Dang, Half Life Alyx is suburb

Off-Topic Games, Gaming and Hardware
1

Got back from playing like 3 hours of it, with my head still thinking a bit my room is VR, just a bit, i got to say, the game is like massive fun.

When i first started off, i was kind of “Whoa” because i was near a ledge with a railing and i looked over it and looked how big the place is. Like i’m actually there and such. Then i picked up a bottle of beer and got disappointed that i can’t drink it, so i threw it down to the people. Then i just throw random stuff off the roof, having a good ole time, and discovered that i can wear a flower pot as a hat, i had a good laugh from that. :laughing:

Going on with the story, i’ve stumbled upon some people, and later on guards as i try to grab people’s beanies or poke at them. (I’m on Oculus quest 2, and don’t have Valve index, so i can’t give them the proper salute. :frowning: But i can pull off a good Fonz. ) A little later on, i’ve been given the gun. The way to aim it was intuitive enough as well to put the mag in and even slide it back. Lovely touch. :cook: :kissing_closed_eyes:

Oh you can even fire while on a ladder too! I was like “Does this work? OMG it does! :scream: I can one hand defend myself!” That entire gun thing was like that, the whole "Hmm, i wonder if it translate? Omg it does! :open_mouth: "

Even like how you can sorta hold it two handed, though i can’t tell a difference if i were aiming better or not. And when i finally come face to face with a bunch of zombies in a sewer as well those Barnacles, the game lit up for me as it became like Resident Evil 4, esp when i got that laser sight earlier in the game. …Minus the lack of roundhouse kicking after scoring a headshot. I can gun butt the window and give the wood planks a tickle, but i guess the zombies don’t feel like eating my gunmetal today… Neither the crap i was actually throwing at them. Or it does, idk.

Only thing i don’t like is how the mantling and “jumping” is tied to the same stick with turning. And No, it’s really hard not to accidentally do this.

Either way, damn aren’t i impressed to try more VR games in the future. Best of all, i didn’t even make a sick all over the floor after. :smiley:

Really great game. Totally recommend for gameplay alone. :+1: :slight_smile:

2

You may want to stick more to the Meta store if you’re hoping to enjoy the experience. From everything I’ve seen, titles there tend to be of a much higher quality - actually being full games much of the time, rather than teasers or tech demos of circa-2000 quality. Something to do with them actually throwing money at developers, and not having anything that could pass as an Early Access system.

As much as SteamVR may be very capably demonstrated by Alyx, it basically stands alone as an outlier. The quality after that takes a very sharp nosedive - what few “AAA” titles exist are likely to be shorter than arcade games, and some of them don’t even work properly on modern hardware without adding third party mods (looking at you, Bethesda, who still wants full launch price for Skyrim and Fallout 4 VR). That’s not to say that there aren’t other well made titles (the Walking Dead games, for example), and there is definitely fun to be had (especially in co-op, in the few instances it’s available), but you’re going to find a lot more lemons than anything else.

It is, however, worth looking at some of the fan mods and VR modes (both finished and otherwise) of “flat” games. A group has actually put together a full VR mod for Half-Life 2, Ep 1, and Ep 2, based on Alyx - with the assistance of Valve. I haven’t played through these yet but there’s an awful lot of potential for these to be up there. Payday 2 in VR is also better than it has any right to be once you get the controls sorted (probably easier with a Quest than Knuckles).

Some time I also need to take a look at Dying Light and Doom 3 in VR. Both had (incomplete?) official VR modes hidden in their configs, but I imagine they’re probably for the Meta libraries so that’ll take some finessing.

3

One of the exceptions to this is No Man’s Sky.

The VR experience in that game is incredible even with a Quest.