On November 18th, 1998, Valve Corporation changed sci-fi and first-person shooters of the era. Six years later, on November 16th, 2004, Valve released Half-Life 2 following-up the series with two episodic add-ons to continue the story of the second title in the series.
But as quickly as the series appeared … it disappeared.
Now 15 years after Half-Life 2 hit shelves (or 12 years after Half-Life 2 came out) we are seeing a brand new entry into the Half-Life series — and Half-Life: Alyx is that game.
“Set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, Alyx Vance and her father Eli mount an early resistance to the Combine’s brutal occupation of Earth.
The loss of the Seven-Hour War is still fresh. In the shadow of a rising Combine fortress known as the Citadel, residents of City 17 learn to live under the rule of their invaders. But among this scattered population are two of Earth’s most resourceful scientists: Dr. Eli Vance and his daughter Alyx, the founders of a fledgling resistance.
You and your father were relocated to City 17. In the years since, you’ve continued your clandestine scientific activity—performing critical research, and building invaluable tools for the few humans brave enough to defy the Combine.
Every day you learn more about your enemy, and every day you work toward finding a weakness.
Lean around a broken wall and under a barnacle to make an impossible shot. Rummage through shelves to find a healing syringe and some shotgun shells. Manipulate tools to hack alien interfaces. Tear a headcrab off your face and throw it out the window. VR was built for the kind of gameplay that sits at the heart of Half-Life.
Half-Life: Alyx supports a variety of play environments, locomotion methods, and input devices.”
The game looks to be that “killer App” for VR and will be playable on Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest with PC and link cable, and Windows Mixed Reality. On top of this announcement came another as Valve has announced that Source 2, their new game engine, is finally done and players will have access to the tools for mods.
“A set of Source 2 tools for building new levels will be available for the game, enabling any player to build and contribute new environments for the community to enjoy. Hammer, Valve’s level authoring tool, has been updated with all of the game’s virtual reality gameplay tools and components.”
While the game will include common weapons from the Half-Life games, the player will use gravity gloves that work similarly to the gravity gun in terms of physics manipulation. More details on the game are planned for the Game Awards ceremony in December 2019.
I have to admit, I am extremely hyped to play a brand new Half-Life game from Valve. It feels like it’s been so much longer than 15 years when an HL game from Valve actually released. This honestly feels like something special, like a piece of gaming history has been restored and will be released for everyone.
To think just a few years ago, another Half-Life game seemed like it would never happen. To everyone at Valve working on this, thank you and I wish you the best of luck on Half-Life: Alyx. March 2020 can’t come soon enough!
