As previously promised by Valve, the studio finally unveiled its new Half-Life game. After a short teaser on Valve’s Twitter on Monday, yesterday, the company has shared a new trailer that features familiar faces, new and old enemies as well as some of the virtual reality gameplay. Damn, it looks gorgeous!
This fast-paced 2-minute long video is packed with details, so to your convenience, let’s unwrap some of its contents. The first thing you should know is that the new Half-Life: Alyx game will be a prequel to Half-Life 2 game and will be set right after the events seen in the original Half-Life. Players will assume control of Alyx Vance and with the help of her father, Eli will form a resistance to take on the invasion of the alien force known as the Combine. In other words, the game will be setting the scene for the awakening of Gordon Freeman and will fill in all the gaps between the original Half-Life games.
The second thing we need to talk about is gameplay. According to Valve, the new game was designed for VR from the ground up, which means that everything in the environment is created with VR in mind. Players of the game will be able to experience a full immersion into the game’s world with a lot of intricate details that mouse and keyboard couldn’t possibly replicate. The developers are saying that Half-Life: Alyx “features all of the hallmarks of a classic Half-Life game: world exploration, puzzle-solving, visceral combat, and an intricately woven story that connects it all with the characters iconic to the Half-Life universe.”
Prior to the announcement of the game, Geoff Keighley released a new interview on The Game Awards YouTube channel with Valve’s team in which they talked in detail about Half-Life: Alyx. The developers shared their vision and explained the reasons why VR was the right way to go for this new project. They also revealed that the game won’t be just a short story experience – the developers compared Half-Life: Alyx’s length with Half-Life 2, so the game will keep you busy for quite a while.
If you’re anything like us, you might be wondering about the game’s platforms and release date. We won’t say anything new regarding these topics since our early guess last week was right on point. The game will be supported on all PC-based VR devices and should be released in March 2020.
