Hurray, a new part of Half-Life has come out! 👾

Alyx is a very expensive and innovative game for VR Schles. We passed it

In February 2017,it became known that Valve, which produced Dota 2, Counter-Strike and Portal, develops three virtual reality games at once. After two and a half years, it turned out that the first of them would be in the world of Half-Life-one of the best series of shooters in the history of video games. March 23 Half-Life: Alyx finally came out. Medusa journalist Sultan Suleimanov went through the game and tells how Valve managed to combine the past and future of the video game.

In virtual reality, it is inconvenient to smile-because of this, the VR-shlet slides. This awareness comes in the first seconds of the game in Alyx, when a nostalgic smile appears on the face by itself: you find yourself in a twice native atmosphere. On the one hand, this is City-17-a city with a well-recognized East European flavor and many signs with inscriptions on Cyrillic. On the other hand, this is the same City-17 from Half-Life 2, one of the main games of the zero, released back in 2004.

From the release of Half-Life 2: Episode Two-the last game about the world captured by an alien alliance-13 years have passed. Since then, millions of gamers have been waiting for either Half-Life 3, or at least Episode Three. But Valve, the developer and publisher of the series, went in the third way, releasing the spin-off of the series with the new main character.

In Alyx, players manage not to scientist Gordon Freeman, the main character of all previous parts of Half-Life, but Alix Vance-the daughter of the leader of the resistance of Ilai Wansa and, perhaps, the most memorable non-human character of the previous parts. At the very beginning, I was captured; Freeman does not have to count on the aid of Freeman: the game takes place five years before the start of Half-Life 2 and Gordon is still in Stasis . Therefore, Alix puts on gravitational gloves, allowing to attract objects, grabs a gun and goes to save the father.

It is assumed that the passage of Half-Life: Alyx will take about 15 hours. It took me 18 - or two incomplete days with interruptions for sleep, food and sit a little so that my legs rest. The rest of the time I was a meter from the computer, to which the wire stretched from the Oculus Quest helmet, waved his hands and from time to time I beat them in surrounding objects - for Alyx, you need a lot of space. Ideally, so that you can take a few steps in any direction.

Alyx is the first game in the Half-Life series, created specifically for virtual reality helmets. You see the world on behalf of the main character. Controllers in the left and right hand allow you to control her hands independently of each other and the directions of the gaze. You can shoot headcrabs from a pistol with your right hand, with the left - to aim in a zombie grenade, and look at the rooms with a look, looking for retreating paths.

Earlier, an unofficial modification had already been released , which allowed the first part of the game in VR, but with it there was a problem that all the VR-IGR developers have to solve one way or another-movement. The fact is that the classic solution for video games “Press the button, and the character goes forward” in virtual reality, often leads to dizziness. The player’s brain does not understand why the legs stand still, and the world around is floating somewhere.

In Alyx, you can turn on the same mode of movement, but by default a more compromise option is used - teleportation. The player clamps an analog stick on the controller, leads to a point on the floor that he wants to move to, and after a fraction of a second is in this very place. It may seem that this method will destroy the effect of immersion, but in most situations this does not happen. You just move 2-3 meters forward, studying the world around you, then teleport you a couple more meters, look around and move on. And if you need to teleport to a place with a low ceiling, you have to physically sit down - otherwise Alix will not squeeze there.

This control method is not very suitable for shootings in a narrow space - you begin to drag it twisted before you manage to think that it would be nice to turn around and choose a position. At such moments, physical space for a comfortable game in Alyx will come in handy. With an insufficiently long wire from the helmet to the computer, it is problematic to even quickly turn around your own axis (for this you have to use sticks on the controller), not to mention just moving a meter or two for shelter, and only then think about teleportation.

Gravitational gloves help to hide the unrealism of teleportation, they also enhance the immersion effect. They work almost like telekinesis: stretch your hand towards the object that you want to grab, clamp the button on the controller and pull sharply. The subject flies to you, and then it needs to be grabbed again - already with his hand itself. The mechanics of engravipers turned out to be so successful that, having removed the VR-shlem, for some time you are trying to attract objects out of your habit, just directing your hand to them. Alas, it doesn't work!

Of course, Half-Life would not be Half-Life if the interaction with the outside world was limited only to the search for cartridges, grenades and syringes that restore health. Alyx has enough objects of Eastern European life, which can be taken in the hands and turned from all sides: from dishes and boxes with cookies to the Rafik standing in the courtyard with the opening doors working with the piano and felt -tip pens that can be drawn on the glass (and then wash the inscriptions with the palm or sponge).

The first minutes of the game were completely devoted to these little discoveries. Alix, under my control, behaved as if she had just fallen from the moon: she went from room to room and touched everything that she could reach. The level of interactive is impressive, but if it was quite honest, it could have been more: many objects can simply be held in your hands - and that’s it. Books in Alyx are always tightly closed, computers do not work, and bottles with alcohol, which are surprisingly a lot around, can only be broken, but not uncorked. But sometimes the player awaits pleasant surprises: it turns out if you pull a construction helmet on your head or bring a respirator to your face, Alix will put them on. And from a pack of cigarettes you can pull cigarettes one at a time.

The feeling as if it returned to the same Half-Life 2, only now you are really inside this world-you want to smile from it. True, I stopped smiling very soon: the levels with zombies and headcases began. If you, like me, hated a gloomy, frightening zombie-level “We do not go to Ravencholm” in Half-Life 2, then I hasten to upset: almost all the main action of Alyx is one continuous raineholm that turned out to be even more terrible. The zombies slowly but stubbornly go to the main character, simultaneously throwing it with improvised objects; Headcrabs stand menacingly on their hind legs and jump on her face; Barnacles hang from the ceilings ... They begin to strangle Alix if it comes too close to their stuck language. In a word, here are the main enemies of this game.

And you have to fight them with a very limited arsenal: not only are there in Alyx there are only three types of weapons - a gun, a shotgun and an automatic machine (all controlled with one hand) - so there is also barely enough cartridges. Add to this a realistic reloading of the weapon. In the case of a pistol, it looks like this: first you need to get an empty store, then pull out a new one from behind, insert into the gun and finally twist the shutter. Imagine what a person feels when three headcrabs jump out in the midst of a half. At such moments, you will skew and crash into the walls, and when the monsters are under your feet, you dream of kicking them stronger. But while virtual reality allows you to control only your hands.

During the shootings with the soldiers of the alliance, it becomes clear that the skirmishes with zombies and headcrabs are much better suitable for VR mode: it is much more convenient to shoot a slowly going to you than a soldier, which is not easy to get in-especially considering that they themselves shoot at you at that moment. The tactics familiar to other shooters “ran between shelters, shot, hid, ran around” it works poorly-you have to combine a teleportation over long distances with physical peeping around the corner. And in the end, you most often hide behind the wall and shoot everyone from there.

Half-Life: Alyx is an amazing game, it is at the same time hello from the past and an echo of the future. From the past-because the world around us is not much different from how it was in Half-Life 2. The language still does not turn to name the graphics of realistic or at least significantly different from what we saw in the game of 16 years ago (although you evaluate the lighting screenshots!). The interactivity of the world is at the level to notice it and restrainedly praise, nothing more.

And from the future - because there were no such level of games in virtual reality. The most popular VR projects like Beat Saber, Superhot VR or “work simulator” offer at best a primitive plot, a short plot campaign and a simplified graphics. The emphasis is usually placed on the gameplay that I would like to return even after the game. ALYX is a full -fledged game from a large studio with a clear plot, many diverse locations and gameplay mechanics, which in all 18 hours can be useful only once or two (but they are inserted exactly to the place!). I would like to believe that in the future there will be even more such projects.

In 2004, for a comfortable game in Half-Life 2, a rather powerful and expensive computer was required. After 16 years, the situation became more complicated: in addition to an expensive and powerful computer, you also need a virtual reality helmet, which will cost several tens of thousands of rubles. Buying all this for the sake of one game is definitely not worth it (in the end, this is not Half-Life 3!). But if you already have a powerful computer, ask a friend of VR-shlem-and personally look at the future of the game industry. Go to Alyx to the end and wait for the scene after the credits. And try to hold back a nostalgic smile. And then the helmet will slide!

Sultan Suleimanov

The helmet Oculus Quest is provided by Medusa Facebook