Why Half-Life Alyx is in VR

Still today, its literally the best VR shooter-style game

hla treats you like a baby when played and I dont know how to feel about it, no sprinting, no ladders movenment, teleporting, its almost as if people cant handle playing a video game??

But then again why not just have the option to turn it off if people prefer a mouse and keyboard and not just make it exclusive? I don't think having to fork over nearly $300 for a VR headset would be considered innovative. I mean the dev team has ever right to do whatever they want with there game but seriously did half-life fans ever asked for the game to be VR exclusive? I mean the game is already amazing with the story and graphics but in the first game you were running and gunning down aliens and U.S. Marines while trying to save the Earth from slavery to a giant floating baby that shoots lasers from it's hands. In the second game they kept the same formula in terms of gameplay but made a new story centered around a new alien race that has overtaken Earth and left in charge the ex-CEO of Black Mesa and slowly catching glimpses of G-Man in your conquest. The gameplay for Half-Life: Alyx is a bore, I miss beating up Combine soldiers with a crowbar as Gordan Freeman. Is it too much to ask to have the option?

EDIT: I'm not condemning Half-Life: Alyx for what it is but consider the fact many other AAA games have followed in the footsteps of VR and still managed to have the capability of keeping a mouse and keyboard optional. To me this seems like a gimmick to get you to buy a VR headset. I just don't think it's fair for the consumer to spend even more money than necessary on just one game just to enjoy it.

Why is it in VR? Because of it wasn't, people, like me, who aren't "gamers" wouldn't normally play it in the traditional way we've played video games. It's immersive. I feel like I'm in a movie. That is incredible.

It’s funny, people being really mixed with the teleportation, yes the game was made for teleportation but it’s weird people hate the feature, plus many people will have their first time in vr when playing, and yeah I’mma have like 10 playthroughs by the end of August.

oh yeah i understand but like i wanna try it; ive played the vr version so many times now

I'm a little sick of reviews (well, one review in particular) saying "If you take away the VR it's not a good game."

...It's a control scheme. If you take away a control scheme it's not even a game anymore.

I'm excited (and kind of dread) for what Valve does next with VR. There is a possibility there will be future installments to their already established IPs in VR, and some of these IPs will work and others will not. For instance, I don't think Left 4 Dead will work in VR since the enemies have to be slower, and the L4D series is actually fairly fast-paced. It wouldn't make sense to put fans of the series in a world where, for some reason, the infected are now moving very slow like traditional George Romero zombies or something. IF they want a co-op horde shooter in VR then I think they could do another Alien Swarm game, just in first person this time.

HL:A is one of those VR titles that make you feel sorry for those "VR is a gimmick: types.

A year-ish later, the fact that the mouse and keyboard mod exists still pisses me off

I can officially say I've watched this video in VR

Two words and im sold.
FULL DIVE

If this happens between half life 1 and hl2 then how do they got better striders and less people. How did alyx even get the gloves while in half life 2, she doesn't have it

VR skeptics have no idea on what they're missing out with Alyx. No lie it's a MASTERPIECE. Game of the decade for me.

Because it can sister

I did not know about the movement for this version cause i had not looked into it too much but i do feel porting from place to place, mite kinda take a little bit of ermesion out, and if its easyer why go with this strange method. Simce im not running out and getting VR to play it. maybe sticking with D pad or other locomotion would have been better.

They should forget the teleporting and have feet controls for moving.

Well when VR will be cheap as potatoe then we will think why HL-A is better

I REALLY like the games, that give the impression, that whenever you look you will find something. GTA V is very much like that - they added a lot of insignificant details, that together are very significant.
its more like trying to not disappoint a player, whatever he is doing - giving the impression that EVERYTHING is like that.
i dont have money for VR to play HL:A, but when i eventually will, im sure i will spend A LOT of time looking at the stupid things, playing with the engine etc.

I dont like playing single player games with other watching, cuz they often are confused why i spend so much time doing stupid things in one place, instead of moving on to "more interesting" stuff

Something I think would be really cool is if we got remakes of HL1 and 2 but designed for VR. Not a direct port of the games, but changing level designs, AI, all that to fit a VR play style. It almost certainly won't come from Valve, but maybe a community mod or even game like Black Mesa would work well.

Valve is the best company ever.

We already have wireless vr, its called Oculus quest

I've gotta say, playing this on the original Vive definitely looks a lot better than the index dude to the oled panel making the dark areas more intense and immersive vs the greyed out hard to see things with the index

The first thing we think after we hear valve is half life and portal

i honestly agree that its time to work towards a VR dominant market, and the best way to kick it off is with the new half life games.

My argument Used to be that I was too poor to buy a vr headset
Now it’s that it don’t have enough space it definitely woundnt fit in my room and I don’t have a spare one I could set it up in. Assuming I live that long I’ll probably only buy vr when it’s how movies and TV shows imagined it it’s like a full body experience, I do want to try it before I die though.

Why not try making Half-Life 3 a Timed VR Exclusive? lelz

Thats cool n all but the actual sequel to hl2 ep 2 should be on PC. You should play Gordon. Gordon was always mobile, and you can't have all of hl3 in more narrow and closed environments, its just not half life.

i really miss the old day when vr games graphics was so simplistic like Job Simulator VR, i can't believe how VR games had improved in just 1 year

I prefer to use the teleport, because locomotion makes me incredibly ill

People complaining that they need $2000 to play VR is like a console player complaining that they need a $2000 PC to play games, no exceptions. There are plenty of affordable options and you don't need the most expensive option.

Yay, a game that could be really good, downgraded just so it works with VR.
VR surely is the future of gaming!

cuz gabe newell hates poor ppl

they are bringing more attention to vr and showing that you can make money with AAA vr games, I absolutely love the decision and I played the game and its amazing, however i really want half life 3 on pc so they can like shut down the legacy the way it started

interviewer: "So, tell us, mr GabeN... why is Alyx in VR?"
GabeN: "....well... you see..... F L E X ! we wanted to test F L E X ! new technologies"

Just dont do this for HL3!. (Valve produce their own line of VR sets)

i hate that game beacuse the fuckin used vr headset market in norway been boming 340 dollars for used oculus rift cv1 cuz they dont have any vr headset in norway in companys

Ah yes Gmod in VR

Why do I feel like I’m the only person who despises the fact that they put it on vr only the majority of people waiting for this game most likely don’t own one this was dumb

imagine all the shitty, unfinished VR titles that EA and crew are going to spew out once they figure out how good this game

You list possible reasons why people would be holding off buying a VR system, and the only reasons you come up with are "waiting for more games" and "waiting for the technology to get better". You need to add "accessibility" to that list because it's a really big one.

I don't just say "cost" because cost is only a part of accessibility. You need more than just a VR system and a good graphics card to play Half-Life: Alyx (and those things are indeed very expensive). You also need enough living space to set it up, because the game requires a full range of movement. Those with small living situations are shit out of luck, even if they could save up for the latest hardware. But even then, they still need to be sufficiently able-bodied. Plenty of people have injuries and physical disabilities that prevent them from utilizing the control system required for Half-Life: Alyx. Then there are limitations exclusive to headsets. Some people still get sick from it. I know there have been a lot of innovations in headset technology to try and combat this, but in the end, you're asking people to drop a thousand dollars on something that they may or may not even be able to use. These are not small things and they collectively alienate large swaths of gamers.

Locking such a widely anticipated game behind a medium with such low accessibility means that a lot of people simply cannot play it. If your financial situation, living situation, or health isn't just right, then you're shit out of luck and Valve doesn't care about you. We know that a mouse-and-keyboard version wouldn't be the same experience, but at least it would be better than nothing.

It's not complicated. Valve is in possession of an extremely popular software IP, but they are also a hardware company. They therefore have an incentive to lock their software behind proprietary hardware, ensuring that all those devoted fans will buy $1,000 worth of VR hardware just to play the next game. Everything else follows from that.

Valve stroke a balance in standard 2D games? I don't remember Valve ever making a 2D game

I freaking hate Valve for charging $1,000 to get the full Half Life Alyx experience on their VR headset. They should have kept the original formula, original keyboard and mouse controls with the new engine/graphics update and the ‘OPTION’ to play this game with VR. Not make it an overpriced immersive experience.

Nothing says inclusivity more than forcing your game on a 2000USD platform that a quarter of all people cant use comfortably without getting motion sickness. Truly an amazing choice.