UPDATE: Valve has officially unveiled Half-Life: Alyx and the game will be shown on Thursday at 10 AM PT. According to some of the leaks we saw earlier, this will only be a small teaser followed by a full reveal at The Game Awards in December.
Remember back in 2017 when Valve announced it was working on three fully-fledged flagship VR games? Well, it looks like we’re finally going to see the first of that trio. Half-Life: Alyx, a virtual reality exclusive follow-up to Half-Life 2, is reportedly set to be revealed at The Game Awards according to leaked interview snippets from the same person who leaked Dota Underlords.
The quoted interview features Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, Valve’s Robin Walker, and a third, unidentified party. “March 2020, Half-Life: Alyx comin’ out,” says Keighley in the transcript, all but confirming Valve’s next big project, date and all.
Keighley then goes on to ask why the game is only playable in VR, and the unidentified third party responds “you can see their whole body– respond to the situation. You know, panicking, dropping clips on the ground as they fumble their weapons ’cause a zombie’s in front of them, all these things, they’re just – it’s been really fun watching playtests.”
For those of you holding out for a normal version playable with a keyboard and mouse, you’re out of luck. “I mean we would love to be delivering a version of this that you could play with a mouse and keyboard, but like as we said, it began as an exploration of VR,” says the unnamed person. The game sounds like it’s built from the ground up for VR, and games specifically designed for virtual reality headsets and hand-tracking controllers rarely translate well to traditional control schemes.
Alongside the reveal of the Valve Index earlier this year, the company teased a flagship VR game coming before the end of 2019. Knowing Valve’s relationship with release dates, it’s likely that that game has been pushed to early 2020, and considering Half-Life: Alyx‘s supposed release date is in March, it’s highly likely that they were teasing Half-Life: Alyx all the way back in the spring.
Thankfully, you won’t have to buy a $1000 Valve Index to play Valve’s new VR games. SteamVR games are compatible with every major PC headset on the market, so as long as you’ve got an HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Valve Index, or even a Windows Mixed Reality headset from a company like Samsung, HP, or Asus, you’re set. It’s highly unlikely this game will see a release on PlayStation VR though, at least at launch. It’s possible it could be ported sometime in the future, but expect Half-Life: Alyx to be a Steam-exclusive venture when it first releases.
With VR finally amassing a library of must-play games like Stormland, Asgard’s Wrath, Moss, and so many others, it’s finally time to pick up an HMD if you haven’t already. VR shows no signs of slowing down any time soon, and the next few years are packed with highly-anticipated releases like Boneworks, the first “next-generation” VR game, and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, which is developed by the incredibly talented Respawn Entertainment, the team behind Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Titanfall.
We’ve been waiting for a new Half-Life for 15 years, and now it looks like we might actually be getting one. The Game Awards will be streamed live on December 12 at 5:30 PM PT. If you can’t catch the show live, stay tuned to The Outerhaven to catch up on all the exciting news and announcements.