Valve has released their long-awaited VR title, Half-Life: Alyx, and to no one’s surprise, the game is outstanding!
The Half-Life series have been dormant for so long that its weird to see a new entry in the series emerge. It’s even weirder that its a VR title! However, Valve is known for pushing the boundaries when it comes to technology and storytelling and that follows suit in Half-Life: Alyx.
According to online reviews from some of the best video game websites, Alyx has a range of genres from horror to action adventure to even puzzling. The smooth and incredibly fluid VR motion controls are out of this world, and from just watching videos on the game, you already know there’s going to be some crazy John Wick-esque fighting sequences.
Down below are some of the most respectable gaming sites in the industry, check out the highlights for their reviews on Valve’s latest shooter title — Half-Life: Alyx:
Road to VR 100
Half-Life: Alyx is one of the most richly detailed and immersive VR games to date, and a stunning take on the iconic franchise for virtual reality; City 17 and the sci-fi conflict at its core are incredibly well-realized throughout. Though it’s slower than the run-and-gun pace of the originals, Alyx feels like a Half-Life game through and through as it successfully shifts between combat, exploration, puzzles, and even some notable horror. While the game doesn’t offer much in the way of mechanical innovation, and the roster of weapons and enemies left something to be desired, Valve has polished the game to a bright sheen, the result of which is an absolute must-play experience.
UploadVR 100
Alyx leaves you with the lingering suspicion that there is yet more ground to cover, that there’s far more this series and this developer can do with this new set of tools and that this is only the first part of that story. Though you’ll find yourself hungry for more, there’s something comforting in the knowledge that, for Valve, this is the dawn of a new era. Half-Life: Alyx makes good on its second chance, it is as essential a VR game as you’ll find in 2020, but perhaps the most exciting thing about it is the message is that the best is yet to come.
IGN 100
Half-Life: Alyx has set a new bar for VR in interactivity, detail, and level design, showing what can happen when a world-class developer goes all-in on the new frontier of technology.
DualShockers 100
As an experience built from the ground up for immersion and creating a fully-realized world, Half-Life: Alyx is truly a game-changer for VR.
Half Life: Alyx is a must-play game worthy of the series’ legacy. Despite some puzzles and encounters that feel like filler, the overall experience is strong. The stunning setpieces, beautiful world, and smart writing stand out no matter the medium, and mark a return to form for Valve. If you were waiting for a killer app before you made the investment into virtual reality, this is it.
GameSpot 90
Half-Life: Alyx proves that almost everything the franchise did best is elevated by VR: the environmental puzzles that require a keen eye, the threat of a headcrab jumping for your face, the cryptic storytelling. The series’ staples are as great as ever here, and in its most powerful moments, Half-Life: Alyx confidently shows you why it couldn’t have been done any other way.
Half-Life: Alyx reaches some astoundingly high heights while also managing to be both too ambitious and too conservative for its own good.
Half-Life:Alyx is now available on PC for VR devices. Do you plan on trying the game? Own a VR device? Let us know in the comments below!
