Half-Life: Alyx

None of the modern VR games has ever surpassed Half-Life: Alyx in quality, immersion, gameplay, visual, story, literally everything... Even five years after its release, being played on the modern equipment like Quest 3 and RTX 5080 on Ultra Quality and high resolution scale, this game reveals its new colors and grants unforgettable impressions. Definitely recommend!

My real only issue tends to be the optimization for it. Even on minimum graphics it tends to GPU crash the game after a half our to an Hour and it's annoying. Overall I think it's my VRAM with 8gigs I love this game, it's great would recommend with a good GPU.

This game is why I bought VR. It's even more fun than I could dream of. it's amazing how realistic VR gets. you do not experience this on a console or pc. i dont get why the whole world isn't playing VR-AR. Oh yea about this game. I love the puzzles in the game. don't worry they are not too hard, but they let u think a little. The gameplay is amazing. You go to actually reload your weapon, not with 1 button auto reload. But you actually need to really reload your gun 😀 You goto drop drop the mag, get a new one out of your backpack and put it in the gun to reload. I am bad with words, so my advice to you is. Get VR, get this game, and you will experience fun in a totally different way. I LOVE this game. I LOVE valve for making this game. GG

Proper 3D Graphics -> Half-Life
Game Physics Breakthroughs -> Half-Life 2
Accessible Consumer VR -> Half-Life: Alyx
????? -> Half-Life 3

This is an incredible introduction to both VR and Half-Life as a whole. I bought it on a whim because the game was on sale, and now I'm fully invested in the franchise. I can't wait to see where Valve takes the next game in 2047

By far one of the best VR games out there. A fantastic experience. That being said, the second half kind of dragged on. The ending was quite disappointing to me.

Great VR experince and i say the flagship title for valve index. Its fun for what it is. Alot of cool physics in the game. Environment is something i say is very immersive and at times creepy but cool as well. just wish it was longer. excited for half life 2.9 to come out.

super nice artwork and the way your hands work with the environment is very detailed. almost makes it feel like your own hands. great pacing of the game, too. feels like they tailor each level to keep you engaged. fun puzzles that are very manageable for most ages.

words can not convey how excited i am for the future of VR after playing this. quite often while playing i forgot i was even playing a game, and in some moments of high intensity i even feared for my life lowkey. if valve continues down this path im all in especially as the hardwear gets better and better. there is still a bit of vr jank from time to time but far less than any game i've played up to this point. not only is this the best VR title i've played by far but it is now in my top ten list of best games i've ever played (vr and flat) and if and when we ever get half life 3 i hope it can be played in vr and on flat but if we only get one id have to say i would want it in VR. But for alyx here's what you can enjoy.
beautiful graphics especially on quest 3
immersive environment
heart pounding gameplay
simple but good story especially if you've played the others.
over all can recommend at full price to any and everyone 10?10.

A friend of mine recommended it, I didn't have VR back then so I thought it's some hyped nonsense.
I started Alyx to check out some hyped nonsense. When I took the headset off 5 (!) hours have gone by.
After this VR experience, no other PC game feels the same.

Best VR game ever. Was worth getting a quest just to play this one title. It burns me they arent doing more PCVR games as this was so incredible.

A honestly insane VR Title, 100% worth the $60, it looks so good and realistic, but in the ugly, non-filtered way that shows the ugliness of things, adding to the feeling of despair in the previously lively locations such as the Northern Star Hotel, finishing this game left me only wanting more from Valve, however we both know that's once in every 13 blue moons

So good it will make you try to like VR games despite the heachahes, nausea and incredible price of entry that makes VR a dead end in video gaming

Best VR Game ever so far. If you're a Half-Life fan, this is a must buy. Everything is so well thought through, story, play-system, graphics and audio are great. And the "feel" of actually being in the Half-Life world is fantastic. Simply: A great game.

It’s difficult to talk about Half-Life: Alyx.

Hell, it’s difficult to talk about Half-Life period.

As a fan since the very beginning, I’ve been through the dizzying highs and the seemingly interminable lows. Episode Two remains the single greatest video game experience of my entire life, but the years after its release (the “dark interval” so to speak) were excruciating to endure. My perception of the series is now inextricably conflated with vivid memories of frequent frustration at VALVe’s vagaries along with intermittent bouts of sweeping hope followed swiftly by crushing disappointment. Key members of the original Half-Life team retired in quick succession during the 2010s, capped off by the departure of writer Marc Laidlaw in 2016. This was the death knell, signalling the end of the series as I knew it.

I subsequently settled into a state of perpetual dissatisfaction and melancholy. Laidlaw offered ‘epistle 3’ as tiny consolation, but there was no real closure. No catharsis. Just constant yearning for a conclusion that I was forced to accept would never come.

Then, like a quantum fluctuation, Half-Life: Alyx was announced out of nowhere.

I experienced an avalanche of conflicting thoughts and feelings competing for dominance – shock, excitement, disbelief, disappointment, apprehension and more. Like a monkey’s paw, my wish had been granted but not without a few caveats. This was a prequel, not a sequel. This was a full-fledged game, but VR-exclusive. This was made by VALVe, except without Laidlaw and various other OG developers.

This was new Half-Life, but not the Half-Life I had hoped for.

Despite my misgivings, I couldn’t miss out on such a momentous event. I upgraded my PC and purchased a Samsung Odyssey+ – an unprecedented investment for just one game, but which only Half-Life could entice me to make. Alyx launched almost as soon as COVID lockdowns began worldwide and I completed it within four days.

The first few hours of Alyx were astonishing. I was expecting to be impressed based on the trailers I watched but, having never played VR before, I was still unprepared for the jaw-dropping detail, scale and immersion. It was incredibly emotional returning to a world I had been obsessed with as a teenager – one I had thought abandoned just a few months earlier – let alone through VR. I can find no words with which to adequately describe how affecting it was to fade in on that balcony and see that familiar vista – the monolithic and parasitic Citadel towering above the meagre housing blocks of City 17 and its hapless citizens. 12 very long years fell away the instant I heard the distinctive ambiance of Combine dropships, scanners and hunter choppers swarming the surrounding sky as the clinical and artificial voice of the omnipresent Combine Overwatch pierced the air.

I was also unprepared for the grueling physical demands of playing VR and it was intensely visceral at regular intervals. One moment that stands out is approaching a hanging corpse at the end of a dark canal and reaching for its flashlight, knowing something monstrous will emerge when I take it. The dread is palpable and minutes pass before I work up the nerve to continue. As soon as I grab the flashlight, I whirl around and see the unmistakable silhouette of poison headcrabs scuttling towards me, barely visible in the dark. Panic stricken, I flail around the area, waving the flashlight wildly and emptying my shotgun recklessly, barely dodging their leaps as they approach me. Not since the days of the original Half-Life has the lowly headcrab provoked such fearful, primal and instinctual reactions in me.

Less frightening but no less thrilling was my first proper engagement with Combine soldiers. I exit a subway tunnel, the sound of gunfire close by. My way forward is momentarily blocked by a stationery Razor Train beyond which Combine chatter signal the presence of two grunts. The train starts to accelerate, the gaps between each carriage briefly revealing their positions. The first notes of 'Anti-Citizen' kick off and an unexpected rush of adrenaline courses through me as the firefight begins. Old memories of holding off waves of Antlions alongside Vortigaunts in a mine and surviving an ambush at an abandoned inn come flooding back as I duck behind concrete and dispatch them.

Glorious.

These encounters would have been child’s play with a mouse and keyboard. In VR, fending off headcrabs, avoiding barnacles and engaging in firefights with just a handful of Combine soldiers was far more difficult and taxing than it had ever been before. Everything was much slower, more deliberate, more threatening. More realistic. Fitting, really, given the change in protagonist. Alyx has always been so much more human and more vulnerable than Freeman ever was. Hell, the immense detail in the environment alone was often exhausting to look at and process. I spent obscene amounts of time reading newspapers, examining flora, poking at zombie corpses and inspecting objects. The headset itself was also challenging to wear for extended periods of time and each session rarely lasted longer than an hour and a half, by which time my head was pounding severely and I had no choice but to take a break.

Suffice to say, I really enjoyed Alyx.

But I didn’t quite love it.

The gameplay and overall presentation was exemplary, but the narrative was thin even by Half-Life standards. Substantive story beats were few and far between, filled in by far too many quippy interactions between Alyx and Russel. The latter overstayed his welcome during the second half of the game, at which point Eli should have had a more prominent presence. I was particularly troubled by the ending, which effectively erased the horror and anguish of Episode Two’s cliffhanger while blowing the proverbial lid open on what the G-Man is capable of doing with little regard for the messy implications therein. It seemed to me to be a transparently desperate and potentially ill-fated attempt to wriggle out of a deep crevice in which VALVe had become hopelessly stuck for over a decade and to reorient the future of the series following the departure of some of its original auteurs, leaving me with decidedly mixed feelings.

Four years passed in the veritable blink of an eye and I found myself compelled to play Alyx again a few weeks after the 25th anniversary of the series. My first – and only – playthrough had come with a lot of baggage. Hype and expectations rarely invite a balanced perspective and mine was certainly clouded by both. In addition, I’d rushed the second half of the game to get to the ending and avoid spoilers, failing to absorb and appreciate some of the details and moments along the way. This time, I intended to take my time without any of the noise, novelty or cynicism getting in the way. I wanted to see the game for what it really is.

And it’s truly a masterpiece.

Alyx reaffirms that VALVe is simply without equal as a developer. It’s several orders of magnitude above every other VR title to date, a superlative game period and a worthy addition to this highly esteemed series, once again pushing the frontier of gaming in the way only Half-Life – only VALVe – has ever done. The environments are stunning, the puzzles satisfyingly tactile, the combat exhilarating and the performances top-tier. I especially like how Alyx imitates the structure of Half-Life 2, using each chapter to introduce and focus on a new gameplay idea or mechanic. It’s still not narratively substantive and some of my misgivings about the ending remain, but it succeeds where it matters and leaves room to do a lot more.

Indeed, perhaps the best thing about Alyx is that it ends with the promise of more Half-Life to come one day. For a few precious moments, inhabiting Gordon Freeman again, a radiant light wiped away the darkness of that devastating cliffhanger, offering a brief glimpse beyond its event horizon.

Half-Life has a future once more.

Still one of the best VR games out there.
It was designed for VR-first, and not tacked on.

If you've played Half-Life, this is the same thing but in VR. Which is to say an amazing experience.

This VR games is on another level. The first time I heard combine radio shatter I got goose bumps. Half-Life has never been better. Take your time to play around with the physics in this game. Valve has created a masterpiece! There is a lot of janky halfassed VR games that profit from the limited supply of real games. But this game is a love letter to VR tech.

I got only 4 hours in, but this game has already blown me away. Most VR games feel like tech demo's that don't know what to do with VR. Or they are just VR mini games thrown into one game. But Valve shows you what you can really do with Half Life: Alyx.

The graphics are pretty nice and the game is very immersive. I couldn't help but flinch occasionally. Usually I got lost interacting with objects in the world. Like drawing stuff with markers on a wall, or just simple launching bottles into the distance.

The game isn't that hard to play, but still provides you with plenty of challenge. It is very forgiving at times and the puzzles aren't that hard to complete. Playing horror/action games in VR just hits differently. I love how you reload guns, feels pretty real. And when getting attacked by multiple enemies, you just feel the tension. I love it!

I played this on playstation VR 2 headset and the game is smooth. I don't have the latest setup either. My hardware is 6+ years old. Thats how good this game is designed and programmed. If it plays so smoothly on a 6 year old rig with hardware that isn't even designed for the PC, there should be no problem with an updated rig with a VR headset designed for th PC.

The ultimate VR experience. No one VR game that I've played comes close to the level of Half Life Alyx. Sublime graphics, amazing atmosphere, good gunplay and of course a store befitting any Half Life game. While some elements have been executed better by certain games (e.g. gunplay), the total package is by far the most fun you can have in VR. Also, it's the best way to revisit the Half Life world. A must buy for anyone with VR.

Probably the best VR Game to fully experience for the first time.


- Played with Quest 3

great way to experience half life through different eyes and different systems

---{ Graphics }---
☑ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☑ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☑ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

---{ Author }---
☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template

P.S. Top 3 Vr Games

Same as usual for valve, good enjoyable , smooth game with no issues and interesting and fun mechanics, the one negative of the game is that it was definitively designed for vr with every aspect of it being forgiving of this fact, the enemies will not overwhelm you and the puzzles will not ask overmuch of you, I cannot help but compare it to the vr mod for half life and while its an unfair comparison, the mod benefits from more action based game play and vehicles.
This is an amazing vr game with comfort at the forefront of its design, which is it's biggest positive and its main detractor.

for the first time in first history play as series non-protagonist Alex Vince, and expericne it in your own eyes with the brand new future goggles. Explore many exciting interior locations such as alcohol, and hotel, on your amazing quest to rob a bank vault. Use new yet old wepons such as the pistol, shootgun, and small energy repeating weopon. All guns are itching to be upgraded with the new epoxy upgrade sysetm. No melee. Meet new exiting characters such as Professor Funny, and your dad. Try out new amazing wire puzzles. Gorman has some work to do!

The most immersive VR game I have ever played. The gameplay in combat feels great and has a lot of room for variety along with a well-written story.

First, I've bought this game to try out S2FM. But when I obtained an actual VR headset and tried this game, I was overwhelmingly shocked of how VR gaming has not just a prosperous future but present. It's completely different feeling that you're inside the story, without exaggeration, fully immersed in the environment of the events. Half Life Alyx is undoubtedly the best game made by Valve so far. 10/10

After owning Alyx for over 4 years, I finally completed my first playthrough (didn't initially have a PC build that could handle it). What an incredible and uniquely immersive experience from start to finish! It's definitely still the gold standard PC VR title. If you even have a passing interest in VR, this is a must play.

Graphics and art are top-notch, even without many of the recent advancements in rendering tech. This is pure rasterization at it's best and most performant. The excellent sound design contributes greatly to immersion and will keep you amped, as you often hear clues and enemy threats before you see them. The combat and gameplay are fun, with weapons have a nice physicality to them. None of the puzzles were too difficult, but provided a fun sense of discovery and force you to explore the incredible world of HL.

Played on Quest 3 at max settings using a GeForce RTX 3090.

Amazing, best PCVR graphics I've seen, every chapter is interesting and adds to locations variety, VR interactions are well made and feel very immersive.
I like the ammo economy, often making every shot matter.
18 hours spent and every new location still feels fresh.

Was sad when i beat it, but this is the best vr experience rn and an excellent game

Great game. I honestly wish more VR games had this level of effort put into them. While the storyline is relatively simple and streamlined, the gameplay is solid, with good controls, a great atmosphere and satisfying combat and puzzles.

I fear that the first VR game I played to completion is also the best VR currently accessible. I started this year off by finally working my way through the HL series which ended with what is likely the most immersive gaming experience I've had yet. HL Alyx is a masterclass in immersion, and within minutes of starting the scale of the world is expertly shown off as you overlook City 17 as humans and the Combine alike run through the streets, while striders scale buildings with easy. Truthfully, the gameplay consists of scavenging for supplies and gunfights (both more action oriented when fighting the Combine and more survival horror when dealing with headcrabs and zombies). However, the simple act of trashing some poor person's apartment building as you desperately hunt for just a few more shotgun shells or that last piece of resin is extremely satisfying. As per usual for HL games, the story and characters are a strong point as you work your way towards the final goal of Alyx's journey, and also as per usual, the game teases a future HL installment and only time will tell how well that ages.

Now off I go attempting to bring a garden gnome buddy with me on the journey of a lifetime

Best VR title standing. Its been five years since this game's release and It still holds the crown. Its unfortunate that nothing has matched this level of experience to date. I do believe in the medium of VR.

Probably one of the best VR games if not, the best VR single-player experience to have with this platform.
I really enjoyed the mechanics, the level design along with atmosphere feeling familiar to everything that came before it but introducing a different perspective of the story before Half-Life 2.
Definitely gonna go back and do achievement hunting for the game to complete it 100% & possibly another play through. Would recommend if you're a fan of the series & not yet played it. Or looking for new VR games out there.

Even as a long time fan of the series, I was very hesitant to get an expensive piece of equipment just to play one game, an important entry in my favorite game franchise, yes, but is it worth it? It's been almost 5 years since release and I chose to finally experience it for myself, the way it was meant to be played. I can safely say that the experience is way more fun than I expected, It's worth noting that VR, even after all this time is still very niche with a steep price tag and has seemingly been stagnating since this game came out, but even if you're only playing this game you're gonna get a ton of value out of it, plus if you're into everything Half Life, I think you'll be more than pleased with this entry, I know I was.

The second best vr game besides boneworks,
amazing graphics, a half life game and the jeff level is so cool.

The best single-player VR story experience out right now.

Half-Life: Alyx throws you into the world of Half-Life, 5 years before the events of Half-Life 2, in the shoes of a younger Alyx Vance. I cannot say much else about the story to avoid spoilers (aside from telling you to play Half-Life 2 and Episodes first), but trust me, its the best you'll see in a VR game as of early 2025. Valve seems to have set themselves up to continue the franchise at a later date, this game giving hope to the Half-Life community, since its the first game since Episode 2 in 2007 (or Lost Coast if you count that).

Valve have made the game with most headsets in mind, allowing you to enjoy it no matter what headset you use, as long as the controllers are supported and the headset can connect to your computer. No index needed, even if it may be the intended experience. I cannot say the same, however, about your PC. This is a very graphically intensive game, so you'll need to consult the spec sheet to see if your rig can handle it on decent settings so you can really soak in the game's beauty. The game will also auto adjust itself to your system, giving you the optimal settings for the smoothest experience possible.

The gameplay is an experience best suited for VR*, with engaging gunfights, puzzles that utilize the VR first-person perspective, and like most Half-Life games, a bit of horror. (*I don't recommend the no VR mod!)
There is a progression system with weapon upgrades using fabricators, in which you will need to gather a resource called Resin to craft them. This Resin is found around each level, often off the beaten path.
Levels are linear, but very detailed, encouraging exploration to find resources and play around with the physics, while also keeping the way ahead easy to find.
Fights with enemies are all based on precision, with specific weak points on the different enemy types that make the player think strategically in each encounter, not only to kill effectively, but to conserve your resources, with some enemies even being able to be killed in one well-placed shot.
Its unfortunately a "floating hands" game, with your hands displaying your health and resources through an in-world HUD system, but you still get immersed fairly well.

Half-Life: Alyx is tailored to all types of motion sickness, with different movement options (blink, shift, continuous/continuous hand) to help mediate it, while also letting more motion sickness resistant players to be more immersed in the world. The weapons you find are all designed to be shot one-handed, so you can do other tasks such as healing or throwing grenades while firing, and so both left and right-handed players can use them just fine.

Lastly, the soundtrack, composed by Mike Morasky with consultation from Kelly Bailey, is very good, with both thecalm and action track worthy of a 32-hour unsorted Spotify playlist (Yes I do have one). Seriously, press play on "Anti-Citizen" or "HIRE", and you will know what I mean.

In conclusion, i think this is the single best VR story game you could buy for PCVR. The story is fantastic, the gameplay is smooth and rewards thinking, the graphics are best in class, and the accessibility options make it suitable for all motion sickness tolerances. 9/10, would get jumped by 37 Manhacks and a Charger again.

Easily one of the best VR games ive played and im only 3 hours in.
-The graphics are great especially for a VR game
-Almost everything is interactable
-Cool physics and gunplay
10/10 VR game

I love Alyx!
I'm not an experienced gamer, so I haven't had a lot of exposure to many other VR games, but this one really captured my interest because it's challenging but not overly intense and it requires the development of a moderate amount of expertise, but not to an overwhelming extent. I enjoy the story line and the characters.
And I've really enjoyed becoming pretty competent at navigating the game.
I wish there were a sequel or prequel game!

Meet Jeff, an alcoholic blind dude who gets pissed whenever you cough or throw his vodka around. You'll go through 3 segments with him: Locking him in a meat freezer so then you can call the elevator and turn everything pitch black and then free him with the lights off, take an elevator ride with him as he beats his mistake of a child off the wall, and finally finding the batteries for the TV remote so you can leave him. This is only a single chapter of the game.

I can't believe how incredible this game is. The atmosphere, graphics, sound, story—you name it, this game has it all, and it's in VR! I never thought I'd enjoy VR gaming because the technology didn't feel mature enough, but this game proves otherwise. I'm playing it on an Oculus Quest 2, and it's an absolute game-changer.

10/10

Awesome, awesome, awesome!
Interaction. That's the name of the game. Half-Life: Alyx delivers a level of interactivity and creativity with it that no other VR game can match today. Incredible game design stretches the medium of being in VR and having hands to whole new levels from simply shuffling through items to get an item you want, to stopping bottles from breaking and alerting enemies, to unjamming doors or shutting them to shield yourself from a grenade. The level of creativity in amazingly-paced segments and levels makes this game shine. The graphics are top notch. The sound and music is good too, with utilized directional audio for specific parts to further immerse you into the game.
Seemingly everything is designed with the human body in mind: not a crazy-sounding statement, but when compared to other VR games, it's a big complement. You have to play it to understand fully.

This was my first VR experience 3 years ago. Now that I've gotten and beaten it myself, I can say that it's been an honor to experience something like this, and here's hoping for more like this for VR and Half-Life's future.

Really looking forward what's next in the story

before you buy this game just be warned you need a large pc or laptop for this game but anyway really good game and still scary and if your wondering why it isnt on your meta quest store is because its valve so on your meta quest store downlowd steam vr for free and connect your steam account to your vr headset after plugging a cable into your headset than all your VR games should be there
anyway good game

Peak God Game -12/10

Makes other shooters and games in general feel woefully inadequate. It's worth buying a VR headset to experience this masterpiece. Groundbreaking is an understatement.
Valve is always raising the bar, smashing standards and exceeding expectations. At release nothing compared to Half life 1, then nothing compared to Half life 2. I didn't think they could top Half life 2 but Valve always goes harder, bigger, better every time, its part of their ethos and they wont release a game unless its at the absolute pinnacle for its time.
This work of art will give you PTSD of bottles and broken glass, say high to Jeff for me.
I set my VR up in my living room so all my friends could come over and experience it, do the same for your friends. Gift this to them and watch them experience it more then one have told me it ruined other shooters for them XD

Bottom line: Play Half Life Alyx before you leave this world and head into the next, you owe it to yourself and make sure you watch the cinematic after the credits, keep some tissue close if your a longtime Half life fan because, its time to raise the bar once more...

Great game. The variety of the levels is interesting, audio and graphics are good. It is still fantastic that valve decided to make this VR game. To keep the framerate stable, i used this command: -console -vconsole +vr_fidelity_level_auto 0 +vr_fidelity_level 4. Otherwise it will use dynamic resolution scaling, but this causes slight frame time stutters.

This is not just a game — this is an experience. A once-in-a-lifetime experience. It’s not just pixels or 3D models; it’s an alternate reality. The level of immersion in Half-Life: Alyx is so profound that it feels like you’re truly stepping into another world.

In the first 10 minutes of the game, when the Combine soldiers pointed their guns at me, I was frozen in fear. It wasn’t just a scripted moment in a game; it felt real. My brain couldn’t process what was happening, and for a moment, I felt completely defenseless. That’s the level of realism this game achieves — it’s not just something you play, it’s something you live.

This is the Half-Life universe brought to life in a way I never imagined possible. It’s not a game you play casually; it’s a world you teleport to, a place that feels so real it will stay with you long after you take off the headset.

Still the best VR game to date 5 years after its release and overall one of the Top 3 gaming experiences I have ever had. 11/10 Must Buy for any VR owner.

I absolutely love this game. The graphics, the immersion, the story, all incredible. Sublime work.

8/10
A negative purely because of how much a pain trying to fix the performance for the game was when using a Quest 2. I have a Ryzen 5 3600, 3070ti, 32gb ram, ssd, everything is updated (drivers, steam, Meta app, headset), and I used a usb cable that met the requirements to link my Quest 2. Hmm, was the recommended specs for this game always blank? Oh and only 23% of players have finished the game. I've looked around and it seems even 3090 players have had issues with the performance and stuttering of the game when it should all work right off the bat.

One of the games you should play when you get VR. The gameplay is a linear story shooter with weapon upgrades as the character progression throughout the game. There's 3 weapons; pistol, shotgun, and smg each with their own resin upgrades. I played on normal and may have missed some resin, but I was able to get all but one upgrade before the last resin machine. The game is about 9-11hrs long, I had a previous save file from years ago.

On normal your character is quite squishy, but the only real danger are the Combine special enemies, as they can chunk your health in a blink.

I got the game years ago along with my Quest 2 and was new to VR. My first time experience was horrid, as I was nauseous, headache from the pressure on my face, and my body was overheating from the heat coming off the Quest 2. I played with the joystick movement as the other options feel restrictive in combat. Recently I really wanted to give the game a try again, and make use of the Quest 2 collecting dust. I'd been playing the game once a day for 30mins-1hr a session, as that was all I could stomach. About 3/4 through the playthrough I started getting less nauseous from the joystick movement, but the heat and weight would put me out. Got one of those KIWI headstraps and it was very helpful the last couple hours of the playthrough, as it make it comfortable enough to play for 1.5hrs-2hrs at a time.

The biggest hurdle I found with the game was how difficult it was to fix the performance issues with the game, as steamvr, HLA, the headset, and the Meta Quest Link app may not work together as well as they did when the game first came out. I don't know where the problems comes from, whether it be buggy software between the Meta app, Steamvr, Nvidia drivers, and HLA, but it needs to be looked into, as this one of the best VR games available and you should be able to run it and play without having to google for fixes. I'd almost rather have a headset that is only PCVR, such that it is not a standalone like the Quest/Pico, as I believe this opens the door to more compatibility issues.

Here's a list of some of the fixes I tried with my Quest 2 (google them to find forum/reddit threads on it); turning off motion smoothing in steamvr settings, putting this as a launch option "-novid -console -vconsole +vr_fidelity_level_auto 0 +vr_fidelity_level 3 +vr_render_scale 1.0" this I think will stop the game from increasing the resolution depending on how much overhead you have, turning down visual fidelity in the settings, in the SteamVr window bring up the settings and turn off VR home, lower the resolution for SteamVR home and room. But even with this it seemed the game would just become a stuttering mess in some areas. When it comes to resolution and refresh rate, you can tune this in Meta's app. I prefer choosing the 72Hz and higher resolution (do custom resolution and leave the slider on the tick it recommends), because if I choose the 90Hz the resolution it recommends is hella blurry, which makes it very hard to see enemies and do long-range shots.

Quick summary of the story. You begin in Alyx's hideout, head out to find her father Eli at his location, Eli and Alyx get captured, Alyx is broken out from a metrocop transporter, goes to free her dad, frees her dad and they then go to find out what has the Combine so nervous, they decide they need to get to the vault high in the sky to find what has them scared, they believe it's Gordan Freeman, Alyx pulls power levers at random and grounds the vault, destroys a strider and gets beamed up into the vault, use cool lightning powers to one-shot everything, and free Gordan Freeman the G-Man, G-Man gives a choice to save her father or not to (I chose to save Eli), with my decision Alyx is essentially hired to replace Gordan as G-Man's new agent because Gordan supposedly won't do his job or is incapable of doing so, Gordan and Eli decide they need to save her from G-Man, roll credits then mix in some scavenging, firefights, puzzles, hidden resin and you have a good time.

It's pretty great. Some parts were sluggish but overall amazing game.