In an unexpected turn of events, Valve announced Half-Life: Alyx as the next title in its acclaimed shooter series. Being the first entry in the series in over twelve years, the title has quite a bit of weight on its shoulders, especially given how it won’t be a traditional FPS but a title built with VR in mind.
Here’s everything we know about Half-Life: Alyx, including details on its release date, gameplay, and more.
Half-Life: Alyx Release Date
With Half-Life: Alyx now revealed, we also have more details on Valve’s upcoming title, including those regarding a release date.
Half-Life: Alyx is scheduled to arrive on the Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality on March 23, 2020.
Half-Life: Alyx Gameplay
In its brief announcement Valve didn’t go over too many details regarding Half-Life: Alyx’s gameplay, but did call it its “flagship VR title”. We do know that the title will be a first-person shooter, in tune with the series’ legacy, in which players control Alyx Vance.
Valve promises “deep environmental interactions, puzzle solving, world exploration, and visceral combat”, some examples including aiming around a broken wall, tossing bottles to distract enemies and ripping a headcrab off your face.
The Pastebin transcript that first revealed the title also mentioned that you can see enemies in their entirety and that they will react in different ways to different situations like panicking, dropping their weapons and fumbling for them when they’re faced with a zombie.
Half-Life: Alyx Story
Half-Life: Alyx’s story takes place between Half-Life and Half-Life 2, following Alyx Vance as she and her father struggle to put together a resistance to stand up to the Combine. Through clandestine research, you learn more about the alien invaders and build tools to face them.
Introduced in Half-Life 2, Alyx Vance was an important figure in the human resistance against the Combine, accompanying and providing vital help to Gordon Freeman in his fight against the alien oppressors. Capable, witty and beautiful, Alyx remains one of the best examples of creating a complex and memorable AI companion to this day.
Half-Life: Alyx Screenshots
The screenshots below were leaked by YouTube channel Valve News Network.
