Once again, Valve has outdone themselves with Half-Life: Alyx. Just when we had given up hope of ever hearing from the game developers, Valve brings us what has been dubbed as the first killer app of VR. From the very minute you enter into the game universe of City 17 till the end of the game, you are sure to be engulfed in the aesthetics of your new reality. As you go on, you sure would find the goriness for which the Half-Life series was known. But that aside, what comes as most striking for me is the precision of the software. The game feels so realistic that I effortlessly spent the first few moments in the game doing nothing but looking around and fiddling with my new environment.

Half-Life: Alyx chronicles the life of Alyx and her father Dr. Eli Vance, shortly after the defeat of the Seven-Hour War and 5 years before Half-Life 2, written as a sequel to Half-Life and a prequel to Half-Life 2. Alyx is rescued from captivity by a fellow rebel, Russell, who informs her that her father who has also been captured would soon be taken for questioning and possible execution. Racing against time and Combine forces, Alyx’s first mission is to save her father, by intercepting the train carrying him. At this point, she’s informed by her father of a secret superweapon kept in the Vault in the Quarantine Zone. He then charges her to ensure the weapon is stolen from the Combine. 

This is where the game gets really interesting. The plot begins to unfold as Alyx gets to uncover the mystery behind the massive structure floating above City 17. Alyx then begins her journey through the dreary undergrounds of City 17, back into the quarantine zone. The game doesn’t lose the puzzles, exploration, and most particularly the gory survivor horror for which the Half-Life franchise is known, if anything, it gets gorier.

If you had fun playing the previous Half-life editions, you are about to be submerged in a world of fantasy where you would be merged to your game character. You become Alyx. With the games first-person action amplified by Virtual Reality, your first point of attraction would be your interaction with the surroundings of City 17. It is one thing to solve the physics puzzle from a click of the mouse, and another to use your hands to open doorways and carry objects up as you search for clues and answers to your puzzle. 

The thrill of looking about at your trail of destruction as you ransack your environment in search of clues makes solving a puzzle feel like a personal victory. In place of the Gravity Gun, Alyx is given the Gravity Gloves. The gloves pack a magnetic force, allowing you to pull objects, like keys, to yourself. I love the thrill of using it to steal a grenade, catch it mid-air and toss it back at the Combine alien soldiers. For a more explosive effect, you can attract a gas cylinder, throw it towards an enemy, and shoot it mid-air in a second!

Half-Life: Alyx isn’t exactly replete with a lot of hot action or helicopter chases like its predecessors before it. Unlike in the previous Half-Life series you may be used to, the VR means that the chases feel more real and you can feel the anxiety build up as the Combine soldiers close in on you. Creatures will scare you while others would just gross you out. Creatures such as the Head crabs will leap onto your face obstructing your view, giving you some goosebumps. 

On the other hand, the Gonarchs, with their massive dangling testicles, make me laugh so hard I almost forgot I was supposed to run away from them. The Nihilanth will totally gross you out with their slimy fetus-like body and the Barnacles with their irritating tongues that would leave slim all over your body. Alyx has to endure a lot of slime and gore throughout the game. While this does sometimes feel overly exaggerated, on the flip side, it feels good to see the same old’ monsters from the previous series metamorphose into something that gory. 

According to the developers, they have no intention of making a non-VR version, except of course if fans try to modify it to be played without VR. However, having played the VR version, I don’t see how a non-VR version would succeed considering that all the fun the VR version packs. The gameplay integrates all the fundamental evolutions of VR, including a VR room-scale. Provision is made in the game to accommodate motion sickness, and there are the analog VR controllers that can be used to control Alyx instead of manually walking about.

From start to finish, the game seeks to engage its player using the environment. We see how that the player is continuously and consciously made to interface with the surroundings of City 17. This interaction, however, may be the pitfall of the game. Some things felt unnecessary and maybe a little bogus. For instance, sometimes there are too many unnecessary objects obstructing you from what you are trying to go. Or sometimes I couldn’t seem to be able to wrap my head around why I was trying so hard to get into the Vault. Luckily, these setbacks are inconsequential.

In closing, after nearly 13 years of silence from the Half-Life crew, I can dare say that Half-Life: Alyx is an explosive way to make a comeback. Without losing any of the characteristics for which Half-Life is known, the game builds an identity for itself and also leaves the player’s anticipating the follow-up release. Without giving any spoilers, I would advise you to pay attention at the end of the game for the post-credit scene. Even if you are followed the half-life franchise right from their first release in 1998, familiarity would not be able to save you from the awe that would hit when you begin playing Alyx.