As incredible as this feels to write, Valve's new Half-Life game is available on Steam now. Billed as a flagship VR title for the company, Half-Life: Alyx takes place between the events of the original Half-Life and its sequel as Alyx Vance and her father Eli attempt to fight back against the Combine's brutal occupation of Earth.
We were promised that the game would offer the full Half-Life experience in virtual reality, with all the puzzles, exploration, and combat you'd expect from a title in this series. But as the first new Half-Life game in over a decade, could Alyx possibly ever live up to the hype? According to almost every review... yes, yes it very much can.
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The game, which was announced in November last year, has arrived to absolutely glowing reviews. The Verge explained that "after waiting more than a decade, it's the Half-Life story I didn't know I wanted". Elsewhere, Kotaku wrote that the game "reaches some astoundingly high heights," but warned that it might also be "both too ambitious and too conservative for its own good".
Engadget argued that Half-Life: Alyx is so much more than a simple retread of the earlier games, and "proves it's possible to make a lengthy, big-budget VR title". Ars Technica echoed this sentiment, claiming that it's "the greatest VR adventure game yet... and then some".
Warmly recommending the game, Polygon said that "Alyx is the best that VR, and Valve, have to offer". Road to VR agreed with this completely in a 10/10 review of the game, while Video Games Chronicle also awarded the game a full five-star writing, labelling Alyx as VR's "killer app".
In fact, the lowest score I can find right now is a still-incredible 80/100 from Venturebeat. In their review, they praised the game as an immersive technical achievement, but argued that it suffers from all the usual VR problems, and can be a touch mentally exhausting.
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Take a look at the rest of the review scores below:
- VG247 - 5/5
- Eurogamer - Recommended
- USgamer - 4.5/5
- IGN - 10/10
- PC Gamer - 92/100
- Venturebeat - 80/100
- Gamesradar - 4.5/5
- Gamespot - 9/10
- PCGamesN - 9/10
- Video Games Chronicle - 5/5
- PC World - 4.5/5
- Road to VR - 10/10
Overall, the consensus seems to be that virtually reality finally has a story-driven game that is absolutely essential, and manages to tick every box. What a shame there are quite a few of us that are still some way off being able to afford a headset and a PC that would run the game well enough, then.
Featured Image Credit: ValveTopics: Half-Life Alyx, Valve, Steam, PC