Review of Half-Life:Alyx

Half-Life: Alyx is, by all means, the best VR game available right now. A technological spectacle, Half-Life: Alyx is the third game in the Half-Life series but not essentially Half-Life 3. Half-Life Alyx takes us through an immersive experience and this is really beautifully crafted. Here are some of the details which are very important before embarking on the journey of playing this marvelous game:

Developer: Valve

Publisher: Valve

Release Date: 23rd March 2019

Genre: Action, adventure

Minimum requirements

OS: Windows 10

Processor: Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600

Memory: 12 GB RAM

Graphics: GTX 1060 / RX 580 – 6GB VRAM

Playing as Alyx Vance, you have to combat a deadly and vicious race of aliens known as the Combine, set between the events of Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2. Working your way through City 11, you embark on a mission to save your father Eli and you kill the boredom because Russell is there with whom you can indulge in a conversation with the help of a headset. In a masterstroke of casting, he’s played by Rhys Darby from What We Do In The Shadows (“werewolves not swear wolves”) and the banter is warm, funny, and never irritating.

Despite the urban settings all throughout the game, you will be fighting the soldiers and headcrabs in all other types of settings.

Valve’s biggest and boldest project yet Half Life:Alyx

Incidentally it is Valve’s biggest project. They have worked with the most number of people behind this game to make it a grand success.

In an interview with Valve designer Greg Coomer, he reveals a lot of things.

“Half-Life: Alyx is the largest game we’ve had yet. About a third of the people on the project have worked on previous Half-Life games, some all the way back to the first Half-Life.” said Coomer.

VR wizardry

Half-Life:Alyx delves deep into the magical world of VR and takes us through an amazing experience. It has the feature of gravity gloves which are both your hands and user interface. Aiming your hand towards a certain object, you can pull objects towards yourself by twisting your wrists. Gunfights are the highlight of this game.

Sometimes you have to duck and take cover as if it was some real battlefield. Such is the amazing experience of VR in this game.

Reminiscing the Half-Life World

Since it has been 13 years since the last game in the Half-Life series was released, the graphics and animations have increased manifolds. Listening to that iconic Half-Life healing effect or witnessing small things like a headcrab can be very exciting and can be reminiscent of past memories for you.

Weapons

Weapons play a crucial role in any action-packed game. While there are limited weapons in Half-Life Alyx, there are a lot of modifications you can make to your weapons. From adding a grenade launched in-to your shotgun to adding a laser sight to your pistol, there are a lot of fancy modifications which help the users a lot.

For all these modifications you need resins. And the resins are scattered all over the game and we have to look for them everywhere to get hold of them. Thus includes opening drawers, turning over buckets and looking into the rafters. This is a good thing as it helps us scan and skim through the entire room.

Puzzling experience

In a lot of scenes, you have to use your brains as puzzles are an integral part of the game. There is a monster in one scene which can’t seen but can hear. The monster instantly kills you when it comes in contact with you. To combat him, you can throw stuff here and there. Plus you can cover your mouth in the game just by putting your hand across your face in real life.

Overall this is a really immersive and impressive game and ticks all the boxes in being one of the best VR games available in the market right now. This game is honestly a tribute and a love-letter to the Half-Life series and with its focus on survival horror, Half-Life Alyx makes it way through as one of the most interesting games in recent times. In spite of being a big player in the technological front, this game doesn’t have the charm of Valve’s other games such as Portal 2 or Half-Life 2. But it’s definitely one of the most impressive games in the market at the present and sure to be a trend setter.

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