like near field interactions with AIs and melee combat) the “Valve treatment”, then this could truly be an expression of the revolution in gaming that VR so often purports to be (and, let’s be honest, many of us into VR are just as enamoured by its potential vs with what we actually have now). It is remarkable to me how good HLA is despite its mechanical shortcomings, so if they can now give VR mechanics (e.g. They have a massive opportunity here given their position.
In the past they could not justify it because flat users just speed right past everything–absurd amounts of developer time/investment would just be ignored. they were specifically talking about this in the Eurogamer interview the other day where they described how delighted they were that they could justify adding so many details and nuaces to VR environments because users actually bothered to look and fiddle with them (and, just as important, that behavior did not go away over time–it wasn’t just the VR honeymoon). In addition, Valve’s argument is that VR does something for gaming that the flat interface cannot (even with Valve’s rather limited mechanics in HLA, it would still be a very boring experience on a flat screen) and that there are such dramatic differences between the two that it doesn’t make sense to make a cross-medium product. IMO, short of some revolution in AI or something, we’ve basically exhausted the flat medium to the point that a flat H元 would never live up to the hype (and AI developments are independent of the medium/interface anyway).
Why would Valve spend a decade on platform development, R&D, hardware, and now software only to make their most anticipated title a flat game? Especially now after the success of HLA with critics and users? There are many rumors and leaks that Valve had attempted to make H元 in the past (even a project database leak with a project titled “H元” and that featured a large roster of well known names) but they couldn’t pull it off.
I keep reading people saying things like “Valve won’t make H元 VR exclusive.” That seems absurd to me. Instead, the developers told us that the studio was waiting to see what the public’s reaction to Half-Life: Alyx was before it would commit to more VR games. The studio told us that, in fact, there weren’t two other VR games currently in development.
We spoke with Valve ahead of the launch of Half-Life: Alyx and asked it the studio was still working on the other two VR games of the “three full games” it had confirmed were in development back in 2017. “We’ve got work to do.” | Captured by Road to VR Had they simply wanted to allude to future Half-Life titles not in VR I very much doubt they would have done it this way. There was distinct lack of any crowbars in main portion of Half-Life: Alyx itself, and Valve clearly wanted to wait for this scene to give the player the opportunity to hold one. There’s no doubt in my mind that Valve is telling us with this scene that they want to make not just more Half-Life, but specifically more Half-Life in VR… maybe even Half-Life 2: Episode 3, or even Half-Life 3, considering the way they set the stage with this scene. Eli is angry and wants to set off right away apparently to rescue Alyx and hands Gordon his iconic crowbar saying “Come on Gordon, we’ve got work to do.” As the player, you grab the crowbar and hold it for just a brief moment before the scene fades out. While at the end of Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Gordon and Alyx were just about to head off to find and destroy the research vessel Borealis, this time Alyx is nowhere in sight. If you wait out the credits, you return to the scene where Eli was just saved, this time as Gordon Freeman. She does, and prevents the death of her father, Eli Vance. G-Man shows Alyx that fateful day in her future and gives her the chance to change the outcome. The end of Half-Life: Alyx very significantly changes the ending of Half-Life 2: Episode 2. So you’ve either finished the game already, or aren’t bothered by serious spoilers. If you haven’t finished Half-Life: Alyx we suggest you read no further, but do be sure to check out wait until after the game’s credits to see a key additional scene. But, Valve has left a very significant tease that the game won’t be the last Half-Life VR game.īefore we get started, here’s your SPOILER WARNING. The worst part about the game? After waiting so long, it’s over all too soon. Half-Life: Alyx launched on Monday to critical acclaim.