Alyx. The game that maximizes the potential of VR – review

Sweet return to the world of Half-Life

The actions of the new “Half” unfold five years before the events Half-life 2. Nineteen-year-old Alix Vance has not yet met Gordon Freeman, but she is already fighting the Alliance with her father. During one of the sabotage, something goes wrong, and the father is taken prisoner. Without thinking twice, the heroine goes to the rescue, armed with a barrel and gravel gloves. The latter allows Alix to attract various objects, and this is very convenient in VR: often it is not necessary to approach useful objects. It is enough to point your hand towards something and with a sharp wave of the brush, draw it towards you. At the same time, the companion Russell, the creator of our fashionable device, constantly hangs out in connection with the heroine. He tells where to go, and relieves the situation with a joke.

Alix and Russell come up with a “selling” name for a multi-tool

And such a discharge is sometimes very relevant, because the game juggles the atmosphere in an amazing way. Here you are in the scoop pad of one of the houses of City 17. Everything is entourage: an elevator, a garbage chute, a cigarette butt smokes on the stairs in an ashtray. It was as if guys were sitting here yesterday and sipping a beer of the Moldvinprom brand (the real name is from Alyx). And here you go down a flight below – and from the darkness a poisonous headcrab jumps at you. Yes, yes, right on your head, moving your nasty hairy legs, and this, recall, in VR, where you and the character are literally one.

Breathtaking except for jokes

But not just scrimmers scare you here. In some places Alyx achieves such an immersion that it becomes terribly worse than in Ravenholm. There is a separate bow to sound designers. At the right moments, the music disappears, the buzz of transformers becomes louder, and somewhere in the ventilation above you with an terrible scream an unknown crap runs through. And Alix, among other things, is also afraid of the dark, which he repeatedly tells Russell. With all this, you need to search locations for anything useful. In Alyx you can find cartridges, grenades or first-aid kit syringes anywhere. And since Alix Vance has no mount, you have to rummage through each toilet. Literally.

Dirty tricks

Where are you, where?

And here you have to look not only for stocks, but also all sorts of useful things like tar. With her help, Alix pumps his weapon. There is very little of it in the game – a gun, a shotgun and a rifle – but the canopies on them significantly affect the gameplay. The queue mode on the pistol allows you to quickly deal with annoying headcrabs, the laser sight on the rifle makes it more effective to fire from shelters, and the grenade compartment on the shotgun frees up the cell in the inventory.

Well, as in the inventory. Instead of the usual roomy backpack, Alix has one compartment in each glove, from which you need to pull out objects with your free hand. That is, if you stuffed the first-aid kit into the left glove, then you need to reach for it with your right hand and pull out the syringe. Because of this, by the way, funny situations arise. If you have a barrel in your right hand, then you will have to remove it first to free your hand. Therefore, it is better to think over the arrangement of objects in the “pockets” in advance, and because of the limited capacity, do not forget where and what you left along the way. It’s time to come back for some grenade more than once.

In addition to the resin for upgrades, we will have to look for special jars with bugs that activate automatic machines with a heal, as well as power sources of various Alliance equipment. Carrying all this stuff, by the way, can be done simply in the hands of, like, by the way, almost any item in the game. However, in this case, you should always keep in mind that if you have another bank in your hands, it will be difficult, but real, to fight off enemies from it.

Returning to technology, with Alyx it is not so simple. It is trite to find a power source and shove it wherever you need to. The equipment must also be hacked. And here it comes in handy that Alix is ​​the daughter of a scientist who, in her spare time, developed an extremely useful multi-tool.

Hacking itself is a set of mini-games that get complicated as you progress through. To open the Alliance locker with additional cartridges, you need to turn the ball with one hand, and with the other try to connect the blue rays with a multi-tool. To neutralize the stretch, you have to lead the blue ball through the rings. The most difficult and at the same time fascinating to us was the process of hacking a device for upgrading weapons. There you need to move the balls so that the rays coming out of them pass through all the points. And to make it work, you need to consider devices from all sides. But in VR, this means that you really move around and inspect the details from one side or the other.

Convenience and inconvenience VR

And here we are gradually approaching how all this is played. Just say, dear Valve index in our country it’s unrealistic to get it, so we went through the game on HTC Vive first revision. We did not notice any global problems. Yes, sometimes there were glitches on the level downloads – an unpleasant flicker appeared. Several times the game fell and we had to restart, but on the whole, from a technical point of view, we had no complaints about the helmet or the stability of Alyx itself.

As for the detail and graphics. Then everything is on top. There are enough resolutions in 2160×1200 so that the picture does not fall apart into pixels, but Valve designers tried to make the picture at least not inferior to modern requirements. And the point here is not even in detail, but in the approach to the little things and the study of literally every element of the location, which in combination with VR gave an incredible depth of immersion. Perhaps, the first techno-demos from the same Valve caused the same sensations in us.

As for the controls, let’s say this: perhaps in Index, where finger movements are tracked, everything is a little different, but on Vive we can only find fault with the inconvenient “Menu” button on the inside of the left controller. But a similar store reset button on the right joystick is like a native one. And this is an important point. When you need to quickly reload the gun, you squeeze the button with your ring finger, take off the empty clip, put your left hand behind your back, take a new magazine, insert it into the gun and distort the shutter. It sounds complicated, but in reality everything happens so naturally that you literally feel all the movements of the character. And if you also have a headcrab on your face at that time …

Wanna kiss?

We will separately talk about the movement system. Unlike many other VR projects, Alyx does not lock in a room where you can stomp to every corner in the real world. Therefore, the game actively uses the teleport system. That is, for example, you need to get to some kind of box, you take aim and jump to the desired point. And there you can already walk around and look around. In general, the mechanics are not new and work well. But for those who do not like teleporters, Valve has provided a sliding system, which, however, will require you to have a very strong vestibular apparatus.

However, some basic things are not implemented in Alyx in the best way. Some mini-games with multi-tools require too much free space. For example, when you have to scan walls and floors with a joystick in search of wiring, in the real world you literally knock everything around you. And at first you really hit your helmet when you throw cartridges and tar behind your back. You can still beat the helmet in episodes when Alix closes his mouth and nose with his hand so as not to breathe fumes. It seems like a cool immersive feature, and the controller’s knock on Vive spoils it.

Also, Valve did not take into account the fact that the helmet is a heavy thing and it slides when you want to look under your feet or at the ceiling. The latter, by the way, causes a lot of inconvenience when meeting with barnacles. If you are captured, you have to hold equipment in the real world with one hand, and to heal the enemy with the other.

The most hated opponents

Shooting: from hate to love

But shooting at Alyx implemented very worthy. Of course, for the first seven or eight hours you spit, because you don’t understand how to aim or how to move normally. But, when you master with control, throw body kits on the guns, skirmishes gain a second life.

By the way, one has to fight with a variety of opponents, and each battle has its own tactics. Ordinary soldiers drive off with a few hits, the armored can use the energy shield, and they must be hit on the head. Monsters also have a system of vulnerabilities: an ant lion needs to shoot off its limbs, and an armored head crab needs to be shot in the belly. Often, if you look around you can find fuel barrels and save ammunition.

Separately, it is worth noting how Valve once again approached the player’s training. When you are given a new weapon, several simulated situations come with it in which you can use it. Found an automatic machine – here’s a bunch of zombies for you, shoot, feel the bestowal. Gave a grenade – here’s a tower, five or six goals, have fun. In VR, this is especially important, because physics is, by and large, still new. But developers can’t mock you. For example, you understand how to neutralize stretch marks. Okay, here’s the only one for you behind the closed door. The first time you die, you will be more circumspect.

Half-Life: Alyx is definitely a success. The game masterfully, tastefully reveals the potential of VR-devices. For 21 hours there were practically no boring and subsiding moments of pace. Always something new: new puzzles, new types of enemies and ways to deal with them.

Valve undertook to make the next revolution a controversial and controversial decision, and she succeeded. Remember all this skepticism after the announcement? There was no trace of him.

Pleased

• dynamic skirmishes;
• realizing the potential of VR;
• amazing detailing of locations;
• well-developed dialogs and good humor,
• fascinating story and powerful ending.

Afflicted

• slight difficulties with Vive;
• sore legs after a long gaming session.

How we played

In what: key purchased by the publisher.

On what: Steam VR, HTC Vive.

How many: 21 hours

Editors Achievement

Bloody gaming

Fighting off the Alliance, breaking a hand to the blood against the wall

Verdict

Half-Life: Alyx brings back long-forgotten emotions and gives them a new dimension. This is definitely the game that every fan of the series needs to familiarize themselves with – it’s only a pity that it will cost incredible money.