It's been a long time coming, but Half-Life: Alyx is so good that it makes a virtual reality headset worth buying. Whether or not players are familiar with the previous games in the Half-Life franchise, Half-Life: Alyx not only provides a fantastic story filled with exploration, set-pieces, and emotional twists, but it also gives a blueprint for how other virtual reality titles should utilize the technology currently available.

If Half-Life: Alyx has any flaws, they stem from how inaccessible the game is to most players simply by virtue of it existing solely as a VR title. While cheaper options like the Oculus Quest do exist, most virtual reality machines are too expensive for most players to have already invested in, especially considering the small library of available titles when compared to video game consoles. The fact that playing Half-Life: Alyx requires both a high-end gaming PC and some sort of VR headset means not everyone will be able to enjoy it, and that's a shame, because Half-Life: Alyx is one of the best games in years.

Valve developers have gone on the record stating that they can't wait for someone to mod the virtual reality out of Half-Life: Alyx because they're so confident that, once such a thing has been done, players will realize why the game needed to be in VR all along. After playing the title, it's immediately apparent what they meant by this. Half-Life: Alyx is a slow game, except when it isn't, and much of a player's time can be spent simply walking slowly through rooms, hallways, and open outdoor areas, digging through the environment and searching for useful items. In virtual reality this is an incredibly entertaining act, especially when combined with one of the game's signature items: The Russels.


The Russels, also known as the gravity gloves, utilize a telekinesis-like mechanic to grab items and bring them toward the player with a flick of the wrist. It's incredibly intuitive and easy to get used to, and Valve's dedication to including as many physics items as possible means that players can spend literal hours just pulling things like boxes, bottles, trash, furniture, and explosive barrels into their grasp only to toss them away again. This isn't just something to help players get objects without having to move their body across a room (although it is incredibly helpful in those situations) but is also an important tool to help Alyx solve puzzles or quickly bring an object between her and her opponent to act as a shield.

There's something else virtual reality adds to the world of Half-Life: Alyx: it turns it into a horror game. Half-Life and Half-Life 2 were action-focused first-person shooters, with the scientist-turned-hero Gordon Freeman constantly adding more and more weapons to his arsenal and taking out wave after wave of aliens, Combine, and helicopters alike. Alyx, on the other hand, is a resistance fighter living inside City 17, and although her encounters aren't nearly as large-scale as Freeman's were (with some notable exceptions towards the end of the game) that doesn't mean they're any less intense.

Virtual reality adds a whole new level of stress, immersion, and urgency to any sort of engagement Alyx encounters, whether it's with one simple headcrab or a room full of Combine soldiers and lightning dogs (the game's stand-out new enemy) and, lacking any sort of physical armor, Alyx can be taken down with only a few shots even on the game's Normal difficulty settings. Thankfully, there are a number of items, weapons, and tricks players have at their disposal in order to survive the numerous enemies they will come across in their twelve-to-fifteen hour journey.


Unlike the large weapon selection wheel of most first-person games, Half-Life: Alyx only provides players with three different guns, but each of them can be modified in different ways to become better and more useful throughout the journey. Alyx's pistol can be fitted with a reflex sight to show enemy weak points, her shotgun can be upgraded to include a grenade-launching attachment, and her assault rifle can be modified to take three energy cell canisters instead of just one, increasing the amount of available ammo. Half-Life: Alyx's grenade-launching attachment is especially useful, as it also allows the player to store an extra grenade on their shotgun itself.

The ammunition distribution in Half-Life: Alyx feels perfectly balanced, with players very rarely running into situations where they are completely out of ammo and helpless unless they are especially bad shots. Environmental items, such as alien grenades and explosive barrels, are also littered around the stages rather liberally, offering players multiple options on how to approach combat encounters. When all else fails, it's even possible to trap enemies like headcrabs in items like boxes and large kitchen pots, and some great fun can be had by holding a large item in front of Alyx like a shield and simply batting smaller creatures out of the way.

This isn't a technique which will work on all all the enemies in the game however, and players can just as easily end up lying on the floor or crouched low behind a pillar trying to avoid getting shot by one of the game's larger, more heavily-armored soldiers, or find themselves accidentally running into a table when trying to not get swarmed by alien critters. A large play area is definitely recommended to allow for a full range of movement during Half-Life: Alyx's combat sections, and a willingness to crouch down behind cover to avoid enemy gunfire is a necessity.


If Half-Life: Alyx wasn't a VR game, it would be much shorter, but it also wouldn't have been designed in the manner that it was in the first place. Players are exhausted after a tense combat sequence, and allowing them the opportunity to slowly search through rooms, reload their weapons, and find ways to heal themselves is a perfect way to also allow them to catch their breath before the next combat engagement begins. In a normal game where players are holding a controller and aren't as physically exhausted by the action on screen, this isn't necessary. When a battle in Half-Life: Alyx finally ends and the player finds themselves lying on the the floor of their living room, their gun still trained on a detached headcrab in case it decides to start moving again, these respites are a much-needed intermission.

Valve has taken everything which has already been built before in virtual reality and refined it, taking cues from all kinds of different games which came before Half-Life: Alyx but somehow still remaining an intrinsically classic Half-Life experience. A special mention should be made of the game's dialog, mainly consisting of Alyx herself and Russel, a scientist who Alex remains in constant communication with throughout the game. Their relationship feels genuine, the conversations between them are enjoyable, and almost all of the intended comedic moments land perfectly, which is something most video games seem to have trouble with.

Although they're mainly known for maintaining the video game distribution network Steam these days, it's important to remember how instrumental Valve's games have been in moving the video game industry forward. With the recent release of Half-Life: Alyx, Valve's most impressive title yet, it's hard not to think that a new era for virtual reality has either just ended, or just begun. Either way, the game is a step forward for new, more immersive ways to engage with the interactive storytelling medium, and once a larger number of players get a chance to experience Half-Life: Alyx for themselves it's likely many, many more people will be inspired to go out and buy their own virtual reality headsets.

Half-Life: Alyx is available now on Steam VR.