While it is not exactly the direct sequel that many fans have been waiting for, Half-Life: Alyx was a smash hit for the legendary FPS franchise. Now, a modder has set out to make Half-Life: Alyx playable for all of the Half-Life fans out there without a VR headset.
Half-Life: Alyx revived the Half-Life series 13 years after the series' previous entry, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, was released. It was a huge success that raised the bar for VR first-person shooters and Half-Life: Alyx went on to be one of the best-reviewed PC games of 2020 and helped sell developer Valve's own VR headset, the Valve Index.
Modder SoMNst, however, is working to completely unshackle Half-Life: Alyx from VR. The mod is looking to "flatten" the game's toolset to make it play a lot more similar to a traditional FPS, and is having a tremendous amount of success. A new update video on the mod's progress was uploaded today to the SoMNst YouTube channel, on top of updates that come from the mod's Patreon page. The mod is not ready to be released to the public just yet, but SoMNst has floated around the idea of releasing an early alpha build for Patreon backers.
What is shown of the mod is technically impressive. It transforms Half-Life: Alyx seamlessly to a traditional FPS, and even translates the game's iconic gravity gloves so that players can still grab objects from far away. The most recent update video comes nearly a year after the previous one, marking a large step of progress, with the camera and character controls being tightened up significantly to make controlling Alyx more enjoyable. While the mod is definitely no Half-Life 3, the look at a more traditionally styled Half-Life with modern graphics and assets does make the imagination run wild about what Half-Life 3 could look like.
Half-Life: Alyx has grown a sizeable library of mods for fans that can't get enough of its stellar VR gameplay with a wide variety of experiences available for fans, and it is great to see this mod working to make the game more available to Half-Life fans. The mod also has a lot of potential to be further built on to make Half-Life experiences that are able to use the higher fidelity and more modern assets present in Half-Life: Alyx. Hopefully, Half-Life fans will not have to wait long for an official conclusion to the Half-Life story, but until then, this mod seems like a solid option for fans who don't have a VR headset while they wait.
Half-Life: Alyx is available now on PC.