Recent reviews by Kalli

Remember how the first Half-Life became one of the best and most influential first-person shooter games, basically setting the standard for the genre back when it was released?
It is my hope that Half-Life: Alyx will become just as influential, setting the standard for this genre of games, as it is, in my eyes, the best FPS VR game that is currently on the market. It's not perfect, there are a few negatives, but the positives greatly outweigh those negatives.

I played through the game using the slightly older Oculus Rift CV1 (or simply Oculus Rift), and had a ton of fun. With exception of the weapon switching, all of the controls felt intuitive, especially the use of the Gravity Gloves, or "Russels", as they're called.

Half-Life: Alyx also feels like one of the games that finally got the weapons right. Not because their weapons are realistic, but because they're more focused on being VR friendly, and as such, they're all one-handed. Two-handed weapons in VR have always felt very wonky, with the lack of proper shoulder support. Even in the games with artificial shoulder support, it still hasn't felt very natural, or helped out all that much. As such, going all-in with a small arsenal of one-handed weapons was a great choice for Half-Life: Alyx, although it would've been nice to see some weapons from the original games to return again, such as the Crossbow or the .357 Magnum Revolver.

The story is also something that you cannot ignore. To my knowledge, a decent amount of dialogue scenes were trimmed down in the game as the play testers got impatient, but luckily, the story is still amazing. I went through a range of emotions during my playthrough of the game. There was some laughing, a bit of crying, and some moments where I felt like my heart was about to jump out of my chest, but was reluctant to scream, because people in my house are asleep while I'm playing.

All in all, I simply think that Half-Life: Alyx is an amazing game. Even if you dislike the fact that the game is VR-only, that doesn't make it any worse of a game.

♥♥♥♥ you, Jeff. RIP Jake