A week past the Half Life Alyx release date, we can safely say that the game has lived up to wildest expectations.
In its first significant release of Half-Life since 2007, Valve Software had raised a lot of eyebrows. It is definitely not a continuation of Half-Life 3 and seeks to expand the game universe in another direction that is more compatible with VR.
Now the bad news – there is no Half Life Alyx PS4 version yet. According to Greg Coomer, the chief designer, the initial version would not be compatible with Sony PSVR, and that Valve may look into that possibility in the future.
Best VR Game Yet
On the whole, there has been a positive reception and Video Games Chronicle in its Half Life Alyx review called it a “killer app.”
Similar acclaim has been showered by Tom’s Hardware and VG24/7. A week after the release, Metacritic shows a score of 93 based on 42 expert reviews and user satisfaction of 9/10.
Although the complexities of Half Life Alyx gameplay is best tackled using Steam, it is also compatible with Oculus Quest and Rift S as well as the HTC Vive headsets.
The plot is set half a decade before Half-Life 2. The protagonist Gordon Freeman wakes from a two-decade long slumber to find that the earth has been colonized by the Combine. He and Alyx Vance, daughter of his colleague Eli, form the resistance.
The story is set in the now-familiar dystopian future of City 17 in Eastern Europe. The chunks of crumbling masonry and deserted streets with sepia tint sunlight are hyper-realistic.
The character of Alyx, the namesake of the episode, as a teenager born into chaos, is brilliantly crafted. She is an able fighter, and her charisma shows through in the character’s movements. Valve has obviously put in a lot of time into crafting what is the best VR game to date.
You Do Need A Capable PC For This One
Half Life Alyx requires a high spec gaming computer for Steam headsets. The minimum CPU needed is Core i5-7500 though we would strongly recommend i5-9400 for 60 FPS at 1080p. You also need 64bit Windows 10 and a GTX 1060 GPU.
If you are an AMD fanboy, then the Ryzen R5 1600 CPU, coupled with a Radeon RX 580, should do the trick. Of course, you need a massive amount of DDR4 RAM; at least 12 GB to be precise. But even with this horsepower, expect an enormous amount of choppiness at times and plenty of reboots. Hopefully, updates from Valve would ease the system requirements somewhat.
As far as the novelty factor, you have a gravity glove. It lets you pull objects from across the room as if by telekinesis. There are plenty of details that are impressive in VR, such as opening the door just a little and peering around the corner.
There was a peculiar clumsiness always in First Person Shooter games since keyboards or consoles do not precisely mimic a firearm. The use of hand controllers in a VR game makes an FPS seem perceptibly more realistic, and as you turn and run, you literally feel the bullets wheezing past.
