Has anything come close to Half Life: Alyx?

[gbuglyo]

I originally bought my VR headset (a Quest 2) back in 2020 mostly to experience Half Life: Alyx, a game I'd heard so much about. This turned out to be both a great idea and a terrible one. On one hand, the game blew me away and I was amazed at what VR was capable of, but on the other hand, I kept comparing all the other games to HL:A and I was constantly getting underwhelmed. By now, my Quest 2 is mostly just sitting on the shelf collecting dust until I have guests whom I usually show HL:A as a party trick. However, I haven't really been following VR developments in the past couple of years so some great games may have come out without me noticing. Can you recommend something to me? Here are my considerations:

1. I'm not a graphics nerd in general gaming, but I am in VR (you know, the "reality" part of "virtual reality"). I also have a system to back it up: 13700K with an RTX 4080, 32 Gb of DDR5 RAM and a fast NVMe SSD. I'm using Virtual Desktop to connect my Quest 2 wirelessly.

2. I enjoy any and all genres of video games, either sitting or walking. Apart from the VR controllers, I can use a HOTAS or a steering wheel with pedals for the respective game types.

3. For on-foot games, I strongly prefer teleportation support so I can play about 30 minutes before taking a break due to motion sickness. Without teleportation, I can only take 10 to 15 minutes.

What do you think? Any suggestions are welcome. :)

[grzegorz77]

Originally posted by gbuglyo:

Has anything come close to Half Life: Alyx?

I originally bought my VR headset (a Quest 2) back in 2020 mostly to experience Half Life: Alyx, a game I'd heard so much about. This turned out to be both a great idea and a terrible one. On one hand, the game blew me away and I was amazed at what VR was capable of, but on the other hand, I kept comparing all the other games to HL:A and I was constantly getting underwhelmed. By now, my Quest 2 is mostly just sitting on the shelf collecting dust until I have guests whom I usually show HL:A as a party trick. However, I haven't really been following VR developments in the past couple of years so some great games may have come out without me noticing. Can you recommend something to me? Here are my considerations:

1. I'm not a graphics nerd in general gaming, but I am in VR (you know, the "reality" part of "virtual reality"). I also have a system to back it up: 13700K with an RTX 4080, 32 Gb of DDR5 RAM and a fast NVMe SSD. I'm using Virtual Desktop to connect my Quest 2 wirelessly.

2. I enjoy any and all genres of video games, either sitting or walking. Apart from the VR controllers, I can use a HOTAS or a steering wheel with pedals for the respective game types.

3. For on-foot games, I strongly prefer teleportation support so I can play about 30 minutes before taking a break due to motion sickness. Without teleportation, I can only take 10 to 15 minutes.

What do you think? Any suggestions are welcome. :)

I think you approached the use of vr wrong.
Choose a game where you stand still, and play it to build VR legs.

This is a very fun vr game to start with, calm and pretty (I don't know if it's also pretty on goggles that don't have OLED displays). You can get it on sales for a dollar.

Scanner_Sombre:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/475190/Scanner_Sombre/


This is the second game for a dollar worth recommending, but I suppose it requires vr legs.

Street_Champ_VR:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/550160/Street_Champ_VR/


In general, I recommend you Beat Saber, it's a game that is not the best, but there are very few people who don't like it. This is an excellent vr leg building game.
More interesting, but less popular is Until You Fall, and Pistol Whip.

If you are stubborn and don't want to build vr legs, I recommend you: Kayak VR: Mirage, Grimlord, The Wizards - Enhanced Edition.

You can also approach things differently and play games calmly or sitting like: Moss, I Expect You To Die.

Greetings from Polish, Poles and Hungarians forever united by friendship

Lengyel, magyar – két jó barát, Együtt harcol s issza borát, Vitéz s bátor mindkettője, Áldás szálljon mindkettőre.

[gbuglyo]

Originally posted by grzegorz77:

Originally posted by gbuglyo:

Has anything come close to Half Life: Alyx?

I originally bought my VR headset (a Quest 2) back in 2020 mostly to experience Half Life: Alyx, a game I'd heard so much about. This turned out to be both a great idea and a terrible one. On one hand, the game blew me away and I was amazed at what VR was capable of, but on the other hand, I kept comparing all the other games to HL:A and I was constantly getting underwhelmed. By now, my Quest 2 is mostly just sitting on the shelf collecting dust until I have guests whom I usually show HL:A as a party trick. However, I haven't really been following VR developments in the past couple of years so some great games may have come out without me noticing. Can you recommend something to me? Here are my considerations:

1. I'm not a graphics nerd in general gaming, but I am in VR (you know, the "reality" part of "virtual reality"). I also have a system to back it up: 13700K with an RTX 4080, 32 Gb of DDR5 RAM and a fast NVMe SSD. I'm using Virtual Desktop to connect my Quest 2 wirelessly.

2. I enjoy any and all genres of video games, either sitting or walking. Apart from the VR controllers, I can use a HOTAS or a steering wheel with pedals for the respective game types.

3. For on-foot games, I strongly prefer teleportation support so I can play about 30 minutes before taking a break due to motion sickness. Without teleportation, I can only take 10 to 15 minutes.

What do you think? Any suggestions are welcome. :)

I think you approached the use of vr wrong.
Choose a game where you stand still, and play it to build VR legs.

This is a very fun vr game to start with, calm and pretty (I don't know if it's also pretty on goggles that don't have OLED displays). You can get it on sales for a dollar.

Scanner_Sombre:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/475190/Scanner_Sombre/


This is the second game for a dollar worth recommending, but I suppose it requires vr legs.

Street_Champ_VR:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/550160/Street_Champ_VR/


In general, I recommend you Beat Saber, it's a game that is not the best, but there are very few people who don't like it. This is an excellent vr leg building game.
More interesting, but less popular is Until You Fall, and Pistol Whip.

If you are stubborn and don't want to build vr legs, I recommend you: Kayak VR: Mirage, Grimlord, The Wizards - Enhanced Edition.

You can also approach things differently and play games calmly or sitting like: Moss, I Expect You To Die.

Greetings from Polish, Poles and Hungarians forever united by friendship :p2chell:

Lengyel, magyar – két jó barát, Együtt harcol s issza borát, Vitéz s bátor mindkettője, Áldás szálljon mindkettőre.

Thanks for the great suggestions, I'll check them out! You're right, I don't think I have put enough effort into building my VR legs, so I'll try working on it.

Polak, Węgier, dwa bratanki, i do szabli, i do szklanki. :)

[Bob Loblaw]

HL:A is an 11 hour game, with community maps adding over a hundred more hours. Nothing else comes close to that. If you ignore the community maps, and consider 6 hours "close" to 11, all of a sudden there's a lot of games that make the cut. Two I played just recently were Hubris and Zero Caliber, there's a few more but I forget the names at the moment, and there's a bunch more if we consider only gameplay quality and length but allow for more primitive graphics than Alyx.

Latest Best Games thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/250820/discussions/0/4338734234986338286/

[gbuglyo]

Great, thanks!

[hansse]

Modded SkyrimVR still beats everything. Check out the SkyrimVR reddit for help and info. Arizona Sunshine 2 is pretty sweet if you dont mind a zombie apocalypse setting. HL2 VR with mods is the closest thing you'll get to Alyx and as someone else mentioned there are tons of mods for that as well. Original Asgards Wrath linked is pretty decent, but you might want a Quest 3 for Wrath 2. Have not tested Assassins creed but plenty of people rave about it.

[Atarian]

Robinson: The Journey is AAA from the makers of Crysis. Mostly an adventure experience. Quite jaw-dropping. Around 6 hours play time, but the price reflects that.

[gbuglyo]

Thank you, everyone!

[Guccisweatpants]

I think where VR really shines is in Sims like Flight / Racing Sims, nothing beats being right in the cockpit / driver seat.

[grzegorz77]

Originally posted by Guccisweatpants:

I think where VR really shines is in Sims like Flight / Racing Sims, nothing beats being right in the cockpit / driver seat.

The helicopter in Vtol is amazing, but aggressive flying requires built vr legs.
However, the biggest difference I notice is that people feel in shooters. True, the immersion leap is amazing if you played flat shooters.
But for me, the best that vr offers are games that require intense movement. Like a Until You Fall, Beat Saber, Pistol Whip, Dragon Fist: VR Kung Fu, Kayak VR: Mirage.

[Bob Loblaw]

Originally posted by Guccisweatpants:

I think where VR really shines is in Sims like Flight / Racing Sims, nothing beats being right in the cockpit / driver seat.

I just saw a new video out from a racing simmer who built an $8000 racing setup with 3 curved screens, and the video was about him trying the Bigscreen Beyond VR for the first time. He loved the 6DOF on his head and how he could lean out and see the side of the car, and the stereo vision let him to judge distances in a way the flat screens would not allow.

Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIIWYh601tg

Regarding "VR really shines" in sims (for simmers), IMO it really shines in anything first-person, once you get your legs. I thought third-person platformers were a dumb fit for VR, but the success of Moss says there's something to that, also. The only thing flat might still be better at is 4x games (civilization, etc)?

[gbuglyo]

Thanks for the tips, everyone! I've been into VR sims for a while, but I gave a few of your suggestions a try.

Beat Saber is a solid game in its own right, but I personally don’t feel much connection to musical rhythm, so it came across more like an overpriced version of Fruit Ninja for me. I also checked out Scanner Sombre, which was definitely unique and intriguing. Robinson: The Journey looks amazing too, but I held off on buying it after reading that it doesn’t support Quest controllers.

Now, I could use your help with one more thing:

Does anyone recognize the game being played from 12:47 in this video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ6MhcohPMY

It looks exactly like the kind of game I’m after.

[grzegorz77]

Originally posted by gbuglyo:

Thanks for the tips, everyone! I've been into VR sims for a while, but I gave a few of your suggestions a try.

Beat Saber is a solid game in its own right, but I personally don’t feel much connection to musical rhythm, so it came across more like an overpriced version of Fruit Ninja for me. I also checked out Scanner Sombre, which was definitely unique and intriguing. Robinson: The Journey looks amazing too, but I held off on buying it after reading that it doesn’t support Quest controllers.

Now, I could use your help with one more thing:

Does anyone recognize the game being played from 12:47 in this video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ6MhcohPMY

It looks exactly like the kind of game I’m after.

Beat saber gets more playable once you get into it.
I didn't like it at first, but later I got very involved.

I don't know what kind of game it is, but there are plenty of similar ones, you can try e.g. vertigo 2.

[gbuglyo]

Originally posted by grzegorz77:

Originally posted by gbuglyo:

Thanks for the tips, everyone! I've been into VR sims for a while, but I gave a few of your suggestions a try.

Beat Saber is a solid game in its own right, but I personally don’t feel much connection to musical rhythm, so it came across more like an overpriced version of Fruit Ninja for me. I also checked out Scanner Sombre, which was definitely unique and intriguing. Robinson: The Journey looks amazing too, but I held off on buying it after reading that it doesn’t support Quest controllers.

Now, I could use your help with one more thing:

Does anyone recognize the game being played from 12:47 in this video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ6MhcohPMY

It looks exactly like the kind of game I’m after.

Beat saber gets more playable once you get into it.
I didn't like it at first, but later I got very involved.

I don't know what kind of game it is, but there are plenty of similar ones, you can try e.g. vertigo 2.

Thanks, I'll try!

[mckracken]

close? that mid game?
the only good about that game is the graphics.
FPShooting is downright bad.

[gbuglyo]

Originally posted by mckracken:

close? that mid game?
the only good about that game is the graphics.
FPShooting is downright bad.

Other than the graphics, I liked the story and the variety in gameplay/levels. I also enjoyed the combat in HL:A, but I generally don’t play FPS games in VR, since they don't offer teleportation movement. (I tried Pavlov and felt motion sickness after 10 minutes.)