Nearly three years after the announcement that sent the virtual community up in flames, Valve Software has almost completed their promise, sort of. Valve promised three full VR games at the time, and now we are finally going to get a look at their first attempt. Half-Life: Alyx is being brought to virtual reality, and the grand reveal is happening tomorrow. The initial announcement was made via Twitter, and you can check that out below.
The Half-Life series has been on the market for over 20 years now, a number that very few games live to see. This is the first Half-Life game that anyone has seen in over a decade, but it is still proof that this game and the original idea still live on, even in the most advanced gaming medium we have today. We don’t have any other information about what this game is going to be like inside of virtual reality right now, but we do know that there is going to be loads of information coming out tomorrow during the reveal, and you can check back with us for the full coverage.
The Half-Life series hadn’t seen a game since 2007 when the developers released Half-Life 2. If you never played this game, beware of some spoilers (if you haven’t played it yet, you are subject to these spoilers. You’ve had nearly 12 years to catch up). The second game of Half-Life leaves you on an incredibly large emotional cliff. Just as it seems like the citadel was going to be destroyed and everything would be lost, the game is frozen and you have a lengthy cut scene. This then leads to the game being over rather than you trying to stop the ensuing explosion. Odd finish, but it has left everyone on the edge of their seats for over a decade.
Although some people got off the edge of their seats and had to scoot back a bit, this game is still holding a large fan base. This first-person shooter has one of the best stories any FPS has ever seen, and the age of it is going to pull old and new fans to it. The best advantage of the timing of this game? Half-Life is going to be optimized and exclusive for virtual reality, and especially for the Valve Index. The Valve Index is the best virtual reality headset on the market today, and there is not a good argument to convince us that it isn’t.
With that being said, there is going to a lot of work to be done in this game if Valve is hoping to have success with this game as they had previous versions. Virtual reality is hard enough to develop for, and adding the fact it will be a first-person shooter is going to keep this challenge fresh each day in development. We have yet to see a first-person shooter in virtual reality that is something worth playing. Pistol Whip is a great game, but it isn’t as expansive as City 17 and it won’t be pulling you in like a AAA will be.
Half-Life: Alyx is also meant to pull people into VR, and without a strong locomotion system, there is not going to be a lot of people lining up to play this game. It will also be interesting to see if there is a PC version for this game. If not, they will be putting all of their marbles in VR, which right now, is questionable when it comes to an FPS.
