Half-life: Alyx, Valve’s surprising VR return to the range that the company has established has garnered a number of “Best in VR” awards from major companies. However, most critics have overlooked it for more general recognition, such as FPS of the Year or the most important Game of the Year, and in many cases it did not even make the nominations.
This is understandable to some extent. The December 2020 Steam Hardware Survey shows that Steam users with VR headsets still make up less than 2% of the total Steam user base. And while Alyx is optimized to work well on a number of different headsets, it requires a powerful computer, so it’s unclear how much of the 2% it can use. Why then give mainstream recognition to a game that only an extreme minority of players can enjoy?
Let’s start with the ideological reason. Half-life: Alyx was supposed to be a ‘killer app’ for an emerging platform, something that changes VR headsets Halo move the original Xbox. And it did. Sales of VR headsets have risen dramatically following the surprise announcement of Alyx in November 2019. Even the valve index with its price of $ 1000 for the complete system was sold out worldwide by January 2020, two months before Alyxsee release.
More than just a selling point for VR headsets, Half-life: Alyx was also supposed to be a transformative moment for the gaming industry. It was meant to show that it is possible to tell an engaging full-length story in VR with AAA fidelity, interactivity, polish and minimal discomfort. And it got it all right, too. Even at the lowest graphical settings, the scale, attention to detail and interactivity is jaw-dropping and free of motion sickness for the full 15-hour campaign.
Valve has also released modding tools for Alyx, which generates user – created parts that are easily accessible via Steam Workshop, including some really brilliant levels. It’s a democratization of VR like we’ve never seen before, enabling users to tell their own VR stories relatively easily. Granted, this is a democratization for the 2%, but it’s an important step forward in making VR content increasingly accessible.
But none of this is worth much Half-life: Alyx is only recognized for its features as a VR game. By not acknowledging it Alyx can go against tones with non-VR titles, undermines the industry Alyx‘s potential. It hinders the exact thing he hoped for Alyx would achieve – the move of VR games from VR space to the mainstream. Given the small installation base for VR, it is much easier to get rid of Alyx as ‘just another VR game’ than to something like The Last of Us Part II as ‘just another action-adventure game’.
Of course, ideological reasons can quickly turn to dogma. As Alyx is it not good as a game, what does it matter then how beautiful it looks and feels, or how important it is to the industry? Why consider it as mainstream recognition when it’s just a glorified technological demo?
Happy, Half-life: Alyx is an excellent game on its own. The story is heavily reloaded, but it’s fascinating, with a challenging and possibly ingenious (I still haven’t decided). Half life tradition. And the game compensates for its slow start with brilliant world-building, art direction, characters, and more than just a touch Portal 2see humor.
Alyx does make obvious concessions to VR that it, in terms of scope, puts it closer to Half-Life 2: Episode 1 or Half-life: opposing force as for other games in the series. The Gravity Gloves put the majority of Alyx’s environment within easy reach, but they do not have the punch of Gordon Freeman’s Gravity Gun. Fight encounters are limited to a handful of enemies at once and focused on cover. And the game enjoys variants of the add-on puzzles more than the physics-based rate we were used to Half-life 2. But none of this harms it. With the headphones on, the combat and reconnaissance feel complicated without being overwhelming, and carry Valve’s brand eye for balance and pace.
It does mean Half-life: Alyx would probably not translate well to a flat screen, but that’s exactly the point: it’s a VR-exclusive attempt to prove a concept to a general audience. As such, it deserves in the design, writing and spelling of it to compete with the rest of them. In its greater ambitions it is needs to compete with the rest of them. Without it, I’m not sure our VR will ever leave its niche.