Half-Life: Alyx is a Year 2020 virtual reality 1st person shooter game developed and published by Valve. Half-Life: Alyx was released for Linux and Windows with support for many virtual reality headsets compatible with PC. Set 5 years before Half-Life 2 , players take control of Alyx Vance in an attempt to capture a large arsenal of alien connected weapons. Like previous Half-Life games, Alyx includes combat, puzzles, exploration and survival horror. Players use virtual reality to interact with the environment and fight enemies, using “Gvity gloves” to grab objects from a distance, similar to the gravity gun in Half-Life 2.
The previous Half-Life game, Chapter Two, was released in 2007 and ended on a cliffhanger. Valve made several attempts to develop other Half-Life games, but could not decide on a path. In the mid-2010s, Valve began experimenting with virtual reality. Understanding the requirements for a mainstream VR game, they experimented with a variety of IPs, and found that Half-Life was well-suited for VR.
Half-Life: Alyx entered production using Valve’s new source engine in 2016, with the largest team in Valve’s history, including the Campo Santo team, a company Valve acquired in 2018. VR has affected almost every aspect of design, including combat, movement, leveling, and pacing. Valve originally planned to release Alyx alongside its flagship Index VR in 2019, but delayed following internal news responses from their new editor, Rob Yescombe; Erik Wolpaw and Jay Pinkerton joined Valve to rewrite it. Half-Life: Alyx received praise for its graphics, voice acting, storytelling and atmosphere, and was hailed as the first VR killer app. It has been nominated for several awards and won “Best VR/AR” at The Game Awards 2020. Valve admits that the audience for VR games is limited; Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve, described Alyx as a long-term investment in new technology.
Half-Life: Alyx Minimum System Requirements:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10
Processor: Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600
Memory: 12 GB RAM
Graphics: GTX 1060 / RX 580 – 6GB VRAM
VR Support: SteamVR
Half-Life: Alyx Recommended System Requirements:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
