Recent reviews by chaos_blasta

Being the first Half-Life game since Episode 2 in 2007, Half Life Alyx manages to stand out, not only as a game of its own, but as a worthy followup after the immense amount of time HL fans had to wait since that shocking cliffhanger 13 years ago.

The game is a VR exclusive, and the way its designed, it could only really work in this environment. Interactivity is greatly enhanced; Even mundane actions such as reloading a gun or cranking a lever, things that we were doing even all the way back in HL1, feel wonderfully immersive here, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. Opening drawers to find collectibles, using crates to carry around grenades and syringes, tossing nearby objects at a barnacle's tongue to temporarily distract them, or carefully walking past them-- These interactions and more happen to feel incredibly natural, further immersing you into the experience.

This is only further aided by the unsettling visuals and disturbing enemies. Half-Life as a series has always had horror elements, but they seem tame in comparison nowadays; In Alyx, however, you get to experience everything up-close. You can take a look at the decayed state of zombies up close, which now look more terrifying than ever, and you can admire the alien-infested surroundings, making you feel queasy to even walk through narrow corridors that are infested with foreign plants or hives, even if you know first-hand that they are just part of the surrounding scenery. Headcrabs look huge compared to other entries, and watching one of them leap at you is always a scary sight. Manhacks, enemies I always just saw as an annoying obstacle in HL2, are absolutely frightening in VR, and they had me yelping many times as they chased me around, making me desperate to shoot them ASAP. It's perhaps the best way Valve could have reintroduced that horror from years ago and still make it feel fresh.

As far as raw gameplay goes, the game takes advantage of VR to its fullest extent. Gunplay segments, such as fights vs the Combine troops, weren't my favorite part of the game, but they still manage to feel pretty exciting: Ducking behind cover, aiming down sights, tossing live grenades right back them, having to reload fast in the midst of battle.. all these make the encounters pretty entertaining, even if they end up boiling to a simple duck > fire > duck formula. Puzzles are all over the game, and this is where the game shines most, in my opinion; Either using Alyx's tool to solve holographic 3D puzzles, having to fix the electrical wiring in the walls, or even just messing around with simple physics puzzles, which all feel wonderfully nostalgic and fitting of the VR environment. When not fighting or solving puzzles, you are mostly left to explore your surroundings; Health, ammo and resin is scattered EVERYWHERE, truly encouraging players to take their time analyzing everything that's around them, and getting to know the world even further.. thus making the game hardly have a dull moment.

The game's story and characters still have that wonderful HL vibe to them that immediately makes you feel at home. Humor is aplenty, and the dialogues that Alyx and Rusell share really help keep you hooked into what's going on, along with the world-building that is very characteristic of HL2 and its episodes. The ending, which I will not spoil, is probably the best thing HL fans could have received, and something only Valve could have managed to pull off, after so much waiting. Overall, I would extremely recommend the game if you're looking for an immersive single-player experience in VR.

Sweet and short, gets the job done. A very enjoyable puzzle game.