| Half-Life: Alyx | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Valve |
| Publisher(s) | Valve |
| Writer(s) | |
| Composer(s) | Mike Morasky |
| Series | Half-Life |
| Engine | Source 2 |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Half-Life: Alyx is a 2020 virtual reality (VR) first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. It was released for Windows and Linux, with support for most PC-compatible VR headsets. Set five years before Half-Life 2 (2004), players control Alyx Vance on a mission to seize a superweapon belonging to the alien Combine. Like previous Half-Life games, Alyx incorporates combat, puzzles and exploration. Players use VR to interact with the environment and fight enemies, using "gravity gloves" to snatch objects from a distance, similarly to the gravity gun from Half-Life 2.
The previous Half-Life game, Episode Two, was released in 2007 and ended on a cliffhanger. Valve made several attempts to develop further Half-Life games, but could not settle on a direction. In the mid-2010s, Valve began experimenting with VR and identified demand for a major VR game. They experimented with prototypes using their various intellectual properties, such as Portal, and found Half-Life best suited VR.
Alyx entered production using Valve's new Source 2 engine in 2016, with the largest team in Valve's history, including members of Campo Santo, a studio acquired by Valve in 2018. VR affected almost every aspect of the design, including level design, combat, movement and pacing. Valve planned to launch Alyx alongside its Index VR headset in 2019, but delayed it to rewrite the story following internal feedback.
Alyx received acclaim for its graphics, voice acting, narrative and atmosphere, and has been cited as VR's first killer app. It was nominated for numerous awards and won "Best VR/AR" at the 2020 Game Awards. Valve acknowledged that the audience for VR games was limited. Gabe Newell, the Valve president, described Alyx as a long-term investment into new technologies.