Valve have been proving time and time again, that they are at the forefront of innovating games. I will always remember playing Half Life 1, being the first fully 3D shooter game I played, that told a story through its gorgeous environments. Team Fortress (or Half Life Deathmatch) being the first shooter games I've ever played online. Half Life 2 revolutionizing the way shooter games tell stories yet again, bringing spectacle to it, interactive cutscenes, great character animations, believable game-physics and great set-pieces. (The episodes coming after the main game only continued to be as great - especially in terms of story-telling and ending on one of gamings greatest cliffhangers). Portal, revolutionizing first-person puzzle games and spawning tons of games aiming to copy it. Team Fortress 2 revolutionizing a very homogenic online-shooter market at that time, with character-based skills and different game-modes infused (later to be copied pretty amazingly by blizzard with overwatch and made into an even better game). I won't ever forget being on a LAN-Party and playing Left4Dead for the first time, revolutionizing the way cooperative gameplay was possible, may it be a shooter or any other genre. Portal 2 doubling down on the strengths of its predecessor and adding cooperative play to it. I'm not even going to count the hours I've sunk into Counter Strike, Dota and the likes.
Having waited for a sequel, prequel or ANY entry in the half life series for 13 years, the expectations were considerably high. And how does Valve answer that much anticipation? By creating another milestone in video-game history. A fully fledged AAA VR-Title that is truly a glimspe into the future of gaming and a testament to the masterclass in storytelling that happens in valve titles.
Half Life Alyx is the best VR-Title out there. It understands the strengths and weaknesses of current state VR and distills so so many memorable moments from the genius game development process. It's obvious that playing a shooter game in VR has other inclinations than sitting comfy in your chair and swinging your mouse elegantly on your giant-size deskpad. It's a much more physical experience, asking you to move around, consider your positioning a lot more in detail and even get on your knees to get in cover. But what really blew me away is the fact, that a VR-Experience makes so many elements of a shooter-game just SO much more meaningful. Reloading a gun takes time and movement. You have to reach for your ammuntion, have to open up the chamber and put the ammo inside one by one, you have to close it again and make it ready to shoot. Compare this with a simple press on button R. Getting in cover is similar - you have to find a spot that will suffice in height or width to really be able to find cover behind it. It's not a button press and your character just leans against a wall with his body being visible, but still invincible to incoming fire. You are low on health and need to use a syring but enemy fire is raining down on you or headcrabs are already mounting up to jump at your face? Good luck, because you have to get the syringe out, press a button and ram it into your body and wait for a couple of seconds for the fluid to be injected. All of this means, you don't have to fight hordes of enemies to feel the slightest tension. There are parts in this game, where you only have one enemy and it's as intense as it gets. I literally sweated while playing this game.
You have to find new ammo or syringes? Prepare to rummage cupboards, shelves and the likes in a world that has such a high level of detail, it will leave you in awe up until the very end. Everything reacts believably, you can write things on windows with a marker and it just works. If you grab a bottle of water and move it around, you see the fluid inside being rendered physically correct. You can even pick up a can and throw it at a pigeon to spook it, it just works. (i totally did that a couple of times :P) But more excitingly than that, to interact with certain devices you will have to hack them. And the mini-games you have to do for hacking are as well thought out as every other element of the game. Everything you do will require you to be physical, sometimes with force, sometimes with dexterity and sometimes with agility. It's a beautifully rendered world, with a sense of scale and a level of detail you just can't put into effect like that without using a VR-Headset. It's truly unbelievable and something I won't be able to convey with words. You just have to see it to believe and especially FEEL it.
Everything I've so far covered is absolutely great, but Half Life Alyx is also masterclass in level-design/mission-design and storytelling. The way tension is built up in here is a peak in the industry, rivaling and even surpassing great moments in movie-history. I somehow always ended up thinking about peak Spielberg, with the kitchen-scene in Jurassic Park, or later on the hiding-sequence in that abanonded house in War of the Worlds. Chapter 7 of Half Life Alyx is so well made, I can't even put in into words. Without wanting to spoiler, you will shit your pants so many times while playing this game. (also big big trigger warning for anyone with a variant of arachnophobia, this game doesn't mean well for you).
The voice acting is equally good, it compliments the great moments the game has to offer so well. As an example: the first time you enter a very dark area and barely see anything, Alyx starts talking about random things because she is scared. That's soooo ME, when I'm scared. The conversations you have with Russel throughout the game are sometimes funny and always a great insight into the world and lore of the game.
And they cap it all of with a mind-bending finale that is a massive fan-service in terms of story, but also a loud and clear SCREAM for what you can expect to experience with VR in the future.
I can't praise this experience and valve as game developers enough. Even though TLOU2 is probably my favorite game of all time, Alyx is definitely my game of the year 2020. Because something like this has no right to be out in 2020. With nothing coming even close or anything that might come close announced for the future.
VR is still niche, the pricepoint is just too high, the headsets are uncomfortable and the quality of those headsets is far from perfect. But what Alyx has showed me 2 years after I purchased this headset and played through a handful of good and a lot more mediocre and half-baked productions, is, that VR is the future of gaming.
Having waited for a sequel, prequel or ANY entry in the half life series for 13 years, the expectations were considerably high. And how does Valve answer that much anticipation? By creating another milestone in video-game history. A fully fledged AAA VR-Title that is truly a glimspe into the future of gaming and a testament to the masterclass in storytelling that happens in valve titles.
Half Life Alyx is the best VR-Title out there. It understands the strengths and weaknesses of current state VR and distills so so many memorable moments from the genius game development process. It's obvious that playing a shooter game in VR has other inclinations than sitting comfy in your chair and swinging your mouse elegantly on your giant-size deskpad. It's a much more physical experience, asking you to move around, consider your positioning a lot more in detail and even get on your knees to get in cover. But what really blew me away is the fact, that a VR-Experience makes so many elements of a shooter-game just SO much more meaningful. Reloading a gun takes time and movement. You have to reach for your ammuntion, have to open up the chamber and put the ammo inside one by one, you have to close it again and make it ready to shoot. Compare this with a simple press on button R. Getting in cover is similar - you have to find a spot that will suffice in height or width to really be able to find cover behind it. It's not a button press and your character just leans against a wall with his body being visible, but still invincible to incoming fire. You are low on health and need to use a syring but enemy fire is raining down on you or headcrabs are already mounting up to jump at your face? Good luck, because you have to get the syringe out, press a button and ram it into your body and wait for a couple of seconds for the fluid to be injected. All of this means, you don't have to fight hordes of enemies to feel the slightest tension. There are parts in this game, where you only have one enemy and it's as intense as it gets. I literally sweated while playing this game.
You have to find new ammo or syringes? Prepare to rummage cupboards, shelves and the likes in a world that has such a high level of detail, it will leave you in awe up until the very end. Everything reacts believably, you can write things on windows with a marker and it just works. If you grab a bottle of water and move it around, you see the fluid inside being rendered physically correct. You can even pick up a can and throw it at a pigeon to spook it, it just works. (i totally did that a couple of times :P) But more excitingly than that, to interact with certain devices you will have to hack them. And the mini-games you have to do for hacking are as well thought out as every other element of the game. Everything you do will require you to be physical, sometimes with force, sometimes with dexterity and sometimes with agility. It's a beautifully rendered world, with a sense of scale and a level of detail you just can't put into effect like that without using a VR-Headset. It's truly unbelievable and something I won't be able to convey with words. You just have to see it to believe and especially FEEL it.
Everything I've so far covered is absolutely great, but Half Life Alyx is also masterclass in level-design/mission-design and storytelling. The way tension is built up in here is a peak in the industry, rivaling and even surpassing great moments in movie-history. I somehow always ended up thinking about peak Spielberg, with the kitchen-scene in Jurassic Park, or later on the hiding-sequence in that abanonded house in War of the Worlds. Chapter 7 of Half Life Alyx is so well made, I can't even put in into words. Without wanting to spoiler, you will shit your pants so many times while playing this game. (also big big trigger warning for anyone with a variant of arachnophobia, this game doesn't mean well for you).
The voice acting is equally good, it compliments the great moments the game has to offer so well. As an example: the first time you enter a very dark area and barely see anything, Alyx starts talking about random things because she is scared. That's soooo ME, when I'm scared. The conversations you have with Russel throughout the game are sometimes funny and always a great insight into the world and lore of the game.
And they cap it all of with a mind-bending finale that is a massive fan-service in terms of story, but also a loud and clear SCREAM for what you can expect to experience with VR in the future.
I can't praise this experience and valve as game developers enough. Even though TLOU2 is probably my favorite game of all time, Alyx is definitely my game of the year 2020. Because something like this has no right to be out in 2020. With nothing coming even close or anything that might come close announced for the future.
VR is still niche, the pricepoint is just too high, the headsets are uncomfortable and the quality of those headsets is far from perfect. But what Alyx has showed me 2 years after I purchased this headset and played through a handful of good and a lot more mediocre and half-baked productions, is, that VR is the future of gaming.