Russel's writing is corny.

[Tighty-Whitey]

Russel is a character in hl alyx that looks as if he does not belong in this game. his writing is honestly extremely cheesy and corny and your ears simply wither every time you listen to him. dialogues that he provides throughout the game in the headset alyx is wearing is quite cringy to say the least. it lacks a certain serious feel half life 2 possessed and every time he starts talking its something silly like talking about bread, sandwiches and stuff. why are the writers at valve like this? we know that the only writers left at Valve are saints row writer, another writer who hasn't finished high school and some comic guy who writes detached comics, in a sense that they more look like fanfics for the actual game. what are they actually up to and what are they writing? what they do clearly doesnt require much effort, so this might actually be a result of their writing, as russel sounds more like a portal character than hl character. story in half life is in big trouble if they don't hire someone more competent honestly.

[Sneakygloworm]

Russell IMO is an excellent, rounded believable character. He guides and reassures Alyx and brings comic relief during some fairly stressful situations. I honestly don't agree that Valve would allow poor quality writing to slip through on their flagship VR game. HL: Alyx is a benchmark experience. Russell is by design.

But you're multi-posting rants about how bad HL:A is are repetitive and weird. You've made your point. You didn't enjoy it. Move on. Most, if not all, people that played HL:A with a headset thought it was hands down an amazing, arse clenching, tightly scripted/directed borderline masterpiece. No one can explain to you why or argue against what you didn't get from the experience. If you didn't like it....Well, there you are.

Having skimmed through a few more of your posts, you never even experienced it the way it was intended. VR and pancake are not the same by an absolute country mile. You effectively broke the mechanics of the game and ruined it for yourself.

[null]

Wow, ur definitely looking into it to much. there's a mod you can download to remove his voice btw

[temps]

Originally posted by <|MLG|> Tighty-Whitey_pro90:

Russel is a character in hl alyx that looks as if he does not belong in this game. his writing is honestly extremely cheesy and corny and your ears simply wither every time you listen to him. dialogues that he provides throughout the game in the headset alyx is wearing is quite cringy to say the least. it lacks a certain serious feel half life 2 possessed and every time he starts talking its something silly like talking about bread, sandwiches and stuff. [...] russel sounds more like a portal character than hl character.

While I liked Half-Life: Alyx overall (and was satisfied with my Valve Index purchase), I actually 100% agree with this criticism. Past Half-Life games like the original Half-Life 1 or Half-Life 2, and the Half-Life 2 "episodes" expansions seemed like they had a much more brutal and serious atmosphere. I guess Half-Life: Alyx has that too, but Russel's character just does not fit that atmosphere at all.

[Tighty-Whitey]

Originally posted by Sneakygloworm:

Russell IMO is an excellent, rounded believable character. He guides and reassures Alyx and brings comic relief during some fairly stressful situations. I honestly don't agree that Valve would allow poor quality writing to slip through on their flagship VR game. HL: Alyx is a benchmark experience. Russell is by design.

But you're multi-posting rants about how bad HL:A is are repetitive and weird. You've made your point. You didn't enjoy it. Move on. Most, if not all, people that played HL:A with a headset thought it was hands down an amazing, arse clenching, tightly scripted/directed borderline masterpiece. No one can explain to you why or argue against what you didn't get from the experience. If you didn't like it....Well, there you are.

Having skimmed through a few more of your posts, you never even experienced it the way it was intended. VR and pancake are not the same by an absolute country mile. You effectively broke the mechanics of the game and ruined it for yourself.

i wouldn't say he is excellent.

[IanL]

Seems some struggle to accept and cope with change. I liked Russel's character, he's like the boffin who is somewhat socially awkward. I found it entertaining. I guess with it being based around Alyx, as a younger person, it was pitched as more light hearted than previous content featuring Gordon, but it also kind of emphasised the fact that this was certainly not pretending to be HL3 and was very much an alternate take on the HL Universe.

[Ghidrah1]

rhys darby sounds that way in pretty much everything I've ever seen him in, he's an aussie comic/actor

[ShamefulManny]

Originally posted by Ghidrah1:

he's an aussie comic/actor

As much as I don't want to bump the OP's threads I need the point out that Darby is a New Zealander, not an Aussie.

[Ghidrah1]

Oops sorry Darby! I mean that

[CentreMetre]

Originally posted by ShamefulManny:

Originally posted by Ghidrah1:

he's an aussie comic/actor

As much as I don't want to bump the OP's threads I need the point out that Darby is a New Zealander, not an Aussie.

Ngl i thought he was aussie aswell, especially since he called the ant lions 'leggies'. Do new Zealanders do that thing Aussies do where they shorten a word, like sun glasses to sunnies etc?

[Ghidrah1]

I made the mistake of inferring aussie because of his accent, both accents sound alike to my ears. After looking up the What we do in the shadows movie I had to smack myself most of the main actors are from New Zealand

[Mossferatu]

Russel is a corny guy, like some people are. He cracks cheesy jokes, like some people do. Rhys Darby is great and I like Valve's writing, so it works for me.

As for 'it lacks a certain serious feel half life 2' go back and play it again. Listen to everything Kleiner says. And most things Barney says. Plus a few things Alyx says. And Odessa Cubbage, the Vortigaunts, Lazlo's friend ('the greatest mind of his generation!'). To say nothing of going back further to the scientists of Black Mesa in HL1. Cheesy/slapstick humour is in HL's DNA and has been since 1998.

[Ghidrah1]

I wasn't bothered by the inanity of Russell's ramblings I was hoping for more of the HL2 action I got in the previous games. I'll try skipping ahead for some action

[temps]

Originally posted by Ghidrah1:

I wasn't bothered by the inanity of Russell's ramblings I was hoping for more of the HL2 action I got in the previous games. I'll try skipping ahead for some action

Half-Life: Alyx is a bit less of an action game and more of a survival horror game.

[Ghidrah1]

I worked my way through the last 2 hours of the vid last night. For the most part Alyx spends the majority of the game below ground. Navigating through seemingly endless dark/dim convoluted mazes just to locate objects. Objects to open doors, ammo, meds and amassing an item used as money (I guess) to upgrade some of the weps she carries in an effort to drop the increasingly difficult monsters.

Again, IMO, the graphics are killer detailed without being overly distracting but sorry to say Alyx doesn't grab me the way the earlier games did and it bums me out

[necrophonic]

Originally posted by Ghidrah1:

I worked my way through the last 2 hours of the vid last night. For the most part Alyx spends the majority of the game below ground. Navigating through seemingly endless dark/dim convoluted mazes just to locate objects. Objects to open doors, ammo, meds and amassing an item used as money (I guess) to upgrade some of the weps she carries in an effort to drop the increasingly difficult monsters.

Again, IMO, the graphics are killer detailed without being overly distracting but sorry to say Alyx doesn't grab me the way the earlier games did and it bums me out

To be fair you've pretty much summed it up well.

From the outside, without VR, Alyx absolutely seems like that - just a load of small dark spaces and object hunting.

But that's kind of the point. When you're actually in those spaces, and you can see them all around you, and it's you moving around it's a whole different ball game of an experience.

It feels so much more personal.