Half-Life returning, but in VR form only, is probably an outcome a lot of people should have seen coming. And while many may want to believe that this game is just a spin-off, and the real Half-Life 3, if and when it happens, will be on standard PCs as well, Valve has already confirmed that that’s not the case. This isn’t a spin-off. It’s the next big game in the series.
But how big is big, exactly? How long can you make a VR-exclusive game? Most titles that are made exclusively for VR don’t tend to be that long – a few hours, maybe, perhaps out of a fear of overwhelming the player’s senses, or because most developers haven’t wrapped their heads around VR design well enough yet.
But Half-Life: Alyx is literally going to be a full-fledged game. Speaking to The Verge, Valve confirmed the game is going to be as long as Half-Life 2. Something noted journalist Geoff Keighley has also confirmed on Twitter, pointing out he has played through the whole game, and it took him 15 hours to finish it.
I have always been intrigued by the opportunities for game design that VR presents, but until now, few games have actually done much with it. To imagine a developer as talented as Valve taking a stab at potentially releasing a pioneering game in the medium, with a franchise as beloved as Half-Life – if there is anything that can show what VR might be capable of, and legitimize it, it’s this. I hope it works out.
Half-Life: Alyx launches exclusively for SteamVR compatible PC-based VR headsets in March 2020.