13 important points we know about Half-Life: Alyx

Finally, a new Half-Life title has been announced. While it’s not quite Half-Life 3, it still brings a lot of excitement. Here’s the release date, duration, and which popular Half-Life characters will return.

1. Release date is March 2020

You can play Half-Life: Alynx in March 2020, but a specific date has not been chosen. The game will cost $60, but is completely free for those who own the Valve Index VR headset.

2. Valve’s biggest project

This is the largest working group Valve has ever created to develop a game. This game has been in development for a long time.

“Half-Life: Alyx is the biggest game team we’ve ever had,” said Valve Designer Greg Coomer. “About a third of the people on this project have worked on previous Half-Life games, some as far back as the first Half-Life.” Coomer added that new elements, including members acquired from developer Campo Santo (Firewatch game), have “played an important role in providing a fresh look, which is considered very important in the game. this progress.”

“We weren’t planning on making a Half-Life game at first,” Half-Life: Alyx programmer Robin Walker told IGN. Valve started experimenting with VR with assets from Half-Life and Portal, but Portal’s migrations weren’t suitable for VR. So they chose Half-Life.

At first, it was just a short VR experience for Half-Life, but things changed drastically when it received reactions from testers. “When we started letting people play the 15-minute prototype,” Walker told Geoff Keighley, “they spent 45 minutes doing a lot of things that we didn’t expect… they did a lot of things… which we have never seen players do on a 2D computer screen, a desktop environment.”

3. Configuration requirements of Half-Life: Alyx

LOWEST CONFIGURATION:
Operating System: Windows 10
CPU: Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600
Memory: 12 GB RAM
GPU: GTX 1060 / RX 580 – 6GB VRAM

4. This is a true Half-Life game, and about the same length as Half-Life 2

Valve promises that Half-Life: Alyx will include “all the hallmarks of the classic Half-Life” including “world exploration, puzzles, combat, and an interwoven storyline that connects iconic characters from the series.” Half-Life world.” The plot takes place between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Alyx and her father Eli secretly form a resistance force against the brutal Combine alien forces that are occupying the Earth.” As Alyx, players will confront the Combine to save the future of humanity.”

Welcome back to City 17. A screenshot shows the Combine’s fortress, the Citadel, under construction with helicopters moving large pieces of metal towards it. Another screenshot shows the Metrocops pointing their guns at Alyx while the city scanner, one of the imaging robots from Half-Life 2, flies behind them. We also see Combine barriers blocking the streets.

Some people predicted that Half-Life: Alyx might be a short demo for Valve’s new VR hardware, the Valve Index, but it’s actually the full game. According to the studio, internal test participants completed Half-Life: Alyx in about the same time as Half-Life 2. Valve designer Greg Coomer also added that some players ” spent more time exploring and interacting with the environment.” We’re talking 20 hours of gameplay, which is quite a number – especially for a VR game.

5. The first Half-Life game with the main character voice acting

Half-Life hero Gordon Freeman never said a word. But Alyx will talk a lot when you control her in Half-Life: Alyx. “From the beginning, we decided that it was important to have a different feel to pilot Alyx than to control Gordon Freeman,” Coomer said. “Alyx is an active conversationalist, easily bringing the story into the game in many natural ways, and as a result the game’s plot is told in greater detail throughout the game.”

6. New actor will play Alyx

While Alyx was played by Merle Dandridge in Half-Life 2, the younger version of the character in Half-Life: Alyx has been recast. This time, Alyx will be played by Ozioma Akagha, an actor who has appeared in many games such as Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst. “Choosing actors is extremely difficult, especially when time is very tight,” Coomer said. “But when we listened to Ozioma’s performance, we knew we had found the right Alyx.”

7. G-Man and other familiar characters return

Perhaps not too surprising: a Half-Life game can’t be without the mysterious G-Man character. G-Man also appeared in Half-Life games without Gordon Freeman, Half-Life: Opposing Force and Blue Shift. This time, G-Man will continue to be voiced by Mike Shapiro.

We will see the return of the alien creature Vortigaunts, still voiced by Tony Todd. Ellen McClain (voice of GLaDOS in the Portal series) will return to voice the sinister robotic voice of Combine Overwatch.

Alyx’s father, Eli Vance, will be present, but the character will change actors due to the death of the original actor (Robert Guillaume died in 2017). “Eli’s new voice, James Moses Black, will take over the role,” Coomer said. “We’ve been delighted with his performance and are looking forward to the players’ experience.” Black has appeared in This is Us and 24: Legacy, among other films and TV series.

Other roles are voiced by Rhys Darby (Flight of the Concords) and Cissy Jones (Firewatch).

8. Alyx Will Have Gravity Gloves

Before the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator was invented and given to Gordon Freeman in Half-Life 2, Alyx had gravity gauntlets. We can assume that it works like a gravity gun: lifting, pulling and throwing objects. But you can do much more in VR. The screenshot also shows it showing Alyx’s health – 3 hearts shown on the left gauntlet.

9. Marc Laidlaw also participated in some part

The first Half-Life screenwriter Marc Laidlaw left Valve in 2016 after 18 years with the company, so he won’t be leading the team on Half-Life: Alyx. “As with all Valve games, the script is a combination of the scriptwriter and the animation experts, actors, and level designers to bring the story into the game,” Coomer said. “While Marc is no longer working directly on Half-Life: Alyx (maybe he’s enjoying the beach somewhere), he’s still very enthusiastic in answering any questions new screenwriters have during development. games.”

10. The game will have a headcrab

The idea of ​​headcrabs jumping on you in VR sounds horrible, so they’ll be present in Half-Life: Alyx. “A little-known fact is that it would be very wrong to have a Half-Life game without a headcrab,” Coomer said. “Besides, the only reason we’ve invested so many years of time, money, and effort into VR is to be able to get the headcrab to jump on people’s faces.”

According to the description on the game’s Steam page, you can remove the headcrab from your face and throw it at the Combine soldiers.

11. Gabe Newell is very excited

“Virtual reality energizes us,” said the Valve founder. “We have invested a lot in technology. But we are game developers by nature, and putting our heart into an ambitious VR game like this excites us. Especially since the new game is a Half-Life game, it brings together many of the things our team care about: top-notch game quality, cutting-edge technology, and open platforms.” It feels strange to hear Gabe Newell open and frank about the game Half-Life.

12. You can play games with any VR headset for PC

Half-Life: Alyx is of course optimized for the Valve Index and its controllers, but Valve doesn’t tie that to the only hardware you can play the game on. The game will be compatible with HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Quest if wired to the PC.

The game also supports room scale (play while moving), play standing, or play sitting, and includes 3 movement mechanisms: teleportation, “shift” (meaning you “move smoothly” between the games. point), and move and run normally with the analog stick.

Those who own the Valve Index kit, which includes the controller, will receive Half-Life: Alyx for free. Those who own the Index before the end of 2019 will have several bonuses, including “alternative gun skins for Alyx”.

The game will still be compatible with Steam Workshop. “The Source 2 tools for building new levels still apply to the game, allowing players to build and contribute to the community. Hammer, Valve’s level builder, has been updated with all of the game’s VR tools.”

For those wondering if Half-Life: Alyx will have a non-VR version, the answer is no. “This process is too complicated to do… we would have to dedicate a whole part of the keyboard just to interact with the doors if we want them to work the same way in VR.” Valve’s Dario Casali told Geoff Keighley. “The more we explored these mechanics, the more the team realized that if we put them on keyboard and mouse, a lot of those interactions would have to be removed, and testing showed them to be so important that we thought the game couldn’t be played. without them.”

13. Half-Life: Alyx probably won’t be the last Half-Life game in the near future

The prequel Half-Life: Alyx is not Half-Life 3. However, that does not mean that part 3 will not be.

The Verge asked designer David Speyrer if Half-Life would make a full return, as Valve brought the name back after a long period of silence. “Unsurprisingly, many Valve members have been wanting to return to the Half-Life universe for a long time,” said Speyrer, “and this experience will only reinforce that,” he explained that Valve has discover the many ways to tell stories in the world of Half-Life and experience the new gameplay they can create for players.

“Of course, we’ll have to wait and see how people react to Half-Life: Alyx when it comes out, but we want to keep moving forward,” Speyrer said.

By PC Gamer