Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)

Qustinnus · Post by **Qustinnus** » Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:54 pm #550967

Just played a good section of the game but my legs starting hurting real bad from standing so im taking a break now. The fucking headcrabs man fuck theyre scary.

What's everyones first take of it so far?

Qustinnus · Post by **Qustinnus** » Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:32 pm #550976

also mandatory get dabbed on

Mickyan · Post by **Mickyan** » Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:49 pm #550985

Best marker drawing simulator since Duke Nukem Forever

It's good though, impressive physics as is expected

Post by **MMMiracles** » Tue Mar 24, 2020 12:12 am #551003

headcrabs are both equally terrifying and a source of comedic relief as they snarl and lunge at you, followed by missing and eating shit, tumbling around before desperately fleeing to make another lunge attempt.

Super Aggro Crag · Tue Mar 24, 2020 12:31 am

is there a new alien

bobbahbrown · Post by **bobbahbrown** » Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:00 am #551027

so far the lore additions alone have been fantastic the graphic design feels amazing valve really hit it out of the park

Mickyan · Post by **Mickyan** » Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:08 am #551030

My childhood innocence was shattered after I hacked the first combine terminal

The combine AI is also remarkably reactive, they try to flank, flush you out with manhacks and they stand their ground if you suppress them. They have a lot of vocal callouts too, reminds me of the replica soldiers from FEAR. Playing on hard they can wipe the floor with you in a heartbeat if you're not careful which makes fights super intense

Tue Mar 24, 2020 3:10 am

Played up to the north star, got the elevator working and I took a break at the part where the fleshy stuff on the walls starts exploding on you.

Mickyan wrote:The combine AI is also remarkably reactive, they try to flank, flush you out with manhacks and they stand their ground if you suppress them. They have a lot of vocal callouts too

Yeah, I like how chatty they are now. That bit towards the beginning where they react to the grenade in the car was pretty good

Super Aggro Crag · Tue Mar 24, 2020 3:46 am

will we get a hl3

Stickymayhem · Tue Mar 24, 2020 9:33 am

For Non-VR plebs

Half-Life Alyx - https://streamable.com/2tyz2

vs boneworks - https://streamable.com/owml5

Alyx is polished to a fucking shimmer but you lose a bit of fun jank as a result. Boneworks you can wrestle with baddies while they're still animated. You can only do this with ragdolls in Alyx and you lose some of the experience.

That said the level design in alyx is fucking impeccable. I constantly fall for their psychological tricks like

Spoiler:

Stickymayhem · Tue Mar 24, 2020 9:34 am

Super Aggro Crag wrote:will we get a hl3

this is half life 3

you will never get a flatscreen sequel to half life 2, because half life has always been about using new tech

You can have project borealis instead. It'll be what you want.

Flatulent · Post by **Flatulent** » Tue Mar 24, 2020 10:55 am #551116

low intensity combat, no weapons, bad movement, barely any exploration in this game

its just eye candy nothing more imo, didn't like the gameplay at all

its clearly a well crafted eye candy game and there was a lot of effort put into it but vr half life is not my style i'd rather just play doot eternal instead

cacogen · Post by **cacogen** » Tue Mar 24, 2020 11:49 am #551144

already sold my vive to a child after never using it. vr has no games (aside from this $1000 one) and the movement is either nauseating using WASD or sort of like enabling noclip using teleportation

Tabski · Post by **Tabski** » Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:25 pm #551161

Refunded it right before I had 2 hours of playtime.

Seems alright. Visually it looks really impressive, and you can really feel the massive amount of detail they put into everything.

What killed it for me was the gameplay. Unlike a game like Boneworks, B&S, or Saints and Sinners VR there is very little physicality to the combat. What you're left with is some pretty mediocre gunplay, which is just a matter of shooting specific spots on really slow/clunky enemies.

I'll probably pick it back up when it's on sale for ~$20.

Qustinnus · Post by **Qustinnus** » Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:42 pm #551162

Super Aggro Crag wrote:is there a new alien

yes and you feel bad for killing it because it starts making whining noises and stops fighting back (worst part: you need to kill it)

Qustinnus · Post by **Qustinnus** » Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:44 pm #551163

Flatulent wrote:low intensity combat, no weapons, bad movement, barely any exploration in this game

its just eye candy nothing more imo, didn't like the gameplay at all

its clearly a well crafted eye candy game and there was a lot of effort put into it but vr half life is not my style i'd rather just play doot eternal instead

Have you actually played it? I get the people who say low intensity combat just watched someone play it and forget that actually fighting in a dark room against 8 headcrabs is far more intense when you are actually in the situation

Flatulent · Post by **Flatulent** » Tue Mar 24, 2020 3:04 pm #551165

Qustinnus wrote:
Flatulent wrote:low intensity combat, no weapons, bad movement, barely any exploration in this game

its just eye candy nothing more imo, didn't like the gameplay at all

its clearly a well crafted eye candy game and there was a lot of effort put into it but vr half life is not my style i'd rather just play doot eternal instead
Have you actually played it? I get the people who say low intensity combat just watched someone play it and forget that actually fighting in a dark room against 8 headcrabs is far more intense when you are actually in the situation

i played until the end of 3rd chapter at friends home and didnt touch it for more than that because it was too boring

i wouldnt be fighting 8 headcrabs in hl2 for 2 minutes, i'd just kill them all quick and wouldn't bother with them at all

Post by **MMMiracles** » Tue Mar 24, 2020 3:42 pm #551178

I think the problem is that Alyx seems to play more like a horror game with a shooter element, rather than vice versa. I came in expecting a VR shooter but instead got spooked. I don't think this is bad because I really dig the creepy atmosphere of the abandoned places with the xen flora taking over while giant-ass headcrabs skitter across into a vent to jump your later.

Tue Mar 24, 2020 6:11 pm

I actually really enjoyed the combat. In particular, fighting combine and manhacks is great. Combine are good at taking cover and poking so you'll have to do a lot of maneuvering, which consists of leaping in and out of cover with the smooth jump thing to get up close to them, and the fact that they're actually super lethal means there's a real drama to taking them out before they can shoot at you too much. That section of the game where the combine heavies are first introduced was really cool about this.
Manhacks are great because they're just fucking flying around at mach 5 and you feel like the fastest draw in the west when you can double tap em in an instant before they can reach you.

Also can I just gush about the gunplay? Honestly I think this game has the cleanest gunplay of any VR game I've played yet, beating even pavlov and boneworks. I felt like I could actually hit the things that I aimed at more often than not. Crazy recoil in pavlov is really funny but not very good for tight gameplay (there's a lot of shoot-wait-shoot-wait for readjusting aim after almost every shot), while in Alyx I could draw my gun and just start hitting things immediately. Boneworks has the whole "everything is a physics object even you and your weapons!" which is really really cool but made aiming a major pain in the ass when it came time to move and shoot. Also HOLY SHIT A SATISFYING SHOTGUN IN A HALF LIFE GAME
Also this game has the most consistent "throw it over your shoulder" mechanic as of yet. I can't tell you how many times I've dropped something on the ground behind me when it should have strapped to my back in boneworks/pavlov. In Alyx I recall only ever dropping 2 resins so far.
I really hope that these polished mechanics in Alyx can become the standard.

cacogen · Post by **cacogen** » Tue Mar 24, 2020 7:56 pm #551211

PKPenguin321 wrote:HOLY SHIT A SATISFYING SHOTGUN IN A HALF LIFE GAME

the spas-12 wasn't?

Qustinnus · Post by **Qustinnus** » Tue Mar 24, 2020 8:05 pm #551212

spoilers for my boy Jeff ahead (chapter 7)

Spoiler:

Post by **zxaber** » Wed Mar 25, 2020 2:40 am #551293

PKPenguin321 wrote:Also this game has the most consistent "throw it over your shoulder" mechanic as of yet. I can't tell you how many times I've dropped something on the ground behind me when it should have strapped to my back in boneworks/pavlov. In Alyx I recall only ever dropping 2 resins so far.

Weird, I honestly have been having slight trouble with it. Granted, it's just me being sloppy, but I never have issues swapping weapons in Pavlov. I started crossing over to access my backpack from my right shoulder until I kept grabbing my gas mask by mistake.

Also, the default controls were actually causing me pain. It was my biggest gripe so far until I remembered I could go into the SteamVR settings and rebind everything to be more Pavlov-like. At least linking movement direction to the left hand seems to be catching on.

Other than that, it's a really polished experience so far. I was slightly skeptical about the gravity gloves, but they're actually really cool.

Mickyan · Post by **Mickyan** » Wed Mar 25, 2020 4:02 am #551305

I did not expect a half life game to be such a consistent challenge, playing on hard despite counting my shots and looting everything I'm always moments away from running out of ammo. Coupled with enemies being very lethal you have to constantly balance between shooting fast and shooting accurately

Qustinnus wrote:yes and you feel bad for killing it because it starts making whining noises and stops fighting back (worst part: you need to kill it)

That made me feel so bad but also fuck those guys they're so annoying to kill

Stickymayhem · Wed Oct 13, 2021 6:17 pm

I have not seen an opinion in this thread, good or bad, that I don't agree with.

Qustinnus · Post by **Qustinnus** » Thu Mar 26, 2020 7:38 pm #551538

I just finished Alyx so some spoilers below.

Spoiler:

terranaut · Post by **terranaut** » Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:03 pm #551541

https://mobile.twitter.com/Aye_Blin/sta ... 2743665664

cacogen · Post by **cacogen** » Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:50 pm #551553

how many retcons did they have to pull to make the new technology/weapons/enemies make sense in a prequel

HommandoSA · Post by **HommandoSA** » Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:14 pm #551559

Overall it's decent and a very fine start to AAA VR development. One big weakness is using the hacking tool to follow wires around, it's not particularly engaging and after the first couple of puzzles the gimmick gets tedious. The gunplay is fun enough, the game is clearly leaning towards survival horror more than a shooter. The biggest disappointment is the lack of melee, the first enemy I encountered I put the gun away and went full Ippo on a zombie only to have my punches do nothing. I hope if there's a next time for Valve they'll work through whatever problems they had with melee.

Now $60 is a steep cost and if I didn't get the game for free I don't think I'd have bought it for full price. Even if this game is currently the gold standard for a full length VR game, I'd price it at $30 max. I would consider Alyx a must have game for VR, just wait for a sale. I can't see myself playing through this game more than twice, once for the experience and once for achievements. I hope the game is successful enough to pull in interest from other AAA developers, VR already has good tech and is getting more accessible every year, it just needs less games running on a gimmicks and more content with fully developed features.

Qustinnus · Post by **Qustinnus** » Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:31 pm #551562

HommandoSA wrote:Overall it's decent and a very fine start to AAA VR development. One big weakness is using the hacking tool to follow wires around, it's not particularly engaging and after the first couple of puzzles the gimmick gets tedious. The gunplay is fun enough, the game is clearly leaning towards survival horror more than a shooter. The biggest disappointment is the lack of melee, the first enemy I encountered I put the gun away and went full Ippo on a zombie only to have my punches do nothing. I hope if there's a next time for Valve they'll work through whatever problems they had with melee.

Now $60 is a steep cost and if I didn't get the game for free I don't think I'd have bought it for full price. Even if this game is currently the gold standard for a full length VR game, I'd price it at $30 max. I would consider Alyx a must have game for VR, just wait for a sale. I can't see myself playing through this game more than twice, once for the experience and once for achievements. I hope the game is successful enough to pull in interest from other AAA developers, VR already has good tech and is getting more accessible every year, it just needs less games running on a gimmicks and more content with fully developed features.

What? I loved the hacking tool. They made such good use of the environment to really make it work. Like when

Spoiler:

Anyways I consider 60 bucks worth it, the production cost for making VR titles is quite higher than regular games and the market is smaller

Post by **MMMiracles** » Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:17 pm #551711

[youtube]QFPLieBpiU8[/youtube]

where were you when people found the dev tools that turns alyx into a regular fps

Qbmax32 · Post by **Qbmax32** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 1:23 am #551778

i realize the title says no spoilers but can we talk about the ending holy shit

Spoiler:

Qustinnus · Post by **Qustinnus** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 11:09 am #551813

Qbmax32 wrote:i realize the title says no spoilers but can we talk about the ending holy shit

Spoiler:
i sort of expected what to find in the vault during the last 30 minutes but it was still a fucking awesome reveal and judging by the post credits scene im assuming that valve is going to be working on another half life title

Spoiler:

Super Aggro Crag · Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:36 pm

Spoiler:

see you boys in 2033

Mickyan · Post by **Mickyan** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:46 pm #551825

Spoiler:

HommandoSA · Post by **HommandoSA** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:34 pm #551834

Finished the game. I enjoyed all of the sections where you had to fight the Combine, hiding behind cover and blasting enemies before they can flank you felt very good. I hope that whatever comes next tones down the scavenging and ups the action.

Qbopper · Post by **Qbopper** » Sun Mar 29, 2020 5:36 pm #552081

I hate horror so a lot of this game was difficult for me (and I played it in a basement at a friend's house where I cannot fucking reach over my head, which made one wire puzzle nearly unplayable) but it was really good. I do not like some of the concessions they made to make the game appeal to new VR users, though I agree they were the right move - I'm just disappointed by how trivially easy the game was since I have VR experience

The gravity gloves were great and the music was incredible - can't comment on object fidelity because I have a rift CV1 so shit was unfortunately pretty blurry

spoiler talk below, do not open if you care

Spoiler:

good game, decent length, very well polished, pathetically easy - there was very little demand for mechanical skill, it's almost entirely "can you walk through the scary parts" based difficulty for me - but it was a good time and I look forward to more games of this quality for VR that have a brand name attached (so gamers will stop crying about how VR has no games when it has plenty of games, they just aren't big name ones. don't talk about doom vfr doom vfr was the worst game i've ever bought)

HommandoSA wrote:Finished the game. I enjoyed all of the sections where you had to fight the Combine, hiding behind cover and blasting enemies before they can flank you felt very good. I hope that whatever comes next tones down the scavenging and ups the action.

the scavenging was one of the most compelling parts of the game for me and I would much rather that they make it more mechanically interesting than to strip it down

it gives you a chance to explore the absurdly detailed environments, and picking shit up with the gravity gloves could be its own fuckin game as far as i'm concerned

Mon Mar 30, 2020 1:21 am

Qbopper wrote:picking shit up with the gravity gloves could be its own fuckin game as far as i'm concerned

People don't talk about this enough, and people who are anti-VR miss this part the most. I will give that it's really hard to talk about because it's so reliant on feeling.

cacogen · Post by **cacogen** » Mon Mar 30, 2020 11:12 pm #552271

does alyx have a bunch of shit that's conspicuously absent in the later games or what

HommandoSA · Post by **HommandoSA** » Mon Mar 30, 2020 11:52 pm #552276

cacogen wrote:does alyx have a bunch of shit that's conspicuously absent in the later games or what

She stops making lewd hand gestures and drawing dicks on the wall in the other games.

Mickyan · Post by **Mickyan** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 12:23 am #552278

Spoiler:

cacogen · Post by **cacogen** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:34 am #552282

gordon takes the mantle by chiselling them into the wall and throwing things at people with his mind instead

Qustinnus · Post by **Qustinnus** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 9:36 am #552335

cacogen wrote:does alyx have a bunch of shit that's conspicuously absent in the later games or what

a friend called russell and magic gloves

cacogen · Post by **cacogen** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 6:31 pm #552394

glad to hear rhys darby is still coasting off his fotc role