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.

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.