Half-Life: Alyx

Half-Life: Alyx is a 2020 virtual reality first-person shooter video game developed and published by Valve. Taking place before the events of Half-Life 2, players control Alyx Vance as she and her father Eli fight the occupying alien Combine.

Plot
Before the return of Gordon Freeman in Half-Life 2. Players control Freeman's ally Alyx Vance as she and her father Eli Vance fight the Combine, an alien empire that has conquered Earth. Traditional Half-Life elements such as exploration, puzzles, combat, and story are to return.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) We're finally back to the beloved fan-favorite oldest franchise of Half-Life series.
 * 2) The game feels like a big reaction to the now since most infamous fan-made mod under their IP, Hunt Down the Freeman's way of to ho w properly departure any element of how a typical Half-Life game works. By for example like using Alyx, an established voiced character as the protagonist and having a less-serious tone, than its predecessors.
 * 3) The setting of City 17, undrivable damaged/destroyed vehicles, and as well as dark underground areas' graphics is well improved over the second Half-Life game; not only that, but the graphics are also well improved over the predecessor of the first two Half-Life games, making the game's graphics look realistic, thanks to using Source 2.
 * 4) *The game has also given the still working-of-progress engine, Source 2, its finally big strengths, especially the NPCs models is greatly improved from its predecessors. Including the first-ever third-person Gordon Freeman's model on gameplay in the end of the game.
 * 5) It still retains the atmosphere of Half-Life 2.
 * 6) It's a decent storyline just before the events of Half-Life 2 and after those of Half-Life.
 * 7) *Along it expanded the lore of the series' universe, even with the small lore pieces were retcon, just like Half-Life 2.
 * 8) The game takes place in Europe, just like the second game, especially, there are still good references from many West-Eastern-Europe countries like Italy, Russia, Romania, Greece, etc.
 * 9) The voice acting in the game is well-done.
 * 10) Pretty good controls.
 * 11) Great visuals with environments that look very real.
 * 12) The soundtrack in the game is well-done, masking the soundtrack looks as epic as the other Half-Life games.
 * 13) Alyx is still a likable protagonist just like what she was in her debut game.
 * 14) Some cut ideas from the previous titles are completely used, as well like Eli's cut Knit cap from the earliest version of Half-Life 2 as Eli Maxwell was reused for plot reasons, and the Security Keycard puzzle mechanic got finally introduced to the series, as they were planned to appear in Half-Life.
 * 15) They TEASED Half-Life 3, in the post-credits scene showed, very hinting of a permanent official return to the series, instead just making this as a cash grab on the dying VR market.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some of the fans were disappointed over the Virtual Reality console instead of the PC version. But few of them changed their minds, as when the game got to its released date.
 * 2) *Valve has, however, said that they're not making the game for PC as modders will find a way to make it themselves.
 * 3) The few noble actors (except Mike Shapiro) didn't reprise their roles, but Valve has good and justified reasons for not needing them:
 * 4) *HL2 Alyx's voice actress, Merle Dandridge, is too old to be playing a younger Alyx Vance, when they decided to change the story much later in development.
 * 5) A few remaining fans still prefer the cliffhanger ending from Episode Two, and don't like changing to the story (or in this case, creating an alternative timeline) as a cop-out of neglecting the series over 13 years.
 * 6) *In fact there was an effort to make a proper sequel. According to former developers and eventually Valve, Half-Life 3 was in development from the years of 2013 to 2014, but was canceled along with other projects like Left 4 Dead 3 due to scope creep, lack of satisfactory ideas, the delay of the Source 2 engine, etc. Thus the early 2010s Half-Life 3 was never made.
 * 7) There's no option of making any melee-like weapons like pipes into temporary and effectively damaging melee weapons when to up against enemies (unlike current VR games like Boneworks, where they are several permanent optional melee weapons available to use).

Reception
Half-Life: Alyx was universally acclaimed by critics and players, reaching a 93/100 Metacritic and an 8.7/10 user score rating on the same site. On Steam, it got "overwhelming positive" reviews from the Steam users.

Angry Joe gave the VR aspect a 10/10 calling it "the best VR game I've ever played", while giving the game itself a 9/10, wishing there was more risk at the end of the game.

Videos
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