Hey guys, hopping into the comments here real quick for an update: A lot of you have been saying that if I enjoyed Alyx, I should check out Boneworks. To be completely honest, I’ve never had a chance to play Boneworks - can’t play everything right? But enough of you have made it clear that it’s certainly worth checking out, so expect a follow-up to this video down the line covering my thoughts on that game. Just gotta stock up on Tylenol first. That video wont be next, but it will be happening. So stay tuned and thank you for the suggestions!

the editing had me believe this video had at least over 1k views and such, I was so shocked to see how little attention it got

HL Alyx was the reason I wanted and got myself a Quest 3. Yet Alyx left me with an itch for more Half Life, was like a trip back in time. Did scratch this itch with Half Life 2 VR, my God was that intense.

They do actually explain how Alyx was in Half-Life 2 even though the G-man put her in stasis. He explicitly said he's putting her in stasis at the moment at the end of Episode 2. So everything leading up to the ending of Episode 2 did happen. Also he wiped Alyx' memory of his reward. That's why she never mentioned it. It's not a mess. It's a genius way of retconning Eli's death. The G-Man always had space/time powers, same as the votrigaunts. It actually makes 100% sense. :)

With Jeff, I like how, if you managed to grab a rebreather earlier in the game, you can wear it and it helps later since it filters Jeff's fumes. It's the idea that, even with everything grab-able, some things are just more useful than you at first realize.

Valve may have been radio silent on any new VR games, but they have been working on a new VR headset (the Deckard) for quite some time now, and there will probably be a VR game to go along with it.

26:53 The biggest issue I had when playing Alyx with the multitool was the missed potential it represented. We see alyx shock doorways in previous half life games with her multitool, and this was a missed opportunity to make it an optional lock shocker for when you wanted to conserve ammunition when blasting off chain locks, and, more importantly, to make it as iconic as Gordon's crowbar by literally just turning it into a slightly modified version of the taser from the PS1 game Syphon Filter. If you've seen that, then you're now going "Oh my god why didn't they do that, it would have been perfect".

I'm glad Valve are still innovating and trying new stuff, even if it means getting one game per decade

I was a huge half life 2 fan and only heard of Alyx fairly recently. I have to say, it is very impressive in terms of VR quality and detail. I spend a lot of time analyzing and studying the Combine tech, like their door locks, healing stations and large machinery. Valve really spent the time to detail these objects.

Hey, a fellow lefty! After completing Alyx left-handed for the first time, I did a run right-handed for the extra challenge, and it revealed an interesting aspect of the level design. A lot of the levels near the end of the game run clockwise like staircases in old castles, so that your right hand is obstructed, but it also makes left-handed play easier. Playing off-handed, though, made throwing grenades much simpler and I found I used them all the time because I didn't have to put my gun away. Yoinking Combine grenades out of the air is so satisfying.

there's a flatscreen mod for Alyx now, it functions more or less like Half-life 2, and I know of people who bought the game without a VR headset just to play it that way. Yeah you lose some of the magic, but at least if you're a half-life fan and can't afford vr there's still a way to experience it.

34:15 Counter point: People at the time didnt had all the right hardware for a stable 60 frame game, but they do played with 20-40 frames a lot and experienced it. You cant do that with VR, YOU NEED THE VR on top of a good PC.

Something I think anyone on the fence about VR should know is that the meta Quest 2 is cheaper than a ps5 these days, and you can use it to play PCVR and standalone games, so if you've got a gaming PC it's not really a huge gamble to try it. It's also nice that you can just use it anywhere you have room. For me personally the real killer app was Contractors and its cod zombies mods. Playing Kino Der Toten in VR is something I think I literally dreamed about as a kid.

Damn you only have a thousand subs? the pacing and humor for this video feels really top notch, I'm gonna have to check out some of your other videos after this one!

Wrote like a whole essay that was badly worded but in short. Alyx was basically why I barely play VR now, absolutely amazing and played through it like 10 times not included modded maps. Videos like “HL:A is why VR sucked this year” talking about how Valve dropped a game pushing the medium forward but besides a dev commentary didn’t really give much to the industry so everyone was basically still at square 1 and we’re still seeing VR games try to do what Alyx did, but at the moment we’re only just starting to feel Alyx’s effects in VR. I love HL:A. Just wish they were more transparent about what they learned about VR so the medium could more quickly improve, not saying it would have been much quicker than it was but it would have really helped.

Wasn't sure what to expect when KZfaq put this vid in my reccs out of nowhere, honestly surprised it's only 5 hours old, but I'm pleasantly surprised! A solid video overall, Hope to see more from you in the future. ... Wow that reads like a bot. Let's try it this way: vid gud. intro bit go too long tho. hope u get more view and subscriber. am real perzon me prommy.

You should definitely give the Half Life 2 VR mod a go. They have one for HL2 and both episodes. I think there's also a Black Mesa VR Mod. You'd be really surprised at how well HL2 works in VR......except the boat mission.

You're overthinking the time travel aspect of the ending. It wasn't so much time "travel" as it was granting a wish in the future. All of the events of Half Life 2 proceeded as normal, Alex with no memory of her encounter or deal with G-Man, until the ending of Episode 2, where the wish comes to fruition and Alex is whisked away by the G-Man. At least that's how I interpreted it based on the dialogue in the final cutscene. I do believe the loss of Laidlaw is irreparable though. everyone who cares has already read Epistle 3, and I doubt they will ever find another writer of his caliber. Seems that the only major company producing games with grade A writing is Sony, and Valve will likely to continue gearing into competitive multiplayer experiences instead of anything interesting or cinematic. Just my 2 cents.

Great video! I’m honestly surprised how little subscribers you have given the quality/editing, keep it up!

There are so many cool things to interact with in this game. You can wear a traffic cone on your head and it protects against barnacles. Also you can fill a bucket with grenades and other useful items. You may be surprised to learn that the grena6bucket will transfer through loading screens

What a great video! I also have a VR headset and didn't play much besides modded Skyrim and Half Life Alyx on it. But damn, Alyx was worth it.

24:48 these are the antlions baby worms that you step on HL 2 Episode 2 to get health back.

what ever you say VALVE IS BACK!!! (with that blast)

If you're looking for other VR games to try out, despite your motion sickness, I'd highly recommend Vertigo 2. It's a bit on the jankier side, but is super impressive considering that, to my knowledge, it was developed mostly by a single person. Speaking of companies taking risks in the space, it does appear that Metro will be getting a game in the series exclusive to VR through Metro Awakening, which seems to be taking heavy inspiration from Half-Life: Alyx based on the trailer that was shown. High hopes for that, and for the medium as a whole. It truly provides an experience a normal game simply cannot and it makes me super excited for the future.

I honestly though your channel was bigger untill I saw the comments. Saw this on the TV and shared it with others

Keep making good shit please! and i had no idea that its already on its fourth anniversary.

this deserves much more likes/views and subs

Great video, thought I was watching someone who had at least a couple hundred thousand subscribers. Subscribed.

13:27 Tongue-in-cheek dialogue has always been in Valve's house writing style though

Half life Alyx is the only reason I own a VR headset. I bought a Meta Quest 1 last year to play this game for relatively cheap. And it was definitely worth it

Clips don't exist in context with modern weaponry. What you mean is a magazine. What is meant by clip is actually called a loading strip or stripper clip. Those are very rare, don't exist for most weapons and they are an accessory that is used to quickly load either detachable or internal magazines. So the magazine is what contains ammunition and what you put into a gun. A stripper clip is used to load rounds into a magazine.

14:40 just marked "KZfaqr tells you mark **meta moment** off your bingo card" off of my bingo card.

Enjoyed this video a lot

1:48 Do like the neck-straining Robocop set up here.

I hope that valve one day maybe makes the player community tools to develop VR in source 2 because i know if they did someone would remaster both hl1 and hl2 and it would be great for all

the reflex sight can alow you to see weak points on a zombie to one shot it, along with things like that tanks on combine that explode when shot, it's also a reflex sight making aiming easier than with iron sights

This game made me realize that I never want to play VR games that solely take place in cellars and small rooms. Come on! I play VR for the sense of scale, big canyons or laboratory halls. Vertigo VR on the other hand, that hit the spot.

Loved the vid, keep it up bro

Oh no for me jeff wasnt a highlight it was the point where i nearly shit my pants and then took a 7 month break. Still its a very fun chapter to return to in repeat playthroughs

Its actually frightening how much of the last four years I've seemingly supressed from my memory

thought this was a bigger channel. you deserve more

Hopefully this video will blow up soon, deserves alot more views. This video was put together very well

Btw, don't forget to check the HL: Alyx Workshop! I had hours of fun playing some really good community made maps!

Do note that a "retcon" is when a story overwrites something that has been set up before with no in-universe explanation. Stories with time travel do not count as retconning its own events.

This is a great video! The motion sickness you're struggling with is often caused with either low frame rates, or the stock lenses in the headset. If FPS isn't a problem, I'd recommend you get a pair of "gear VR lenses", but be extremely careful when modding your headset, because you don't want even a spec of dust on the screen!

I rarely leave comments, but I have to if it helps boost this video to other people. Incredibly well structured video essay, the humor is GREAT. Definitely subscribed and look forward to more of these :]

I can't watch this video. As of now, I still have absolutely zero spoilers for HL:A. I want it to all be fresh and new when i finally get a VR headset. So many years ive waited for a new half life game, i hope it's worth the wait... edit: i still liked it and put it in a playlist for later, but god this is suffering

Preface: I haven't played HL Alyx myself, just seen lots of playthroughs and am a big HL fan. My personal understanding of the retconned timeline is this: Alyx meets with the Gman inside his jail cell, which is outside time. He lets her save her father in the future before letting her leave while remembering nothing or only meeting the Gman. She continues to fight with Gordon in the HL 2 games as normal. Just as Eli is about to die, Past-Alyx saves Eli before the Gman puts present-Alyx into stasis. Eli gets (understandably) angry and then HL Alyx post-credits cutscene plays out. TLDR; Alyx does everything normal until Eli is about to die, then Past-Alyx saves him before Gman puts her into stasis in the present

Mainly salty that i brought russels vodka all the way to the end ad then it gets tractor beamed away 😒

I love VR. Recently got into it via a Quest 3. So many great games currently there and in the pipeline. Into The Radius, Pavlov, Population 1, Arizona Sunshine, Walking Dead, Red Matter. We have a ways to go still, but it feels like I came into VR at the perfect time 👌

While Jeff was intense and it´s puzzles genius My favorite part of the game clearly was the two lighting-doggos in the run down house basement/cellar I replayed that part 4 times just for the visuals alone. i just love those reviver-thingys

wait, I thought you had 159k subs, not 1.59k wow, amazing video quality man keep it up! 👹

I was able to play this with a GTX 970, and a $150 Acer Win MR headset - don't need thousands to enjoy!

I have played HL: Alyx for over 100hours. And it's honestly the gift that keeps on giving with all the new community made content. Campaigns like Zheptics and Levitation feels like actual valve-made DLC to the game. I'm hoping Valve will continue to push the VR medium.

2016 was the year when i dreamed about getting this "VR Device" and how cool it would to be in game. Fast forward to 2021...Made my big step into VR world by getting Rift S & later on Valve Index. 3 years, still going strong & never regret my purchase, haha

One month later and it got 100k veiws lol bro didn't fall off, he got on 🔥🔥🔥🔥

From the looks of all of your videos, we had nearly the same childhood and I'm beyond excited to dive into this channel.

I only bought a vr headset to play car sims and for that it is truly fantastic. To the point where I'm not interested in playing without it. It is the only thing I use it for. I tried several games (other than the shovel ware) and to be honest I just don't enjoy the gaming experience. For me it just feels like a cumbersome way to play and when I play games that are not car sims, all I want to do is relax on my couch. The only other thing I would use it for would be a plane simulator or something like an ace combat style game. I has been fun showing those shovel ware type of games to guests, though.

Great video dood ❤

The best VR experience and probably one of the most memorable gaming experience in my entire gaming history. However the problem is, after playing this thing, all other VR games or games in general aren't as much attractive any more... till this day I'm still waiting for a similar gaming experience like Alyx, and not feeling enough playing any other video game to be honest...

If you haven't already tried No Man's Sky in VR lately, I would highly recommend it. The VR controls are very immersive and rather well done. It almost feels like a completely different game when you play it in VR.

HL Alyx may have little replayability, but it feels genius in just the amount of ways you can interact with the world (sadly excluding melee damage). On my second playthrough I found out that as long as the items you carried are in the same level transition room as you are, you get to carry them around through multiple sections of the game without technically having inventory room for it. So I carried two buckets full of grenades and threw them at everything that moved. Great times...

Oh my god, thank youuuu for criticising this style of ironic, detached writing. I always find it super hard to put my finger on what bothers me about it but "detached" is definitely one of the best descriptors. (also: here before this video had 100k plays - it's so well made and i love your jokes, it's gotta blow up!)

Asgards Wrath 2 is an exclusive AAA VR game that came out last year and the Vertigo games reach Half Life quality but aren’t advertised for some reason. The amount of high quality VR games that have come out since Alyx are numerous but most are indie or are made by Meta who do make AAA VR games but don’t know how to sell them to general audiences. Asgards Wrath 2 is especially compelling, being a 60 hour AAA open world VR RPG running standalone but it seems that most people don’t talk about it, even if everyone who got a Quest 3 got it for free.

Using clips, using magazines, and directly feeding cartriges into your gun's barrel are 3 distinct uninterchangeable operations. Clips are pretty rare in modern setting videogames, HL:Alyx doesn't have any in the whole game, for example.

You seriously need more subscribers, this really is some funny stuff! I almost have too much to say about how great your content is! Oh, my mistake, that was actually the end of that sentence.

Also the Mods are very good. The Bioshock (recreation of the 1st Bioshock game) and the Leviathan Mod (a expansion of the Game with it's own Story) It's sadly only available on PC so PSVR Users can't play this. Valve didn't say something official about a new game, but they did release some hints in their Software with the Gmes Project Citadell and Standalone VR Headset the Deckard (it has also the Name Deck in it)

The ending in HL:A isn't confusing because Alyx was taken right there and then, not taken before the events of HL2 so she was present during them. Eli references to this by saying how G-Man took her with his "unforseen consequences".

Its prob been mentioned but the HL VR mods have been amazing.

I was so hopeful after the release of HL Alyx that it would be the beginning of triple A VR games. But that never happened, and it remains the only truly great VR game in my opinion (full length anyway).

cool video :) the time travel was also hard to digest for me, i understood it that alyx will keep on living her life, probably not remembering the "father saving" events, then the events of hl2 + episodes will happen but the ending scene will be "rewritten" by these events, so suddenly alyx will have disappeared, eli will be alive and urge gordon to get her back and that's where the next half life game will pick up.

super cool channel and very professional, looking forward to seeing more from you in the future :)

Borrowed a friends headset to play through this game just this year, the genuine terror I felt in those dark environments is truly something I miss from playing games, nowadays due to generally playing Multiplayer FPS games any story game with a gun just feels like a speedrun as I run around one tapping all the enemies or getting frustrated at the bullet sponge.

This video is hitting wayyy higher than the subscriber count. More vids like this and this channel will see 100k+ subs very fast.

they should just make a game where half of it takes place after half life 2(timeline version after half life alyx) and then have it so that like quarter of the way through we save alyx allowing her to go back reseting the timeline back to original but with eli alive, then just make it so gordon returns right back to when eli is killed, but instead surviving, and then just continue the story there, fixing the question of who replaces alyx, and also allowing eli to live still.

in regards to your motion sickness, it really helps to have a PC/GPU that can run the frames per second to reach over 100(fps), as well as set your headset to 120hz. Even running at 90hz helps, but I've only messed around with the Valve Index. You also have to get your VR legs, which took a good week of immersion to eliminate most of what I got in game, and most of that was when I had to climb up stuff.

Awsome video!!!

13:40 from what i heard it's called "The Millenial Writing" I recently watch a video discussing it here on KZfaq.

I get vr sickness too. Its rough lol after about 20 min of play I start to feel it and it makes me sweat more than normal then it ruins the experience cause the screen fogs up constantly.

I'm gonna be honest, about the ending and stuff, I feel like alyx takes place in like, sorta a pocket dimension reliving of the past during the last scene of hl2e2 or something along those lines

4 years ago ...

huge HL fan here.. played every game in the series multiple times, but i still haven't played ALYX in 2024 :(

I have to say half-life Alyx is probably the greatest game I’ve ever played in my life. It’s peak VR. Saying that the half-life 2 VR mod is incredible, and almost has better combat in places. I love VR so much and I probably wouldn’t care if it wasn’t for valve creating these masterpieces not to mention the modders saving the genre when the developers didn’t invest money in AAA titles. Also, alien isolation VR mod is next level. I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by how good the quest 2 games look on the quest 3. Resident evil 4 looks incredible on the quest 3 when the settings are turned up. Also doom 3 mod is a must play.

Ain’t no way this this doesn’t have at least 10k views

0:49 *So* natural I don't know if they edited it this way, or you did.

the problem is the idea of innovation leading to an inevitable growth in said innovation. the accessibility question is not just tied to it being too bad nobody can play it but also to the nature of the medium itself, of vr being only being interesting in specific ways that require extremely high fidelity and testing and ironing out of mechanics. the integration of vr mechanics is impressive in the jeff chapter of the game but it also fundamentally is built on horror game design that has been done other places in more interesting ways, and that while you can gain a thing or two from vr, you also lose a lot that regular pc games have to offer. amnesia: the bunker is to me just as tense and stressful as the best of alyx, and I can see ways in which vr functionality to that game could "work" within the games existing mechanics, but i dont actually see any way they would elevate them beyond the initial rush of it "feeling" more real than it is. ultimately in vr or regular gaming you have to allow yourself to be immersed into mechanics to an extent to get anything out of them. after dying a few times to jeff, i was able to just say "alright, whatever, im kind of annoyed and its actually a pretty simple ai to out maneuver", and that recognition of the simplicity of its true mechanics made me more annoyed than anything trying to get through this. this, however, never happened to me in The Bunker, even when I tried to. when it happens in harder, more mechanics based games, the best of those seem to always account for the player doing this in a way where the mechanics become integrated with the story and themes of the game (like fromsoftware stuff). this is not the case with half life alyx. i think vr on its own is just losing what makes video games mechanically interesting, and that half life alyx doesnt have enough of its own identity outside of its vr nature to justify itself the same way the last two half life games were. like its true hl2 was a bit obsessed with "physics" but the game itself i think was aesthetically unique, and had an otherworldlyness and quiet somberness that other shooter games were not emulating. and that quiet somber attitude was well reflected in the story, in gordon freeman, and in the "inevitability" of it all that the game culminates in. an inevitability that Alyx shares but felt a bit wrong and discordant with everything story-wise that came before it.

I don't think its still fair to say VR is significantly expensive anymore. With quest 2s going for 200 bucks

I mean for the vr time travel would be neat if vr was a different timeline. Pc half life being what we had and vr half life being a different path. Itll be the only way to salvage it tbh

great video, geat narration visuals and jokes. subbed ☺️

9:06 please, I think we all know this is a tip of the hat from valve to Halo 2

Half life alyx is still the very best in VR evennafter all these years. Its epic

Super Long Head Canon Comment Dont open unless ur ready to read insane thoughts lol The time travel aspect of the story never really bothered me too much. From a traditional standpoint if you view the timeline as a single linear story that has to fold in on itself to make the time travel work then obviously you will run into the classic dilemmas with time travel. But when you realize just how powerful and cunning the Gman is then it really just makes sense. Obviously this is more of a head canon but it's what i feel makes sense. I believe that HL:A takes place in something of a mirrored timeline. GMan may not be able to control the flow of time (otherwise he would just reset things when they dont go his way) but I dont feel like for someone like him parrallel universe jumping is out of the question. This mirrored timeline theory could also help explain some of the more striking visual differences in the world such as the combine, alien life forms and the tech that they use. If you listen to the G-Mans speech at the end of the HL:A its clear that this is the gman FROM HL2: Episode 2. He claims his previous worker (gordon) is being "less than cooperative". Meaning Gordon went through the two episodes defying Gman as we know, Half Life: Alyx is Gmans response to Gordons defiance. Because he has lost control of Gordon he instead chooses to enlist the help of Alyx as she was clearly just as capable and resiliant as Gordon, but she also is a huge bargaining chip when it comes to dealing with Eli. Not to mention we see in Episode 2 that Gman has already established a link with Alyx as he speaks to her and even through her on multiple occasions. Rather than hiring "past Alyx" from this timeline, he actually enlists the help of the other Alyx. It stands to reason if he can manipulate the main timeline Alyx like we see him do, he can also manipulate her in whatever fucked up mirror universe he has either made or found his way into. This is sort of backed up by how Gman's capture seems to be a more recent event, almost as if he was captured around the same time that we the players "start the game". If that universe/timeline already had a Gman, why would he only now be caputred and why would he be waiting for Alyx? Why would he be talking about Gordon, at that time Gordon should be in stasis for several more years. Gman uses the fear of mirror Alyx to help change the events of the main timeline. He cant directly stop Eli from dying (the Gman rarely directly interferes) but he can get mirror Alyx to do it, and in doing so changes the event as they are happening. We as the players have seen the different outcomes, but for the characters, in the hangar at the end of Episode 2, Alyx was there one moment and gone the next and both Eli and Gordon know who is responsible since literal minutes prior to that moment, the Gman was manipulating Alyx after the rocekt launch. Did we wait 13 years to essentially progress the main story 2 minutes? Yes But like he says in the video, from a game making stand point this gives Valve alot more wiggle room.

great vid, keep it up

Getting the equipment to play half life alyx can be a lot cheaper though if you go used. I played it on a machine with a 3570 and an rx580 with an oculus rift s. It was definitely enjoyable and I didn't notice it running badly. If you go with a used optiplex and used GPU, you can get a similar or better PC for under $200. A rift or rift s is like $50-$100 depending on the condition.

I feel like another game that's really good is Lone Echo and Lone Echo 2, they're both really great story games and I wish more people would know about them

bruh I really thought the k was missing at the of the subscriber count, man this is really well edited and just made

A few things, first off that's ace content, nice one. Second, if you still get a bit sick in VR do not play boneworks. If you have any prescription at all, get lenses for your headset. As you are describing headaches rather than motion sickness, it sounds more like eye strain. The focal length is about two metres, so imagine trying to focus on things two metres away without glasses if you need them, and the kind of headache that would give you. If it's actually motion sickness, it's about the disconnect between your brain seeing that you should be moving, but you aren't. Find a way to ground yourself in reality, like putting a small rug or patch of carpet under your feet, and standing over the edge of it so you can feel the ridge. This helps keep you oriented and stop you wanting to fall over. A fan blowing towards you can do this as well, people use both at the same time. Just a few subtle reminders to your body where you actually are. I was very lucky I think, I had knee surgery the day they announced Alyx and bought a quest 1 in a morphine daze! £399 entry not £1000. Because I still wasn't mobile, my early gaming on it was all seated which gave me time to adjust. Games like The Climb etc with no artificial locomotion. Then in the few months before release I moved onto boneworks and saints and sinners, when Alyx released I was well adjusted to VR although still unable to crouch in real life, it was ace! So so good. Since that Q1 I have had a Quest 2, 3, Pico4 and a PSVR2. Currently playing mostly PSVR2, RE Village and 4 Remake are the only things I have enjoyed on a level with Alyx/S&S/Into the Radius 👍

I’ve had this game since October of last year and cannot get out of entanglement due to the constant crashing.

wonderful video

I think you should have also tried some mods, there are a lot of different almost Valve-quality campaigns. My personal advice is "From Here To There", a really well crafted and unique experience.