Your Thoughts On Half-Life Alyx?

Was it good or bad? What could be improved? Do you think the next HL game should be like it? Give me your thoughts guys.

Straight off the bat, I haven’t personally played it so take my thoughts with a large grain of salt.

That said, as for “Do you think the next HL game should be like it?” question, definitely not! VR is still too exclusive and feel a lot of HL fans are missing out just because of that fact alone (sales of ~500,000+ vs. ~10M+ for HL2 - I know it’s not really a fair comparison due to HL2 being 16 years old but am just saying I am sure a lot more than 5% of HL2 fans want to play Alyx)!

Apart from the VR, aspect the game looks pretty awesome from the play throughs I’ve watched :-) Not so sure about a voiced player character in a HL games but that might just be me :-P

I can't wait to eventually play it.

I'll say, knowing how it ends, it leaves a huge sour taste in my mouth.

I'll probably never play it because I can't be arsed to get a VR kit just to play one single game then put it on shelf for the rest of eternity. Good thing they decided to drop this VR thing for the next Half-Life though, see if it ever comes out before the year 2077

Haven't played it, watched a let's play, and it was great, it had to do a lot to change my mind as it came out at the time when Valve was complete mum about what they are even doing anymore. Then Final Hours came, and cleared things up.

I'm never going to play it though, it's an expense I cannot justify. I have no interest whatsoever in VR, and I'm not going to buy a set to play a game for once and then shelf it permanently. Too few gamers own one anyway, last time I checked barely 5% or something of gamers owned one, so there you have it.

It's not going to be the end of VR for Valve though, they said they're going to improve it and make more games, but it's a good decision to not turn mainline HL games into a VR exclusive franchise.

Even after the day VR isn't just for rich pricks anymore, I'll never be able to play it because I get motion sickness. Outside of watching Doom streams, I also find watching gameplay rather boring, so I'll never likely sit down and watch a Let's Play of it either. Unless Valve ever decided to make a non-VR version, which I doubt given it was designed specifically with VR in mind, I'm never going to be able to really engage with it and form an opinion other than, "It sure does look pretty cool."

4 hours ago, DooM Bear said:

Not so sure about a voiced player character in a HL games but that might just be me

It would be cheap to go silent protag route again seeing Alyx talks a lot during the events of hl2 games.

Ask me again in 5 to 10 years when I will hopefully be living in a house big enough to fit a VR rig.

3 hours ago, TheNoob_Gamer said:

It would be cheap to go silent protag route again seeing Alyx talks a lot during the events of hl2 games.

Small problem with that: Alyx is not a silent protagonist, she's a character that speaks and engages with the player in the games. That's pretty much why she speaks in her own game too, it would've been extremely awkward to have her silent there.

But I don't think I'll feel too comfortable hearing Gordon or Shephard speaking lol. Barney not so much, even though he was silent back in Blue Shift, but ok.

1 hour ago, BoxY said:

Ask me again in 5 to 10 years when I will hopefully be living in a house big enough to fit a VR rig.

This, except make it 20 to 30.

Never played it. I just hope I don't run into spoilers before getting the chance because I've heard the last parts of the game are incredible.

Probably the same as any Half Life game. I don't personally understand what makes this series so unforgettable. Maybe people like watching FMV more than I do.

I watched a "game movie" version of it on YouTube so I could get all the story. There were some interesting moments and the end was mind blowing stuff. The gameplay looked fun I suppose, assuming you have VR. I had heard someone is trying to mod it to run without VR like a traditional FPS.

And the fact that this game even got made gives me hope for Half Life 3. It means Valve isn't done with Half Life juuuuust yet.

I played through about a third of it- the inventory system and combat are both a little clunky, but the environments are incredibly immersive and the dialogue's frequently charming. The gravity-grabbity gloves actually work pretty well once you get the hang of them.

Not that anyone asked, but I probably had a bit more fun with Doom VFR, just because running up to a hell knight and SSG-blasting it in the face is actually awesome in VR.

2 hours ago, Nevander said:

I watched a "game movie" version of it on YouTube so I could get all the story. There were some interesting moments and the end was mind blowing stuff. The gameplay looked fun I suppose, assuming you have VR. I had heard someone is trying to mod it to run without VR like a traditional FPS.

 

And the fact that this game even got made gives me hope for Half Life 3. It means Valve isn't done with Half Life juuuuust yet.

I saw that someone turned HL Alyx into HL2 by implementing the latter's weapons and even Gordon's HEV arms.

It is probably THE definitive current VR game from my experience of having a go with it, the way you can interact in the environment mixed with Valve's methods of environmental story telling and detail/intractability makes it an absolutely immersive and brilliant experience, I'm pissed that I only got to play it for a bit at a friend's house and can't actually play it myself due to lack of space.

I haven't played it and don't think I will. VR is just too demanding of an investment in addition to requiring the space in a room to be able to use it properly. Give me a mouse and keyboard anyday over a VR headset. 

Not interested in playing it because I don't want to bother with VR. Apparently conventional screens aren't good enough anymore.

20 hours ago, AinuTheTaken said:

Probably the same as any Half Life game. I don't personally understand what makes this series so unforgettable. Maybe people like watching FMV more than I do.

How are they like FMV games?

I'd love to play it, but don't have a VR setup at the moment and probably won't get one for a bit. For me, the ergonomics aren't quite there yet.   But I love the technology, Beat Saber is one of my favourite gaming experiences of the past few year, ridiculously good fun.  And that's totally abstract, I can't imagine how immersive something like Alyx must be.

Anyway, it looks great from the little I've seen and I'm excited to see the gaming experience pushed forward. On the occasions I do play modern blockbuster games, I'm a bit disappointed by how stagnant things are in whichever genre I'm playing. The level of polish has gone up incomparably, but that's the only part that really feels new.  So I hope Alyx does well, makes some money and in its wake lures in some other developers and publishers to take a punt on the future.