Half-Life: Alyx

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Half-Life: Alyx
Half-Life Alyx Logo.png
Studio United StatesUnited States Valve Corporation
Publisher United StatesUnited States Valve Corporation
composer Mike Morasky
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 world March 23, 2020
platform Microsoft Windows
Linux
Game engine Source 2
genre Ego shooter
Subject Dystopia , science fiction
Game mode Single player
control Virtual reality headset
system advantages
preconditions
medium Download
language English with German subtitles
copy protection Steamworks

Half-Life: Alyx is a virtual reality - first-person shooter of the American developer Valve . The game was released on March 23, 2020 for Microsoft Windows , a version for Linux with Vulkan support followed on May 15, 2020. Half-Life: Alyx is a prequel to Half-Life 2 and a regular part of the Half-Life series . A virtual reality headset is required to play.

The game is about Alyx Vance, who fights with her father against the invasion of Earth by a multidimensional empire called Combine .

Gameplay

Half-Life: Alyx is designed as a pure virtual reality game. Publication for use without a VR headset is not planned, as the game mechanics were specially developed for virtual reality. The game is compatible with the VR glasses Valve Index , HTC Vive , Oculus Rift , Oculus Quest , HTC Vive Cosmos Elite and various Windows Mixed Reality models. It is controlled by two hand controllers . Since this control is not barrier-free, there is an alternative to an adapted control that works with a single controller.

action

The plot of Half-Life: Alyx takes place after the events of Half-Life and five years before Half-Life 2 . However, the player does not take on the role of the previous protagonist Gordon Freeman , but from Alyx Vance, a resistance fighter who, together with her father, Eli Vance, fights against the occupation of earth by the Combine, an alien race.

Development history

After publication of virtual reality headsets HTC Vive in 2016, appeared with the launch title The Lab the first developed by Valve VR game. This acts as a compilation of various mini-games and serves as an introduction to virtual reality, but is not a full-fledged game. Since many players longed for an AAA VR game, the development of a new VR title began. While working on the prototype, a series was sought in which the game should be set. Portal and Half-Life were shortlisted as the setting, but since, in the opinion of the developers, a portal game in conjunction with virtual reality would be too confusing for players, the idea was discarded and Half-Life was chosen. The use of VR is not supposed to be just a gimmick , the game was designed from the ground up for virtual reality from the start.

The game was announced on November 20, 2019, with a trailer unveiled a day later. The release was planned for March 2020 and the game finally appeared on March 23rd exclusively on the Internet distribution platform Steam . Valve relies on the self-developed Source 2 engine as the game engine , which is used for the first time in a first-person shooter with Half-Life: Alyx . The game is available free of charge for owners of Valve Index and is already included when purchasing the Vive Cosmos Elite. Until the release of Half-Life: Alyx , Valve made all Half-Life parts available for free on Steam 2 months in advance.

Modding tools for Half-Life: Alyx were released on May 15, 2020, and the content created with them can be shared on the Steam Workshop , among other things . In the same update, support for the graphics API Vulkan was added, so the game can be played without detours like Proton under Linux.

music

Mike Morasky, who has also worked on earlier Valve productions such as Portal 2 or Team Fortress 2 , was hired for the game's music . He was supported by Kelly Bailey, who composed the music for the previous Half-Life parts.

synchronization

Half-Life: Alyx is the first part of the series that is delivered without German synchronization. Only the subtitles and the other texts of the game such as menus were translated into German and some other languages.

The actress Ozioma Akagha lends her voice to the eponymous protagonist Alyx Vance. Merle Dandridge , who voiced Vance in Half-Life 2 and the two subsequent episodes, was not used again in Half-Life: Alyx , because Valve said another voice would be more suitable for the younger Alyx. With the death of actor Robert Guillaume , the voice of Eli Vance was also re-cast with James Moses Black. The dubbing voices of some characters from the predecessors such as Overwatch ( Ellen McLain ), the Vortigaunts ( Tony Todd ) or the G-Man (Mike Shapiro) return in Half-Life: Alyx , there are also some new characters such as Russell , voiced by actor Rhys Darby .

character speaker
Alyx Vance Ozioma Akagha
Dr. Eli Vance James Moses Black
Russell Rhys Darby
Vortigaunts Tony Todd
G-Man Michael Shapiro
Overwatch Ellen McLain
Olga Cissy Jones
Larry Rich summer
Drone
Combine soldier
Scientist Kim Dickens
Combine suppressor Isaac C. Singleton, Jr.
Combine grunt Jason Vande Brake
Combine Charger Michael Schwalbe
Combine ordinal Rajia Baroudi
Combine guy Rick Zieff
zombie Tom Taylorson

reception

Reviews

Rating mirror
Average rating
source rating
Metacritic 93/100
Press coverage
source rating
GameStar 92%
PC Games 8/10
4players 90%
Gamespot 94%
IGN 10/10
PC gamer 92%
Destructoid 9/10

Half-Life: Alyx was largely judged very positively by the critics and editors of the market-leading print and online magazines. The strengths of the game are the credible staging and immersion of the game world with the help of VR glasses. The variety through occasional puzzle sections is also considered successful, but for some testers this seemed too repetitive. The lack of German voice output, which was previously available in every predecessor, was also criticized.

"For me," Alyx "is by far the best VR game out there. Valve simply understood what VR is all about: a lively game world. The two-handed gameplay of "Alyx" should become the gold standard for future VR action titles. "

- Bernd Fischer ( Spiegel Online )

“The usual mysterious and dystopian setting unfolds its unique effect in combination with the medium of virtual reality. The game world is incredibly immersive and threatening at times; the fights and puzzles pleasantly challenging. The technical guise of the improved engine is impressive and the narrative design is also on a very high level. "

- Jan-Keno Janssen ( Heise )

Sales figures

On the day of release, up to 43,000 players were playing Half-Life: Alyx at the same time . This puts the game at the top of the highest number of players compared to other VR games on Steam. According to analyst Daniel Ahmad, the numbers for the publication of a VR title are successful, but the relatively low number of players compared to other AAA productions can be explained by the VR exclusivity. On the other hand, there was greater demand for live streams for Half-Life: Alyx , after publication these had a total of almost 300,000 viewers at times on the live streaming platform Twitch .

After the game was announced, demand for Valve's own VR headset, Valve Index, soared. As a result, it was sold out in North America at the beginning of December 2019 and finally worldwide in mid-January 2020. In February 2020, Valve announced that it would not be able to meet demand as planned due to the COVID-19 pandemic . It was only possible to order the headset on Steam again in March 2020. According to figures from the market research company SuperData, Valve sold 103,000 copies of the Valve Index in the fourth quarter of 2019 alone, compared to a total of 46,000 units were sold in the rest of the year.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b r / HalfLife - We're developers from the Half-Life: Alyx team. Ask us anything! In: Reddit . January 22, 2020, accessed on April 20, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c Half-Life: Alyx. Now available. https://store.steampowered.com/app/546560/HalfLife_Alyx/… pic.twitter.com / uHAHmSVdXg. In: Twitter . Valve Corporation , March 23, 2020, accessed April 30, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b The workshop for Half-Life: Alyx is open! In: steamcommunity.com. May 15, 2020, accessed on June 13, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Half-Life: Alyx Devs Explain How Accessible Design Made The Game Better. Retrieved March 25, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Markus Böhm: What you should know before buying virtual reality glasses. In: Spiegel Online . March 16, 2020, accessed March 24, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Creating accessible games. Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Geoff Keighley: The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx - Behind Closed Doors at Valve. In: YouTube . November 21, 2019, accessed November 22, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Norman Wittkopf: Half-Life: Alyx - Trailer released, details about the game world and VR. In: PC Games Hardware . November 21, 2019, accessed November 22, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Half-Life: Alyx, available March 23, 2020. In: Twitter . Valve Corporation , February 13, 2020, accessed February 13, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Daniel Herbig: Half-Life Alyx will be released in March 2020, first trailer published. In: Heise online . November 21, 2019, accessed November 22, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Panagiotis Kolokythas: Half-Life: Alyx will be released in March 2020 - free for index owners. November 22, 2019, accessed on March 24, 2020 (German).
  12. ↑ heise online: VR headset Vive Cosmos Elite available together with "Half-Life Alyx". Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Half Life completely free - Valve makes a great gift for gamers. In: Chip Online . Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
  14. ^ Natalie Clayton: Half-Life: Alyx gets proper mod tools and Steam Workshop support. In: Rock, Paper, Shotgun . May 16, 2020, accessed on June 13, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Jody Macgregor: Alyx Vance will be voiced by a new actor in Half-Life: Alyx. In: PC Gamer . November 21, 2019, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  16. ^ André Linken: Half-Life: Alyx - New voices for Alyx and Eli. In: PC Games . November 25, 2019, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Half-Life: Alyx for PC Reviews - Metacritic. In: metacritic.com. Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Petra Schmitz: Half-Life: Alyx in the test - The best VR shooter of all time. In: gamestar.de. March 23, 2020, accessed March 30, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Lukas Schmid: Half-Life: Alyx in the test. In: pcgames.de. March 23, 2020, accessed March 24, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Jan Wöbbeking: Test: Half-Life: Alyx. In: 4players.de. March 23, 2020, accessed March 24, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Michael Higham: Half-Life: Alyx Review - Full-Life Consequences. In: gamespot.com. March 23, 2020, accessed on March 24, 2020 .
  22. ^ Dan Stapleton: Half-Life: Alyx Review. In: ign.com. March 23, 2020, accessed on March 24, 2020 .
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  24. ↑ Chris Carter, Brett Makedonski: Review: Half-Life: Alyx. In: destructoid.com. March 28, 2020, accessed on March 30, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Dimitry Halley: Half-Life: Alyx: International test ratings go through the roof. In: gamestar.de. March 24, 2020, accessed March 24, 2020 .
  26. ↑ Markus Böhm and Achim Fehrenbach: The new "Half-Life" is scary good. In: spiegel.de. March 23, 2020, accessed March 24, 2020 .
  27. ↑ Timo Schmidt & Jan-Keno Janssen: "Half-Life Alyx" in the test: VR can be so beautiful. In: heise.de. March 23, 2020, accessed March 24, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Mathias Dietrich: Half-Life: Alyx depends on the number of players in other VR titles on Steam. In: GameStar . March 25, 2020, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  29. ↑ Daniel Ahmad: Half Life: Alyx reached 43k concurrent players on Steam during launch day. Is certainly a successful launch for a VR title and is already as high as Beat Saber VR's peak concurrent player count on Steam. However, it's clear that the numbers are held back due to VR requirement.pic.twitter.com/BYXZAOdEoS. In: Twitter . March 23, 2020, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  30. ^ Haydn Taylor: Half-Life: Alyx reaches 43,000 concurrent users on launch day. In: gamesindustry.biz. Gamer Network, March 24, 2020, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  31. ↑ Matthias Bastian: Valve on the immense VR hype: "This is all stupid talk". In: MIXED. April 3, 2020, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  32. ↑ Sherif Saed: Half-Life: Alyx causes shortages in Valve Index stock in the US and Canada. In: VG247. November 29, 2019, accessed March 31, 2020 .
  33. ^ Sherif Saed: Valve Index is out of stock everywhere. In: VG247. January 15, 2020, accessed on March 31, 2020 .
  34. ↑ Ben Lang: Index Sold Out in all 31 Regions, Valve "working hard" to Meet Demand Ahead of 'Half-Life: Alyx'. In: Road to VR. January 14, 2020, accessed on March 31, 2020 .
  35. ↑ Stephany Nunneley: Coronavirus has affected the production schedule for Valve Index, fewer units to be made available. In: VG247. February 21, 2020, accessed on March 31, 2020 .
  36. ↑ Mathias Dietrich: VR is booming in the Steam Charts, followed by an exclusive title. In: GameStar . March 16, 2020, accessed March 31, 2020 .
  37. ^ Daniel Herbig: Half-Life Alyx: Valve Index sold over 100,000 times in the fourth quarter. In: heise online . January 29, 2020, accessed March 1, 2020 .
  38. ↑ SuperData XR Quarterly Update. In: superdataresearch.com. Super Data Research, Inc., January 28, 2020, accessed March 1, 2020 .