Why people still say Half life is dead after Half life alyx ?

[Uboa]

This game is very high in quality , good characters and story , maybe enemies can be too easy and lesser in variation , but good game still good game . It setting up for even more future half life games too . No idea why there are some still think Half life is a dead .

[IanL]

I guess because a sizeable number of fans of the older HL games still don't have VR, so don't realise what they are missing. Some undoubtedly dislike the fact Valve made Alyx 'VR Only' and refuse to see it as a legitimate continuation of the franchise. To them , after what ... almost 15 years now, they probably do see their vision of HL as dead.

To my point of view it's more a case of their expectation of more of the same having died than HL itself, as Alyx is indeed a HL game and an excellent one at that, just one that's evolved with the times to take advantage of available new technology.

Either way Valve have not ruled out a future flat release in the franchise, but it has all gone very quiet again.

[Polkka]

because we VR users are like less than the 1% of HL fans

[Sovereign]

Yeah only about 2% of the overall customer base actually own VR, so for most people this games' existence means very little. Half-life won't be properly "back" until we get an actual HL3 that people will actually be able to play, rather then a VR only spin-off, as good as it may be.

[Kidm0bius]

maybe due to the ending? even fans of HL who dont have VR most likely watched a lets play or stream. The ending is well yea cant say crap without spoiling. HL3/EP3 confirmed for VR unless valve is being valve once again...

[necrophonic]

HL was dead before Alyx. Valve had pretty much zero interest in making another HL game (especially given the amount of hype HL3 would have to live up to) until VR came along and gave them a compelling reason to pull out the IP.

Obviously one can never fully know the mind of Valve, but it seems likely that without VR, there wouldn't have been another HL-based game at all.

Alyx VR didn't kill HL, it gave it another reason to live.

Does that mean any next HL game would have to be VR? No. Renewed excitement for working on HL in general in Valve may absolutely spawn new non-VR HL-related projects. Given it's Valve the only time we'll ever know is when something gets released.

[SilentCaay]

Originally posted by necrophonic:

Does that mean any next HL game would have to be VR? No.

Yes or else we riot.

[Chris]

Originally posted by Uboa:

This game is very high in quality , good characters and story , maybe enemies can be too easy and lesser in variation , but good game still good game . It setting up for even more future half life games too . No idea why there are some still think Half life is a dead .

Because people were waiting 13years to advance the story for 20 or 30s...
Me included, i still hope for a HL3!

[JJ, Professional Fool]

OP, inb4 meme. It's just a garbage meme. Everything is dead when content stops or players can't gain anything more. Every game has a Dead Game thread. Doesn't make it clever, just shows how mindless people are and how depressing the individuals need for attention to even announce it. Overthinking base meme.

[JNK]

Originally posted by Polkka:

because we VR users are like less than the 1% of HL fans

It’s way more than that.

According to the steam hardware survey 2% of the active playerbase used a Vr headset in the past months.

But with half life Alyx being a Vr game, this number is very likely much higher in the half life fanbase.

Half life Alyx has 2-5 million owners on steam according to steam spy:

https://steamspy.com/app/546560

Which is actually the same amount as black mesa:

https://steamspy.com/app/362890

Or half life 2 episode 1:

https://steamspy.com/app/380

Both games that are most likely played by the core fanbase.

It’s true that half life 2 alone has more owners (10-20 million): https://steamspy.com/app/220

But not everybody who owns half life 2 on steam is part of the half life fanbase.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that the majority of the actual half life fanbase indeed did already play half life Alyx.

Even if you include every half life 2 owners in the fanbase, based on the data from steamspy 10-50% of the half life 2 owners do also own half life Alyx.

[[M²] Tall Guy]

Sounds like an overreaction. If Valve actually produced a non-VR Half Life game, it'd be a best seller without a doubt.

That being said, having bought and played Alyx, and hell, I even bought the Index JUST for this game... I found it rather subpar for Valve game quality. For the first time EVER for a Valve title... I didn't complete it, I got bored and quit!

It was just too slow, too boring and frankly not all that fun to play. Sure, the VR components were interesting for a few minutes, but after a couple of hours it just felt more like a chore than anything else. I kept telling myself I'd get back into it, but just never did.

Half-Life Alyx lacks SO much of the panache that old-Valve was known for in both story-telling, and game design. A real let-down.

[IanL]

Originally posted by M² Tall Guy:

Sounds like an overreaction. If Valve actually produced a non-VR Half Life game, it'd be a best seller without a doubt.

That being said, having bought and played Alyx, and hell, I even bought the Index JUST for this game... I found it rather subpar for Valve game quality. For the first time EVER for a Valve title... I didn't complete it, I got bored and quit!

It was just too slow, too boring and frankly not all that fun to play. Sure, the VR components were interesting for a few minutes, but after a couple of hours it just felt more like a chore than anything else. I kept telling myself I'd get back into it, but just never did.

Half-Life Alyx lacks SO much of the panache that old-Valve was known for in both story-telling, and game design. A real let-down.

Wait, Alyx was a best seller. It sold 2.5 million which is more than either of the HL2 episodes did at the time of their release.

Regarding your opinion of the game, it's a very different game to the previous HL games and clearly didn't meet with your expectation, which is fair enough. Not everyone is going to like every game. After my deep disappointment with the episodes, which I thought were really sub par HL franchise entries ... especially episode one, I found Alyx a refreshing change and much more interesting. So I guess it just goes to show how opinions differ.

[swaaye]

Hey I too thought Alyx was not super compelling. It's very high quality but not all that engaging. Something like that. It took me about a year to finally get through it. I go back to it every now and then, working on a second playthrough. It certainly is one of the more interesting VR games. The game gives me this sort of "wandering a museum exhibit" vibe because of how very condensed/compact, guided and linear it all is. And the not-so-inconspicious puzzlyness of almost every room and all those 3D games to unlock stuff.

I don't remember the HL2 Eps very well anymore. Should load those up again sometime. HL2 itself though I have played through recently. I feel like Alyx should have told a story that included more expansive outdoor segments with some breathing room as HL2 did.

[[M²] Tall Guy]

Originally posted by IanL:

Originally posted by M² Tall Guy:

Sounds like an overreaction. If Valve actually produced a non-VR Half Life game, it'd be a best seller without a doubt.

That being said, having bought and played Alyx, and hell, I even bought the Index JUST for this game... I found it rather subpar for Valve game quality. For the first time EVER for a Valve title... I didn't complete it, I got bored and quit!

It was just too slow, too boring and frankly not all that fun to play. Sure, the VR components were interesting for a few minutes, but after a couple of hours it just felt more like a chore than anything else. I kept telling myself I'd get back into it, but just never did.

Half-Life Alyx lacks SO much of the panache that old-Valve was known for in both story-telling, and game design. A real let-down.

Wait, Alyx was a best seller. It sold 2.5 million which is more than either of the HL2 episodes did at the time of their release.

Regarding your opinion of the game, it's a very different game to the previous HL games and clearly didn't meet with your expectation, which is fair enough. Not everyone is going to like every game. After my deep disappointment with the episodes, which I thought were really sub par HL franchise entries ... especially episode one, I found Alyx a refreshing change and much more interesting. So I guess it just goes to show how opinions differ.

2.5 million copies is not even remotely close to a best seller. Completely rocking for VR sure, but mainstream games? Average.

[JJ, Professional Fool]

Originally posted by M² Tall Guy:

Originally posted by IanL:

Wait, Alyx was a best seller. It sold 2.5 million which is more than either of the HL2 episodes did at the time of their release.

Regarding your opinion of the game, it's a very different game to the previous HL games and clearly didn't meet with your expectation, which is fair enough. Not everyone is going to like every game. After my deep disappointment with the episodes, which I thought were really sub par HL franchise entries ... especially episode one, I found Alyx a refreshing change and much more interesting. So I guess it just goes to show how opinions differ.

2.5 million copies is not even remotely close to a best seller. Completely rocking for VR sure, but mainstream games? Average.

VR is still niche. It was only made affordable because zuck moved the buck. Massive boom in occ 2 sales. That's it. When it was prior, even less sold with less input. It is a gimmicky overpriced toy, was.

[IanL]

Originally posted by M² Tall Guy:

2.5 million copies is not even remotely close to a best seller. Completely rocking for VR sure, but mainstream games? Average.

I was of course referring to the VR market place as Alyx is a 'VR Only' game, so the flat marketplace doesn't even factor in. Clearly Valve didn't choose to make Alyx VR to maximise game sales, that wasn't their motivation here.

Originally posted by JJ, Professional Fool:

VR is still niche. It was only made affordable because zuck moved the buck. Massive boom in occ 2 sales. That's it. When it was prior, even less sold with less input. It is a gimmicky overpriced toy, was.

Sure it's niche, but let's keep things in perspective. The average sales for most AAA games is still only about 1 to 2 million, there are few given the number of games produced annually that run into the tens of millions of sales. So whilst the VR marketplace may be niche, and is still relatively small when compared to the overall game market, it has sufficient critical mass to be potentially attractive to developers and can outsell many flat screen games if they get it right, especially given the demand for good content within this niche marketplace.

As for a gimmicky overpriced toy ... all gaming devices are toys, so what, what's classed as a gimmick just depends on your personal point of view.