Half-Life: Alyx is the first VR game that feels like a VR game (for me anyway) and not just a tech demo and its great. It is honestly my favourite Half-Life game!
It has that lovely Valve level design philosophy of just always keeping you learning no matter what and everything you do learn feels so new and different.
You can really tell through so much of the game that the level designers had so much fun just playing with this new way of input in the Half-Life universe, playing with light and dark and inventory management and horror and Operation-style precision puzzles. But it doesn't miss on the FPS elements either, you really really feel the tension with limited inventory and very sparse healing stations making combat a wonderfully stressful experience. Reloading the gun is unique for each and all guns can be upgraded with newer abilities as you progress which would be awfully generic in any normal game but the simple challenge of learning the new inputs as muscle memory to reload and accommodate these abilities is so fun in itself.
The horror segments of the game are incredible, and some of my favourites. Through having to really work to move doors, throw things, pick up things and more, you are constantly making noise that could alert enemies, so you have to be so so careful what you do and its perfect.
Picking things up is so great, "it really makes you feel like Spider-Man"! But for real though fwipping things over to you is a great time and is so intuitive I find myself using this ability in dreams because its that ingrained
The characters, as always, feel so real, you always feel observed and reacted to as a player with all voice lines, including Alyx yourself, feeling so natural and coupled with the animation it feels like you've stepped into a Pixar film.
In conclusion, it is a wonderful and prime example of how intuitive, responsive and full of character and immersion triple A VR games can be and the plot twist? Well you'll just have to play it to see but it is major.
It has that lovely Valve level design philosophy of just always keeping you learning no matter what and everything you do learn feels so new and different.
You can really tell through so much of the game that the level designers had so much fun just playing with this new way of input in the Half-Life universe, playing with light and dark and inventory management and horror and Operation-style precision puzzles. But it doesn't miss on the FPS elements either, you really really feel the tension with limited inventory and very sparse healing stations making combat a wonderfully stressful experience. Reloading the gun is unique for each and all guns can be upgraded with newer abilities as you progress which would be awfully generic in any normal game but the simple challenge of learning the new inputs as muscle memory to reload and accommodate these abilities is so fun in itself.
The horror segments of the game are incredible, and some of my favourites. Through having to really work to move doors, throw things, pick up things and more, you are constantly making noise that could alert enemies, so you have to be so so careful what you do and its perfect.
Picking things up is so great, "it really makes you feel like Spider-Man"! But for real though fwipping things over to you is a great time and is so intuitive I find myself using this ability in dreams because its that ingrained
The characters, as always, feel so real, you always feel observed and reacted to as a player with all voice lines, including Alyx yourself, feeling so natural and coupled with the animation it feels like you've stepped into a Pixar film.
In conclusion, it is a wonderful and prime example of how intuitive, responsive and full of character and immersion triple A VR games can be and the plot twist? Well you'll just have to play it to see but it is major.