Half-Life: Alyx Reviews

Half-Life: Alyx is ranked in the 100th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Dan Stapleton
Top Critic
10 / 10.0
Mar 24, 2020

Half-Life: Alyx has set a new bar for VR in interactivity, detail, and level design, showing what can happen when a world-class developer goes all-in on the new frontier of technology.

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92 / 100
Mar 23, 2020

With old friends, new enemies, and an exciting story, revisiting City 17 in VR is a thrill in Half-Life: Alyx.

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Recommended
Mar 23, 2020

City 17 provides the setting for a VR adventure filled with brilliant detailing.

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Mar 27, 2020

Alyx doesn't propel VR to unseen heights, nor does it overcome the limitations of the platform. What it does is provide an exceptional name-brand experience that is extraordinarily polished and just about the best example of what VR has to offer right now. Every puzzle is satisfying, every gunfight is a thrill. The environments are beautifully horrifying and the interactables are absurdly detailed. It has no lulls, nothing ever gets played out or boring. It has a ton of fan service and builds some really exciting hype for the future of the series. However, I wish that the game built its core mechanics over time the way Portal 2 so famously did. Alyx is much more akin to a rollercoaster ride than a hill to climb. If you can afford the price of admission though, it's one wild ride.

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10 / 10.0
Apr 8, 2020
Half-Life: Alyx - Easy Allies Review video thumbnail
Metro GameCentral
Top Critic
8 / 10
Mar 24, 2020

An incredible technical achievement but one that is surprisingly short of genuinely new ideas, and often struggles to get the balance right between VR showpiece and satisfying gameplay experience.

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Mar 23, 2020

Not just a Half-Life game, but an invitation to live in its world.

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9 / 10.0
Mar 23, 2020

The dense campaign never lets up with surprising reveals, new enemies, and witty dialogue to carry you through the exciting journey

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9 / 10
Mar 23, 2020

Half-Life: Alyx is a tremendous VR experience that captures and elevates what makes the series special.

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Polygon
Top Critic
Unscored
Mar 23, 2020

Valve has succeeded at just about every goal it must have had for this project. The only thing left is whether hardcore fans will be willing to buy, and use, a virtual reality headset in order to learn what happens next in the world of Half-Life. The good news is that those who do will experience what is likely the best VR game released to date.

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Unscored
Mar 23, 2020

Half-Life: Alyx reaches some astoundingly high heights while also managing to be both too ambitious and too conservative for its own good.

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USgamer
Top Critic
Mar 23, 2020

Half-Life: Alyx is billed as a VR return to the series, and that's exactly what it delivers. It does what Half-Life has historically done well, and without the clouding of nostalgia or unhelpful notions of what constitutes "revolutionary" design, it ranks alongside Half-Life 2.

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9 / 10.0
Mar 23, 2020

Half-Life: Alyx is an accomplishment no matter which way you spin it.

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9.5 / 10.0
Dec 21, 2020

Half-Life Alyx is proof that Valve is still at its best creatively. This emblematic franchise has been brought to virtual reality; in Alyx we enjoy an immersion never seen before, with comfortable and intuitive mechanics as well as excellent visuals and atmosphere that accompany this interesting adventure within the iconic saga.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

95 / 100
Apr 15, 2020

Half Life Alyx is the game that VR needed. The story is good, technically it's delicious piece of cake and the gameplay is Half Life at its best. We need a powerful PC and the VR helmet, but it's worth it.

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Shacknews
Top Critic
9 / 10
Mar 23, 2020

Valve has showcased a clear way for developers to create a high quality AAA experience built for VR that still hits all the marks of a traditional PC game.

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IGN Spain
Top Critic
9.5 / 10.0
Mar 23, 2020

Half-Life: Alyx is the new bar for Virtual Reality. Valve has made a game so realistic, immersive and detailed that we can consider it a main iteration of Half-Life. Only its story, something fair in what it contributes to the saga make it not have a perfect score.

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9.3 / 10.0
Mar 23, 2020

Half-Life: Alyx is an incredible demonstration of what can be done with virtual reality. Nobody, so far, has put the amount of resources and research that Valve did. This might not be the killer application VR needs, but it's an excellent game, worthy of the main series of Half-Life.

Review in Italian | Read full review

Unscored
Mar 23, 2020

The masses may not rush out to buy a VR set to play Half-Life: Alyx. But anyone who loves video games should look at this game as a next logical step in the possibilities of dramatic, interactive storytelling. Bravo, Valve. Bravo.

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Kirk McKeand
Top Critic
Mar 23, 2020

It turns out Valve just needed new tech. It just needed VR. And it’s what I needed, too.

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