I think this is a great foundation for Half Life in VR but there are definitely improvements they can make from here. It probably doesn't help that they started designing that foundation while VR was still pretty new. I think things will be pretty different the next time around.
Yeah that's something I kind of glossed over, this began production basically right after the Vive and The Lab were released, definitely early days of experimenting with tracked controllers in VR.
But hey one of Valve's initial goals with SteamVR was to see what indies could help create and innovate on in the medium and I think the fact we've seen some things that go above and beyond Alyx's mechanics is testament that their gambit for crowd sourced innovation in VR has paid off. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see some of these ideas incorporated into their future games.
I am judging the game design from an objective perspective.
I know it's a different game at a different pace, and I'm by no means comparing the movement to HL2 in a direct manner. I am however, criticizing how unresponsive it feels.
Even if the game is ultra slow paced, you can't deny that both jumping up and dropping off feels extremely unresponsive. It works, but in a wonky way.
I'm also not comparing the combat DIRECTLY to HL2, but I'm just saying that I can see a lot of punches being pulled for the sake of VR.
The headcrabs sometimes just stares at you, for seconds, and when they finally leap towards you they miss and flip over like a stupid turtle.
There's a lot of wonder, but (without playing the game) I just don't see how it's a game that I would want to play over and over again. Everything feels either slow or loose, like you get this awkward moment when facing headcrabs like ''are we good or am I in danger...?''
You don't need to play the game to criticize all the multi-tool mini games.
You don't need to play the game to criticize how there's only three guns.
You don't need to play the game to criticize how all the weapons are being forced down to pistol size to accommodate VR gameplay.
With Alyx it works but It makes me worried about the weapons in future Half-Life games. Will the shotgun in HL3 be the classic pump action SPAS, or just another pistol sized shotgun? Will all the weapons be present or will they cut down on the variety?
Half-Life Alyx is no doubt a top tier VR game, but even without playing it I can already see tons of gameplay compromises.
There's absolutely a difference with the feel and pace of combat when you're in VR vs just watching someone stream it, Alyx's combat with the Combine is tense even if their numbers or range of maneuvers are pared back compared to the old titles. The first time just a single heavy gunner Combine came plodding into my view was intense and scary. The scale of the npc was imposing, this feels completely different to the umpteenth practically cannon fodder Combines you mow through in 1 and 2. Just one feels lethal enough and I believe that plays to Alyx's strengths, this is clearly going for something completely different in feel and tone and well it makes sense they'd design it differently to accommodate for VR's strengths.
I do agree that teleporting as the sole retreat or "run" feels a bit awkward. I think they were too hesitant to implement a smooth locomotion run out of fear of making others sick.
I hope some classic Half-Life mods get the VR treatment, like "They Hunger" and "Poke646". I'd love to see those two in particular re-imagined in VR.
Heh I was just thinking about They Hunger earlier today while playing Black Mesa. Loved that to bits, it was impressive how well done and fully fleshed out that campaign was for a mod/total conversion back in the day. And legitimately scary too. Would love to see a modern update of it in VR.