Half Life: Alyx Popularized VR Storytelling
On November 18th, 2019, Valve Corporation revealed the third and largest installment in the Half Life franchise, Half Life Alyx. The main component that made this game special, is that it was the first “AAA Title” (Game produced by a mid -size or major developer) developed from the ground up in Virtual Reality. As for the relevance to New Media/ Digital Media, Brian Nesse’s article What is New Media provides a good explanation. According to Nesse, “new media is concerned with the new possibilities that network communication technologies and all forms of computing present.” Virtual Reality being a form of computing technology used to enhance storytelling narrative. The nature of a VR game, backed by the money and history of Valve Corp, allowed Half Life: Alyx to popularize story telling in VR. This formal analysis is going to break down the basic plot, how VR elements were used to enhance gameplay, and how the VR experience from Half Life: Alyx brings forward next level immersion for digital storytelling.
The Half Life franchise takes place in a sci-fi universe that involves an alien invasion of Earth, a mixing of alien and human cultures, and a dystopian society ruled by a militarized alien combine. The games take place in and around City 17, one of the last cities on Earth, above City 17 is a portal to an alien world, created by a failed laboratory experiment, which is how the Combine found Earth. In Half Life: Alyx you play as Alyx Vance, daughter of Eli Vance, the leader of the human resistance against The Combine. Within the first 10 minutes, you and Eli are captured by The Combine. A fellow resistance member, Russell, is able to jailbreak you with his technical affluence. Unfortunately, he learns that Eli is on a more secure train to The Combine’s most advanced interrogation facility Nova Prospekt. In order to catch the train to free him, you must pass through The Quarantine Zone which is an abandoned part of City 17 full of zombies, ant lions, and other beasts that crossed over from portal.
Many of Half Life: Alyx’s gameplay elements revolve around a pair of gloves Russell gives you, creatively named “The Russells”. The first major gameplay element is the ability to pull objects into your hands. It feels like a Cyberpunk take on The Force from Star Wars. The Russell’s themselves are a nod to a device called “The Gravity Gun” from the previous half-life games, Half Life: Alyx being a prequel, this device does not exist yet, and utilizing the same technology, this was a nice full circle loop for the story behind the fan favorite gun in the series, while also keeping the VR feel of this game intact. The level of player interaction with the environment in Half Life: Alyx is very detailed. The player can interact with nearly everything they get close to, trash on the ground, doors, windows, weapons, alive entities, dead entities. Being able to interact with a large amount of items allows the player to feel more like they are the ones living the story, not just playing as Alyx.
The second major gameplay mechanic that enhances Half Life: Alyx’s experience is the variety of puzzles used to hack open doors and unlock other areas, through The Russell’s interface. Connecting virtual electric lines to properly channel electricity on electric locks on doors, moving points around a digital sphere to mimic a cypher when cracking codes are strategically placed, which allow you to feel more immersed in the “hacking” experience beyond a simple progress bar. In Half Life: Alyx behind every door is a mystery.
The first official gameplay trailer for Half Life: Alyx was on March 2nd, 2020. This was the first real look into the game, so first impressions are important. The trailer starts off with the player, Alyx Vance, on a stationary subway train in the Quarantine Zone. On the seat in front of you there is a magazine for your pistol, one of many that will be used throughout the gameplay experience. After pocketing the magazine, you must holder your pistol and pry open the door into the next car. There are zombies outside so it is important to be quiet, they move slow but hit hard. In the next car there is a zombie sitting in a seat at the end of the car, is it alive? Is it dead? How should you proceed? In the trailer the player decides to shoot the zombie, not take any chances. The zombie was once a person, controlled by an alien “Headcrab”, you nudge the corpse of the Headcrab with your pistol in order to make sure it stays dead. The gunshot alerts the zombies outside and you must holster your pistol once again to pry the wooden boards off of the door to exit this car. In your sight is another zombie in a room, next to an alien machine. Since the zombies are already on alert you have to clear the room. After clearing the room, you decide to inspect the machine, there’s a slot to insert your weapon. Do you insert your weapon into this alien machine? It could take your only means of survival…or enhance its lethality. In the trailer the player takes the risk and sees that the machine is indeed a Combine weapon upgrade terminal but has no resources to enhance the pistol. The player in this case gets to walk away with the knowledge to be on the lookout for material for the machine, should they encounter another one. Now its off to the next room to face all the Zombies alerted from earlier.
In this trailer, VR allows the experience of walking through a subway, shooting zombies and navigating an unknown building much more immersive and exciting. The experience is very dynamic, each player can choose their own course of action, each movement is unique, each interaction a mystery. This allows for a unique style of narrative that rewards investment, encourages curiosity, and can also help with replay ability. Each player will have a different experience in the same sandbox, VR allows writers and storytellers to set a framework, get a good base for a story, show some structure, and let the player, the reader, fill the gaps and shape their own narrative.
