Is Half-Life: Alyx the VR Game We’ve Been Waiting For?

Valve’s ambitious new game could be VR’s first killer app

For years gamers have awaited the return of the Half-Life series. It is no secret that Valve takes its time in order to develop, perfect, and deliver some of the best games ever made. Many gamers who were disappointed by early VR games were equally as disapproving of Valve for making the next game in the Half-Life series a ‘VR gimmick,’ but the developers at Valve knew it was something else.

A paradigm shift is a fundamental change in the way we think about something. It has been a well-kept secret that Valve has been working on a VR game since before the technology was available to the public. Before Oculus Rift was even on the market, Valve had offered to share their VR research with them. Half-Life: Alyx is the culmination of all those years of research and development into the first fully realized feature length game made for specifically for VR.

Valve’s view when creating games in the Half-Life series is that they have to solve a problem in game design. I haven’t played every VR game on the market, but the many I tried don’t exactly…