Half-Life Alyx relaunches the series
The launch of Half-Life: Alyx has driven sales of VR headsets since its announcement, bringing Valve's legendary saga to the world of Virtual Reality for the first time.Halyx's adventure has settled in effectively within the imaginary built over the years by the videogame giant. Packed with content, Half-Life: Alyx is a major chapter of full-fledged IP, despite its exclusive presence in the VR market. In describing the development process, Robin Walker, project lead for the title, recently reiterated the care that the team has reserved for the game, and in particular for the drafting of the ending. Without going into details, the latter finally turned out to be a fundamental piece in the Half-Life saga.
For this reason too, Robin Walker wanted to reassure fans about the future of the IP: "It was clear to us that Half-Life: Alyx had to be something relevant. - said the project lead Valve - The story could not be something that we could simply ignore to move on to whatever we build in the future. We also knew that Half-Life fans have been stuck in some sort of narrative limbo for a long time, and we wanted that to change. "
At the moment, Valve hasn't announced any new titles for the saga, but many of the developers of Half-Life Alyx would like to work on a Half-Life 3 now.
Half-Life: Alyx marks the end of the series’ “narrative limbo”
© Provided by GamesRadar Half Life Alyx marks the end of the series’ “narrative limbo”Half-Life fans have been stuck in 'narrative limbo for a long time now', Valve has acknowledged.
In an interview with The Gamer, project lead Robin Walker talked about the ending to Half-Life: Alyx, the critically acclaimed VR prequel to Half-Life 2. “The story couldn’t be something you could just ignore and move onto whatever we build next,” explained Walker, referencing the game's final act.
“We wanted to be excited about possibility again,” Walker explained. “We gave [the player] a red herring where you think you know how it’s going to end with a fully plausible ending and we then subverted that.” While this is by no means a confirmation that more Half-Life is coming, the franchise certainly has a much rosier outlook than it used to.
We adored Half-Life: Alyx when we played it launch, with our Half-Life Alyx review describing it as “a love letter to Half-Life.” It has great mechanics, devilish puzzles, and some exceptional story beats – three cornerstones of classic Valve games that clearly haven’t gone anywhere.
Prior to Alyx, there hadn’t been a release in the Half-Life series for over a decade, and that last game to come out - Half-Life 2 Episode 2 - ended on a massive cliffhanger that left fans clamoring for more. It really did seem like more would never come too, until the shock announcement of Half-Life Alyx in late 2019.
Half-Life: Alyx is available on Steam, but bear in mind that you’ll need a VR headset to play it. There has been no official word of the game coming to other consoles, but with Sony’s recent confirmation that a new PSVR is in development, it’s not impossible that we might see Half-Life Alyx make its way to the PS5 in the future.
If you’ve finished Half-Life: Alyx, check out our best VR games lineup to see what else is out there waiting for you.