Half-Life: Alyx Reviews
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.
But judged on its merits as a VR game, it excels. If you're looking for something to wow you with what the technology can do, this will get that job done.
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.
Half-Life: Alyx is a tremendous VR experience that should absolutely set the standard of quality for all VR games to come. But the lack of replayability value, and the scale factor of enjoyment dependent on your hardware and room size, holds Alyx back from being a truly astonishing game. Is it worth it alone to buy a headset for? I'm not sure, that depends on how big of a Half-Life fan you are. But I can say that there are tonnes of other VR games available that are worth buying a headset for already, and Half-Life Alyx will still be a significant entry in that list of games.
Simply the best VR-game for now. But nothing more than that.
Review in Russian | Read full review
The <b>Combine</b> structures contrast against the old-<b>Europe</b> buildings to showcase the alien occupation without ever needing to say it out loud.
Put in plain terms, if Beat Saber put VR on the map, then Half Life Alyx is the reason you chart a course. It's everything VR has needed and the return to a classic franchise we've been waiting for.
Half-Life: Alyx is not just a prequel. We are dealing with a tangible, independent entry into the franchise. It's a shame that not every fan can experience this story for themselves, because Valve did such an incredible job in the final that I couldn't stop being amazed. I don't want to give too much away either, because this, this is something big. End Episode Two big, to stay in the familiar terminology. However, the 15 hours before the credits are also fun and keep you in a good mood throughout. The reunion with old acquaintances, learning new skills in VR or a deeper immersion into the stories around the legendary "Gordon Freeman", whom the young Alyx only knows from stories and rumors: I approached the title with high expectations and Valve actually delivered.
Review in German | Read full review
City 17 provides the setting for a VR adventure filled with brilliant detailing.
Half-Life: Alyx is another Half-Life and from this, draw your own conclusions…
Review in Greek | Read full review
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.
Half-Life: Alyx reaches some astoundingly high heights while also managing to be both too ambitious and too conservative for its own good.
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.
I hope I don’t have to wait for brain-computer interfaces to exist before the series returns again, because despite a handful of complaints, I still think Valve make the best first-person shooters around.
“Half-Life’s” ties to survival-horror shine in “Alyx.” One enemy that most who have played “Half-Life” will remember are the Barnacles — monstrosities that attach themselves to the ceiling and dangle their long, thin, dark tongues close to the ground. VR makes their presence more unnerving. A random moment I loved happened when I pulled an object toward me that a Barnacle caught then with its tongue and devoured. I moved into place underneath it while carefully avoiding its grotesque appendage and fired a few shots, killing it and causing it to spit up my item. In that moment, and several others, I felt noticeably transported to one of the most vivid science fiction worlds I’ve experienced.