I have seven screenshots and a press release from Valve sitting in front of me. I’ve had two days to process this. But I’m still in disbelief. Thirteen years after the most infamous cliffhanger in video game history, Half-Life is finally coming back in March 2020 — as a VR game called Half-Life: Alyx.
Valve tells us it’s a VR-exclusive. And it’s a prequel of sorts, set between Half-Life and Half-Life 2, in the days when Alyx Vance and her father Eli are building the resistance to the Combine’s alien occupation of Earth. You’ll play Alyx, and you’ll be wielding a way to manipulate gravity once more: the “Gravity Gloves,” which we can see Alyx using to pick up a pistol from a distance and interact with puzzles in the game’s first trailer — which you’ll find a little ways below.
Here’s Valve’s description of the kind of gameplay you should expect:
Lean to aim around a broken wall and under a Barnacle to make an impossible shot. Rummage through shelves to find a healing syringe and some shotgun shells. Manipulate tools to hack alien interfaces. Toss a bottle through a window to distract an enemy. Rip a Headcrab off your face and throw it at a Combine soldier.
But if all these things make you think it’s just going to be another glorified tech demo for VR, you might want to read Valve programmer David Speyrer’s answers to a few questions we asked:
1) “It’s not a side story, nor an episodic one — it’s the next part of the Half-Life story, in a game around the same length as Half-Life 2.”
2) “While it does take place before the events of Half-Life 2, we actually recommend that you play through Half-Life 2: Episode 2 before you play Half-Life: Alyx, for reasons that will become clear as you progress.”
3) “Of course, we’ll have to wait and see how people react to Half-Life: Alyx once it’s out, but we’d love to continue pushing forward.”
Not a tech demo. Not necessarily just a prequel. And even if not in March, it sounds like there’s a chance us Half-Life fans will finally get some closure.
Here’s the trailer:
I’ve watched it five times now, and it still makes me giddy.
Fifteen years ago, Half-Life 2 ended with a bang. One of the all-time greatest video game cliffhangers, it literally stopped time in the middle of an explosion, praised you for your work, then let the credits roll. In retrospect, it wasn’t so bad: we got to pick up right where we left a mere 18.5 months later with Half-Life 2: Episode 1.
But we couldn’t say the same in 2007 when Half-Life 2: Episode 2 ended in tears — and then 12 years passed without Valve giving any indication we’d ever find out what happened to Gordon Freeman and Alyx.
Valve says you will need a VR headset to play, because Half-Life: Alyx is expressly designed for virtual reality. It won’t be coming to flat screens and traditional controls. But intriguingly, you won’t need to buy the company’s own Valve Index — the company tells us the Oculus Rift, the Oculus Quest with the new Link cable, the HTC Vive, even Windows Mixed Reality headsets should work.
Between nostalgia, the need for closure, and that multitude of choices, I wonder if this is the moment a few million extra gamers buy into VR.
There will be advantages to using the Valve Index’s VR controllers, though: Valve’s Bronwen Grimes told UploadVR that some “fun but not required” interactions like being able to crush a can in your hand won’t be available on other controllers.
Valve says you’ll be able to play it sitting or standing with three different VR movement styles — the teleport mechanic where you aim a wand where you’d like to go, then appear there, an analog stick, or a “shift” mechanic that sounds intriguing.
Also, Valve says the game — built on its new Source 2 engine — will provide a set of tools for anyone to build their own new levels. “Hammer, Valve’s level authoring tool, has been updated with all of the game’s virtual reality gameplay tools and components,” the company writes.
While you may wind up needing a pretty beefy PC to play the game at its best, the minimum system requirements Valve is listing aren’t that high: a Windows 10 computer with a Core i5-7500 or Ryzen 5 1600 or better, with a GTX 1060 or RX 580 graphics card or better. Those are high-end parts if you haven’t upgraded in a few years. You’ll need 12GB of RAM, though, which may be an upgrade for many gamers who were told 8GB was enough.
Half-Life: Alyx is available for preorder today for $53.99 (normally $59.99; it’s on sale) or free to Valve Index owners. Valve is also offering some special bonuses (gun skins, Steam VR environments) to those who purchase Valve Index hardware by the end of the year.
If you’re anything like me, you won’t rest until you’ve consumed every scrap of information, so here’s exactly what Valve’s David Speyrer told us, as well as Valve’s official press release below.
Is this a continuation of the events of Half-Life 2: Episode 2? Is this a full story on par with a major Half-Life title or is it episodic?
Half-Life: Alyx is set in the aftermath of the Combine invasion of Earth, before the return of Gordon Freeman in Half-Life 2. While it does take place before the events of Half-Life 2, we actually recommend that you play through Half-Life 2: Episode 2 before you play Half-Life: Alyx, for reasons that will become clear as you progress. It’s not a side story, nor an episodic one — it’s the next part of the Half-Life story, in a game around the same length as Half-Life 2.
Does this mark a full return to the series? Should we expect more?
Yes. It’s probably no surprise that many people at Valve have been wanting to get back to the Half-Life universe for a long time, and this experience has only reinforced that. In the process of creating Half-Life: Alyx, we’ve had to explore new ways to tell stories with these characters and this world, and we’ve discovered a lot of new gameplay experiences that go beyond what we’ve been able to do before. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see how people react to Half-Life: Alyx once it’s out, but we’d love to continue pushing forward.
Will Half-Life’s return be exclusive to VR? To Steam VR? To Valve Index?
Half-Life: Alyx is exclusive to VR, but not to Valve Index. We continue to believe strongly in the open PC platform, and it is our intention that Half-Life: Alyx is playable on any VR headset that connects to a gaming PC capable of running the game. If you have an HTC Vive, an Oculus Rift (or Quest with the Link cable), a Windows Mixed Reality headset — just to name a few — you can play Half-Life: Alyx. We put a lot of effort into making Valve Index the highest-fidelity VR solution on the market, and we think it’s a great way to play the game, but it’s absolutely not required.
VALVE ANNOUNCES HALF-LIFE: ALYX, A FULL-LENGTH VR ENTRY IN THE AWARD WINNING SERIES
Now Available for Pre-purchase, Slated for March 2020 Launch
November 21, 2019 – Valve, the creators of Half-Life and the Steam platform, today announced Half-Life: Alyx, a new, full-length virtual reality entry in the Half-Life series. Slated for release on Steam in March 2020, the title will be compatible with all PC-based VR headsets in March 2020.
Set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, Alyx Vance and her father Eli secretly mount the resistance to the brutal occupation of Earth by a mysterious alien race known as The Combine. As Alyx, players take the fight to the Combine to save the future of humanity.
Half-Life: Alyx was designed from the ground up for Virtual Reality and features all of the hallmarks of a classic Half-Life game: world exploration, puzzle solving, visceral combat, and an intricately woven story that connects it all with the characters iconic to the Half-Life universe.
“Everyone at Valve is excited to be returning to the world of Half-Life”, says Valve founder Gabe Newell. “VR has energized us. We’ve invested a lot of ourselves in the technology. But we’re also game developers at heart, and to be devoting ourselves to a VR game this ambitious is just as exciting. For that to come in the form of Half-Life feels like the culmination of a lot things we care a lot about: truly great games, cutting edge technology, and open platforms. We can’t wait for people to experience this.”
Half-Life: Alyx is powered by SteamVR on Valve’s Source 2 engine, and can be played on Steam with all PC-based VR headsets.
Pre-purchase now for $59.99 (US). Free for owners of the Valve Index VR headset.
If you want even more inside information — like how Portal 2 writers Erik Wolpaw and Jay Pinkerton are involved, and why it won’t be available for flat screens — game journalist Geoff Keighley has shared 22 minutes of a roundtable interview with the team.
Update, 1:53PM ET: With additional details from Valve’s websites.
Update, November 22nd at 3:10 AM ET: With another detail from UploadVR.
Comments
Well I guess most of people won’t play it. As most of people don’t own a VR headset. Way to screw over the majority again!
By Scott Martens on 11.21.19 1:05pm
So Valve investing in software for their own newly released hardware shouldn’t really surprise you though? Besides, if you own a gaming pc (which I’m sure you do, because that’s Valves platform) it’s worth making the jump to VR.
By EveryDayIs on 11.21.19 1:15pm
I disagree that "it’s worth making the jump to VR" simply because you own a gaming PC. Whether VR is worthwhile is contextual. Personally speaking, I’m of the belief that immersive entertainment can be made regardless of the medium, and I have yet to have seen any point in investing in VR, even with the now fire-sale pricing for most headsets. It’s a physically isolating experience, and I honestly haven’t found that experience adds any value relative to the trade offs of owning specialized hardware that, lets be honest, has little utility beyond gaming and entertainment.
For a lack of better words, and at the risk of inviting the vitriol and bile of a comments section on the internet, VR is still an interesting gadget in search of a wider audience, not unlike 3D or curved televisions. However, I’m certain I’m not alone in this disposition, and, according to available sales and usage data, I may be in the majority.
This Ars Technica article shows that, when we isolate the sales numbers of PS VR, which is probably still the most popular VR platform, hardware sales globally are less than 5k units per day and peaked when the platform was relatively new. Less than 5% of total PS4 owners also have the headset. An IDC survey shows that PS VR owners use their headset about 6.8 hours per month, though, for what should be obvious reasons, people most satisfied with their VR headset used it more, but a fraction within a fraction is still only a small subset of total users.
My point is that a standard version of this Half Life game probably wouldn’t dilute VR sales, and making it a VR-only release very likely won’t suddenly cause VR sales to spike. I love Half Life, but I don’t foresee myself buying any additional equipment to play this game.
By whyamihere on 11.22.19 12:24pm
The fire sale as you put it is only on the lesser performing windows headsets FYI. It’s funny to still see people reaching with the 3D tv comparison, a tech that no one ever asked for while VR is organically growing because of actual consumer demand, passionate developers, and a tech that most people are genuinely astonished by once they actually try it properly. You’d have a better point if VR sales were decreasing.
By Malkmus on 11.22.19 2:24pm
That’s fair, and honestly really understandable if you don’t own one. I have a Rift S and initially really expected just short experiences to be it’s thing. However playing Skyrim in VR (modded) actually blew the normal Skyrim experience away. Same game, but it was just so different actually being in the world, then outside of it. (there’s other games like this, but for comparison’s sake I chose this one)
I agree many mediums can be immersive, but I haven’t been as immersed as I have been with VR, and I can actually make a direct comparison here.
The reality is that the price alone is often the biggest problem. The Quest actually already proved this. If Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo would’ve released the Quest, it would’ve been a massive platform already. The though of needing a expensive gaming PC, and a expensive headset, is what is mostly holding people back.
By EveryDayIs on 11.25.19 5:24am
If you have a VR capable gaming PC Windows Mixed reality headsets are down to fire sale <$100 you can get an Odyssey plus for $200. They are totally serviceable and can run most Steam VR games perfectly well even if the Windows VR project seems to be abandoned. As a single game appliance that is not a bad price at all and bonus you can play Beat Saber or Superhot or any of the other 10 r so spectacular VR Steam games.
By themobiledivide on 11.21.19 1:34pm
You haven’t seen the minimum system requirements yet, have you?
By death_au on 11.21.19 7:08pm
By Malkmus on 11.21.19 8:26pm
I wasn’t aware a ryzen 1600 with an RX580 or GTX 1060 was some hugely inconvenient hardware requirement for the PC gaming community. I’m pretty sure I could build a machine exceeding those requirements for less than $500.
By itfa on 11.21.19 10:33pm
Those are the bare min specs, we both know this game will run like trash if that is what you’re running it on.
By Rylo Ken on 11.22.19 8:44am
My point was the min specs for VR – i.e. "VR Capable gaming PC" – are below the minimum specs for Alyx. A cheaper technically VR capable gaming PC won’t necessarily run this game.
By death_au on 11.29.19 12:25am
i disagree — what you’re saying is the same as saying
"i won’t play your video game because i don’t have a game console!"
which is …weird ? + IMHO it’s the best thing that ever happened to VR
By ramlongcat on 11.21.19 1:38pm
Every platform needs its killer app to drive adoption. If it were to be released as a pancake game as well, the VR market wouldn’t budge noticeably.
I hope to see AAA studios follow their lead, after Valve shows the world that a decent full-length game can actually be made. Fingers crossed.
By technetz on 11.21.19 1:42pm
IF Valve shows the world that a decent full-length game can be made, I’d say.
The primary issue is, and will continue to be, motion sickness. Some people are simply more susceptible to it than other, and I would certainly fall under that description. Even games that are "mild" VR experiences I can only play for about 15-30 minutes before I need to take a long break for the nausea to settle down.
Honestly I hope they do something special here, and it becomes a game I can play for hours at a time.
By vonbaronhans on 11.21.19 2:20pm
This definitely needs more context to understand. What you played and what system.
By Malkmus on 11.21.19 3:47pm
I’ve tried a bunch of headsets – original Vive, Daydream, Gear VR, Oculus Go, the Lenovo Windows Mixed Reality headset (their first one). The PC ones were connected to a PC (duh) running a Core-i7, GTX980 that my work purchased in 2016 (when I was doing my primary testing).
As far as experiences go – I’d say the most intense thing I tried was some random action game demo I tried on the Oculus Go, where you used the touchpad as a pseudo-joystick to move. That definitely made me sick, almost immediately. On the Vive and Windows MR headset I spent a good amount of time in Tilt Brush, Google Maps, and the VR intro thing that Steam has (I’m blanking on the name, The Lab? Something like that?). Tilt Brush I could do for about 30 minutes. Google Maps about 15, but I could easily make myself sick by flying around too much too quickly. With the Lab(?) it varied by experience, but in general I could handle about 10-20 minutes.
By vonbaronhans on 11.21.19 5:40pm
Yeah, so sounds like locomotion, which is a known culprit, and is avoidable. Especially anything in a Go that doesn’t have 6DOF, avoid those like the plague. Most games now have the option to avoid locomotion (as this one does). Motion sickness is hardly the problem it used to be in the early days.
By Malkmus on 11.21.19 8:30pm
But going back to the point of this article – we’re talking about a "full" Half Life experience. I have a hard time imagining locomotion won’t be a big part of it. Maybe they’ve designed around it… but the workarounds I’ve seen so far (teleporting, single-room, and limited space) don’t give me a great sense of hope for melding a "traditional" gaming experience with VR.
I want to be wrong, though. When I do spend time in VR, it’s so effing cool.
By vonbaronhans on 11.22.19 10:41am
You just need to play more VR. It’s like seasickness, eventually your brain will adjust and you’ll get your VR legs.
By Jon Roberts on 11.22.19 11:15am
Maybe?
I get nauseous reading text in cars (anything from website articles to books to reddit comments). I’ve tried thousands of times throughout my life, and it happens every single time.
And when I was doing the bulk of my VR testing (2016-2017), I had random weeklong stretches of trying to do VR a couple of hours a day. Never really got better.
By vonbaronhans on 11.22.19 12:52pm
I am thrilled that at least you specifically don’t get to play it.
By cthuluface on 11.21.19 3:06pm
Annnnd? Half-Life 1 forced people to upgrade their machines. Half-Life 2 forced people to upgrade their machines.
By jonshipman on 11.21.19 3:37pm
If I remember correctly, Half-Life 2 even forced some people to upgrade their internet too!
By mw888 on 11.21.19 3:49pm
It was possible though infuriating to play if you had dialup. Took me 3 days to download the patch (mostly because it kept disconnecting partway through the download).
By coolvergeusername on 01.02.20 5:32pm
Yeah but that upgraded machine was good for a lot of other games too. Who knows what the next big VR game is after this.
By Pixelated on 11.21.19 3:59pm