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Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:54 pm
by Qustinnus
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?
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:32 pm
by Qustinnus
also mandatory get dabbed on
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:49 pm
by Mickyan
Best marker drawing simulator since Duke Nukem Forever
It's good though, impressive physics as is expected
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 12:12 am
by MMMiracles
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.
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 12:31 am
by Super Aggro Crag
is there a new alien
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:00 am
by bobbahbrown
so far the lore additions alone have been fantastic the graphic design feels amazing valve really hit it out of the park
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:08 am
by Mickyan
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
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 3:10 am
by PKPenguin321
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
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 3:46 am
by Super Aggro Crag
will we get a hl3
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 9:33 am
by Stickymayhem
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
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 9:34 am
by Stickymayhem
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.
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 10:55 am
by Flatulent
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
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 11:49 am
by cacogen
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
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:25 pm
by Tabski
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.
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:42 pm
by Qustinnus
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)
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:44 pm
by Qustinnus
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
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 3:04 pm
by Flatulent
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
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 3:42 pm
by MMMiracles
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.
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 6:11 pm
by PKPenguin321
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.
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 7:56 pm
by cacogen
PKPenguin321 wrote:HOLY SHIT A SATISFYING SHOTGUN IN A HALF LIFE GAME
the spas-12 wasn't?
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2020 8:05 pm
by Qustinnus
spoilers for my boy Jeff ahead (chapter 7)
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 2:40 am
by zxaber
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.
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 4:02 am
by Mickyan
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
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 10:18 am
by Stickymayhem
I have not seen an opinion in this thread, good or bad, that I don't agree with.
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 7:38 pm
by Qustinnus
I just finished Alyx so some spoilers below.
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:03 pm
by terranaut
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:50 pm
by cacogen
how many retcons did they have to pull to make the new technology/weapons/enemies make sense in a prequel
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:14 pm
by HommandoSA
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.
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:31 pm
by Qustinnus
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
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
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:17 pm
by MMMiracles
[youtube]QFPLieBpiU8[/youtube]
where were you when people found the dev tools that turns alyx into a regular fps
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 1:23 am
by Qbmax32
i realize the title says no spoilers but can we talk about the ending holy shit
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 11:09 am
by Qustinnus
Qbmax32 wrote:i realize the title says no spoilers but can we talk about the ending holy shit
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:36 pm
by Super Aggro Crag
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:46 pm
by Mickyan
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:34 pm
by HommandoSA
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.
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 5:36 pm
by Qbopper
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
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
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 1:21 am
by PKPenguin321
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.
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 11:12 pm
by cacogen
does alyx have a bunch of shit that's conspicuously absent in the later games or what
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 11:52 pm
by HommandoSA
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.
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 12:23 am
by Mickyan
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:34 am
by cacogen
gordon takes the mantle by chiselling them into the wall and throwing things at people with his mind instead
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 9:36 am
by Qustinnus
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
Re: Half life:alyx thread (but we try to avoid story spoilers)
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 6:31 pm
by cacogen
glad to hear rhys darby is still coasting off his fotc role