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.