Half-Life: Alyx Reviews
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.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
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
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.
Half-Life: Alyx is an accomplishment no matter which way you spin it.
All future VR games will look to Half Life: Alyx as the gold standard hereon, and thanks to its absolute excellence in design and presentation we are all the better for it. Virtual reality will never be the same, nor will Half Life after Alyx's jaw-dropping conclusion.
A groundbreaking experience that makes the world of Half-Life more tangible than you could imagine.
The hysteria generated by last year's surprise announcement heralding the return of the genre-defining but long-presumed killed-in-action shooter series Half-Life was quickly tempered by news it would do so exclusively in virtual reality.
The classic shooter series gains a thrilling new perspective, thanks to VR tech that works symbiotically with the narrative
Although they're mainly known for maintaining the video game distribution network Steam these days, it's important to remember how instrumental Valve's games have been in moving the video game industry forward. With the recent release of Half-Life: Alyx, Valve's most impressive title yet, it's hard not to think that a new era for virtual reality has either just ended, or just begun. Either way, the game is a step forward for new, more immersive ways to engage with the interactive storytelling medium, and once a larger number of players get a chance to experience Half-Life: Alyx for themselves it's likely many, many more people will be inspired to go out and buy their own virtual reality headsets.
It’s the best VR game yet, and maybe, just maybe, the best in the Half Life franchise.
Tight gunplay and a solid, ambitious crack at AAA VR mean that Half-Life: Alyx is one of the big hits of virtual reality. While the combat could be a little too mellow for some, the ambulatory opening is dripping with atmosphere and provides a nice way for players new to VR to get familiar.
Valve selects the best features of VR action games and takes them to another level. Half-Life: Alyx is not innovative in choosing what is needed for the perfect virtual reality experience – between interactivity of the environment, gestural use of firearms or environmental puzzles – but it is in putting together everything in the style of Half-Life. The kind of first person game that made the series famous, and forever changed the action adventure into a "before and after Gordon Freeman", returns to linear origins without genres contamination, becoming an immersive sim only for what falls within our view, or what we can physically accomplish in a crazy City 17. Masterful.
Review in Italian | Read full review
If you were worried about the quality, you can calmly exhale - Valve has not forgotten how to make great games. Half-Life: Alyx is not just the best and most beautiful project for virtual reality to date, but also an excellent and very worthy addition to the Half-Life series. It is simply a "must have" in the collection of a fan of the genre and franchise. If you were looking for a reason to buy an expensive VR helmet for PC, then you have finally found it. And everyone else should at least play it at a friend's house. And, Valve, you are now obligated to release Half-Life 3!
Review in Russian | Read full review
I had such an incredible time going back into the Half-Life universe, and in VR. It's outstanding. The story is full of surprises as you can expect from a Half-Life game. A true AAA experience in VR, Half-Life: Alyx is a triumphant return for Valve—even if you aren't playing as Gordon Freeman.
Half-Life: Alyx is the new benchmark for future VR products. More generally, it is a magnificent game, the worthy heir of an immortal saga: an adventure that has nothing to envy to those episodes that have contributed to mark the history of gaming.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Half-Life: Alyx is truly the new standard bearer for virtual reality. This is a major, not to say revolutionary, title, as was Half-Life and Half-Life 2 in their time. For more than 10 hours of play, we live the horrifying, supernatural and science fiction adventures of Alyx, as if we were there. A Masterpiece !
Review in French | Read full review
Valve has surpassed impossible expectations with Half-Life: Alyx, bringing a series long thought buried back into the limelight with extraordinary impact. While some might find it unfortunate that such an experience is housed inside virtual reality, I feel it's an innovative step forward for the series. If you have the means to play it, Half-Life: Alyx is absolutely essential.