I was given the opportunity to use equipment from Infinite, a development and production studio from Prague specializing in virtual and augmented reality, who also has one of the biggest VR equipment fleets in Central Europe, including almost everything that is currently available on market.
When I was reading Sword Art Online or watching Black Mirror San Junipero episode I wondered when we would get a fully immersive virtual reality in our world. I also wondered what kind of effects it would have on us. We don't have that just yet but we do have virtual reality that is available for us to use at home. The game titles I had the chance to play did not offer an experience of an action game or a RPG game and I was quite curious about how something like that would feel no matter the visuals.
There are few games, like Fallout 3 or Metroid Prime 3, that fully immersed me in their story to the extent that I forgot that I was playing a game. That kind of experience I expected out of VR game and I was looking forward to it. After 13 years of waiting for Half-Life 3 we got a VR title bearing the name Half-Life. Its whole name is Half-Life: Alyx and takes place between the previous Half-Life games. You take on a role of Alyx Vance who was on a recon mission in City 17. At first, you try to find and save her father from the Combine. Later on, you get some information about the Vault, a big giant floating structure. The Vault is in theory some kind of big super weapon and you are supposed to get there and see if you can control it. You are led there by Russell who you hear in your ear (and with audio in the headset it's pretty nice experience), you get some help from a Vortigaunt you meet later on, who seems to be talking in riddles. In order to reach the Vault you have to go through the City 17's infested zone fighting both aliens and Combine soldiers.
I started downloading the game and after two days it finally downloaded. When it finished it was midnight meaning I should have gone to sleep. Instead I put on a headset and launched the game. I did not expect to stay in VR until 6 am.
I invited my flatmate to come watch. In the end I was very helpful they came to watch because they were doing way more than that. For the whole 13 hours they were telling me where I stand and where to move in real life so I wouldn't bump into stuff etc (I don't have set boundaries in VR due to my play area being too small and now I fully understand why not having them set can be dangerous). They were telling when to reload because I sometimes forgot about that and two pairs of eyes is always better than one.
The game starts in a calm place where you can start interacting with objects in the scene. For example you can pick up a can and squeeze it, you pick up a marker and draw something on a window nearby. You can pick up a can of coffee and try to feed a critter with it. After that you go on to save Alyx's father but you get captured by the Combine soldiers as well. You end up saved though and when you reach the safe house you are given a pair of gravity gloves. This allow you to make items fly in your direction and you can catch them. This makes it way easier to collect them (mainly ammo and resin which is used for upgrading weapons). You are also given your first gun. You'll be using the pistol most of the time since there is the most ammunition for it. Later on you will get your hands on a shotgun and a combine SMG. All the weapons can be upgraded at specific places with the use of resin - the only collectible in the game that will often require you looking at strange places (they are more hidden than ammo). Apart from enjoying the environment and walking around - in my case blinking around - you'll fight enemies, solve puzzles and play with electric current.
Combat in the game is similar to other FPS games in VR. You get to aim, shoot and reload while you are being under attack. You can crouch or hide behind a wall and then take your shots. There are several types of enemies that you will be encountering. There are Barnacles whose long tendril can grab you of the ground and you get eaten then. These need to be shot several times and they drop items, at least in the early Chapters. I have to say that I occasionally bumped into their tongue/tendril and ended up drawn up to be chewed on. That's pretty nasty experience. I also had a funny encounter with one Headcrab. There are several types of them, normal one you can easily one shot, Armored one that needs to be shot in its belly and a toxic one that lurks in the dark where all you have to light the space around you is a flashlight. The dark places are really dark and trying to move around, point your flashlight somewhere and shoot a moving enemy is not that easy. This is how a toxic headcrab attached to my face, blinding me and taking 2 and half life I had before I managed to shoot it off me. At that moment I felt similarly to when I played Resident Evil. I survived the encounter though and I hoped I would spot other enemies before this would happen again. That was scary.
The creature that gave me the hardest time was a Lightning Dog though. That's a fast moving elusive creature. If you come closer it will disappear in a black haze and you have to search for it again. They can also control a dead body and their attacks become even more powerful. I got electrified few times. Nonetheless I got past these too. After they are killed they drop something that pulses with electricity. I had the impression that it would explode any time while I was walking with it in my hand so I could try to use it instead of Combine Battery. On your journey to the Vault you'll also encounter Combine Soldiers and Heavies. Often the Combine Soldiers can be shot from a distance before they even spot you. And by the way, if you hit a canister on their backs they will spectacularly explode killing themselves and others in the vicinity.
Heavies are tough. Their attacks deal a lot of damage and can blind you with a white beam that even blinds you in real life. My eyes hurt after I got hit by that once. They also have a force shield that can't be penetrated by bullets. But they are very easily flanked so all you need to do is get close and shoot them from the side or back (but you can just head shot them from distance before they put the shield up). Where there are Combine Soldiers it is also likely that you will encounter Manhacks, little drones that can deal quite a lot of damage if they get near you. They are loud though so it's not likely to happen. Since you will be around in infested area you'll also encounter Antlions who are funny creatures. They are quite fast and you need to aim for their legs first and then shoot them in their belly. They come in big numbers which makes this a bit more tricky.
In the game you'll also get to fight a Strider - that's the huge long-legged creature you encounter early in the game. Hand guns don't do anything to it but you'll get a chance to use a really big gun that does the job. It felt satisfying after I spent some time running around trying not to get killed by the Strider's long ranged attacks.
Apart from weapons that you use to fight your enemies you have access to multitool. This tool is used to disarm traps, open containers and it also reveals electric current. After you use a multitool on a container or a trap you will be shown a spatial puzzle that you have to solve. There are several types of them and they get more complicated the more you progress in the game. They are fun at the beginning but can become a little frustrating because they take more time and your controllers may not provide the kind of precision you'd like - at least my Touch controllers didn't. There are times when I just wanted to give up on a three phase puzzle but when I finally opened it and found more power cells I needed for my SMG I was glad I persevered.
As for flow of electric current. In order to open door or power other things like an elevator etc. you will need to reroute power to what operates it. You will have to locate a wire/cable that comes out of the thing you need to power and you should follow it somewhere where you will find an access point. You'll use the multitool from there and you will rewire the flow of the current so it reaches where you need it. Sometimes you will find out that you make a mistake and the current will flow right into an alarm bell which brings unwanted attention to your location. Later in the game you'll become an expert at spotting different colored cables and you'll wonder where the current will flow.
When playing in VR it is funny to observe how your brain handles that reality. Since I get motion sick pretty fast I was glad that there are different modes how to move in the game. For those who get sick by even playing a FPS game on a computer (me) there is a Blink mode that will make Alyx teleport from one place to another. Even with this certain movement got interesting. As I mentioned already, when Barnacle lifts you up and eats you, it's a motion that my stomach didn't particularly like. Your feet off even a virtual ground is something that doesn't feel great and certainly adds to the experience in game. Similarly walking on ledges that are pretty high, crouching on pipes above ground feels pretty 'real'. At least real to the extent that I did not want to move from the virtual ledge at all, my toes digging into the floor and my calves almost in cramps so I wouldn't fall off. I was standing just next to my computer in real life and I knew that in order to open a window hatch (behind which some Headcrab zombies were awaiting me) I'd have to grab a virtual space where the computer was. No matter what I still couldn't move.
There is a part of the game you will spend in an environment that plays with the gravity and it becomes even more interesting for the brain to process and stomach to stomach. I enjoyed every bit of the environment. It is something you wouldn't be able to experience if you'd played it as a normal PC game. There is big attention to detail and Valve made sure that you'd feel all those otherworldly feelings that you wouldn't be able to experience outside of VR.
I'm very glad that I got the chance to play this game, again thanks to http://infinite.cz who provided me with the needed hardware and the game itself. The experience was like nothing I experienced before in my life even though playing Resident Evil and Metroid Prime 3 came close. Valve made a good use of the VR equipment and created the game in way that shows VR's potential. I'd recommend this game to anyone who has hardware that can run this game. It's truly amazing.
Thank you for reading,
S'Tsung
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