GREEDFALL

The world might be in the middle of a pandemic that’s forced us all to huddle inside while stuffing our faces and watching Netflix, but there’s one glowing beacon of hope: thirteen years after the last adventures of Gordon Freeman we have finally got a new Half-Life. Except, it’s not Half-Life 3, it’s a prequel. And it’s in VR, so you might not be able to play it. What we have is Half-Life: Alyx, a prequel to Half-Life 2 and a very obvious passion project from Valve. This is a game designed for virtual reality and built to the highest standards. I’d actually be surprised if Valve made a profit on Half Life: Alyx because it looks and feels like a lot of money was sunk into its creation, versus the relatively small audience that can buy it. But that doesn’t matter right now. All we need to know is just how good is Half-Life: Alyx?

The first thing we need to talk about, though, is what I played Alyx on. There’s absolutely no question that Valve would love for you to experience Half-Life: Alyx on the Valve Index with all of its fancy finger-sensing technology and what have you. Since I’m not a millionaire I don’t have the Index, so instead I played through Half-Life: Alyx on the Oculus Rift S and all my opinions will come from that. But I’m going to give a spoiler for this whole review: Half-Life: Alyx is an exceptional VR experience even on the Rift S, so if you are fortunate enough own the Index then that experience will only be better.
I think the real brilliance of Half Life: Alyx is how good Valve are at all the little interactions. Most games go too far in one direction or the either, using hefty assistance to do things or leaving players fumbling around like a newborn baby trying to play the piano. Take the recent Boneworks as an example: it’s driven by its physics system, and thus something as easy as reloading a pistol can result in you gracelessly trying to slam home a magazine, at least until you wrap your head around how everything works. Because it simulates having a body as well you can find yourself accidentally getting caught on tables because you forgot where your non-existent legs were. In many ways it’s quest for more realism is what constantly drags me out of the illusion.

In other games the level of assistance the developers use can mean the gun practically reloads itself. Again, it shatters the illusion of being there. Half-Life: Alyx finds a lovely middle-ground, helping you out just enough to make things like reloads smooth without ever feeling like it’s doing it for you. And this applies to almost everything, from opening doors to spinning handles to moving boxes around and more. The way the physics work let you play around in the world in a believable way, without awkwardly getting in the way. Valve have carefully judged everything, and it makes Alyx feel incredibly polished, thereby also keeping you feeling immersed in the action. The only time that immersion gets shattered is when a loading screen pops up. And be warned, on an old-fashioned HDD those loading times can be a bit long.
But what if you aren’t familiar with Half-Life? Is this still a story you can follow and enjoy? That’s a tricky question, but I believe the answer is yes, at least for the most part. The majority of the game is simply about finding Alyx’s father, so that obviously doesn’t require much Half-Life knowledge. Where you might struggle is being dumped into a world that’s already been invaded by an alien force known as the Combine. Still, you should be able to get up to speed quickly, even if the first Head Crab that leaps at your face is probably going to scare the snot out of you.

The pacing is yet another area that Half-Life: Alyx excels in, consistently managing to keep the 10-15 hour campaign feeling fun, fresh and interesting. There’s a hefty dose of light horror here, with a lot of your time spent in darkened corridors complete with flickering lights and creepy sounds, slowly making your way through the environments while waiting to see if a head crab is going to leap out to nom on your face. Patience in these moments is rewarded with a few bigger, outside areas and amazing vistas. Indeed, the opening sequence lets you see a Strider making its way across the rooftops of the city, huge cables dangling from its body. It’s a properly jaw-dropping moment.

That pacing extends to the gameplay itself. One minute you’ll be fighting head crabs that leap toward your face and shambling zombies, the next you’re in a firefight with the Combine, ducking and weaving to avoid the incoming bullets. Valve know exactly when to let the game breath with exploration or clever dialogue, and when to stick you in a fun fight or have you solve a puzzle. It meant that across the 15-hours it took for me to play through the campaign I was never bored and never got fed up with a particular idea.

Key to the way that you interact with the world of Half-Life: Alyx are the gravity gloves given to you early on. With these stylish hand warmers you can point to a distant object and then, with a sort of flick of your wrist, send it whizzing into the air in a lovely arc toward your hand where you can neatly catch it. It takes a few minutes to get the gist of how it works and occasionally you’ll struggle to aim at something specific, but once you get the hang of it the whole process feels smooth, easy and satisfying. We’ve seen mechanics like this in other VR games, but the fact that you have to flick your wrist and catch the object makes it feel more engaging in Half-Life: Alyx. And before long you’ll be firing a pistol in one hand and summoning ammo in the other.
There isn’t a huge arsenal of weapons to pick from, but each feels distinct and look fantastic. My personal favourite of the three is the shotgun. You reload it by cracking open the barrel, feeding in slugs and then flicking the gun to snap it closed, then finally you pull back on the handle to prime it. And when you pull the trigger you’re rewarded with a satisfying boom that bounces off the walls and gives you that lovely low-down tingle. But the pistol also has a nice pop when you pull the trigger and is the gun of choice for accurate shooting. Finally, there’s a Combine weapon that’s essentially an SMG for spraying bullets. Good use of vibration through the Rift S controllers and excellent audio design ensures that all three guns feel great to use.

Likewise, while the enemy variety isn’t massive they all feel different and interesting to fight. It kicks off with the Barnacles, which are stuck to the ceilings with their long tongues dangling down, waiting to drag you up to your death. They provide an easy start, a static target that you can hone your skills on. Plus, it’s great fun to lure enemies into them, or feed them an explosive barrel. Then come the head crabs, the classic Half-Life foe. These little bastards leap toward your face, and scurry around on four legs. They aren’t exactly a huge threat, it’s really just their creep-factor that makes them intimidating. The slow-moving zombies that have been taken over by a head crab are a simple foe to battle as well, again acting more like a way of easing you into the combat. Plus, some of them have the pesky armoured head crabs clinging to their face. Then there’s the Combine themselves who engage you in heated gunfights where you can use the full extent of VR to hunker down behind cover or lean out from behind walls. I’ve got limited space in my house to play in, so I can only imagine how much more fun the fights would be if you had loads of room to move around.

I love how the combat plays out in Half-Life: Alyx. Popping out of cover to deliver a few well-aimed shots to a Combine helmet feels awesome, as does that slightly panicky unloading of shotgun shells into a surprise head crab. I also love the way you reload ammo by grabbing it from over your shoulder, presumably from some sort of infinite backpack, the same place you store all the bullets you hoover up. Slamming home a magazine or hastily feeding shells into the shotgun never gets old. Really, the only thing I didn’t like about combat is that it’s a bit easy. Even on the hardest setting you’ll likely only die a few times, and that means the fights don’t feel as tense as they probably could. But ultimately that feels like a tiny complaint given just how immersive and exhilarating the fights feel.

GreedFall's systems parrot those of successful RPGs, but they're all a bit thin. It has a tactical pause system that lets me queue up an action for my protagonist, but not other party members. I can assign armor and weapons to my party members, but not manage their skills or combat tactics. I can pursue a romance with my companions, but it takes the form of three personal quests followed by the makeout-time dialogue button and a quick bedroom cutscene. GreedFall contains all the things I like in RPGs. I wish that I could pick even one of them to praise without caveats.

In one bit, I'm interviewing a grizzled member of the mercenary faction, the Coin Guard, as I investigate the disappearance of a talented young soldier. Sweet-talking and browbeating people with my title is a large part of my job as the ambassador of my own faction: the Congregation of Merchants. To drag information about a secret training program out of him I choose between three dialogue choices: convince him with my charisma, bribe him, or allow my companion, Kurt, to do the talking. I've invested my attribute points in charisma, so I'm able to persuade him.


(Image credit: Focus Home Interactive/Spiders)
I like that I have multiple options in each interaction, but as always in GreedFall, something is a little off: His mildly uncanny lip movements are a distraction shared by many of GreedFall's characters, and the quality of the voice acting varies, with one of my favorite merchants constantly belting his lines out.

Later, I'm breaking my way into a Coin Guard training camp to further investigate. Kurt requests that we avoid combat so that we won't have to kill any members of his faction. GreedFall's stealth system is bare bones, composed only of my ability to crouch and eye indicators over enemies' heads that begin to fill with yellow if I'm close to being seen. I don't know what objects provide reliable cover or have any indication of my enemies' lines of sight. I have to reload twice to infiltrate the camp totally unseen because I don't want to make Kurt sad.

(Image credit: Focus Home Interactive/Spiders)
Roll for imitation
If one of GreedFall's systems deserves a callout, it's the ability to approach most of its quests with a mixture of stealth, disguise, charisma, and force. If I've chosen to invest talent points in science, I may be able to bomb a hole in the basement of a warehouse to gain entry, or I could talk my way in with charisma, or stroll in unquestioned by wearing the armor of the faction whose space I'm invading. Even if they're not difficult to decipher (my companions often eagerly give away all the possible solutions to the situation as we approach), I did enjoy weighing the possible effects each choice might have on my relationships with companions and factions.

When it comes to blows, combat is divided into the standard strength, agility, and magic modes of attack, while weapon choices are setting-appropriate things like rapiers, maces, and rifles. I created a build focused on agility for dealing out high damage with one-handed weapons and accuracy with firearms. My usual two party members: Siora the native mage and Vasco the ship captain, supported me well with healing and ranged attacks, but at around level ten I hoped to micromanage their skills a bit, which GreedFall weirdly doesn't allow for.


(Image credit: Focus Home Interactive/Spiders)
Kicking enemies in the rear quickly became the cornerstone of my combat choreography.

Despite its simplicity, GreedFall's combat does encourage a sort of rhythm. Executing standard light strikes builds up my "fury" meter which can then be spent on heavier strikes. For large groups of enemies I place down a couple area of effect traps, use my rifle to lock on and take out those closest to death, and then begin weaving together light and fury attacks.

A few larger bestial enemies have area of effect attacks or charge forward to knock me off my feet, but the vast majority of animals lunge forward at my party without finesse. The occasional human group of enemies mix swordplay with rifles. I'm not able to entirely mow through enemies on the normal difficulty level, but very few challenge me to alter my quickly-established routine.

What I found myself doing most was kicking my enemies. A swift kick has the potential to stagger an enemy and also chips away at their armor which, when entirely depleted, makes them much easier to take down with physical strikes. GreedFall's combat is not particularly exciting, but I enjoyed that kicking enemies in the rear quickly became the cornerstone of my combat choreography.
Storybored
The overarching narrative concerns colonists of the four main factions all seeking a cure for the fatal "malichor" disease and abusing the native people of Teer Fradee in search of it. The Bridge Alliance (scientists) and Theleme (the church) are constantly at war, and exploit the native people as either test subjects or converts.


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It's a decent RPG, but not the new darling of the genre by any stretch.

There are moments when GreedFall takes on a self-important kind of sympathy, portraying the native people as simple and superstitious, initially violent only because they're frightened. Add to that the over-acted accents of every native character and you get a clumsy portrayal of a colonized society. GreedFall acknowledges that all this is terrible, but only with overt displays of evil that fail to say anything about systems of oppression beyond noting their existence.

As a distraction from the horrors, you can make a move on one of your companions, but the whole thing is quite dry. Three of my five companions are romanceable as a woman: ship captain Vasco, mercenary Kurt, and native island princess Siora (feisty scientist Aphra called me "not her type"). Completing side quests for each will increase our relationship from "suspicious" to "friendly" until I'm able to make bedroom eyes at my chosen paramour. Both the verbal overtures of love and the sexy cutscenes are serviceable rather than spicy. I mostly found them to be boxes to check in GreedFall, and rather than feeling drawn into the story, a talent bonus and a Steam achievement are my most lasting memories of those stolen nights of passion.


(Image credit: Focus Home Interactive/Spiders)
Where GreedFall's story does shine is in the cinematic cutscenes marking pivotal story moments, which bring the drama and gravitas that I wish its romances enjoyed. As its story climaxes, these emotional scenes grow closer together, as do the consequences of decisions I've made in earlier quests. GreedFall catches its stride in the last several hours, nearly enough to make me forget the first thirty hours that were so decidedly average.

GreedFall is not the heir to the Dragon Age throne, but it is, in a word, adequate. Rather than planting its flag in one truly standout, unique system, it spreads itself thin across all of the systems one might expect from a Dragon Age-type game. If Dragon Age is a veteran gone on sabbatical, GreedFall is keeping its seat warm without making a mess of the office in its absence. It's a decent RPG, but not the new darling of the genre by any stretch.