to more people, because folks, I’m here to tell you that Half-Life: Alyx is very good.
I mean, of course it is. It’s a Half-Life game, and Alyx has all the delicious ingredients of those timeless classics: the fantastic atmosphere that emanates from its surroundings; the tense arms fights designed to almost always settle with you on the brink of death; the discrete moments of the characters that make their crazy science fiction narrative feel ingrained.
“But there is no lever! There is no gravity weapon!” I hear some of you nuts. “How can this secondary VR show be called Half-Life?” My friends, my cynical friends. Those were the crowning tools of the old games. Half-Life, as always, is trying to do new things.
Look around you right now. Find a small object in the distance and target it. Pull your wrist back, like there is a rope connecting your finger and the object, and imagine it flying directly at you. Open your hand and pretend to catch it. This is how Half-Life is used: Alyx’s new signature device, the Gloves of Gravity (also affectionately known as “The Russells”).
Now imagine that you are pulling shotgun shells from the ground, hitting them with your gun as soon as they land on your hand with a thud. You are taking an airborne grenade out of the air and then throwing it. You are maneuvering your arm through a crack in the wall and trying to push a medical injector, just out of your reach, into your hands. It’s an incredibly unique and satisfying series of actions that only have the impact it has due to motion-based manual controllers and the global VR experience. And it never goes out of style.
Half-Life: Alyx is based on these wonderful moments “only in virtual reality”. Physically using your hands to rummage through boxes and lockers for supplies. Crouched behind a pillar with enemies approaching, frantically trying to shove another magazine into your pistol. Desperately trying not to make a noise in a life and death situation and catching a glass bottle that falls at the last moment.
Gravity gloves aside, these ideas aren’t new if you’ve been up to date with VR space. But Half-Life: Alyx is by far the most complete version of these ideas, a bundle of some of the coolest things virtual reality has to offer, wrapped in Valve’s penchant for telling great stories and exquisite attention. to the details. At the very least, it’s an important milestone for VR games, and like any good milestone, you should stop and check it out the next time you get a chance to bring a VR headset to drive.
Also, is this the second game Valve released this year? What a wild time we live. Edmond Tran, Senior Editor
