So I played this game in Non-VR. It was underwhelming.

[Tighty-Whitey]

I finished Half-Life: Alyx in Non-VR and I gotta say, the experience was incredibly and amazingly bad.

Let me start out by saying that it is inconsiderate that Valve had decided to force the game to run as intended solely on VR. Obviously a very tiny fraction of gaming community actually owns VR-headsets. Those who for some reason do own a VR headset surely haven’t made the right investment and will now do anything they can to defend their failed purchase by over-exaggerating that the purchase relative to the experience they got was worth it, but it clearly wasn’t as VR is an underexplored space at this point. No game justifies a purchase of a VR headset simply because it is a failed investment and there is barely anything good to play. Even if we would consider that there are a bunch of multiplayer titles you can play with your friends, it is still only local, if non-local you would end up having high latency, the netcode, multiplayer features in such games are nothing but gimmick. Not worth it.

Then we look at where the VR is gonna be headed. New VR headsets are in development and even they aren’t going to squeeze out the maximum out of VR concept. There will be many more VR headsets, even more affordable ones that would implement more functions, comfort options, but that will only happen when VR is going to reach much higher heights than where it is currently. The only reason why those people who rushed into buying most expensive VR headsets done so in the first place was because they were impatient. Valve Index is as expensive as it is right now only because there are not enough alternatives and VR is a niche. You rushed into buying something, then lied to yourself that this was worth it and even if one would start pretending otherwise, no, it isn’t worth it statistics wise and isn’t a future proof action.

Let’s go ahead and look at the game itself. So. After years and years of hiatus, Valve had finally planned to push their hardware into the masses and there was no apparent better way to do so than by making a new Half-Life game specifically intended for VR. This sounds bad for an average user, which is why people weren’t happy about it. Valve had taken their chance by risking their already low reputation (low by people who aren’t giving Valve a chance after their previous two failed titles and by a slowdown in Team Fortress 2’s update support) to drive into an empty VR-market.

By trying to make Half-Life: Alyx the first, big enough, coherent and serious title with narrative set in a popular gaming universe Valve had put the players’ interests behind their strive for profit. That was not a decision that gaming community took lightly. If that happened, then the game itself has to be good, right? Well, no. The game was not very good.

1. Firstly the lightning is cartoony. This is not a cartoon, Half-Life is a gritty and sad universe. That, along with Russel’s dialogue made the game feel corny.

2. The environments are narrow and boring. You don’t have any vast horizons from Half-Life 2, instead you walk around the narrow corridors. At best Half-Life: Alyx with it’s level design feels like a mod for Fallout 4.

3. No vehicles. This is a severe downgrade to fun vehicle sections from Half-Life 2.

4. When I was jumping around places I found empty textures and underdeveloped parts of the map. This breaks immersion.

5. I kept getting stuck due to collision issues while running around. This is a lazy level design.

6. The game overall just wasn’t fun. It was boring and the game felt like a bad mod for Half-Life 2 but with better textures.

There are way more mechanics in Half-Life 2, while in Alyx there is barely anything to do. It just wasn’t a fun experience, there wasn’t much action, it felt like a walking simulator at best. Combat was boring, enemies were uninspired and boring and level design felt repetitive. I was holding shift throughout the whole game. Ending was also very lazy and changed Episode Two’s ending.

This really doesn’t leave Half-Life: Alyx in a good spot as a standalone Half-Life title. It was very clunky and just didn’t feel right. I tried the game multiple times, dropped it half way and then came back finishing it once. Still boring and monotonous gameplay.
I don’t feel like playing more of Half-Life: Alyx and I’m not sure where all this hype comes from. The game is disappointing, bad and doesn’t match previous, better Half-Life titles.

[TJ_4874]

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

3. No vehicles. This is a severe downgrade to fun vehicle sections from Half-Life 2.

Since this game was designed to be accessible to a vr user of any experience they didn't add vehicles so that half of some people's playtime wasn't sat vomiting into a bucket because of a half life 2 esk airboat section

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

When I was jumping around places I found empty textures and underdeveloped parts of the map. This breaks immersion

Man when I was playing the vr version, I never saw any broken textures, probably because I couldn't jump because the game wasn't designed for you to have the ability to jump

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

5. I kept getting stuck due to collision issues while running around. This is a lazy level design.

Man when I played the vr version I never ran into any of those issues, maybe because I was not playing a mod that made the vr game into a normal game

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

6. The game overall just wasn’t fun. It was boring and the game felt like a bad mod for Half-Life 2 but with better textures.

Maybe it was because you were playing a mod for a vr game that basically turned the VR GAME into Half life 2.


Can you see the pattern?

[Limitus]

obvious troll is obvious

[TJ_4874]

Originally posted by Limitus:

obvious troll is obvious

yeah when I saw

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

Those who for some reason do own a VR headset surely haven’t made the right investment and will now do anything they can to defend their failed purchase by over-exaggerating that the purchase relative to the experience they got was worth it

I realised I was wasting my time


So here's the quick and brutally honest opinion I have: If you only played the non-vr mod, you don't get to have an opinion, you didn't play the game right, next time do better.

[IanL]

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

So I played this game in Non-VR. It was underwhelming.

So I drove my new sports car over a field of rubble and it handled terribly lol

You present the best case yet for why you shouldn't play the game outside of an environment it was designed to run in. Can't say we didn't warn people but thanks for the first hand confirmation.

The rest was just your personal bias on show for all to see.

[f]

go get a job, 300$ easy

[r3ach5stars1]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex/comments/l9jx8j/half_life_alyx_is_the_most_overrated_game_ever/

https://woodsidepawprint.com/lifestyle/2020/04/17/half-life-alyx-a-fun-disappointment/

is so sad entiled people believe there only one answer... when in reality a lot of people even who use vr was disapoined of that game not trolling is true and is the most disapoint game on gameplay on half life saga for the simple fact valve was focus on baby users and make the game to easy chlidish

think about that more than 2 k dollar machine to focus on new users?? you really think news users on videogame gonna spend that money ? in 2020?? i don think so.

[bernardb]

This is absurd. Alyx looks fantastic and is a benchmark for how awesome VR games can look and play. Makes no sense whatsoever to force this game into a flat screen...

[f]

@r3ach5stars1 had a headache reading your post, you can't even speak properly not to mention your poor opinion. What are your reasons that Alyx is childish? Tell me how much was the Index in 2020? Tell me is it true that there are over 80000 baby users brought this childish game and left positive ratings? Don't be upset if you are not target users, it's better to go find a job and buy yourself better hardware rather than complaining a new stuff is too expensive for you.

[IanL]

Originally posted by r3ach5stars1:

...

You can find links to back up just about any stance you want to take ... it's the internet, give me a break lol

If you don't like the game you don't like it, and there are clearly others that would agree with you. Show me any game that doesn't have its detractors, especially ones that deviate from their accepted format. We all know the cult PC franchise gamers who believe any change from what is expected from their beloved game franchises is sacrilege and to be openly attacked.

Doesn't make it true for everyone else though does it, and that's clearly the case from the countless positive reviews and online discussions. I loved the game and still do and I'm a long time HL fan.

Just as a heads up too, for all those niche market arguments ... it sold more in its first year than either of the HL2 episodes did. Seriously questions the purchasing power of this so called traditional fan base that's so affronted by the appearance of Alyx.

[Schranzi]

So I played this game in Non-VR. It was underwhelming

Saving money is not always the key to happiness (and playing unfinished Desktop Mods so pointless, but ye)

[necrophonic]

Non VR people*: We want a non-VR Alyx!
Everyone else: It'll probably be underwhelming outside of VR, but hey, there's a mod, knock yourselves out.
<they play mod>
Non VR people: Ugh! It's underwhelming!
Everyone else: Told you

(*For clarity, not everyone who would like to play non VR is like this, just whiners like the OP)

[psyke]

strange, someone with:
- 60h ingame
- several other vr only titles on his account
opens a thread to complain about the noVR-modded game...

this place smells a lot like a troll

[Chipolata Jones]

I just played this game in VR and it's AWESOME! .. OP, you missed out.

[psyke]

I played it in noVR and it's awesome.

[CunkFeatures]

Wow.... what a toddler, what a cheapskate.