A new half-life is coming! The prequel with the subtitle Alyx becomes a VR game and is therefore not playable without the support of glasses such as the Valve Index, HTC Vive, the Oculus Rift or Windows Mixed Reality.
Now Valve has three new gameplay videos published, which show how Half-Life: Alyx benefits from the VR orientation: The three clips present game mechanics that are not necessarily new to the virtual reality genre, but would not be possible without a VR controller and headset.
more on the subject
Opinion: Half-Life Alyx makes 2020 the year VR grows
That wouldn't exist without VR
We play the protagonist Alyx Vance from a first-person perspective. We control your line of sight with a headset – i.e. with the movement of our head – while we aim with the VR controllers, aim at objects and / or opponents. Here are three things that wouldn't be possible if Half-Life: Alyx were a classic shooter:
1. Create paths or build coverings
It is particularly exciting that we seem to be able to grab and pick up just about any object in the area. At least that's what the three new gameplay videos for Half-Life: Alyx promise. In it we see how the player has to remove obstacles that block his way, for example.
- Take things into your own hands: Boards can be removed and removed from their brackets, barrels and boxes can be rolled or pushed out of the way. Of course, all this happens in the context of fairly linear levels – we will hardly be able to break out of the specified architecture in Half-Life: Alyx.
- Simply build the cover yourself: In gunfire with the extraterrestrial Combine, we can also use moving objects to our advantage: The third gameplay video shows, for example, how Alyx is entrenched behind a car, opens a door of the vehicle, pulls it close and thus as Uses cover.
2. Throwing (or being thrown) objects
However, in Half-Life: Alyx we can not only push objects out or get in the way: The three different gameplay videos show in several places that many objects can also be misused as projectiles.
- The environment becomes a weapon: If Alyx is pushed into the corner by head crab zombies and the magazine is empty, we can pick up an iron bar from the floor and throw it between our attacker's legs. Of course, it is even more efficient if we find a can of petrol, hurl it at our opponents and then blow it up with a targeted shot.
- Real body skill as an in-game skill: However, this trick is no stranger to our enemies: wildly waving zombies can also throw objects at us that hurt Alyx. If you are particularly attentive and skillful, this is not necessarily a problem: The third gameplay video shows, for example, that Alyx can grab grenades from the air that an opponent throws at you. Then your reflexes are most important.
3. "Gravity Gloves" instead of Gravity Gun
In Half-Life: Alyx – at least according to the current state of affairs – Gordon Freeman's iconic Gravity Gun will not play a role. Title heroine Alyx uses her own gadget: the so-called Gravity Gloves.
- The power is with us: We are not limited to just grabbing objects that are within our reach. Instead, like a Jedi Knight, we can use power to pull things that should be too far away.
- Two-handed play: The new gameplay videos for Half-Life: Alyx show that we are, for example can use our free hand to grab objects while holding, aiming and firing a firearm such as a pistol or shotgun with the other hand.
4. How looting is fun again
In her very personal half-life game, Alyx is of course also dependent on loot: ammunition, medipacks, weapon upgrades or key cards cannot be found on their own. And here Valve seems to have given its VR title a little more depth – as the new gameplay videos promise.
- Items are not just lying around: Objects are not waiting to be picked up by you. Just opening a closet or chest of drawers is not enough for the loot to automatically go to Alyx's inventory.
- Search the area with your own hands: Instead, you have to put some effort into finding and collecting the loot: cupboards or containers have to be searched by hand, the loot has to be picked up by hand and thus inserted. For example, buckets can be picked up and turned upside down, which means the content falls out and we can see what is valuable to us.
- Everything seems to be interactive: Just as interesting is the possibility of smashing wooden boxes with a pistol knob and thus finding ammunition or medipacks. Even toilet seats can be opened to see what is hidden inside. Mostly exactly what you'd expect there, but in the third gameplay video Alyx even comes across a medipack.
The whole gameplay in one piece
Until Half-Life: Alyx is released on Steam on March 23, 2020, you can watch the three new gameplay videos from the game from which we drew the clips for this article. Have fun!
4:15
Half-Life: Alyx gameplay video 1 – Zombies in the subway
3:53
Half-Life: Alyx gameplay video 2 – Xen infestation
2:24
Half-Life: Alyx Gameplay Video 3 – Combine Shootout
Table of Contents