Some hacking puzzles pop up when you go to unlock various Combine technology. Combat is a major part of the journey, but so is puzzle-solving.
Each chapter of the 15-hour campaign feels substantially different from the last, including one that relies heavily on an unkillable antagonist you have to work your way around, and some that are all but pitch black except for your wrist-mounted flashlight. It’s set up as a linear series of areas, starting with a normal City 17 neighborhood and then moving underground, through industrial areas like a distillery, high-tech Combine facilities, slimy alien nests, and more. The same otherworldly sound design that made the landscape of the gulag-like City 17 so memorable back in 2004 is in full effect here as well, and full-3D surround sound intensifies all of these recognizable pieces.Īside from the new perspective, Alyx feels very much like a traditional Half-Life game. That established, with great force, the immense scale of the mosquito-like alien tanks we first fought in Half-Life 2 – if you didn’t take them seriously as a threat before, it’s now impossible not to. Subtle as it is, it sets the stage for the best VR shooter I’ve ever played by a mile – and one of the best in any perspective.The next thing that stood out, jarring me out of gazing at my hands like a first-time stoner, was probably the gigantic, 30-foot Strider leg that smashed down directly in front of me as it moved past, going about its business. This grit also tells us something about this character, a scrappy survivor raised in the aftermath of the Seven-Hour War in which the alien Combine conquered Earth, and it quickly establishes that she isn’t as buttoned-down as that MIT-educated nerd Dr. Usually, virtual hands are either low-detail ghostly apparitions or gloved. It’s a simple thing, but it’s not often that you see that level of fine detail in a VR game. One of the first things that struck me when I started playing Half-Life: Alyx was the dirt under Alyx Vance’s fingernails.
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