Since release Portal 2, the last major plot game Valve, nine years have passed, and to be honest, we no longer believed that the company was capable of releasing something really cool.
Despite the rumors, the announcement Half-Life: Alyx exclusively for virtual reality helmets was for many a complete surprise, but if you think about it, then VR – This is the most logical step for the studio, from which everyone expects only truly breakthrough projects.
Alyx is a full-fledged and very large game in the Half-Life universe, the passage of which took me almost 20 hours of real time. The plot unfolds before the events of the second part and talks about the adventures of Alix Vance. Together with her father Eli and engineer Russell, she is trying to thwart the plans of the alien civilization Alliance, which seized control of the Earth and all of humanity.
The story is presented in the usual manner for Valve – during the gameplay with a view from the eyes, when events and characters are part of an interactive scene. But, unlike Gordon Freeman, the main character is fully voiced and takes an active part in dialogues.
She comments on the environment, worries about her father, is scared of the darkness or a suddenly appeared headcrab, and actively communicates with Russell via a wireless headset – right during the gameplay. All this makes the rather simple story lively and fills the levels with the necessary scenario motivation.
Conversations can go on abstract topics that dilute the process of studying locations, but most often dialogues are directly related to the plot. You will learn more about life in the world under the oppression of alien invaders, how people “in the old days” prepared burgers, the etymology of the word “quarantine” and so on. Sometimes Alix asks Russell to talk to her so that it is not so scary to walk through a dark dungeon.
The authors of the game maintain a neat balance between dialogs and quiet research, disabling voice communication at the right moments. This preserves the corporate atmosphere of loneliness, the decline of civilization and the totalitarian regime. Therefore, fans of Eastern European anti-utopia with Soviet posters, GAZ cars and round televisions will be satisfied in any case.
Artists brilliantly worked on the surroundings, filling the world with many small details. From the very beginning it becomes clear that this is a new generation VR game. This level of development in virtual reality projects has never been in the industry before.
Empty streets and quarantined zones look photorealistic, surfaces have a voluminous texture, trees cast complex shadows on their surroundings, three-dimensional lighting plays beautifully on dilapidated facades, puddles and polygonal paving stones.
Animation on top. Grass sways from the wind and the heroine’s hands, almost all the objects in the frame have well-developed physics, the roof tiles of buildings crumble under the weight of striders who pull long wires behind them, and huge metal installations spectacularly send energy charges to the Alliance’s flying fortress.
At the same time, VR allows you to perfectly feel the scale of alien structures.
Competent work with sound and chiaroscuro, monsters and a limited number of first-aid kits and cartridges turn the game into a real horror. The episodes were very atmospheric, in which Alix was in complete darkness, surrounded by zombies, barnacles and headcrabs. A dim flashlight attached to the heroine’s left mechanical glove illuminates only a small area, and you have to reload the weapon by touch.
Virtual reality enhances immersion many times, and you really feel the atmosphere of the joyless world of Half-Life. The mechanics involve simulating a real reload with manually resetting the empty clip and other actions in the chain. In the dark, it is scary, unusual and exciting at the same time, but the game doses tension, therefore, unlike Resident evil 7Alyx really pass without validol.
Of course, the idea of realistic control with a unique reload of each weapon and physical activation of various mechanisms is preserved and supplemented by new elements, but the levels themselves are constantly changing. Scriptwriters competently alternate open areas in the fresh air, dark cellars and enclosed spaces – all of them smoothly pass into each other, connecting the world together.
Game designers do not forget about unexpected interactive moments, including when plans collapse and characters are forced to act quickly.
The levels go one after another, connecting at the loading points of a new area in a manner Half-life 2. At the same time, from far away you almost always see those areas where you have already been or will be in a few hours, and on the downloads a three-dimensional map of the city is displayed with highlighting of all previously visited locations.
Thus, the developers create a sense of the whole world and your immediate presence in it, plunging deeper into the setting.
