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GRABBING THE FLASHLIGHT (HALF-LIFE: ALYX)
The Half-Life franchise has always flirted with horror without ever fully committing to the genre, but Half-Life: Alyx often feels like it’s fully veering into that territory. Take, for instance, the part of the game where Alyx acquires the flashlight. It’s set in a creepy and dimly lit environment where it’s hard for you to see too well, and in that setting, it sees Alyx having to pull the flashlight off a disfigured corpse hanging off the ceiling. With the tension building, it pulls the trigger and then has you fighting off headcrabs skittering about in the shadows and leaping out at you from the darkness. It’s all more than a bit terrifying.
