This game was literally a Half Life game in VR.

It had no crazy tricks that half life hasn't done before. The gameplay/gunplay was slowed down. The scale was taken back. But it somehow still felt like a Half LIfe game through and through.

It never took you out of the experience and it never forced you to watch a cutscene.

You were just in it the entire time, and it always shook up it's own formula at the right time.

Half life pacing is amazing and few games have created a fun game that never takes you out of it.

Overall it still has some issues here and there, including the MASSIVE cost of entry. It is still nearly perfect in execution.

I exclusively borrowed a friend's VR headset on my minimum-VR spec computer to play this. I had to deal with terrible load times, often frame-rate stutters and de-syncing a bunch. Upon closing all other programs and getting my base stations right, it hit me. This game DOES leave a lot to be desired (melee combat, two handed weapons, more enemies) but it's so insane that it just works with what it provides. I've never done VR before so I can't attest for it compared to Boneworks or Pavlov, but interacting with the world in Alyx was such a treat. Almost every object oozes with a high level of techincal prowess, and every encounter feels notably distinct, making replays very fun for memorizing enemy locations and experiementing. Linear games rarely have me desiring to play a specific level just because I like how it flowed, but HL:A just made it easy and fun. Plus, the feeling the ending (and the post-credits ending sting) leaves in your body is something I think no game will ever re-create. I wasn't too sure Valve needed to make this game in VR, but they made me into a believer

not just a good VR game - this is Valve once again back at it kicking ass at making good games but it just happens to be in VR. It's not just a gimmick in this case, the game makes full use of its hardware and is one of the most immersive and cool games i've ever played. locations are distinct and memorable, the game is filled with great set pieces, the writing is obviously gonna be good, it's a game that feels like a true Half-Life title but just in VR. i upgraded my PC to get this and, unfortunately, got a cheap Rift S (fuck you facebook!) and i only regret not spending more money for an Index.

I can gush about Alyx all day. No hyperbole, it changed gaming for me. To think that this is what games can be in VR is absolutely wild. Every encounter, even with a single enemy, evokes reaction. It's a whole new world that completely melts down your understanding of what games can be. In time, people will look at it as the Mario 64 of VR.

Check out our book club style gaming podcast, Garbage Game Club on Half Life Alyx - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Hd5kjQcVskWBwSy9DQL0z?si=spolC3f5S0ySdjs_N9Ro6Q

Finally, the first VR game where I actually felt like I was playing a video game instead of a neat tech-demo. That being said, ‘Alyx’ still felt generally simplistic in its design and gameplay loop. Scavenging through cupboards and shooting zombies and soldiers was the name of the game, except now it’s you committing to these actions with your own hands. If this wasn’t the case then ‘Alyx’ would have been fine but VR absolutely enhanced it in every way. The mere act of grabbing a can of soup was on its own so amusing due to the several possibilities involving said can. You can throw it at an enemy to stun them or use it to distract them. This freeform way of dealing with situations made for an endlessly entertaining string of segments. This ranged from intense shooting skirmishes that had me ducking and weaving in real life to horrifically dark tunnels that were crawling with headcrabs. I always felt excited due to being completely in control of every situation. Now the only gameplay moments that did get tiring were the hacking mini-games. Disarming trip mines by moving a ball through small hoops was tense since if you failed you died abruptly but matching shapes with each other and moving a key through lasers never hooked me. To be honest, they were more interesting than most hacking mini-games from other titles but compared to the rest of the game they lacked any interesting concepts. Throwing that element to the side there’s only one other portion left to discuss; the story. If it weren’t for the ending this tofu block of a tale hadn’t done much of anything to hook me. Granted, at the time I was playing through this I had yet to play any of the other ‘Half-Life’ games. Though after I did play them all my perspective on most of ‘Alyx’s’ story never improved. The goal of the game is for Alyx to rescue her dad from the oppressive alien force known as the Carbine. Of course, there’s more that occurs towards the end but that was the basic outline and mission. So if this is your first ‘Half-Life’ experience then nothing will probably fucking matter since you don’t learn much of anything about Alyx’s father nor about Alyx herself. So motivation is fairly limited unless you play the previous games in the franchise. However, without spoiling it, the ending 1000% means Half-Life 3 is coming out because if it doesn’t I will swallow Valve headquarters whole. All in all, this was a great game and one that absolutely does not warrant buying a $1000 VR headset for so just freeload off your friend for their headset to play it. Bye-bye.

Definitely the best VR FPS I've played, though that might not be saying that much. It doesn't actually do much that's all that new for the VR space, but no VR game has executed those ideas better than this has. Still, the usual problems with VR like the slow walking speed can make the combat encounters feel more frustrating than fun. At the same time, the speed can work pretty well for the more horror-y moments.

The dialogue is fun, but the little story there is somehow manages to actually make me less interested in where a potential Half-Life 3 could go.

Saying Half Life: Alyx was made for virtual reality is a factual statement. Declaring that virtual reality was made for Half Life: Alyx is ambitious, yet it's exactly what I stand by.

What am I to really write when penning words alone feels hollow? I don't want to tell you how fun it is or how immersive it feels or the genuine tension you'll experience, the sweat that'll mount on your brow. Words don't work! I want to take you, you who are on the fence of whether Alyx is worth playing, you who believe VR to be a gimmick, you who couldn't possibly care less about a shooting game, and I want to slap a headset on you and push you forward and have you PLAY it! Because it is only when Combine forces are firing upon you and you scramble to find cover, shoving boxes aside and pulling out drawers in a desperate bid for ammunition that you can understand why Alyx exists. It is only as you step through the streets of City 17 just as well as you pass under and into the innerworkings beneath the city do you understand how impressive the scale of Alyx is. It is only as you inch forward, slowly--ever so slowly--through a building of shatterable glasses and corked wine bottles, accidentally bumping into a drawer and failing to catch the now smashed vodka--an alert to all who dwell there--that you understand how immersive Alyx is.

But I will defer to some concrete notions and let you put the rest of the pieces together. First and foremost, Alyx does wonderfully by the Half Life series--City 17 is more than a return to home. It is built upon, elaborated, expanded in ways that make sense and ways you never could've anticipated. It is lovely to see the Combine once again, and it is lovelier to put a bullet in them. The level design is superb, as all Valve games are, and there are several memorable locales that I fail to shake days, weeks after.

The biggest compliment I can give is how Valve solves the "VR problem" when it comes to grabbing objects that are simply too far away. In some games, you have no choice but to go up to it and pick it up yourself. In games like Boneworks or Blade & Sorcery, you instead can use a Star Wars-like "force pull" where you hold out your hand, press a button, and the object slowly comes into your hands. The issue with these solutions (and lack thereof) is that it never feels elegant nor natural--it feels, instead, like a growing pain of not being really in your world. Personally speaking, I'd always find myself purposefully avoiding using the aforementioned force pull because it just felt like cheating VR.

But what does Valve do?

They make that cheating a part of the gameplay. The gravity gloves become a real world item, a real world tool utilized by the player. When you see an object from a distance that you want, you may outstretch your arm until the object is in your sights, and then yank the item towards you. Flying in an arc, it hurtles in your direction to which you then must catch it. It's amazingly interactive, and it's a simple gameplay motion that never gets old. I applaud that.

There isn't really much else I can offer. If you do not have VR, bide your time. Alyx is not a game to be played with the sticks and stones you're used to. It's the future.

Probably one of the most "complete" vr experiences out there but I wasn't really gushing over it. It's okay, had it's moments but generally lacks replay value outside of custom maps. It's a very competently made game in the sense of visual/audio design but in Valve's pursuit of trying to make this game accessible for as many as possible, I think it doesn't really make full use of what you can do with the medium. If you played Boneworks first, you'll know exactly what Im talking about.

Good game, heavily overrated. It's just another half life game except vr. It's pretty much exactly how you'd expect it to be except you never get that whole typical HL arsenal, you get a pistol, shotgun, smg, and grenades you can store in your pockets. It's a worthwhile game to experience but don't expect it to be the best game ever.

AAA vr is a once in a while kind of thing so I can see why this game gets the praise it does.