It's finally here... After nearly 13 years we now finally have another instalment in the Half-Life franchise. Some thought this would never happen, some would laugh and others would think we were deluded that Valve would be ever go back. Most of us who are lucky enough to play this game would have grown up with the game, I was only a teenager when i got to to play HL2 and it was so fresh and so innovate that it left every other game in the dust. I am sure many of you are in the same boat, growing up with this series. While we won't see Mr Freeman any time soon, it's great that we finally getting some lore about the game and that Valve has finally returned to it's roots in bring us back tot the Half-Live universe... Hopefully it's not the last time. So wake up... wake up and smell that nausea of VR.
Delvoper: Valve
Publisher: Valve
Release date: March 23rd 2020
Platforms: PC only
Genre: Action, Adventure
Stean link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/546560/HalfLife_Alyx/
VR SupportInput: Tracked Motion Controllers
Play Area: Seated ,Standing and Room-Scale
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
- MINIMUM:
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600
- Memory: 12 GB RAM
- Graphics: GTX 1060 / RX 580 - 6GB VRAM
- Valve Index
- HTC Vive
- Oculus VR PC Headsets
- Windows Mixed Reality Headsets
Half-Life: Alyx is Valve's VR return to the Half-Life series. It's the story of an impossible fight against a vicious alien race known as the Combine, set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2.
Playing as Alyx Vance, you are humanity's only chance for survival. The Combine's control of the planet since the Black Mesa incident has only strengthened as they corral the remaining population in cities. Among them are some of Earth's greatest scientists: you and your father, Dr. Eli Vance.
As founders of a fledgling resistance, you've continued your clandestine scientific activity—performing critical research, and building invaluable tools for the few humans brave enough to defy the Combine.
Every day, you learn more about your enemy, and every day you work toward finding a weakness.
Valve's return to the Half-Life universe that started it all was built from the ground up for virtual reality. VR was built to enable the gameplay that sits at the heart of Half-Life.
Immerse yourself in deep environmental interactions, puzzle solving, world exploration, and visceral combat.
Lean to aim around a broken wall and under a Barnacle to make an impossible shot. Rummage through shelves to find a healing syringe and some shotgun shells. Manipulate tools to hack alien interfaces. Toss a bottle through a window to distract an enemy. Rip a Headcrab off your face and throw it out the window.
MetaCritic: 93
EDGE: 9/10
" Every Half-Life game has had its defining tool. Half-Life: Alyx has the Gravity Gloves. Here is what the Gloves actually do: they extend out the range of your arms in VR, enabling you to reach any item you can see. So the Gloves don't revolutionise interactivity in quite the way their forebears did — they're arguably more solution than invention. But that's all in service of the larger leap in interaction, as Alyx removes the keyboard-and-mouse-shaped barrier between you and Half-Life's world, and lets you get your hands dirty. The hole the Gravity Gun was patching over, we start to realise, was that tapping E to grab a crate and hold it in your hands never quite felt satisfying — so instead HL2 gave you a superpower, the ability to blast objects around as if they were weightless. Alyx goes the other way: you don't need to fling objects because, not only can you pick them up and hold them, you can sweep them aside dramatically or prod with one outstretched finger to see if it'll cause them to topple. These are the nuances of motion Alyx is interested in — letting you express yourself in the way you open a door or handle a rag-dolled body. Every action comes with added physicality. "
VRForums: 100
"You know perfectly well that Valve wasn't going to make a flagship VR title using its beloved Half-Life franchise and do a half-arsed job. A stunningly rich experience from start to finish, Half-Life: Alyx is one of the best VR titles available, a perfect showcase for what VR gaming is capable of. It doesn't exactly break new ground, instead providing familiar Half-Life gameplay all wrapped up in a highly polished VR gift bag. Let's just hope this is the start of things to come and Valve decides to make another Half-Life: Alyx."
VG237: 5/5
" We're in an unprecedented moment in time and we're all scared, we all have our worries – whether it's about family members, yourself, or losing your job. In these crazy times it's so hard to focus on anything, but a VR set and Alyx is like your own personal headcrab, blocking out the senses and letting you puppeteer someone through a series of events where you're the sole agent of change. Where you don't feel powerless. Alyx's main fault is its hardware barrier – I wish more people could afford to experience it. The last thing we need is more people locked off from each other. My neighbours might be quiet, but if we all open our windows at the same time, we'll hear the same birds singing their song. "
GameInformer: 9/10
" Half Life: Alyx is a must-play game worthy of the series' legacy. Despite some puzzles and encounters that feel like filler, the overall experience is strong. The stunning setpieces, beautiful world, and smart writing stand out no matter the medium, and mark a return to form for Valve. If you were waiting for a killer app before you made the investment into virtual reality, this is it. "
IGN: 10/10
" Back when VR first became a real thing and we all started spitballing which game worlds we'd most like to be fully immersed in, Half-Life topped my list (tied with BioShock). It took a few years, but Half-Life: Alyx has more than realized that potential. With it, Valve has set a new bar for VR in interactivity, detail, and level design, showing what can happen when a world-class developer goes all-in on the new frontier of technology. In a lot of ways, it feels like a game from the future, and one that the rest of VR gaming will likely take a good long while to match, much less surpass. "
PC Gamer: 92.100
" The ending is, frankly, wonderful, surprising, exciting, not to mention more than a bit puzzling when you really stop to think about it. I'm eager to see Half-Life fans react and dissect and discuss it, as I'm sure they will for months afterwards, and it makes all sorts of follow-ups to Half-Life: Alyx seem possible. I just fervently hope whatever that follow-up is, that Valve (please, please) doesn't make us wait another 13 years for it. "
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