I just finished the game... the story goes places! A great milestone in VR. I played it standing with continuous movement (used shift/dash during the most hefty scenes). Oculus Quest w/Link + Vive Deluxe Audio Strap (a FrankenQuest setup). I will save my next play-through for the Valve Index & stronger rig (should be here in the next month). The Quest had what felt like a miniscule lag to it that I tolerated rather quickly but I bet the physics interaction can feel even better. My cold summaries of the game:
Nitpicks:
- Gameplay loop can feel a bit samey on a couple of occasions, one does a lot of searching (self induced perhaps).
- The loading of different sections takes one out a bit as they can take upwards of 20-30 seconds (I'm using a 2015 SSD). If you die you have to reload the level data fully it seems.
- The gravity pull can be slightly tricky sometime in the heat of things as it has half-a-second object-activation.
- Game could have put in some transition animations like vaulting, climbing off a ladder and such. Continuous movement can feel a bit 'skatey'.
Pros:
+ Next-gen Half-Life looks great! Lots of details to check out all over. And it is really well optimized. Runs just fine in low-fidelity on my 2015 rig with art shining through.
+ Very clear gameplay and interaction. They have tested this to a high degree. They made gravity pull a central part of your gear and not just unexplained VR feature.
+ Despite my comments about some repetition the game is overall actually quite varied, mostly in atmosphere. There's horror, there's big shoot-outs, there's exotic alien stuff and there's the weird & epic...
+ They have taken the VR innovations over the recent years and tweaked and polished them. They are all gathered under the package that is Half-Life: Alyx. Great interface with 'wrist pockets', weapon-selector w/1:1 movement, when you drop down a height the camera goes down slowly etc.
+ The physicality of the world is top notch. I love that the hands are true physics objects. I love that the camera fades out the view w/muffled sounds if you clip your head through the wall. The creatures are fleshy with elastic skin when touched, match-stick boxes have what feels like real non-gamey gravity to them. I can be creative during combat and use a broom to punch away headcrabs, hammering out shards in a window...
+ Gunplay is a lot of fun with all the manual reloading and dexterity required. In the end I had all the moves in like feeding a new magazine into my pistol when there's one bullet left so I don't need to pull the slide etc.
+ High quality 3D audio and music.
+ On point humor throughout. Story leaves one very satisfied in the end.
Nitpicks:
- Gameplay loop can feel a bit samey on a couple of occasions, one does a lot of searching (self induced perhaps).
- The loading of different sections takes one out a bit as they can take upwards of 20-30 seconds (I'm using a 2015 SSD). If you die you have to reload the level data fully it seems.
- The gravity pull can be slightly tricky sometime in the heat of things as it has half-a-second object-activation.
- Game could have put in some transition animations like vaulting, climbing off a ladder and such. Continuous movement can feel a bit 'skatey'.
Pros:
+ Next-gen Half-Life looks great! Lots of details to check out all over. And it is really well optimized. Runs just fine in low-fidelity on my 2015 rig with art shining through.
+ Very clear gameplay and interaction. They have tested this to a high degree. They made gravity pull a central part of your gear and not just unexplained VR feature.
+ Despite my comments about some repetition the game is overall actually quite varied, mostly in atmosphere. There's horror, there's big shoot-outs, there's exotic alien stuff and there's the weird & epic...
+ They have taken the VR innovations over the recent years and tweaked and polished them. They are all gathered under the package that is Half-Life: Alyx. Great interface with 'wrist pockets', weapon-selector w/1:1 movement, when you drop down a height the camera goes down slowly etc.
+ The physicality of the world is top notch. I love that the hands are true physics objects. I love that the camera fades out the view w/muffled sounds if you clip your head through the wall. The creatures are fleshy with elastic skin when touched, match-stick boxes have what feels like real non-gamey gravity to them. I can be creative during combat and use a broom to punch away headcrabs, hammering out shards in a window...
+ Gunplay is a lot of fun with all the manual reloading and dexterity required. In the end I had all the moves in like feeding a new magazine into my pistol when there's one bullet left so I don't need to pull the slide etc.
+ High quality 3D audio and music.
+ On point humor throughout. Story leaves one very satisfied in the end.
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