izigame.me

10/10 (mild spoilers ahead)
What I have noticed so far from VR is that the platform is still going through rough development. Titles are either very disappointing, rely on a single gimmick or not optimized.
The gimmick ones are simple: Wall runs, pilot sims or shooters. They have one thing and one thing only that works, so they base their entire game off of it. The non optimized ones you can find all through steam, just take a look at Fallout. If the modding community did not exist, the vr experience wouldn't even be properly playable. Finally the disappointments: smaller indie titles that lure you in with promises, but don't deliver. Perhaps even more developed games that just did not get the attention to detail that the VR space needs.
Enter Half Life: Alyx, a game that does not just have shooting, movement and a good story... but also great combat, immersive/trippy experiences, beautiful visuals, diversity in gameplay and the most fun yet basic puzzles I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. What this game does right is that it takes all the elements of a proper video game and translates it into the right VR experience. No other VR game is able to actually have a proper story with fitting gameplay and polished mechanics.
If this entire game would be a desktop experience it would be the most OK game ever made. However, the reason it deserves a 10/10 is because the game is able to implement and merge VR into it's core design.
A very good examples are the puzzles. Super straight forward VR puzzles that are just that much more distinguishable BECAUSE you are in VR. Puzzles that are wayy too simple for a desktop experience yet so immersive in a VR one. These should serve as the guideline for all future VR puzzle games to come.
The gravity gloves are the most simple yet immersive way of implementing the: "flick" mechanic. Most games just included it in some way or another to grab objects easier. Here it has an in-universe experience and serves one of your main tools throughout the game. It is incredibly fun to throw barrels around, toss items at the ceiling tongues or grab a last-minute heal off of an enemy to survive. Nothing here is mind breaking- Just very well implemented.
Now the weapons and combat. I am more than happy to announce that this game only has 3 weapons. 4 fetched out well serving weapons all having their positives and negatives. All of them have unique ammo that you can salvage around the area's or tucked away in hidden boxes. You never really run out of ammo even if you miss a fair amount of shots. You always feel the need to preserve ammo yet you cannot be too trigger happy. The upgrades and attachments are all sweet and simple. Enemy variety is spot on as each enemy has an optimal way to be dealt with. There is no need for the game to go overboard in upgrades or combat. It's straight forward and fits very well with the exploration.
Small shout out to Jeff. It was more than genius what the developers did with him and how fluent the experience was. By far my most favourite moment of the whole game!
Next up is the games pacing. The game accelerates about as clean as possible. The beginning only containing easy to deal with enemies so you can get used to the VR combat and atmosphere. Once you get the shotgun the game stats to ramp up a bit. My favourite here was the introduction of the grenades. A very simple thing, yet so satisfying when done well. Not to mention each introduction has a small section of the game dedicated to it. For example, when you first encounter the mines it is set as an example so you can get used to them. Textbook game design, yet, something that is missing other titles.
Now the overall progression and visual design. I absolutely love the amount of information this game withholds. Only when you need to jump or climb does the game hint you how to make it work. Everything else is up to you. Don't know where to go? How about you look around and find a creative solution. There is nothing that points you towards the right direction except your own logic and patience. I was delighted to find out I had to throw a grenade though a vent to enter to the next area. It took me 45 minutes and a locker filled with explosives to figure it out, but I had fun trying to find a solution the entire time.
Throughout the entire game I definitely had to take a small break and look around. The city streets and design of the alien lifeforms was beautiful to look at. It most definitely feels like you are inside of the old half life universe, they nailed that part.
Finally the negatives. While I cannot find anything bad to say about the gameplay, visuals or story itself, I have had problems with the performance. I ran this game on the Quest 2 linked to my pc. Overall it was fine, however there were moments were the game lagged down to a stunning 10 fps until I rebooted the headset. Another big issue was the game crashing during any loading screen bugging out the pc-link connection that I had. Every time this happened my Quest was not able to find my PC anymore so I had to reboot both devices in order to link them again. Simply killing the application in task manager and re-opening it did not help. This was a smaller problem as it only happened around ~5 times and it could most definitely be a problem on my end. As the game barely stuttered or lagged during the gameplay I won't hold it 100% accountable.
In conclusion: This is by far the best VR game I have played due to it's polish and execution. It has many different VR elements thrown into a single package. It's not just combat, puzzles or story. It's all of them combined for a fun and intriguing experience.