Half Life Alyx is a brave and bold step by #Valve not only to give a modern look to a famous classic series but also a rich, carefully crafted integrated game that tries to tell a captivating story with enchanting optics and I can safely say that Alyx undoubtedly deserved all this waiting.

Although Half Life Alyx is released via a completely different medium, it undoubtedly carries the feel and spirit of the Half Life series, and the enchanting city atmosphere, a giant Strider passes from there, using rooftops to push himself and throw cables towards the vault floating in the sky. We saw Striders and we dealt with them in previous games, but suddenly they became very real, the installations of the future Gray Combine Empire still look the same, but now they are so stereoscopic that it feels like they are tall blocks. The Combine soldiers, who were once an easy target for our fire in Half Life 2, have become extremely terrifying in their giant 188 cm front before you.
Almost everything in the game you can grab and analyze, from bottles to empty tin cans, to cartoon boxes, if you hint at example an enemy through a window or door, you can break a piece of glass and pass your hand through that hole and shoot from Your weapon.

But the greatest pleasure that the updated physical engine offers is the use of gravity gloves: the Russels, as your inventor friend and companion you hear in your ears while playing "Russell".
The game is able to accurately track the objects you target, even if it is confined to other elements, but sometimes it may go into a technical defect, miss the target, and pick up items that are completely out of your sight.

The story

Half Life Alyx events take place 5 years before Half Life 2 events, where Alex Vance was still nineteen years old and often joking with Russell is very funny, and sometimes she says words you want as a player to say. She makes a sore sound when she encounters a headcrab unexpectedly just as you might, and Alex's voice acting lends a more personal character to her story. Where you will get to know Alex Vance on a deeper level, the joy that appears in her voice when she hears her father's voice on the radio, or the tension that appears when things do not go as you want, all of this adds depth to the character that embodies them throughout the game.

The story of Alex unfolds in a 15-18 hour campaign, as she travels the criminal part of town 17, traveling from the dreadful apartment blocks. But while Half Life 2 was plagued by its excessive dependence on world design to tell part of the story, fortunately Alyx was less reliant on that.

What initially started as a simple rescue mission turns into something far more evil than Alex or Elly thought. Alyx offers a great conclusion, part of which is satisfactory to fans, and part that paves the way for what comes next. It's brilliantly associated with past games with a sudden plot development that has left me feeling excited and eager to return to Half Life's universe.

Alyx is going at a much slower pace than Half-Life fans are used to. Instead of a shooting environment, Alyx looks closer to the pace of adventure games but isn't so hard to leave you confused for days. Mostly it requires you to redirect energy to circuits and supply networks with energy using a multi-tool that can "see" through walls.

Solving puzzles can also help you escape from the enemy. In one of the scenes spanning an hour near the end of the game, you'll experience a zombie-blind transformer blowing out toxic gases. It's a terrifying, stress-stellar section that is awe-inspiring virtual reality. I found myself holding my breath as I was covering my mouth from the gas inside the game, and every sound I made made the chills run through my body.

Player ingenuity is tested all the time, and even more so in battles. You will only encounter a few enemies at a time, while eliminating a group of antlions, who are now about two and a half meters high by the way, specifically targeting their glowing parts, needs a high level neuromuscular consistency.

The use of weapons also adds a completely different layer to the battle system. Due to the manual nature of carrying weapons in virtual reality, and feeding them by clicking another button on the console. The gun requires a greater effort as well, as you will feed each shot with a weapon separately, and then move your wrist to re-pair the handle of the gun with its pipe.

Gameplay

Fortunately, weapon deficiencies can be improved by upgrading them with resin. I wasn't quite sure about how weapon upgrades work in Half Life, but the resin requirements for these upgrades are high enough that you might not be able to supply each weapon to the maximum unless you are looking carefully at every hidden angle in the area. Consequently, I found that upgrading to a laser telescope for all weapons is appropriate if you want a more traditional feel to first-person shooting games, but requires a lot of room in the room to use them (not to mention the need for significant control of motion sickness).

The virtual reality glasses you used

Fun in Half Life Alyx depends on how good the virtual reality glasses are. Of course, higher-resolution lenses will provide better optics, and this occurring during battles may cause rapid death, and of course it also takes you out of the immersion state when you are overwhelmed with gameplay. I played the game in my small bedroom, so maybe that was the reason for this problem, so you may want more space to get accurate tracking most of the time.

Another frustrating problem (this may be due to the game) was the camera movement. I played using a point-and-teleport motion mechanism and used the right joystick to move the camera instead of physically moving with my body every time. Which also caused a great sense of frustration.

Conclusion

My biggest concern about Half Life Alyx was that it would be closer to a technical demo to show off the versatility of the Source 2.0 engine and the Valve VR system.
The fact that it is a great example of what virtual reality games should look like is an additional gift that will make them even more awesome. Half Life took 13 years to introduce a new game, and after playing Alyx, I was able to sort of understand why. The series has long been known for its pioneering attempt at gameplay and world design, and Half Life Alyx takes many great strides in accomplishing this as well.

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