Half-Life: Alyx Changed Everything (Spoiler free)
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
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While almost all of Valve's games were trend setters, Half-Life has always gone above and beyond, not just setting trends, but defining an entire generation of gaming with each release. On the wild frontier that is VR game design, it's fitting that Half-Life has once again written the rules of game design for years to come. The design lessons that this game teaches will be listened to for years, exactly as with previous Half-Life games.
Sorry for the various issues with the footage. Recording high quality VR footage can be a real hassle.
Expect a proper poetic analysis of Half-Life: Alyx within the week.
The music in this video is from the Half-Life 2 OST by Kelly Bailey
Finally a Half-Life: Alyx video without spoilers, props to you!
Really, nearly every video like this talks about half life Alyx without spoilers.
It’s actually harder to find one with spoiler than one without.
@@lifelesshawk5725 but it's also the chance of there being spoilers
You dumb fuck, there are a MILLIONS videos of the game without spoilers
fishy Nearly every video I’ve looked at that talks about the actual game says that it will be spoiler free.
I’ve tried looking for a spoiled review and it’s harder to find than a non spoiled review.
Alyx dies
i wanted to see some melee in this game but honestly i have no idea how they could have implemented it effectively
Yeah, thats one thing I was a bit disappointed with. I remember hearing in one of those IGN gameplay videos that you could pick up random objects in the environment to use as weapons. While you can throw a heavier object at someone to stun them, swinging melee objects doesn't do anything. I guess this is because the game was originally built for teleport movement, and melee combat is very joystick centric.
Boneworks did it perfectly tbh.
You could make multitool shock enemies
@@dinarichyperborean1455 not even close
@@Reenax66 Not even close to what? Meele weapons are literally more fun to use on Boneworks than firearms.
A nice touch about the insta-grab in Alyx is that your hand moves as well as the object, making it seem like you're snatching it out of the air to hide the trickery.
While playing Alyx, I found myself having actual memories from the game. Not “Alyx did that” no, I did that. Because, frankly, I did. Saints and Sinners, Skyrim, and Beatsaber made me know VR was the future, while Alyx convinced me that VR is the best way to experience games. Now, before they make Half Life 3 for VR, they need to make an affordable wireless version of the valve index, because holy shit that’d sell! There’s nothing less immersive being tangled in 50 ft of wires, and as someone with the Quest, I just want the quest but better.
I was surprised how good Half-Life was, even when I expected a great game. the final chapter of the game was one of my favorite levels of any game that I have played. The whole game convinced me that VR is the future, after a few years of doubt.
Half Life 3 won't be in VR, as it would alienate fans (although I can see a VR version of it happening after release, although I also doubt that would happen since the game would probably be designed around not using VR. Who knows).
@@peppermillers8361 I suspect that Valve would see making HF3 not in VR as a step backward. But the truth is only those who work at Valve know what their plan is.
@@lamsmiley1944 I guess, but they also said that it would alienate fans. I would personally like if they stick to making side games like Alyx VR, while the official HL3 will be none-VR.
@@peppermillers8361 I just want to know what the other 2 VR games they said they were making are.
The gravity gloves were so smooth in game that it was unbelievable, my first playthrough, the first time i took off my head set, and went to do something, i remember trying to gravity glove something towards me in REAL LIFE due to how natural it feels
I did the same thing… you are not alone
when i first played alyx, i felt really vulnerable without a weapon in the first chapter, so i picked up a shovel and carried it with me to russells lab lol
lol yeah i was sitting in bed after playing it thinking about how nice it would be if i could just gravity glove stuff up instead of having to get up and get it
This is a great summary. Valve are really just masters of innovation
mind control masters lmao
Half-Life Alyx will also probably kick off the VR Modding craze, the SDK is one of the most accessible ways to make VR mods/games.
I just picked my alyx again after a month and played some of the new levels. Holy fuck, I cannot wait.
Ah, the triumphant return of Source mods
I really hope some crazy lunatic with too much time on their hands remakes HL1 in HLA
My VR body is ready for VR TTT and prophunt!
@@VigiHunter we've had that for ages in Pavlov, lol.
Also the graphics are faaar faaar beyond any other vr game and runs the same
A friend of mine had a gaming laptop and bought HL:A, but seeing how it looked, it he didn't bother trying it, and preferred waiting for his new PC to arrive. One day I was at his place playing with his VR set and I was like "Dude let's try HL:A, just to see" and it ran in Ultra on his older laptop lol
@@Clyman974 yeah it doesn't need much, a 5 year old 1060 6gb is enough for 90fps experience...
@@Clyman974 all the laptop needs is semi-decent cooling tbh. My biggest problem I encountered was my laptop cpu overheating, but when i turned thermal throttling off I ran the game no problems.
@@niks660097 90fps not in most areas
@@mr.mysteriousyt6118 yeah but at low settings its possible, and even at low this game looks fabulous, i've completed it with gtx 970 and there are horrible stutters when VRAM is full, had to play at a very low resolution(for VR) still worth it..
More reasons to make me want to get my setup overhauled for VR, lol. Amazing video, and I’m glad to see valve still has their hands in the gaming industry. Half life has always been one of those special franchises to me, where even after one game might be dead and unspoken about in the mainstream, the DNA of the franchise continues to show itself all over the place. With any luck we’ll all be talking about Alyx in the same way we all talked about the first half life in the next decade.
3:22 you have committed the ultimate sin.
You have called a magazine a “clip.”
Please report to your nearest NRA for extermination.
But its a clip, probably leading back to the M1 having a folded piece of metal holding 5 rounds by their back ends holding the ejector groove.. pull the stock back and jam them into the gun. now you could then move the stock forward,, or more slickly, really quickly jab the top round down, it will let the stock slide back automatically, people tend to trim finger tips doing that. sooo practice with a pencil first. ;-)
@@bophoto clips just hold bullets before being loaded into a gun while a mag is more a piece of a gun. Any fully contained piece that holds rounds and gets mechanically attached to a gun is a mag, and in some cases mags are totally built into the gun, take the Mosin or Enfield for example. I would best describe a mag as an attachment put into the gun in order to increase the capacity of said gun while a clip is just something that hold the bullets until they are put into a gun, that may already include a magazine, which will likely be later discarded. Either way he did use clip incorrectly when referring to a mag
@@bophoto reading this hurst my soul xd
@@bophoto a clip would be like what you use to load the M1 Garand, a magazine is what you stick into the gun and it doesn't come out until you run out of ammo in the gun
i love this comment
Wait until they find a way to do this with Portal. It is going to be INSANE.
Flying through the air in VR and not moving irl would make you barf
INSANE BARF
@@arnowisp6244 Bro like only trained pilots could possibly handle that shit lol
@@Clone3A7 *laughs in VR sim racing*
@@jianng7795 go barf all day if you really want
I like how it's just an issue with the Cosmos (universally viewed as mediocre/ kinda bad relative to other modern headsets) and not inside out tracking in general. I know people that use rifles flawlessly with the Rift S.
lol yup at that point in the video I was thinking the same thing. The Oculus family had issues with that at Rift S/Quest launch but it was resolved pretty fast. This is defiantly a issue with a sub par HMD not the tracking style. Hopefully he has upgraded to the Elite or Index by now.
I've played a bunch of pavlov and have barely any issues with hold weapons with two hands. Every once in a while it glitches a bit when holding like a sniper rifle close to my head.
@@bazzz1396 For curiosity's sake, do you have a Cosmos or a Rift S?
My Quest 2 seems to be largely devoid of this flaw. At least I can't really see it versus an Index. I rarely, if ever, notice it glitch out the controllers. And this was before they (just now around nov 20) did a firmware update.
So I'm a huge Half Life fan. I even bought a vive just to play half life alyx. With supply of vr accessories being pretty slim after the announcement of hla I got my hands on a vr setup in january and with boneworks being the big thing around that time I thought, "why not buy boneworks to tide me over until Half Life releases?"'
And I've got to say that I had a lot of fun with boneworks, it worked really well with my tracking setup I didn't have any issues with motion sickness and I got really hyped for how good half life must be if an indie dev was able to make something like boneworks.
So then half life finally came out, the game I was waiting for for 5 years and I've got to say' I was a bit dissapointed. Things like weapon switching being done through a menu while in VR annoyed me a lot as well as the lack of guns.
In my mind, a central part of the Half Life experience was that you always had a choice in weaponry to approach your enemies with and build a strategy around. HLVR kind of fell flat in that department. I was also used to boneworks excellent melee system and balancing of two handed weapons and I was kind of annoyed that the only weapon type in HLVR were single handed guns.
But through your video you really made the design decisions Valve chose to make clear to me, as well as the compromises Boneworks made which I just happened to skirt around by buying a VR which boneworks was designed for. This really furthered my horizon, great Video.
Also a bit of devils advocate alyx's signature gun is a pistol and the only time we see her with a rifle shes in one position
i haven't played it myshelf so i'm not sure, but i thought you could hold weapons with 2 hands if you wanted to
Just found your channel. This is amazing. I've been trying to explain Alyx to people for so long. Now, all I have to do is send this video!
please make more videos talking about HL:A game design
I'm sure as more community content comes out, I'll have more excuses to 😉
This is a great video dude, you deserve a lot more subs
1:25 Barrel goes through pole
"We know what does and doesn't work in VR"
11:49 I've done testing and there is a benefit to using 2 hands: the smg's shot grouping in full auto is a ton more accurate. Apart from that, the pistol and shotgun don't get accuracy buffs with a second hand.
I agree with almost everything you said. There are a few things I would change about HL Alyx.
1.) Boneworks has far better 'storage' for your weapons. Being able to do over the shoulder and under the arm storage, with a belt for ammo in Alyx would be amazing. I really hate that it is tied to a button and weapon wheel. Dropping your weapons would also be really appreciated. If they don't want newer players to lose their guns then maybe they can reappear in inventory after 15 seconds or something.
2.) Something about continuous movement feels off in Alyx. I'm sure this is due to the last-minute implementation of it, but I'd like to see that further developed in the future.
3.) Melee obviosly, but that has been said 1000000 times.
I definitely agree with weapon storage from boneworks, even if it can be a bit finicky, but you gotta admit, wrist inventory is awesome too.
As for the movement, I noticed that too. I think a big part of it for me is that objects you toss don't maintain the momentum of your walking, so tossing something from one hand to the other feels incredibly unnatural. Hope that gets addressed in a patch, but I kinda doubt it will be for a while
@@Leadhead the cool thing about boneworks is that it had a wrist inventory and the real one, so you could choose
@@mangelo1901 I really like boneworks inventory system as well, but grabbing ammo or switching weapons while crouched behind cover was next to impossible. I always found myself standing up and getting shot for a moment just so that I could grab a new clip before crouching again to finish the reload.
Wait what, this video is amazing, I just realized you have less than 1k views, huh I expected it to have a lot more, I hope your channel grows
You bet HL raises the bar
while DOOM is eternal, Half Life is the king of the FPS still
Doom and Half-Life are like the Body and Spirit of FPS
DOOM is eternal, Halo might be infinite, but Half-Life innovated gaming.
True
Tbh doom eternal is overrated
@@ImNotFine44 Maybe there are people that value themselves more that the game deserves, but it is truly a a great game
The gravity gloves are so genius! I love it!
"as someone with a cosmos"
dude... how did you pick the only vr headset that's not compatible with alyx
PSVR users: _You overestimate my power!_
Yeah... literally the worst value proposition in VR by FAR
@@frontlinebeats7581 I got psvr as Christmas gift....
IT FUCKING SUCKS
@@Borizz183 you can use it on steam vr with iVRy or Trinus PSVR, don't know how well it works though...
I was so confused cause his hands just randomly lost tracking in different positions that they shouldn't have, but I guess this is the answer for my confusion.
Nice vid, you raised some Interesting points. You approached more from a VR-mechanics centric focus than I did in my own video but we latched onto a lot of the same points. My own approach was more player choice and whether the systems in Alyx offered players meaningful ability to express themselves.
Reloading and stances in combat was one, I didn't know that other VR games did that via button presses so that makes Alyx more significant in the way ita approached it. To me at least that was a very good point you raised. My major finding from combat was that it induced stress. With the way reloading is it brings out the pressure of combat and that was really new to me.
I think we both touched on the new control schema lending itself to new ways of manipulating the world. To me it highlighted potential but from watching your video it seems it might have also been about collating proven mechanics from other games.
Different perspectives but it seems that many of the same features stood out to both of us even if it was for different reasons.
I just wanted to mention this, the problem you have with controller tracking with holding 2 handed guns is a Cosmos problem not an inside out tracking. i have used some of the first wmr headsets and tracking is not perfect but still works (you get what you pay for since they are really cheap now). with the Quest with link and Rift S there is no problem for the most part you will not even know its inside out tracking unless you hold your hand behind you back for a while.
Thank you for saying that this video has no spoilers, I could finally watch something without feeling awful
I LOVE YOU FOR A NO SPOILERS VIDEO I ALMOST CRIED AND SCROLLED AWAY!!
0:46 "Half-Life is for setting a new standard"
>Latest Half-Life is VR
>My wallet "oh hell no I'm out of here"
@MASLIN BRUNER Standalone VR: Allow us to introduce ourselves
@@technic1285 I dunno much about standalone actually, what's the issue with it and HL:A?
@@technic1285 And even if Facebook did allow Valve games, no way the quest would be able to play anything remotely similar to HL:A
@@braninpodolski7862 virtual desktop works like a dream tho you still need a pc with atleast a 1660ti
@@pedasjma23 yeah, but he was talking about stand-alone (I think)
valve at this point is like the final boss of gaming...
like evey years, every company releases a new game, valve waited 15 years and released one game and everyone go insane
I just got my Index the other day and have gotten a good bit into Alyx. Lemme tell you, when some combine soldiers ambushed me and Russel told me to "Get down!" you bet your ass I squatted like a gopnik, started peaking over cover, checking my corners, reloading like John Fucking Wick. This shit is amazing.
What I think Valve really did was create the perfect entry point to VR. While that's nice, the lack of deeper gameplay mechanics really makes me heavily prefer something like boneworks instead.
I've said this before, and I'll say it again. Boneworks was incredibly impressive mechanically for VR, and I recommend that everyone play at least a couple hours of it.
However, it also proved that many of these mechanics simply aren't ready yet. Two-handed weapons and melee combat being the biggest examples I can think of. It works, and it's fun, but it's certainly not up to the standards that Valve would have accepted for Alyx.
Alyx is also intended to be the game you buy a VR headset to play, whereas Boneworks is the game that people very familiar with VR will buy. If Alyx had half as much depth as Boneworks, I fear it would never have been as well received as it was.
Thanks for making a Video without spoilers because I am currently still playing trough the game and don't want to be spoiled
Her voice is so uncanny to hear here. I hope she makes another take on alyx cause I love this game!!!
Great review, but you talk about manual reloading, crouching, and healing like they haven't been in play in VR for several years already. Maybe you mean for single player campaigns, because games like Onward and Pavlov have employed all of those mechanics since 2016 (early 2017 for Pavlov). They're great mechanics, but they certainly aren't new. It was immediately apparent in the "early days" of motion control that we should use some variant of manual usage for as many processes as possible.
Funny you listed insurgency sandstorm at 0:40 , because it started as a HL2 mod, progressed to a standalone source game, and is now (sandstorm) an EU4 game.
fun fact about half life alyx: when you get to the first grenade(what i like to call the grenade tutorial) you can pile grenades infinitely from the tutorial nades spawning after you pick them up, with this in mind you can find a bucket and bring nades with you throughout the game
11:30 I have those trackers and the issue only happened when I get my controllers so close to my headset that they are touching the headset.
Yeah this whole tracking part is why i got an original Vive despite its by now outdated HMD.
Tracking is king for shooting games, and even the 1.0 lighthouse system still works with mindblowing precision.
Also great video, a compilation of "industry standards" for VR game-design could be an interesting follow-up.
i spent the entire game smashing bottles. just flicking them over to me with the gravity gloves and chucking them at the ground. idk what kinda black magic valve is pulling but this ALWAYS feels good to do. not to mention the fact there's liquid in the bottles! LIKE HOW DID YOU DO THIS AND NOT MAKE MY PC MELT
I guess you could say it raised the Crowbar?
no
that outro was awesome
honestly I love the gravity gloves to hell. The second a gravity glove might be possible, I'm learning to make it. But sometimes it does feel at least a little unsatisfying to grab, it's one of my favorite mechanics in vr.
The way you talked about portal 2 being impressive ‘at the time’ made me feel so old lmao.
There is one critical aspect that has a legacy dating back to the original Doom not mentioned, and the technical explanation for the many tight corridors and vent crawls: binary space partition mapping. One of the biggest reasons why such "large scale" and dynamic environments, pointed at for Portal's wall-shifting, is that under typical 3D engines utilizing this technique, they're basically impossible. All the light maps are pre-calculated, so having a wall moving is actually technically mind-blowing. The LOADING cuts after turning a corner, or before an elevator door opens, hint at this legacy, but with maps creatively restricted to smaller sizes, the "loading time" becomes negligible.
6:39 HE IS CARRYING GNOME CHOMSPKI LES GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Like I've said. Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades will be my favorite VR game but Half-Life: Alyx was the best experience I've ever had in VR. Everything about it put me into the perspective of Alyx completely, it helps that the gunplay is incredibly fluid yet easy to understand and actually rivals H3VR
I mean the Gravity Gloves set the standard for VR grabbing, H3VR would implement, as would Cosmonious High.
Half-Life 2 and Alyx gave me an idea for a game that's probably already a thing - a linear story-based puzzler with an emphasis on physics that gives you the ability to change the rules but requires you to understand what changing certain rules mean for you to solve the many puzzles the game offers. This would be a GREAT experience in VR, which would give you spatial awareness and let you think more deeply about the solutions and how you want to execute them.
Regarding having all weapons being one handed: Also having the other hand free to lob grenades, heal or even grab ammo from across the map is a lot more fun than having to use your other hand just to steady the weapon. Plus you're free to use that hand for movement.
That's a good point. One of the biggest factors they faced in Alyx was that players would spend hours fiddling around with the environment, so allowing them to do it all the time was a genius move.
John Romero: Story on a game, is like a story on a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but is not that impotant.
Valve: Hold my crowbar
Ps: in reality, both approachs are correcr.
Actually John Carmack said that, not Romero.
If he didn't know english he wouldn't be able to write that.
@@lollolson yeah your the grammer nazi who thinks commenting about someone's English skills is important. You're the one who needs a life
im glad trolls can still fuck with peoples heads like this. almost had me thinking you were real for a second bud
"we know what works and what doesn't in VR"
*meanwhile me gravity-gloving ammo 3 times, sighing because it keeps getting caught on objects*
Valve is not capable of making a game without making a revolution in gaming
6:15 You can see a cursor/mouse there to the right... lol, but good video
I know I'm late, but my favourite part about Half Life Alyx is that it's proven to other game companies that VR can be profitable.
Nice video, although for me it could have done without what you said about the crouch buttons in VR Games.
First of all Half Life: Alyx has actually a crouch button on one of the stick clicks and second of all it's presence in the games that have it doesn't hurt anyone. While it being there massively increasing comfort and fun for people with bad knees and with disabilities.
For me playing games like Budget Cuts, actually gets painful sometimes just because they couldn't care to add a crouch option.
The only reason why I care to write this comment is because I really wouldn't like for there to be a stigma that crouch buttons are bad.
I love your presentation style man; keep it up and you're gonna be a big time youtuber soon, mark my words.
A few things about inside out tracking:
1. It is not a new thing, it's been around for quite a while now in WMR headsets, it's just only now it's become a big thing.
2. The 2-handed rifle problems he mentioned, I believe that's just a Cosmos thing, cause I use the Quest with Link and all tracking works flawlessly for just about everything inside the tracking range.
About that beer I owed ya
Very cool how much effort Valve put into this game to make even the most basic actions feel good. So good, in fact, that I've heard of people doing the force grab in real life.
"No Spoilers"
Spoils the fun of discovering the garden gnome.
As you i'm a lover of all things Half Life. I recently gave the FRee Half Life 1 port to VR (LamdaVR) a good run and it's pretty amazing, I'm using the Quest 1, and somehow it's head camera tracking is not a problem in the Port when it comes to dual wielding the weapons. It's a pure joy to use both hands/controllers with the guns and the iron sights or lazer tracking for increased aim and controll. i do remember it not being as comfortable in Alyx. However the weapon menu in the Half Life 1 port is a chore.
I’m stupid. Until now I avoided videos about Alyx like hell because I really don’t want to be spoiled. I started watching this one because of the "spoiler free" in the title, and then I realized that the one thing I really don’t want to be spoiled is the gameplay mechanics.
I want my mind to get blown by the design ideas as I discover the game. Like when I played Half Life back in the days, and then Portal (biggest mind blow ever).
I don’t blame you ( what I saw is not a big deal of a spoil ). Your video is legit spoiler free. It’s 11pm and my brain is slow. I just realized that they are many types of "spoilers". Felt stupid for a moment. Write this down so that I remember not to fall for this again. ;-)
I guess I’ll get back to this video when I’ll finish Half Life Alyx. But first, I need a VR headset. See you next year! XD
subbed dude. excellent video on everything id been feeling but hadnt had words or background for. good shit man
Raising the crowbar that is
Great vid!
How do I say this?
Your video essays are perfection.
I don't know how you do it. The editing, the scripts, the narratives.
PERFECT.
Thank you, and keep up the amazing work!!! :D
2 handed weapons can easily have a side grip to grab
If you haven't already, play Boneworks. It's more than enough proof why two-handed objects in VR just doesn't work.
Valve: Announces VR-exclusive prequel that nobody asked for instead of HL3
Also Valve: *RAISES THE FUCKING BAR*
you clearly havent tried vr
My legs weren't sore... I just sat down to play...
I remember when I got half life alyx I got use to the gravity gloves and I dropped something so I tried flicking my hands but then I realized I dont have gravity gloves.
I think that the reason the gravity gloves feel so natural is because most people have interacted with a yoyo before.
Ive never had a problem with using rifles in the rift S. It has like a prediction system to when your controllers tracking is lost or not completley in sight it can kinda predict what your doing.
Even with the Index, I always find using rifles to be super fiddly due to your hands being separate.
I bought a VR gunstock, but it's super wiggly and there's no cheek rest so it almost makes it worse.
I think what's needed for rifles in VR to work are controllers specifically designed with sturdy mounting points with release mechanisms and sensors.
Having to grab a rifle in my right hand, insert it into the gunstock, then insert my right hand into the gunstock, then grab the rifle in-game is a process that takes a lot of manual effort and seriously harms immersion.
Imagine if the controller could sense when it is inserted into the stock, and sends that to the game, which automatically puts the rifle in your hands. Instead of using magnets to secure it, it would physically lock itself in, and have a button on the controller that manually unlocks it. This would also serve as the signal for the game to render your character's hand as letting go of the rifle.
Only gripe I have with alyx (apart from the lack of melee) is that it isn't on the level of boneworks in terms of physics, while boneworks makes everyone sick until you adapt to stomach it, it undoubtedly presents the biggest immersion compared to other vr games. Having that or at least more of that in alyx with it's way better graphics would set the gold standard years ahead. It also compliments the gravity glove a lot better if the game just had better physics in general
You made me hyped for this game even more.
I would love to see you put up a playthrough of this game with commentary. SInce VR is still almost a niche market.
i'm really thinking about getting this game but i was wondering how the game handels controllers that don't have full finger tracking
Pretty well actully
I get that Alyx is a great game and all, but I feel like you're really leaving Boneworks out of the picture here, as you only directly mention it once. Boneworks is definitely the game that raised the bar in terms of VR game design, and it shows as Alyx borrows a lot of ideas from it. Oh, and your complaint about inside-out tracking being bad is literally only a problem with the Cosmos, my MR headset works perfectly, and I'm sure nearly every other user of MR could say the same. In fact, you mentioned that it was relatively new, when, in reality, it came out in 2015, not long after VR started becoming larger. Good video, but it kinda left me feeling like Boneworks wasn't getting any credit whatsoever.
Boneworks is great and all but I personally didn't like it too much. I understand it's made by a "small" development team but those small imperfections that you wouldn't notice in 2D games are magnified to a huge degree in VR. Boneworks is the only VR game that has made me motion sick. HL:A didn't make me motion sick and the guns felt so nice to use that I never even thought about using melee. It all comes down to style. Boneworks wants you to feel like a badass. HL:A wants you to feel like Alyx.
Also, Boneworks was sold as a tech demo. It can get credit for really showing that physics in a VR game can be hugely important but not much other than that. Imho, HL:A has a way better story, more memorable gameplay, better dialogue, better gunplay, no intrusive physics systems, and it just feels better to play.
i play Pavlov VR which has many weapons that need two hands with one behind the other, and have had no issues tracking with WMR. idk how cosmos managed to make their tracking so bad
Penelope your my hero and inspiration but did you just call boneworks a tech demo
Yes. Having something to do when stuck in cover is everything. It's why mass effect's gameplay was so tight. I can command my squad to do all sorts of things when I'm forced to take cover, among them, set up some very satisfying combo skills. It's also why call of duty type gameplay was very boring to me personally. Especially at higher difficulties, which usually just translated to waiting behind cover for health more often with nothing to do.
It's frankly disturbing they were able to get half life alyx even MADE. Fans have been asking for half life 3 or at least episode 3 of the episodic trilogy for YEARS! And not even a hint about it comes along. But then Alyx comes out of nowhere with all of this in VR a relatively NEW tech. To say i'm shocked would be an understatement. But it also makes me furious. If they can pump this out then why not half life 3. They've shown they've still got the talent. I know a lot of the old writers and stuff are gone but it's not like they've completely lost the plot. And steam will continue being a money printer for them EVEN MORE SO if the fabled Hl3 gets released. ............ I say all this and i'm not even a huge fan. I haven't been waiting as long as others have but it still pisses me off cause it's just like ... why? What's the hold up?
Idk if you still want the answer after 5 months, but know this: because of how Valve is structured, there's only really a few explanations.
- Valve had other things going on, that unfortunately went no where (check the Final Hours of Alyx, really good book about the years between HL2E2 and today)
-They simply... didn't feel like it.
Valve is not a normally structured company: there's no one "boss" that gives a plan on what to do. Everyone goes how they want, are free to start and stop projects as they go along, and it's more like "Hey! If anyone is interested, feel free to join my project!".
While that kind of freedom led to these wonderful games, services and hardware being made (and also not being bound by investors helped), it also means that projects can be born as fast as they die.
@@MatchTerm I mean I figured all that. It makes sense that the people who made steam would be founded on freely developing and dropping projects. But again it just loops back around. They know how badly people want hese games. And I understand they don't feel like making them or may not even have the proper ideas to make it happen in a way that will even come close to living up to the hype. But is it at least even being considered?
A vr headset is in my future....but probably not until its 4k.
the oculus quest 2 is (almost) 4k per eye
Hey Leadhead Do half life 2 mapping contest reviews with full playthroughs of each map
Years ago I told myself I would play every half life game if they made another one and once they announced it I got the half life games and played through them and felt like I made a mistake not playing as soon as possible once I get Alyx I know I’m gonna have a blast because I’ve played boneworks and it is a amazing so this game is without a doubt going to be outstanding
I still haven't had the opportunity to play Alyx yet due to the fact that my computer isn't powerful enough and I currently have no reason to upgrade, but ideally I'll get the chance some day
Valve is THE company who pushed the most for VR when *almost* nobody else believed in it, Alyx was a necessary standard to set for VR to really exit from the niche and push developers out from their comfort zones. Nobody could expect nothing less from them.
(I know there's also Oculus but Oculus was/is a VR company and nothing more, Valve instead could still live without it but decided not to and pushed the limits, it's just what they do)
I've had an Index on order for 6 weeks (8 expected, it's on schedule, no sweat) and I am super pumped about Half-Life Alyx, despite no interest in the series before.
I’m waiting for the portal one. Idk if it’s gonna happen, but I’m waiting for it.
Motion Sickness: The Video Game
In all honestly, I do want them to perhaps remake a view of the most iconic Portal 2 moments and simple chambers in VR just to see how it would work.
With everything else going on... I've forgotten vr even existed. It's legit been 1 1/2 years since I thought about it. This shit is so heavy. I can't believe I forgot about vr. it used to be something I was so interested in and now... its been off my radar for so long.
Oculus Quest uses inside-out tracking, and I have zero issues with weapons that put one controller in front of the other. Pavlov, Boneworks, Gun Club, pretty much all of them behave just fine for me.
yeah he uses the cosmos
I’m just thrilled that Alyx means 3 will eventually happen.
I can't flick my left wrist without pain
I'd love it if other games gave me the option to use HLA's movement/rotation button layout. That'd fix most of my problems with several games.
Boneworks set the technological bar
Alyx set the story bar
THEY’RE CALLED THE RUSSELLS!!
Let's not forget that Valve practically gave birth to VR, they had working room scale tracking headsets back in 2013, and some guys from Valve went out to help with Oculus before Facebook bought it. They must have been waiting for the platform to grow for almost a decade ..
So, as somebody who loves VR... Is it bad that I don't really like this game? I mean, don't get me wrong, it was fun, but not $60 "this is the best VR game made so far!" fun. I found a lot of things just broke my immersion, from weapons being taped to your hands to free locomotion being incredibly slow and wonky at points (I seriously thought I softlocked the game during the hotel, because walking off where I was supposed to go would kill me, when in reality you could survive the fall if you teleported instead). I didn't really think the gunplay was that interesting either, because of the whole "gun taped to hand" thing I found it was a lot of just pointing and shooting, with enemies standing there and taking it for the most part, with no recoil on either the gun or the enemy to "throw me off" in the moment. I also found that there were a lot more hallways than I would like, though I suppose when vertical movement is a rarity you find yourself missing those more open and free spaces more. The lack of melee was hugely disappointing, and I feel it was planned at one point too, with all the wrenches and axes and what have you lying around every few rooms. I guess you could kind of push enemies around with larger objects, but good luck trying to recreate that promotional scene of pushing a headcrab out the window with a chair. The only moment in the game that made me go "this is really awesome" was in the middle with Jeff (which I will not elaborate on to not spoil it for others), otherwise it didn't feel like anything too special to me.
This is more a critique of the gameplay, but I also wanted to add that the writing was pretty bleh for me. The Alyx Russell banter was a little endearing, but outside of a few lines nothing really made me laugh, which wouldn't be a problem if every line outside of cutscenes wasn't presented as a joke.
Am I saying its not worth playing? Of course not. It's still a Valve game. It's still pretty damn good. But as a long time lover of VR who's been enjoying games since the start of "the Vive era" (in quotes because that's not an actual term people use), I always feel a little miffed when people treat it like its the god tier messiah pinnacle of VR that's recreating the entire medium. I guess I should just be thankful that it's getting people to go out and buy headsets so the platform of VR as a whole continues thriving.
The lack of reaction on the enemy's part was kinda annoying, but not everyone is a John Wick, I have very unsteady hands so it was incredibly difficult to line up consistent shots on Combine even if they're hardly moving. The Headcrabs definitely should have had more reactions, but the Combine kinda needed to stay stock-still for the game to be accessible
I don't see how they could have done actual recoil on the guns without it feeling incredibly frustrating, the game would be borderline unplayable if the controllers provided any sort of feedback from a gunshot. Imagine if your mouse vibrated every time you shot someone in Half-Life 2.
The lack of melee and object-based fights was disappointing, especially considering how heavily HL2 relied upon that, but again, I fail to see how VR could have done it well. It's really hard to get a solid position for items in your hands, especially for objects that need two hands so designing combat around it may have proven too difficult for players unfamiliar with VR.
The writing of Alyx isn't really supposed to be anything spectacular imo, which is not a good defense but the fact that *something* is happening in the Half-Life universe was more than enough for me, and the visual story-telling more than made up for it. The writing did actually stun me multiple times, the part of the game where the Combine start saying Alyx's name was actually really heart-pounding for me, but more audible Combine chatter would have been nice, perhaps with the Overwatch voice being more common in the latter half of the game? The only part of the game where I would actually change the writing would be just before you enter the vault, I would just make it so Eli and Russel don't actually warn you before going in, it would have made the final reveal more impactful imo.
When I consider Alyx, and when I really consider Half-Life as a whole, I always consider what's actually being played at the time? The vast majority of people's experience with VR is probably small clips of Beat Saber on UA-cam or 30-minute free tech demos. In a medium filled with mediocrity, it rises above the rest. There are probably VR games with a better story, gameplay, graphics, or mechanics but once again, Valve has managed to combine all of them into one solid 'Come and invest!' package like they do for all their games.
I want gravity gloves in steamvr home so bad.
I really hope the next Half-Life game is already in development because I cannot wait for more! I also really hope other game developers start trying their hand at AAA VR games, even though I bet most of them will chicken out and just make a non-VR mode, which will mean neither mode will be as polished and fun as it could be. I’m very hopeful for games in the future tho. And whether the next game is called Half-Life 3 or not, I’ll be there on DAY 1 to play it!
rise your crowbar!
I'm surprised we haven't seen a video about Boneworks
to be honest the gameplay felt more like Half Life than Alyx did, but the atmosphere is completely different
considering the amount of references to Half Life, I'm convinced the gameplay is just a love letter to it
and it's just a good game in general