izigame.me

Bought this for my kids a year ago and finally got around to trying it out...
SWEET JESUS
I started my Half Life: Alyx journey by dual wielding beer bottles. I tipped them down my gullet confused why I couldn't feel the beverage pouring down by throat. Then i froze, "I REALLY hope no one can see me right now". But I was having so much fun I didn't care.
Such a bizarrely fun experience this VR stuff is.
I wandered the empty streets trying to finger pigeons who foolishly allowed me dangerously close. I had no idea what sort of sadistic arse i'd become immediatly in this digital world, I thought I'd be saving terrified guards from zombies, but no, I was trying to finger dirty pigeons on the street for hours after misbehaving with endless bottles of liquor. What a ****ing gem this game is.
Five minutes into this mind altering experience and i picked up a plastic bottle and held it up to my eye and it just completely blew my mind the level of detail that continued all the way through. I cannot get over how immersive this game is. The shaders, the textures, the lighting. All absolute top notch.
Peering into that plastic bottle, trying to spin something in the air, or tossing an object and seeing it land exactly where you expected it to with amazing precision. Goofing around in the world it dawned on me: Half Life Alyx isn't just a game, it's the most advanced, incredible toy ever made, and it can even be enjoyed even by jaded, old sob's like me.
Alyx represents not just years of game development, but years of innovation to interactivity, Head tracking, interface, and graphics by one of the largest most advanced talent pools in human history. If you're new to VR, this experience hits like a ton of bricks with all the competency and innovation that goes into this experience. It's a revelation. The mind wanders wondering if we'll get full on movies and entirely new genres of entertainment now that Valve has shown a small bit of the potential of VR.
I'm not saying this with hyperbole. Half Life Alyx is the pinnacle of technical innovation in all of entertainment up to this day, and as you experience this artful story and setting, you can pick up anything around you and be a total fruit @$$, throwing it at anyone in the world, or make any kind of obscene action you wish in this world without any embarrassment. This is true freedom from all the mundane social niceties as you teabag zombies and toss their bodies about with joy, unless of course someone is watching you make a total fool of yourself with this stupid headset on.
I kinda felt like Mr. Bean playing this, a total weirdo, devoid of shame, thinking of all manner of ways to interact with the world around me to be a total bafoon for the fun of it all. I haven't encountered a single enemy yet, because I have been carefully walking the rooftops, clay jars in hand, looking for some poor soul to walk by so I can toss it with all my might and try to smash their heads in. Jolly good fun.
Is it worth the pain in the butt setup? Is it worth installing VR, learning the kinks of the interface and finally getting the game running?
A RESOUNDING "yes".
The game is so good one has to wonder why there isn't more chatter. Perhaps it's that the tech is improving so fast that no one wants to dev for it. Or maybe it's just too expensive for mass adoption. Or the massive investment cost. Or maybe Valve just isn't in bed with the right major companies to get the attention they deserve with this project.
I'm so blown away by the tech and immersion that I haven't even commented on the stellar animation, interactive puzzles, and story interjected within this joyous romp. And frankly, i don't even care to remark on the 10/10 game because the tertiary elements eclipse the core game. I'm going to have to play this again to give the dialogue and story the attention they deserves, because as I'm being told about the danger my (Alyx's) father is in, all i can think about is how cool it is to smash bottles, and pull things towards me and catch them with these perfectly implemented force powers. Holding weapons, reloading them, chambering rounds, using force like powers... it's all so damned rewarding, and as you master this incredibly organic interface system, you start feeling like a real badass, as you make weird motions alone in your living room. Shooting things has so much tangibility, that it's hard to go back to pressing a mouse to fire in other FPS's.
If you have the means, or if you can steal a headset from someone for a few days treat yourself to this incredible experience. It's a bit trickier and not as immersive, but you can pick up a quest 2 and get this set up for a semi reasonable price. If you have kids it's much better exercise using one of these than sitting on the couch with a handheld device.
Half Life: Alyx is an absolute banger. It's the closest I've gotten to the magic of Christmas morning since becoming a jaded, bitter old man in a video game.
(21/10) This is a mind blowing roller coaster ride ON TOP of being an incredible game, easily worth the price of admission many times over. It's nice to see creatives like Valve giving something positive back to the universe before all this new tech usurps and massacres us all, you must play this "game".