Finished... Verdict: genius and ineptitude

[Beta Ray Shill]

My review that I posited on Steam (positive, but obviously I HATED the writing).

TLDR: for those in doubt about VR, go for it. Even if it's just this game you play. This is the Picasso of not just VR but what video games 'mean' - it is without question the best game-play experience you'll ever encounter, escalating to a superlative final boss fight and level that will blow your mind...

---

Is it the best gaming experience I’ve ever had?

Yes.

The game design – the puzzles, gameplay and enemy encounters – are pure genius.

This is in direct contrast to possibly the worst writing I’ve ever had to endure, in any format. Execrable is too mild an adjective. Googling it, I see the writing changed hands a few times, but apparently the original Half Life writers were eventually summoned back with success.

What happened?

Is this their artistic suicide note?

Wait until you see the deus ex machina ending, which completely erases all the good work of their former selves – if it’s even the old Half Life writers to begin with.

I personally don’t believe it.

This was written to clearly appeal to a non-existent ‘moron’ target audience, who’s even a level below your average Marvel junkie, the She-hulk era.

The voice actors sounded like they couldn’t take any of it seriously. It’s complete thrash. As in, it’s written in the most cynical ‘quippy’ way you could possibly think of – braindead crassness.

This is in direct contrast to the visual narrative – the story told by what you see – which is pretty much VR Mozart: beautiful and harrowing and thought-provoking and mysterious.

And ‘epic’, of course. The last ‘boss’ fight against a strider is simply glorious, unprecedented adrenaline fuel.

The various spatial awareness mini-games that only work in VR are the most innovative video game puzzles ever created IMO. Fantastic.

The environmental puzzles range from brilliant to about 2-3 overly obscure additions, such as an obnoxiously subtle support bar you’ll have to raise to get to the next point in the level. It’s not even a spoiler, because you will 100% miss this without a game guide.

Otherwise, these are again the best environmental puzzles (IMO) ever designed.

The enemies, while brilliantly designed, are too few in variety to sustain the length of the game. Zombies, in particular, are overused. But overall, this is once more the most thrilling ‘pure combat’ video game experience you’ll ever encounter, by a million miles.

To close off, it’s truly a VR masterpiece – and the pinnacle of what humans can create as a ‘gameplay’ experience. No ‘flat screen’ alternative can hold a candle to what has been achieved here. The gameplay innovation, making exemplary use of VR novelties, is the human imagination at peak inventiveness – absolutely awe-inspiring.

The narrative, meanwhile, seems to be written to appeal to I-don’t-know-who – cynically, an audience of gauche geeks, or something?

Certainly the creepy ‘I’ll show you my gun when this is all over’ banter between Alyx and whatever-his-name-is is laced with all kinds of cack-handed ‘dirty’ innuendo.

Lame and moronic – if Valve are to do a HL3, hopefully they sack these idiots and hire someone from CD Projeckt Red to save them.

[bronsky]

Yes, Alyx is unique, a masterpiece, perhaps the best thing ever made not only in VR, but in video games, and in itself fully justifies trying VR. I'm glad to see that people are still discovering it, and that this will continue, as there probably won't be an equivalent for a long time.
As for the writing, The Final Hours explains that there was no real scenario until the last moment, and that Valve hired a scriptwriter to put it all together. The result may or may not please, but the plot twist may indeed seem a little too easy.

[IanL]

I loved the plot twist, it fits with the science fantasy theme that pervades the HL Universe and begs more questions as to the never disclosed but merely hinted at powers of the G-Man and his employers and what their end goals are.

[SilentCaay]

HLA is good but if it's the best gaming experience you've ever had you need to play more games.

You should also not buy a VR headset (or any gaming device) for just one game. There are hundreds of great VR games available. Go play those, too.

[Dan loeb]

the movement systems were dated, even on release. there's no good way to move through the game. teleport is fast enough but ruins immersion. continuous movement is slow as molasses, and feels like skating on butter. It's a great beginner vr game, probably the best, but for someone who has the stomach to run and gun in other vr games, being forced to a glacial crawl or teleport only is infuriating.

[SilentCaay]

There's a launch command to increase smooth loco movement speed.

[Beta Ray Shill]

Originally posted by IanL:

I loved the plot twist, it fits with the science fantasy theme that pervades the HL Universe

The ‘twist’ was possibly the worst example of deus ex machina in all of fictional history, though I stand corrected on that. I certainly read a lot of fiction and have never encountered anything as bafflingly bad.

For any writer, the killing off of a popular character, or at least one that’s seen comparatively significant narrative effort, is akin to murder itself. It should be psychologically taxing on the writer – if it isn’t, it won’t hit the audience.

I wouldn’t say this character was particularly well-written, but his death scene was impactful – from a narrative POV, they pulled off the most difficult writerly challenge: to create an emotional impact.

Now it’s reduced to a gimmick, interesting only to those who find sci-fi hokum to be somehow more intriguing than the complexities of the human mind.

Originally posted by SilentCaay:

HLA is good but if it's the best gaming experience you've ever had you need to play more games.

I’ve played probably 100s of games over my life, from multiple different genres. Too many to name.

This is a work of art, rather than a game – it's akin to what Picasso or Van Gogh achieved: a strikingly novel sensory experience that’s a feast for the eyes.

Of course you may be approaching ‘gameplay’ as simply meaning phew-phew firing a little gun or whatnot.

I visited an art gallery in Paris with my g/f a few years ago, and she honestly has very little interest in paintings. But I could’ve spent hours just looking at one of them – it’s like hooking your brain up to a live wire and having every neuron zing with reactivity.

I believe that’s also called ‘inspiration’. Some people don’t have much of an imagination, but I don’t have that issue. Certainly mine was fired up to the nines taking in the artistry of this game.

It has super-powered my fiction-writing of late. A gaming experience that enhances intellectual output? Never happened to me until HLA, so yes that’s why it wins the GOAT IMO.

Originally posted by DanLoeb:

the movement systems were dated, even on release. there's no good way to move through the game.

It needs the vignette effect, but I eventually developed borderline immunity to the motion sickness. I’d still prefer to not be messing with the chemical balance in my brain.

There are some serious bugs with the movement mechanics for the ‘continuous movement’, with the conditional jump being completely all over the place.

But otherwise, the dire movement had no impact on my impression of the game as a piece of art. And this is from someone who utterly despised the writing.

[bronsky]

Even after years of VR gaming (since 2016) and all kinds of extreme locomotion and pacing experiencing (I love that too), I still consider Alyx high above all the rest. It's by far the most complete, polished and immersive VR game, a unique and probably the best gaming experience made till now. Of course Alyx has flaws, but nothing compared to its unmatched qualities, that show us what (VR) games could be.

[IanL]

Originally posted by bronsky:

Even after years of VR gaming (since 2016) and all kinds of extreme locomotion and pacing experiencing (I love that too), I still consider Alyx high above all the rest. It's by far the most complete, polished and immersive VR game, a unique and probably the best gaming experience made till now. Of course Alyx has flaws, but nothing compared to its unmatched qualities, that show us what (VR) games could be.

I have to agree, I've enjoyed many other VR games but Alyx for me does represent the best and most polished to this date.

[IanL]

Originally posted by ReggieYokes:

Originally posted by IanL:

I loved the plot twist, it fits with the science fantasy theme that pervades the HL Universe

The ‘twist’ was possibly the worst example of deus ex machina in all of fictional history, though I stand corrected on that. I certainly read a lot of fiction and have never encountered anything so bafflingly bad.

For any writer, the killing off of a popular character, or at least one that’s seen comparatively significant narrative effort, is akin to murder itself. It should be psychologically taxing on the writer – if it isn’t, it won’t hit the audience.

I wouldn’t say this character was particularly well-written, but his death scene was impactful – from a narrative POV, they pulled off the most difficult writerly challenge: to create an emotional impact.

Now it’s reduced to a gimmick, interesting only to those who find sci-fi hokum to be somehow more intriguing than the complexities of the human mind.
...

I can see your point of view and you're certainly not the first to highlight this. Personally I've had to suspend disbelief all the way through the HL series and have never regarded it as Sci-Fi as practically none of it hangs together in any believable way, but it did find it entertaining and fun.

I guess I really lost interest in HL with the Episodes, Episode 1 which apart from a few saving sections was altogether awful imo and Episode 2's conclusion being akin to a soap opera where completely out of ideas as to where to take it they simply resorted to killing a main character off. I could honestly see why they reportedly lost any motivation to continue the series, so I found the Alyx ending almost a correction to an awful previous decision using the concept of alternate time lines and an inter dimensional being's ability to use those to his seeming advantage. It's messy sure, but then so was most of the rest of the HL Universe which doesn't hold up either when closely examined.

[Beta Ray Shill]

Originally posted by bronsky:

Even after years of VR gaming (since 2016) and all kinds of extreme locomotion and pacing experiencing (I love that too), I still consider Alyx high above all the rest. It's by far the most complete, polished and immersive VR game, a unique and probably the best gaming experience made till now. Of course Alyx has flaws, but nothing compared to its unmatched qualities, that show us what (VR) games could be.

Well said.

Unfortunately, I now can’t go back to ‘regular’ flat-screen games, even the good ones like Cyberpunk.

Steam VR ‘theatre mode’ is on the surface another genius use of this tech. But seems bugged to hell for me – could be a hardwire issue of course, but won’t be buying a new rig until the year’s end.

Originally posted by IanL:

Personally I've had to suspend disbelief all the way through the HL series and have never regarded it as Sci-Fi as practically none of it hangs together in any believable way, but it did find it entertaining and fun.

I never played the original HL (may be an age thing), and only recently got to see what it was about with the fan-created remake.

Yeah, I stopped playing it after a while. I liked the carefree wit of the lines – humour is over-workshopped these days and I can’t remember the last time I even chuckled at any of it.

HL2 was, IMO, fantastic. The pacing, the environmental puzzles, the AI, and the inventiveness of the universe. The G-man is an excellently malicious and ambiguous creation, with brilliant voice acting, all of it highly original. The simple reptilian ‘eye effect’ that they added is fantastically unsettling.

The alien creatures are mostly original as well, apart from the face-hugger rip-offs.

The vortigaunts, who look evil but actually aren’t, are memorable, as are the slug-like overseers.

Dr Breen was easily one of the best video game villains ever conceived.

There was never much a story – but the visual storytelling is IMO unmatched. It’s perfect ‘show don’t tell’. There’s a lot of that in HLA, such as the rats with brain-like material growing from their sides to power a machine. It's ingeniously macabre. It’s never explained but lets your imagination fill in the blanks in satisfying ways.

There’s tons of that in this game, particularly with the haunting final level and ghostly humans, seemingly alive but displaced outside of time etc.

Originally posted by IanL:

I found the Alyx ending almost a correction to an awful previous decision using the concept of alternate time lines

We’ll have to agree to disagree.

The fact that you think it was an ‘awful’ decision, however, shows you were emotionally affected by the event. Most writers would kill to achieve this!

Good writing should be an unpleasant experience at times – just like life.

Unfortunately, good writing hasn’t been part of the modern fictional landscape for quite some time.

[Beta Ray Shill]

I’d like to add that HL2 achieved possibly the best ‘humanising’ of the brilliantly dystopian city that I’ve ever seen, in any fictional format.

That’s the only thing missing from HLA. You walk around this hellzone – but beyond the earliest chapters, you don’t meet the struggling underdog inhabitants that you constantly meet in HL2 and really get you on-board with the fight against the oppressors.

For some bizarre reason, the Americans are actually very good at setting up a convincing ‘against all odds’ narrative for their creations. You see it even in Blizzard game cinematics.

It’s actually pretty interesting, but I digress…

[IanL]

Happy to agree to disagree on the endings but completely agree on HL being a classic gaming experience and a wonderful flight of imagination. You describe it really well.

[SilentCaay]

Originally posted by ReggieYokes:

Originally posted by SilentCaay:

HLA is good but if it's the best gaming experience you've ever had you need to play more games.

I’ve played probably 100s of games over my life, from multiple different genres. Too many to name.

Then play better games. Jeez, I have to do all the thinking around here...

Originally posted by ReggieYokes:

The fact that you think it was an ‘awful’ decision, however, shows you were emotionally affected by the event. Most writers would kill to achieve this!
Good writing should be an unpleasant experience at times – just like life.

No, finding writing awful does not mean that it's actually good writing. That's absurd. If I didn't know any better, I'd think your were taking the piss. But I do know better.

[Beta Ray Shill]

Originally posted by SilentCaay:

Then play better games. Jeez, I have to do all the thinking around here...

Wow, insane Steam mods allow you to make the above comment (as well as the below), and I get deleted for lol'ing at it as nonsensical?

Do not attempt this again, Steam. There are no rules broken by a counter-argument when someone is claiming you're 'absurd' and 'taking the piss'.

Originally posted by SilentCaay:

No, finding writing awful does not mean that it's actually good writing.

LOL, as I said before - mate, if someone finds the writing 'awful', then yeah that means that person didn't think 'it's actually good writing'. The remark is nonsensical beyond belief.

Originally posted by SilentCaay:

That's absurd.

No, it's what's called 'making logical' sense - have a think about it.

Originally posted by SilentCaay:

If I didn't know any better, I'd think your were taking the piss. But I do know better.

It's great you 'know better', because you could've fooled me.

[necrophonic]

Originally posted by ReggieYokes:

...Do not attempt this again, Steam...

I didn't see the deleted posts so can't comment on the content, but you might want to reword this it comes across as threatening the mods, which is (for good reason) a quick way to get you banned.

Also you may want to edit the quotes in that post as it currently at time of writing looks like you're arguing with yourself in all but the first of them.