Fans Have Made Half-Life Alyx Playable Without VR – But There Are Problems
We have some good news for Half-Life fans today, but that news somewhat comes with a disappointing footnote.
They Half-Life Alyx NoVR project started roughly three years ago. This was a mod that allowed you to play Half-Life Alyx using only a mouse and keyboard, and without putting on a headset. The developers describe the experience as ‘a very interesting and unusual gameplay (sometimes similar to Penumbra).’
Valve has shown their usual tolerance for mods, as Steam Achievements are still enabled if you play the game this way. So Valve is well aware that this mod exists. While one would want to commend Valve for not touching it, one might argue why Valve doesn’t just make it playable without VR themselves? But we’ll talk more about that later.
Today the devs tweeted this out:
“Our biggest update yet is out now!
The campaign can now be completed from start to finish! Gravity Gloves are working, combine fabricators can be used to upgrade your weapons & much more!
Check the reply for the link that has all the details in an article and a download link!”
If you are so interested, you can download the update here.
So, you’re probably wondering, what’s the catch? I can play it without VR, I can buy it for cheap, what could possibly go wrong?
As this reddit announcing the news points out, playing the game this way actually makes it an inferior experience. That’s because games that were made around VR, do take advantage of the unique aspects of VR, so that gamers can experience something that isn’t possible in non-VR games. There would genuinely be no point to pushing for a VR game that would potentially make less money and also be less famous than non-VR games, if the game didn’t use VR.
There are various comments on the game,
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