Today is a day many thought would never come. After 13 years of radio silence from Valve, it seemed like a new Half-Life game would never actually happen, but that is exactly what’s happened with today’s launch of Half-Life: Alyx. It may not be the direct sequel to Half-Life 2 fans have been waiting for since 2007, but if the reviews are any indication, the virtual reality prequel is still very much worth the wait.
Since the game was announced just a few months ago, Valve has hyped Alyx as a showcase for the latest advancements in VR game design, promising players the freedom to interact with the objects, characters, and enemies in its world with a level of physics-based depth unlike anything seen in VR before. And it seems Valve has made good on that promise, as the first review for Half-Life: Alyx had pretty much nothing but praise for what the developer has achieved.
It just so turns out that that’s basically the general consensus among all of the other professional outlets that have had a chance to review the game ahead of today’s launch.
VG24/7 (Kirk McKeand)
You’d be forgiven for thinking Half-Life: Alyx isn’t a proper Half-Life game. This is a prequel for one thing, exclusive to VR – surely its place in the story and its limited audience mean this is something you can skip over. It is not. Alyx isn’t only an essential experience, it’s a key piece of the Half-Life story.
Score: 10/10
IGN (Dan Stapleton)
Back when VR first became a real thing and we all started spitballing which game worlds we’d most like to be fully immersed in, Half-Life topped my list (tied with BioShock). It took a few years, but Half-Life: Alyx has more than realized that potential. With it, Valve has set a new bar for VR in interactivity, detail, and level design, showing what can happen when a world-class developer goes all-in on the new frontier of technology. In a lot of ways, it feels like a game from the future, and one that the rest of VR gaming will likely take a good long while to match, much less surpass.
Score: 10/10
Kotaku (Nathan Grayson)
Half-Life: Alyx reaches some astoundingly high heights while also managing to be both too ambitious and too conservative for its own good. At different points, it tries to be VR’s long-heralded, Gordon Freeman-esque savior full of fresh ideas about how VR can transform video games with inventive and immersive mechanics, proof that VR can fall in line with traditional action games meant for entirely different interfaces, and a triumphantly nostalgic return to the Half-Life universe. It is not surprising that these goals sometimes conflict with each other.
Score: Unscored
PC Gamer (Christopher Livingston)
Before Alyx, I never used VR for more than 30 minutes at a time. I don't get motion sick but I do get generally tired of VR. Tired of having a hunk of plastic strapped to my face, of having to stand and stoop and reach awkwardly around, of not being able to check my phone or have a sip of coffee. But I didn't take a break, or even want to, during the final chapters of Half-Life: Alyx. I wasn't tired. I was completely enthralled and unwilling to stop playing.
Score: 92/100
GameSpot (Michael Higham)
Not only has Half-Life: Alyx made good on its shift to VR, it has elevated many of the aspects we've come to love about Half-Life games. It may not be as bombastic as previous games, but the intimacy of VR brings you closer to a world you might have thought you knew over the past 22 years. Even when familiarity starts to settle in, its gameplay systems still shine as a cohesive whole. And as it concludes, Half-Life: Alyx hits you with something unforgettable, transcending VR tropes for one of gaming's greatest moments.
Score: 9/10
Polygon (Ben Kuchera)
Half-Life is back, and Valve has finally released another AAA single-player game, something many of us doubted the company ever would, or even could, do again. The impossible has already been achieved, and the fact that it’s happening in VR only makes it more novel. Valve has succeeded at just about every goal it must have had for this project. The only thing left is whether hardcore fans will be willing to buy, and use, a virtual reality headset in order to learn what happens next in the world of Half-Life. The good news is that those who do will experience what is likely the best VR game released to date.
Score: Unscored
Destructoid (Chris Carter, Brett Makedonski)
Half-Life: Alyx is an accomplishment no matter which way you spin it. It's a technical marvel as a generally excellent VR game. It's a narrative triumph in how it brilliantly navigates a new protagonist to add vital pieces of canon. And, it's an incredible adaption of a cherished series to a platform that does nothing but enhance what makes it special. As I took off my headset for the last time, I found myself thinking Valve can't keep us waiting another decade-plus between games. Half-Life: Alyx reinvigorated my love for Half-Life. We can only hope it similarly reinvigorated Valve.
Score: 9/10
Safe to say, Half-Life: Alyx is easily one of the most critically-acclaimed games of 2020 so far, succeeding as both a VR game and a new Half-Life game, which may make it especially frustrating for fans who aren’t already on the VR bandwagon. Of all the new gaming platforms that gained popularity in the last decade, VR is easily the one with the biggest entry fee, as the headsets and other devices required to physically immerse oneself into a virtual world tend to cost hundreds of dollars, on top of the PCs they run off of.
That being said, the fact that Valve has been needing to restock its Valve Index headsets ahead of Alyx’s launch suggests that many fans are willing to pay the price, especially now that the game has been so critically praised.
Half-Life: Alyx is now available on PC.