--- title: Review: I Can't Stop Thinking About Half-Life: Alyx description: 'Half-Life: Alyx' is no 'Half-Life 3,' but it's still a must-play for anyone with a virtual reality (VR) headset. canonical: https://time.com/5808404/half-life-alyx/ author: Matthew Gault article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-03-23T20:53:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T18:57:36.000Z article:section: Business og:title: I Can't Stop Thinking About Half-Life: Alyx og:description: If you have a VR headset, you have to try this game og:url: https://time.com/5808404/half-life-alyx/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc3df3b209d303ffe/698a0be1929fad3bbcbf5e13/half-life-alyx.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Half Life Alyx og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: I Can't Stop Thinking About Half-Life: Alyx twitter:description: If you have a VR headset, you have to try this game twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc3df3b209d303ffe/698a0be1929fad3bbcbf5e13/half-life-alyx.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # I Finished _Half-Life: Alyx_ in 12 Hours and Can't Stop Thinking About It by [Matthew Gault](/author/matthew-gault/) ## Matthew Gault Updated: Dec 12, 2023 6:57 PM CUTPublished: Mar 23, 2020 8:53 PM CUT  Half Life Alyx Half Life AlyxValve by [Matthew Gault](/author/matthew-gault/) ## Matthew Gault Updated: Dec 12, 2023 6:57 PM CUTPublished: Mar 23, 2020 8:53 PM CUT While exploring a worn-down warehouse, I look through a window and see a room full of zombies. Headcrabs — disgusting parasites that turn their hosts into monsters — twitch atop the heads of three former humans. No problem. I’ll just open the door, toss in a grenade, and mop up any survivors. I remove the pin and grab the handle. But it won’t turn. The door is locked, leaving me with a live grenade and nowhere to toss it. Later, I’m on my hands and knees, trying to dislodge a jar from behind a shelf. Inside is a bug that will heal my wounds, letting me survive to another day. The predicament is my own fault: in my haste to grab the jar off the shelf, I knocked it off instead of picking it up. After some doing, I’m _just_ able to, palm out, roll the jar along the wall and free it. Then, while making my way through a dark distillery, I spot some ammunition in an upside-down crate. I lift the box to grab the ammo, and a bottle of wine I didn’t notice rolls off the shelf. I gasp, hold my breath, and grab the bottle just before it shatters on the ground. I’m not alone here, and I can’t, under any circumstances, let the other occupant know where I am, lest I meet an untimely end. Trembling, I put the bottle back on the shelf, grab the ammunition, and start breathing again. These are three moments from _Half-Life: Alyx_, the latest effort from developer and publisher Valve, now available for PC. It’s a virtual reality horror experience with tight combat and a frightening world that begs to be explored. Set after the events of _Half-Life_, but before _Half-Life 2_, Alyx follows protagonist Alyx Vance as she attempts to rescue her father and uncover the secret of the villainous Combine’s newest weapon. The _Half-Life_ franchise, which launched in 1998, put Valve on the map. But it’s been dormant for more than a decade. _Alyx_ is Valve’s first _Half-Life_ game since 2007, when _Half-Life 2: Episode Two_ famously ended on a cliffhanger. Fans of the series have long waited, and are still waiting, for _Half-Life 3\._ Anticipation long ago turned to bitterness, then resignation and, finally, [a joke](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/half-life-3-confirmed "undefined"). Valve knows fans want more _Half-Life_. _Alyx_ may scratch that itch, but it’s a different beast. “It’s not _Half-Life 3_,” admits Valve level designer Corey Peters. “It’s a different game than people are expecting, but it’s a _Half-Life_ game that’s continuing the story in a new way.” That, it turns out, is totally fine. VR gave Peters and the rest of the _Alyx_ team a chance to try something new with the beloved franchise, and the result is a deeply enjoyable, gripping, strange experience. “The _Half-Life_ universe seems to work really well in the VR space,” says Peters. And it’s evidence there are still plenty of stories to tell in the _Half-Life_ universe. While _Half-Life 2_ was about moving quickly, shooting enemies and solving some physics puzzles, _Alyx_ is a slower, more methodological, scarier game. It smartly leans on _Half-Life’s_ horror elements, shifting from run-and-gun action to more careful play in the style of a _Resident Evil_ or _Alien: Isolation._ The medium likely made that necessary: twitchy first-person shooters typically don’t work well in VR, but a game like this is right at home. “Because of the physical nature of \[virtual reality\], everything just takes time,” Peters says. “Everything from reloading the gun to positioning yourself to get line of sight. You have to physically duck down to take cover and peek your head around the corner.” The last third of the game in particular is so compelling that I had trouble putting it down during the final hours. While so many VR experiences are little more than tech demos, _Alyx_ is a full experience. I beat it in 12 hours, but I’m a VR enthusiast with real-life firearms training. Other players will likely take longer. And I’m already planning on coming back soon. The only bummer is that many _Half-Life_ fans may be left out. _Alyx_ is built for virtual reality, meaning only those with a nice computer and a VR headset can play. The cheapest headsets that will run the game are the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S, which start at $399\. _Alyx_ was made for Valve’s own Index headset, which ranges from $499 to $999, depending on accessories. Still, _Alyx_ could restore many a fan’s faith in Valve’s gamemaking abilities. Its last effort, a digital trading card game called _Artifact_, [failed](https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-07-03-how-artifact-became-valves-biggest-failure "undefined"). That led to an understandable belief that Valve’s focus on its Steam digital games market — an [estimated](https://steamspy.com/year/2017 "undefined") $4 billion business — has distracted it from making truly great games. _Alyx_ should put that logic to bed. Indeed, it’s possible that Steam gave Valve the financial cushion it needed to take such a risk — it’s the kind of weird game you can make when you don’t have to worry as much about failing. _Alyx_ is certainly still a risk for Valve. But in my eyes, it’s proof that the company can still make an amazing video game. I didn’t know I wanted that, but I did. I think Valve needed to prove it to itself, too. For years, fans have been asking if the company still had the magic touch. Could it make another video game that would linger in the mind long after the player had put it down? Well, a day after finishing it, I can’t stop thinking about _Alyx_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5808404/half-life-alyx/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5808404/half-life-alyx/"},"headline":"I Finished Half-Life: Alyx in 12 Hours and Can't Stop Thinking About It","datePublished":"2020-03-23T20:53:16.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T18:57:36.000Z","description":"It's a must-play for anyone with a virtual reality headset","url":"https://time.com/5808404/half-life-alyx/","keywords":["Tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc3df3b209d303ffe/698a0be1929fad3bbcbf5e13/half-life-alyx.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matthew Gault","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matthew-gault/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc3df3b209d303ffe/698a0be1929fad3bbcbf5e13/half-life-alyx.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Half Life Alyx","caption":"Half Life Alyx","creditText":"Valve","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5808404/half-life-alyx/","name":"I Finished Half-Life: Alyx in 12 Hours and Can't Stop Thinking About It"}}]}] ```